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phillyj
phillyj Reader
6/25/09 11:29 a.m.

Can someone tell me what's going on with the auto industry? Actually, can someone recap which auto makers own which brands?

I got information overload from reading autoblog and jalopnik. Now I don't know what's what.

Here's what I think I know: Saturn= phaseout Pontiac= as above?

Hummer= for sale Leads me to a question: Are the military Humvees and Hummer H1,... separate entities?

Saab<= Koenigsegg Volvo has a small stake in Koenigsegg. Is Volvo still under Ford? If so, does Ford have part of Saab now?

What happened to Cerberus Group? Did they lose money from Chrysler sale?

I got more questions but can't remember them all. This is ridiculous. Anyway, GRM should do an article that explains the weird auto industry ownerships.

cwh
cwh Dork
6/25/09 11:39 a.m.

I also would love to know how Cerberus made out.

nderwater
nderwater Reader
6/25/09 11:45 a.m.

Saturn = sold to Penske, not being phased out

GM owns the HUMMER brand, but they do not own any part of AM General which makes humvee's for the military.

Cerberus pretty much lost their entire investment on the sale of Chrysler.

car39
car39 Reader
6/25/09 12:00 p.m.

Volvo is still part of Ford, but probably being sold as we speak. Volvo employees have been notified that they will no longer be Ford employees in the fall, that payroll, benefits etc. will come from Volvo, rather than the Ford system. Ford also sold off their portion of Mazda, and all of Jag, Aston Martin and Land Rover when they were out raising cash

16vCorey
16vCorey SuperDork
6/25/09 12:01 p.m.

I don't have any answers for you, but along the same lines, I believe Porsche owns a chunk of VAG (Volkswagen Audi Group), and VAG owns VW, Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Seat, and Skoda, and are currently the third largest auto company in the world, and largest in Europe.

Rusty_Rabbit84
Rusty_Rabbit84 HalfDork
6/25/09 12:21 p.m.

and from what i understand - Prodrive owns Aston Martin, or no, wait 2 Kuwaiti investment companies, Investment Dar and Adeem Investment Co. Jaguar is owned by Tata, and thats all i know...

Tom_Spangler
Tom_Spangler New Reader
6/25/09 12:25 p.m.
phillyj wrote: Here's what I think I know: Saturn= phaseout Pontiac= as above?

Saturn was purchased by Roger Penske. GM will continue to make cars for it for a couple more years, then Penske will source vehicles from China or wherever he can get them and sell them through Saturn's dealer network.

Pontiac will be phased out over the next couple of years.

Hummer= for sale Leads me to a question: Are the military Humvees and Hummer H1,... separate entities?

Yes. Military Humvees are made by AM General. The "Hummer" brand has been sold to a Chinese company.

Saab<= Koenigsegg Volvo has a small stake in Koenigsegg. Is Volvo still under Ford? If so, does Ford have part of Saab now?

Ford owns Volvo at the moment, but is actively trying to sell it, and probably will very soon.

What happened to Cerberus Group? Did they lose money from Chrysler sale?

Probably a ton, but we may never know as they are private and don't have to reveal such things. I don't know if they got anything out of the bankruptcy, but they paid ~$6 billion for the Chrysler Group when they bought it from Daimler a few years back, and I'm sure they didn't get anything close to that back out of it.

I got more questions but can't remember them all. This is ridiculous. Anyway, GRM should do an article that explains the weird auto industry ownerships.

It is confusing, and it changes all the time, especially in the last few months. If they were to do such an article (which would be outside their area of interest, really), they'd be best off waiting a few more months to let things settle out a bit.

jrw1621
jrw1621 HalfDork
6/25/09 12:58 p.m.
car39 wrote: Ford also sold off their portion of Mazda

Is this true?

Strizzo
Strizzo Dork
6/25/09 1:06 p.m.
jrw1621 wrote:
car39 wrote: Ford also sold off their portion of Mazda
Is this true?

yes.

PaulY
PaulY Reader
6/25/09 1:09 p.m.

That's how ford is doing the best out of the big three, it was selling all of its stuff for capital before the big recession happened. First aston to prodrive, then jaguar/landrover to tata, then i'm not sure who now owns mazda, maybe mazda but they will still share platforms for a bit. Volvo is up for sale and they are trying to off like like gm did for saab. But volvo, mazda and ford all share platforms so it'll probablty take a few model cycles to separate them.

Fiat has a 20% stake in chryco they got for free and they can get up to 35% in like 5% increments if they meet certain goals set out by the govt. After the debt is paid off they can own a majority stake.

I'm pretty sure Porsche owns a majority of VW AG, which as stated above is huge.

Penske's Saturn will still use gm platforms but might have nissan send them platforms to use in the near future untill they start doing their own and they own spring hill i believe.

So GM: Chevy, GMC Buick, Cadillac

Ford: Ford

Fiat: Alpha, Fiat, Maseratti, Ferrari(I think), Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep

Porsche: VAG: VW, Audi, Lambo, Bugatti, Bentley, Skoda, Seat

Penske: Saturn

Koenigsegg: Saab

Volvo: No one

Mazda: Unknown

Hummer: China

I think that's all.

Tim Baxter
Tim Baxter Online Editor
6/25/09 1:16 p.m.

It'd be an interesting data visualization project for someone, especially if you could find a way to import up-to-date data.

carguy123
carguy123 Dork
6/25/09 1:24 p.m.

This is the first I've heard about Ford selling their share of Mazda. Who'd they sell it to? Back to Mazda?

I think that's cool, now Mazda can build what they want with little thought towards how can Ford use it also. Might make for some more interesting cars.

Strizzo
Strizzo Dork
6/25/09 1:50 p.m.
Tim Baxter wrote: It'd be an interesting data visualization project for someone, especially if you could find a way to import up-to-date data.

i think i remember seeing something like that with all the makes and who owns who in a magazine some time back, but can't remember when or which one. i do remember it looked like spaghetti dinner though.

alfadriver
alfadriver HalfDork
6/25/09 1:52 p.m.
PaulY wrote: Ford: Ford

Plus Mercury and Lincoln probably forever. And currently Volvo....

We got notification in January that we sold our share of Mazda back to temselves. Or the major holding bank that represents Mazda.

Fiat: Alpha, Fiat, Maseratti, Ferrari(I think), Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep

Oh... shot to the heart.

It's ALFA. An acronym, not a letter.

BTW, Wards Auto World used to publish a poster every year that had all of these details. You could start there for the paper. But be careful- with all the cross lines of co-ownership, you could get dizzy.

E-

benzbaron
benzbaron Reader
6/25/09 1:55 p.m.

Doesn't BMW own Rolls Royce?

I'm pretty sure Peugot and Citroen are stand alone companies.

Renaut has something going on with Nissan.

Tim Baxter
Tim Baxter Online Editor
6/25/09 2:02 p.m.

Jalopnik published this one last year. Of course it's wildly out of date now..

To make it really interesting from a data visualization perspective, you'd need to include percentage of ownership.

mtn
mtn Dork
6/25/09 2:18 p.m.

Isn't it the other way around with Porsche and VW?

Keith
Keith SuperDork
6/25/09 2:25 p.m.
carguy123 wrote: I think that's cool, now Mazda can build what they want with little thought towards how can Ford use it also. Might make for some more interesting cars.

Unfortunately, the Ford connection also brought with it some real development money. The MZR engine used in so many of the fun Mazdas is also the Ford Duratec.

carguy123
carguy123 Dork
6/25/09 2:26 p.m.
Keith wrote:
carguy123 wrote: I think that's cool, now Mazda can build what they want with little thought towards how can Ford use it also. Might make for some more interesting cars.
Unfortunately, the Ford connection also brought with it some real development money. The MZR engine used in so many of the fun Mazdas is also the Ford Duratec.

But the way I heard it was that it was a Mazda designed engine, not a Ford designed and then rebadging into the Mazda.

speedblind
speedblind Reader
6/25/09 3:41 p.m.
mtn wrote: Isn't it the other way around with Porsche and VW?

Depending on the position of stock at any given time, yes. Porsche used a ton of money trying to creatively "purchase" VW. When that didn't work, they were left in a weakened position and now are asking for a loan (read: purchase) from VW.

PaulY
PaulY Reader
6/25/09 3:56 p.m.

In response to alfadriver, yea i forgot about lincoln, no offence but mercury is pretty forgettable (Yes I know you work for Ford and I do like a lot of fords but even as a fan of GM i have trouble seeing the point of that brand other than from a marketing perspective, but what sells, sells).

Also I know Ford does own Volvo but isn't is basically up for grabs for who ever wants it for like nothing?

Which part about the fiat group thing was a shot to the heart, chryco associated with Alfa or an american company owned by the Italians?

Also sorry about the Alfa thing, i'm currently in engineering and I use Alpha way more than I like.

billy3esq
billy3esq Dork
6/25/09 4:03 p.m.

IIRC, Ford didn't sell its entire stake in Mazda, only about 20%. Ford still owns about 13-14% of Mazda. At its peak, Ford only owned about 1/3, which is enough to be a controlling interest under Japanese law.

As it stands now, Mazda controls itself. It bought back about 7% of its shares, while a consortium of some sort bought the other 13%.

Also, for now, Ford and Mazda say they're maintaining their strategic partnership with respect to things like platforms and engines.

P71
P71 SuperDork
6/25/09 4:22 p.m.

Mazda bought back Ford's portion of Mazda.

They are still working together as before, just Ford no longer owns whatever percentage it is. They have a successful symbiotic relationship and both sides know it.

Keith
Keith SuperDork
6/25/09 4:39 p.m.
carguy123 wrote:
Keith wrote:
carguy123 wrote: I think that's cool, now Mazda can build what they want with little thought towards how can Ford use it also. Might make for some more interesting cars.
Unfortunately, the Ford connection also brought with it some real development money. The MZR engine used in so many of the fun Mazdas is also the Ford Duratec.
But the way I heard it was that it was a Mazda designed engine, not a Ford designed and then rebadging into the Mazda.

This is true - but if Ford wasn't throwing a bunch of money on the pile, would Mazda have been able to afford to develop it the way they did?

Sounds as if things are still working pretty well, but I just wanted to mention that sometimes having a big brother can be helpful.

GregTivo
GregTivo Reader
6/25/09 4:48 p.m.

And Opel is owned by the German government and GM, pending possible sale to some german investment group I beleive.

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