FIAT / Chrysler - more info

[philoldsmobile]

The following taken from ANE

Fiat, Chrysler in partnership talks
Sources: Fiat would get 35% stake; Chrysler won't confirm

Luca Ciferri
Automotive News Europe
January 19, 2009 16:35 CET
UPDATED: 09/01/19 23:00 CET




TURIN, Italy -- Fiat Group is negotiating with Chrysler LLC to form a strategic partnership that could include a Fiat equity stake in the ailing U.S. carmaker.

The pact would help Chrysler speed and strengthen its restructuring plan.

According to people familiar with the matter in Europe and Detroit, Fiat could give Chrysler access to its mini, small and mid-sized car platforms, engines and transmissions.

This would allow Chrysler to quickly build a new range of front-wheel-drive, low-emission vehicles. Chrysler already has an agreement with Nissan Motor Co. that calls for Nissan to produce a small car based on the Dodge Hornet concept in calendar year 2010.

If the deal is completed, Fiat would get a 30-35 percent stake in Chrysler in exchange for Fiat's platform, engines and transmission technology, sources told Automotive News Europe. Fiat would get options to acquire up to 55 percent of the automaker over time, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Financial Times reported today that the two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding on the alliance, which could be announced within days. Another source told Automotive News that the agreement was signed on Friday, Jan. 16.

"In today's economic environment, talks are going on between companies in all industries -- ours is no different," Chrysler said in a prepared statement this afternoon.

"Chrysler LLC as a matter of policy however, does not confirm or disclose the nature of its private business meetings. Beyond those partnerships and alliances already announced, Chrysler has no further announcements to make at this time."

A Fiat spokesman was not immediately available to comment. Chrysler's majority owner, Cerberus Capital Management LP, declined to comment. Thomas Froelich, a spokesman for Daimler AG in Stuttgart, declined to comment. Daimler owns 19.9 percent of Chrysler.

Chrysler, which was acquired by private equity firm Cerberus in 2007, saw its sales drop 30 percent last year and has throttled new investment. It received $4 billion in emergency U.S. government loans this month and plans to seek another $3 billion.

Fiat began looking at Chrysler last summer and more than a dozen executives spent weeks at Chrysler headquarters, industry sources told Automotive News. Fiat executives also held talks with Chrysler dealers and held meetings with Cerberus in New York, the sources said.

Wide interest in small cars

Detroit's other carmakers, General Motors and Ford Motor Co., also plan to introduce a range of mini, small and mid-sized vehicles based on their designs now sold in Europe or being developed there. These cars would be ready in 2010 or 2011.

Chrysler, which does not have a similar range of products built in Europe, has been looking for a partner to quickly provide such vehicles.

The company sought help from Japan's Nissan and China's Chery Automobile Co.. So far, only the Nissan small-car project has borne fruit.

Fiat gains U.S. access

Possible extensions of the Fiat-Chrysler deal could include access for Fiat to Chrysler's North American manufacturing operations and distribution network.

Fiat has postponed the relaunch of its Alfa Romeo brand in North America until 2011 because it has had difficulty finding a local manufacturing and distribution infrastructure.

Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne has said he would like to sell the Fiat 500 minicar in the United States but only if it is built locally.

An alliance with Chrysler would allow Fiat to sell Alfas and the 500 in the United States because sharing manufacturing sites with Chrysler would reduce costs.

Alfa cars and the 500 would be sold in North America through Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealers.

At the same time, Chrysler could access Fiat's distribution network in Europe and Latin America. Fiat is the No. 1 automaker in Brazil, Latin America's largest market.

In 2010, Chrysler will bring to North America a Nissan-designed small car made in Japan. Chrysler began selling the Nissan-built Dodge Trazo in Latin America in late 2008.

In December, Chrysler and Chery ended 17 months of negotiations to initially give Dodge a China-built minicar for sales in Latin America.

Chrysler and Chery also ended talks to build a small car similar to the Hornet concept car on the Chery A1 platform, to be sold in the United States, Europe and other world markets

[philoldsmobile]

chrysler borrowing FIAT fuel efficient engine technology... sounds more likely..

[HardRockCamaro]

Makes more sense...

[F Body]

Quoting: philoldsmobile

chrysler borrowing FIAT fuel efficient engine technology... sounds more likely..

Well there aren't that many European car companies that aren't using a Fiat Diesel of some sort

FIAT are currently completing a massive extension to the Turin Power Train Plant to build a new generation of small high tech petrol engines, these are said to rival diesels for MPG, but are lighter & a lot cheaper to build

Quoting: philoldsmobile

Fiat would get 35% stake in Chrysler

Mind you whats 35% of bankruptcy really worth

[HardRockCamaro]

I know the Caddy CTS is meant to be using an Italian diesel engine for the European market.  Don't know who makes it though...  If it's FIAT I don't want it...

[F Body]

Quoting: HardRockCamaro

Don't know who makes it though... If it's FIAT I don't want it...

I don't know of any GM 4 cylinder diesel engines which aren't manufactured by FIAT

[Roadkill]

Quoting: philoldsmobile

Fiat would get options to acquire up to 55 percent of the automaker over time

The death for Chrysler, then . . .

[F Body]

Quoting: Roadkill

The death for Chrysler, then

Chrysler is dead already, there sales are down 60%
FIAT haven't got any money to invest, the only thing that will survive is the Viper brand.....................until the next fuel crisis

[philoldsmobile]

Quoting: HardRockCamaro

Don't know who makes it though... If it's FIAT I don't want it...

if its the 1.9 4 cylinder its a good engine, its in saabs vauxhalls etc.. if its the 2.4 5 cylinder its a GREAT engine, and a bit of a rocket, too.... it probably is a fiat group engine, as they are very popular, and GM put them in everything.

[HardRockCamaro]

Found it (and I've never heard of them):

General Motors has unveiled a powerful V-6 turbodiesel that's smooth enough to debut in the company's newest luxury sedan: the '08 Cadillac CTS. It's a bold move because GM is banking on this CTS being a big hit and bolstering the reputation of its cars wearing the crest of the company's premium brand.

To avoid the problems experienced 28 years ago when GM transformed small-block gas engines into diesels, the company decided to team up with Italy's VM Motori. That's the same company responsible for the 2.8L diesel that was sold in the Jeep Liberty, but this is a totally different engine. The 2.9L V-6 appears to be based on the VMM RA 630, which has a compact design that can be installed in a longitudinal or horizontal layout, including two- and four-wheel-drive vehicles. The exhaust-gas recirculation (EGR) system is built into the heads, and the vacuum pump is built into one of the camshafts to conserve space. The 2.9L features dual chaindriven, variable-overhead camshafts to activate four valves per cylinder and can be tuned to lug at low rpm for high-torque commercial applications or programmed to run as a smooth, high-revving luxury engine.

At just 2.9L of displacement, this new diesel V-6 for the CTS makes more torque (406 lb-ft) than GM's 6.0L gas V-8 engine (373 lb-ft) used in its 1-ton trucks. While the engine can spin freely to achieve 250 hp at 4,000 rpm, the torque is available beginning at just 2,000 rpm. An electronically controlled, variable-geometry turbocharger helps make this possible.
      
To squeeze such impressive output from the small-displacement engine, VMM uses piezo-resistive cylinder-pressure sensors to obtain real-time data from the combustion process. This is combined with the super-accurate piezo electrically actuated injectors capable of up to eight injections per cycle and a Bosch CP3 pump providing 29,000 psi of pressure to the fuel rails. With all these weapons, the VMM engine computer is able to achieve high output while using as little fuel as possible and keeping emissions output to a minimum.

Instantaneous tuning of the engine fueling is an important part of the its efficient design, especially when combined with the latest in clean-diesel technologies. The diesel uses an intake throttle to deliver precise amounts of air and EGR into the cylinders. Exhaust is then sent into an oxidation catalyst before traveling through a diesel particulate filter (DPF) to trap soot and convert nitrogen oxides to pure nitrogen. Post-combustion injections provided by the advanced injectors should ensure the DPF system is always working at maximum efficiency.
      
GM will only be offering the 2.9L turbodiesel in the European CTS-for now. We can't blame Cadillac for being cautious about offering a diesel in a Cadillac, but this setup looks very promising for the North American market. The VMM engine is just 50 hp shy of the best direct-injection gas V-6 available for the CTS, and it makes almost as much torque as the LS2 V-8 engine sold in the limited-edition CTS-V. Add in that the diesel will get better mileage, be just as clean (or cleaner), and be as smooth and quiet as the gas engines, and it seems like a no-brainer to guess this engine will soon be coming to a Caddy dealer near you.


Manufacturer: VM Motori in Cento, Italy
Displacement: 2,935 cc/179 ci
Configuration: 60-degree V-6
Bore x stroke: 3.268 x 3.559 inches
Block material: Compacted graphite iron
Head material: Cast aluminum
Engine weight: 530 pounds (approximately)
Valvetrain: DOHC 24 valves
Turbo: Variable-geometry
Fuel pump: Bosch CP3
vFuel delivery: Bosch common-rail (29,000 psi)
Fuel injectors: Piezo-electric (up to 8 injections per cycle)
Emissions: Piezo-electric cylinder-pressure sensors, cooled EGR, oxidation catalyst, and DPF
Horsepower: 250 hp at 4,000 rpm
Torque: 406 lb-ft at 2,000 rpm

[F Body]

Quoting: HardRockCamaro

That's the same company responsible for the 2.8L diesel that was sold in the Jeep Liberty,

and the 2.8 Vauxhall Frontera, it was as gutsy as hell but sounded like a bunch of loose nuts being rattled around in a metal dustbin

Quoting: HardRockCamaro

GM will only be offering the 2.9L turbodiesel in the European CTS-for now.

I'd think that this engine will replace the Isuzu sourced 3.0 V6 currently used in GM products

[HardRockCamaro]

Quoting: F Body

sounded like a bunch of loose nuts being rattled around in a metal dustbin

Smells like a diesel, looks like a diesel. Yup, it's a diesel!

[F Body]

Fiat to merge with Peugeot and Citroen Group

Even without taking Chrysler into account, the merger between PSA (Europe's second largest automaker) and Fiat (Europe's third largest) would put it in contention with Volkswagen for the largest in Europe and third largest in the world. Adding Chrysler's output to the equation could put the mega group within striking distance of Toyota and General Motors for the title of the world's largest automaker



http://www.autoblog.com/2009/01/27/fiat-psa-merger-in-the-cards-or-off-the-table/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.autoblog.com/2009/01/27/fiat-psa-merger-in-the-cards-or-off-the-table/