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CARS 75
makers like Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Morgan and recently-formed
Bristol.
For these mergers to work, production had to be rationalised but it
was certainly wise to retain brand loyalty as undoubtedly a customer
buying a Wolseley would never buy an Austin even if the cars were
identical apart from some chrome bits. Therefore a standard
body/mechanical layout was produced with detail variations for each
brand. Perhaps the best example was the BMC middle-sized saloons
launched in 1959; the basic Austin A55, slightly more luxurious Morris
Oxford and the conservative Wolseley 15/60. The MG Magnette and
Riley 4/68, while near identical to the other three, did at least have
…like this
more power.
Fast forward to the eighties and the British-owned motor industry is all
but dead, but the American and European makers are still
consolidating as they realise that big is beautiful and that
manufacturers making less than a few million cars just won’t survive.
They are also looking for representation in new markets and sectors,
particularly high margin ones.
Ford bought Volvo, Jaguar and Aston Martin to improve its European
penetration and to benefit from higher-profit prestige brands. It also
took a substantial stake in Mazda. Unfortunately the American giant
proved totally inept at developing its new charges and has already
Mazda 6? Actually, a new Mondeo…
divested itself, of two of them, Aston Martin and Jaguar, and it is likely
ailing Volvo won’t be far behind.
General Motors also followed the acquisition trail with once-premium
Saab but failed miserably to nurture the brand, simply for want of a
positioning strategy. It has had more success with its purchase of
Daewoo, lately re-branded Chevrolet, which confused the hell out of
everyone who could only think of the fire-breathing V8 Chevrolet
Corvette (now just called Corvette).
Of the Europeans only Volkswagen has been totally successful with its
acquisitions. Its greatest success is Audi, bought from Mercedes in
1965 only for its production capacity and it wasn’t until the early
…like this
nineties that it was allowed to flourish as a separate brand with its own
factories, dealer network and sales and marketing departments.
Bentley is another triumph. The much publicised tussle for control of
Rolls-Royce and Bentley between VW’s Piëch and BMW’s
Pieschetsreider resulted in BMW taking Rolls-Royce and Volkswagen
reviving Bentley which now beautifully fashions 10,000 cars a year
against just 1,000 for Rolls-Royce. One does wonder whether the
German government would have allowed a British company to buy
Mercedes-Benz or BMW.
Volkswagen also swallowed up Skoda, now on target for 1 million cars
a year, SEAT going for 800,000 and supercar makers, Bugatti and
Bentley Continental? or a VW Phaeton…
Lamborghini which are both now profitable. BMW has been less
effective and made a complete pig’s ear of Rover, with the jury still out
on Mini and Rolls-Royce. It has just done that deal with Fiat to jointly
develop small cars, causing some to speculate that it may buy Fiat
Auto which is rumoured to have been for sale for years. Mercedes has
done even worse, losing billions with Smart which it still owns, and
Mitsubishi and Chrysler which are now sold. Biggest surprise of all was
tiny, family-owned Porsche which suddenly popped up and effectively
took control of the massive Volkswagen Group.
So there is a simple message to all you brand victims out
there: a car is just a car for pity’s sake, not a libido enhancer!
…like this…?
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