After a successful start we had to cool down a bit, running blogs cost more time than initially projected.  It’s great fun though.  On automental.com you’ll now find our new home  See you there…

Here is the welcome post on our new home blog http://www.automental.com/2009/09/automentals-new-home.html, which we have the pleasure to share with our German sister blog automentor (formerly automentor.wordpress.com)

      
They have rarely been directly compared as companies, nor have their cars been pitted against each other very often.
Like Smart (Wikipedia) and Mini (Wikipedia), one similaity can be found in the relation of both Brabus (Wikipedia) and Alpina (Wikipedia) to Mercedes (Wikipedia) and BMW (Wikipedia) respectively. They are independant and in eternal coopetion with AMG (Wikipedia), Mercs housetuner, and BMW M GmbH (Wikipedia), the maker of the famous M-Series.

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.

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Tags: BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Brabus, Alpina, BMW Alpina, B3, B7, B5, Cars

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 Kia Cee’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.

I will start with the car’s design…

Because the thing is that magazines rate it quite good – which I cannot explain.

Of course the design of a car is a matter of personal taste, but for much that I look at the thing, I remain VERY unimpressed. Very dull indeed, it does not innovate in that department from any angle nor level of detail.

Then, with regard to the interior, it is also obvious that it seems to be well put together, but the variety of materials of different qualities, lack of a theme or special design, and quality of some parts, speaks of a long way to match, say, the latest Renault Megane.

The reviews in general tend to point out how improved a car the Cee’d is compared with previous Kia models in the class. Well, OBVIOUSLY, there is a huge improvement compared to the previous Kia offer in that segment, and there is no doubt of the significance of the car for its company, given where it is built but, shouldn’t a car be judged only for its objective product qualities, compared to its most advantaged competitors? The Kia Cee’d is still well behind Golf, Focus and Astra, to name three major competitors. Certainly in the design and interior quality departments (and I look forward to driving it).

Maybe someone can tell me if I am missing the point with this car, and why. What is special about the Cee’d from the product point of view? (In any case everybody will agree on one thing: Kia could have done a much better job finding a name for their most important European car).

technorati tags:Kia, cee’d, ceed, Kia Ceed, Kia Ceed, compact cars, golf-class

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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…

They do not interfere with each other and therefore do not cannibalise. Despite that they have a great potential sharing development and components. All have incredible brand recognition and potential value. Volvo might need some joint ventures for engines and platforms and PSA has demonstrated that this strategy works quite well.

Oh btw, why not spycing the dish with a little bit of GM’s like Subaru and Saab in the mix. Sounds like fun. oh and maybe Mazda, hey offer Ford an attractive price and they couldn’t say no, could they? Adding those brands to the lot would be the making of an new interesting major player.

The buyers are about to make a very good deal, all three brands together at a bargain price. Buy three for the price of two. And I think the best argument for such a deal is Ford: they wouldn’t sell if they weren’t desperate.

The only parties likely to spoil such a deal are the Chinese, after all, they could even add old Rover to the deal…

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?

Jaguar has made an incrediable progress regarding reliability and customer satisfaction. Jaguar is now in Lexus territory. The only real problem is the “conservative” design, which is about to change. So a turnaround of Jaguar might be easier then most assume, because Ford has done the har work.

With Porsche process and productivity know-how, I would bet that all three could become quite profitable, quicker then VW will be turned around. Much less complicated then VW structural problems. All three would benefit from Porsche-branded engineering, engines, chassis, processes without harming Porsche’s core business. Each of them would have it’s own identity and could do something for the others.

Development and production processes could be much more flexible and faster then any cooperation with VW. Neither Land Rover, nor Jaguar or Volvo are direct competitors to Porsche. Jaguar’s two seaters are more GT than sportscars and Landies are no threat to the Cayennes. Ford has already sold the only real competitor to Porsches: Aston-Martin that is.

If it weren’t for the VW committment, my money would be on Porsche. This potential gold mine of the four brands for Porsche makes the VW deal look quite risky in comparison.

What a shame, what a waste.

Photo c2007 by 117355

technorati tags:Jaguar, Aston-Martin, Land Rover, Porsche, Automobile Industry, automotive, VW, Volvo

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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.

technorati tags:Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, PSA, FIAT, Renault-Nissan

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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?

technorati tags:Ford, Jaguar, Volvo, Land-Rover, BMW, Mercedes, Daimler, Toyota, Honda, Porsche, Skoda, Audi, Automobile Industry, buyers

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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

technorati tags:Jaguar, Land-Rover, Volvo, Ford, Automobile Industry

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