Brabus is maybe “just another tuner”, but it is the most famous one with a great brand recognition. And, on special projects, it is not AMG but Brabus being Mercs premium brand – think of Smart.
Alpina sells cars through the BMW network including warranty. The cars are manufactured under the name of Alpina, unlike all other BMW specialists, who “just” modify cars.
Both are quite old compared to other car specialists, Alpina is 42 (1965) and Brabus just turned 30 (1977).
Both are very distinctive and exclusive, more so then AMG or M-Series.
Both emphasize torque, whereas M and AMG play the sporty high revving game.
Both have a more subtle body style for their cars compared to the loud AMG and M-Series.
Both have recognisable characteristics and styles: both have special wheel styles, both have their favourite colours, Alpina has got the elegant blue and green with light cream interior, whereas a typical Brabus is black.
Both enhance and improve the basic car characters of BMW and Mercedes. Brabus is the classy brute, powerful and impressive, yet representative and relatively understated. Alpina has got finesse and elegance. Alpinas have got relaxing power delivery compared to the hyper-nervous Ms. Alpina is proud of sophisticated engineering, often shining with lower fuel consumption then lesser powered factory Bimmers.
Some prefer the AMGs and Ms of this world, I am more the Brabus and Alpina guy. I particularly like the Brabus C- and CL-Versions with big engines and the Alpina B3, B5 and B7. I usually have a penchant for estates and if a convertible is on the wish list, there will be no competition between the B3 and the future M3 Cabrio. Convertibles are about enjoying and savouring the ride, not chasing and racing.
Both are individual brands belonging to the two arch-rivals of the German car industry: Mercedes and BMW. Both are aimed at the premium segment of the small car market. Both brand (re-)launches were hedged bets to avoid tainting the main brands in case things went wrong. Both were (desperate) attempts to gain younger customers (they did succeed) and both are sexy, cute, cool and fun. Both offer a wide variety of accessories, options and body kits. Both like unusual spicy names for the equipment packages: chilli, pepper, lemon, pulse. Both have their desirable top versions linked to famous specialists, Cooper and Brabus (something for the competitive and techy part of the brain). Both play with combinations of colours, in fact they are an integral part of the branding (something for the shopping instincts).
I like both brands.
And I like both in white with either black or silver body kits… blackish alloys those of the Mini Sidewalk trim are really cute, the classic Brabus wheels are great too)… brownish or terracotta-red leather… and of course nearly every option on the list, usually the most expensive one is the one to have…
If you insist on sending me samples, please don’t forget to include the most powerful engines, please. Any body choice will do, convertible, coupe or clubman. Thank you.
If the driving the new XF is on par with the looks, Jaguar has got a winner. The design is clean and fresh. There is simply no comparison to the previous drab old boring retro-look, which was neither classy nor chic. The XF has a bit of that clean modern look of Lexus (IS and GS, which is a good thing) without looking like a copycat (no pun intended). Congrats.
Note: this is a good relaunch of the brand which Ford is able to use as a bargain in the sales negociations…
I’ll start saying that I haven’t driven the KiaCee’d so I may be a bit unfair here, but, having checked it put thoroughly during motorshows, and read some tests by respected British publications, I am a bit surprised about the generally quite positive reviews.
My money is on a buy-out of PAG backed by private equity and hedge funds. Who knows, maybe some big automotive suppliers might be part of such a deal. None of the automobile manufacturers is a likely buyer, either because of their own problems, or because Volvo/Jaguar/Land Rover would not be compatible and easily integrated.
The arguments which speak for Porsche are valid for the three brands on their own…
VW. I mean Porsche, of course, buying all three: Volvo, Land Rover and Jaguar. Outlandish? Less so than the surprise deal with VW at the time.
Think about it. If you forget the VW deal for a moment, Porsche is a surprisingly good candidate. Porsche has the money. Porsche with Land-Rover, Jaguar and Volvo could be very interesting and complementary. Much more so then VW. All three are relatively small brands, very characteristic, very known, very individualistic, very dedicated and loyal customers and potentially very high margin. Sounds like a description of Porsche, doesn’t it?
So here we go through options which are more likely than the previous bunch. But, nay, they ain’t great candidates either.
Renault-Nissan – Land-Rover, Jaguar and Volvo look good for Renault on paper. Profitable luxury brands where Renault isn’t strong. But hey, there is Nissan and Infinity. Nissan is good with quality cars and SUVs. Infinity is rear wheel drive and could be developed for the European market. So there go Land-Rover and Jaguar. Volvo is more attractive – until you look at the efforts Renault has undertaken to become the brand for “5-star safety”. And then Volvo and Renault had a fling before Ford stepped in. They didn’t like to go through with it then, so why should they do so now?
PSA – again, on the surface such a deal looks appealing until you digg deeper. PSA is not without problems, their car range has become unattractive with the notable exception of Citroen. Ok, so Volvo / Land-Rover / Jaguar could open the US market for PSA. But would they try to sell Citroens and Peugeots over there? Even with the distribution in place, that seems unlikely anytime soon. PSA seems good in collaborating with others on engines (BMW, Ford), vans and minivans (FIAT), small cars (Toyota) and more recently SUVs (Mitsubishi). None of the three bands would add much to the PSA portfolio. So we think PSA won’t buy any of them.
FIAT – again great on paper, Volvo, Land-Rover and Jaguar opening the US-market for FIAT. But look at FIAT, they are just getting out of a long struggle which nearly destroyed the concern. And hey, FIAT is not very good at managing acquisitions. Lancia is not really selling outside of Italy. Alfa Romeo has a great potential, but recent models like the fat Brera and Spyder disappoint the enthousiasts and are not attractive enough for the executive buyers. Alfa as a company car? Alfa fleet sales? Yeah, exactly. The only successful joint-ventures were with PSA (vans, minivans), so FIAT might be trying more of those cooperations like they just did with Suzuki.
So let’s present the not-really-candidates to buy either Jaguar, Volvo and Land-Rover or all of them together!
The unlikeliest are:
DaimlerChrysler – well, Daimler has decided to loose the Chrysler name, so why on earth should Daimler make another marriage when they just divorced their 10-year long partner? Also Mercedes is far to close to the three brands, Land Rover, Volvo or Jaguar.
BMW – some seem to like such a deal, I tend to differ. Land Rover or Jaguar are not interesting to BMW, remember Rover? And btw, BMW already owned Land Rover and seemed quite happy to get rid of them. After all, they could have kept Land-Rover just like Mini. Volvo? They are front wheel drive cars, so what platform or component advantage would such a deal have for the BMW? Although some analysts speculate that Volvo and BMW customers are different, in our increasingly heterogenic world, who knows. So such a deal is not going to happen.
Volkswagen – Skoda and Audi are the Volvos of VW. So why adding the real thing, when Skoda and Audi are selling nicely? And VW has other problems to think about, the shareholding structure and Porsche, productivity and cost efficiency as well as the reshaping of the VW make. How aboutLand Rover and Jaguar? Land Rover is a niche player and in combination with Bentley might be an interesting luxury option for VW. Jaguar is loosing money, rear wheel drive and therefore difficult to swallow. So, a VW deal is unlikely.
GM- oh please !
Japanese – Honda and Toyota don’t seem to wish to buy in general and show that brands can be developed from scratch quickly and successfully. So why on earth should they buy problems when they don’t have any?
OK, so now we know officially that Fords wants to sell it’s silver. Everybody has known that for quite some time and if somebody had made Ford an interesting offer they would have sold those three long ago. But nobody seems to make an offer interesting enough. Why?
Industry “insiders” play games and publicly try to marry especially Volvo to some other car firm, like Renault-Nissan, PSA or BMW. For whatever reason, the big Japanese are not in the game. Maybe because Japanese firms have never really bought any big rival, considering those actions and the consequences too messy. And as they have shown, it’s easier to create brands like Acura or Lexus from scratch.
So let’s have some fun and explore some options over the next days. I have my favourite solution which I will present at the end of this “series” and I sincerely hope that Ford doesn’t make a deal before we finish our speculations. That would indeed spoil the fun
Watching an episode of the second season of “Las Vegas” with James Caan, I was fascinated by the car he drives as his film persona Ed Deline. The first shots of the car were so short, I never even bothered to look closer and find out what model it is.
Then the car started to play some kind of role. And I thought, nooo, this is no Aston, it looks fake, a bit like a replica based on a Corvette or Mustang. It looks…
Posted by morsch 
Posted by morsch 
Posted by morsch 
