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VAG & BMW Turmoil
Hey,
Here's my guess at two possibilities.
Longbridge will be closed. BMW, in an effort to return to profitability of
yore, will sell some of the nameplates and factories it now owns,
streamlining down to own the BMW nameplate in addition to Rolls Royce and
possibly Land Rover. Those are the jewels. The Quandts will probably keep
ownership of BMW, though many auto companies would love to own it. I believe
it will stay independent.
They will probably spin off Rover, MG and the other nameplates (Riley,
Austin Healey, Triumph) with possibly Land Rover or RR to sweeten the deal.
If I were Piech, I'd pick the whole package up, and push for Land Rover and
forget about Rolls Royce. With the Land Rover infrastructure, I'd slightly
modify the US dealerships and non- Europe dealerships to sell the "cool
britannia" idea like some columnist in CAR suggested a few months back. I'd
have those dealerships sell Land Rover, Rover, Mini, MG, Austin Healey and
Bentley all under the same roof, selling the Britishness of it all and
keeping them separate from VW and Audi stores.
I'd move developement of the new Range Rover onto an extended Discovery
Platform. I'd begin developing non old-a$$ Buick engines for those trucks
and utilization of the Disco platform for light and medium duty trucks.
Next up I would develope a rear-wheel-drive system that fits modularly
into the existing VW platforms (A, A0, B, C, D) for use on a new MG
coupe/roadster, Mini, and Austin Healey and Rover models to differentiate
them from the Audi and VW brands.
The second possibility could just as easily (if not more easily) happen. In
an effort to remain independent, BMW and Honda could merge. Though alienated
by the Rover buyout, it would make good sense. The merged company could
utilize the Honda platforms for all of the fwd Rover automobiles (most are
currently Honda based), and use rwd platforms for cars like the Mini.
Just some theories -G