Skip to main content

Sergio Waits by the Dream Phone After VW Boss’ Remarks

Sergio’s waiting by the phone. Waiting for someone to call him up and tell him he’s not alone. (Our apologies to Soul Asylum – Ed.)

It’s not our fault Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne’s corporate life resembles a game of Mystery Date. That’s just the way it is for an automaker on the prowl for a partner. After having its advances repeatedly rebuffed by General Motors, FCA has now latched onto Volkswagen as a potential suitor — but the merger dance hasn’t been a smooth one.

After some cattiness on VW’s part, it seems the eternally — and perhaps naïvely — optimistic Marchionne’s hopes are once again up. He’s anticipating a call.

“We are waiting with anticipation,” Marchionne told reporters today, according to Reuters.

It seems that Marchionne could be reading too much into comments made by Volkswagen Group CEO Matthias Müller last week. Still, stranger things have happened. Perhaps Müller is being coy with his true intentions, playing hard to get to keep up appearances. What is certain is this past month’s weird non-courtship between FCA and VW has played out in a very rocky “Becky told me something after science class” kind of way.

After telling reporters, “I have no doubt that at the relevant time VW may show up and have a chat,” Marchionne’s advance met a cold shoulder. “We have other problems,” the VW CEO said when questioned, clearly not interested in a first date, let alone a marriage.

Both automakers face a number of issues.

VW, after taking a huge financial hit from the diesel emissions scandal, is desperately seeking to flesh out its U.S. utility vehicle lineup.

FCA, on the other hand, has struggled to wrestle down longstanding debt. Some brands, like Chrysler and Dodge, are lagging, while all available cash has been funneled towards to developing new utilities vehicles and trucks. Also, there’s still no takers on FCA’s goal of partnering up to build cheap compact cars in Mexico or elsewhere.

Last week, VW was suddenly in the mood to downplay its comments. On the topic of merger talks, Müller claimed, “I have never said I would exclude it.” (Company) size doesn’t matter to him, he added. Still, the German executive voiced his wish that his would-be Italian flame not go running to the media every time he has a thought. The media trumpeted that comment as an open line to VW HQ, and not as the backhanded remark in which Müller intended it.

Still, Marchionne may just take up that invitation. After explaining he expected the phone to ring at any time, the CEO said, “I haven’t seen Müller in 6-7 months, but I will go find him at the first opportunity.”

To be a fly on the wall of that meeting…

This post first appeared on thetruthaboutcars.com

The post Sergio Waits by the Dream Phone After VW Boss’ Remarks appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2nGJPvY
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway

Waterfest 24 will be held at Atco Dragway, in Atco, New Jersey. The summer event will take place at its new venue on July 21 and 22. Long held in Englishtown, New Jersey, the festival has been such a large part of the VW scene that the latest iteration of the Golf even comes with optional “Englishtown” wheels . The new venue, however, is an NHRA drag track a scant 52 miles southwest of Englishtown. The ¼ mile drag track opened in 1960, which makes it the oldest drag strip in New Jersey. The announcement came today on a social media post that announced the new location. Waterfest is North America’s largest VW/Audi show. As many 20,000 people show up for the annual show, making the second largest show in the world—with Worthersee being number one. 2018 will be Waterfest’s 24 th year in existence. The post Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway appeared first on VWVortex . from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2GQjkuc via IFTTT
Post a Comment
Read more

Macau Gets Messy with 16-Car Pileup

The Macau Grand Prix is always good for an accident or two or 16— you may remember Audi’s race ending crash last year —and this year’s event didn’t disappoint. It didn’t take long for things to get messy on the tight road circuit. On the opening lap of the qualifying race a 16-car pileup caused the race to be suspended. Things kicked off when Daniel Juncadella hit a wall on the exit of Police bend, one of the tightest parts of the already tight circuit. The following car of Raffaele Marciello was able to avoid the carnage, but Laurens Vanthoor, who was in the upside-down Audi that ended the race last year, could not avoid Juncadella and together they blocked up the road pretty much completely. “I couldn’t see him [Juncadella] at first. Then I saw the car standing still,” Vanthoor told Motorsport. “I tried to brake but it was just understeering and I couldn’t do anything. There’s room for one car there and you’re blind.” Fourteen more cars would eventually crash into the corner c
Post a Comment
Read more

The First of its Kind: Integrated Engineering Releases Highly-Anticipated IE450T MK6 Golf R Turbo Kit

After two long years of development, the team at Integrated Engineering has finally announced the release of their IE450T kit for the MK6 Golf R. With their turbo kit bolted on right out of the box, the sport AWD hatch is transformed into a 450bhp monster, with hardly any noticeable increase in spool time. In fact, 435 ft-lbs of torque are achieved at all four wheels, at a mere 3300rpm! By now you are probably asking yourself how this is even possible on a 2.0L engine that made nearly half that power from the factory. By employing true twin-scroll technology into the cast turbo manifold and pairing it with a state-of-the-art BorgWarner EFR turbocharger, IE was able to keep spool time at a minimum and bring the fastest-spooling big turbo setup to the market. “We wanted to offer a kit that would dramatically increase the power output without making the car lose its amazing street-friendly drivability,” mentioned one of the IE engineers. We are told the IE450T leaves the car driving jus
Post a Comment
Read more