Words by Dionysis Nanos
Theory and practice are two polar opposites, as I’m sure you know. For example, the Irishman was supposed to be an instant classic like any Scorsese movie that respects itself, while in practice it was a three hour torture-fest that barely qualifies as a movie at all. In fact, that can also be used to describe mergers in the car business. In theory it’s a perfect idea as you have two companies (or more in some cases), joining forces, helping each other out in the areas the other is lacking, so that the end product is something that makes rival bosses wake up in a bad mood everyday… if they get some sleep that is. In practice though it’s the exact opposite with corporate greed, an undying thirst for money and power and/or bad luck turning what should have been a successful cooperation into a mash of dreams, hearts and wallets more toxic than the Elephant’s Foot. But what have been the worst of the mergers? What seemingly innocent attempt at cooperating turned into business hell? In this two part series we’re going to look at six of the most horrid mergers to ever take place.. On with the first part then!
6. Citroen-Maserati
The most well known product to come out of this merger, the Citroen SM
In 1968, Citroen turned to Maserati to develop and manufacture a V6 engine for its soon-to-be released flagship coupe, the SM. Maserati happily delivered with the marriage announced later in the year in what was a seemingly beautiful idea. Citroen would get its engine for the SM as well as expertise on developing its own V6 engines in the future and Maserati would have secure financial backing to make more cars, earning more money in the process, and possibly lasting until the end of next week. And for a while it worked, with Maserati releasing cars like the Bora, the Merak and the Khamsin and with the SM finishing third on the 1971 European Car Of The Year contest and even winning Motor Trend's Car Of The Year award for 1972. So what went wrong? When the oil crisis hit in 1973, Citroen's cash supply started drying up, which meant that Maserati was also in deep trouble ( no surprise there really...) as right about that time the Quattroporte II (pictured above) was being developed. It was supposed to be a major leap forward from its predecessor, based on an elongated SM chassis and featuring Citroen's famous hydropneumatic suspension paired with the V6 from the SM, in what was basically a 4-door version of the latter. Citroen's financial troubles though meant that the Quattroporte II couldn't get type certified for Europe with only 12 being produced and with all of them being sold in the Middle East. After that Citroen went bankrupt and put Maserati into liquidation, with Alejandro de Tomaso saving the latter at the eleventh hour. Meanwhile, Citroen was bought out by Peugeot forming the PSA Group. As fate would have it, Citroen and Maserati are under the same roof again nowadays after PSA and Maserati’s parent company Fiat Chrysler (FCA) announced their upcoming merger late in 2019. Let’s hope this time things don’t go as badly as the first time.
5. Lamborghini-Chrysler
Still gorgeous after thirty years
To be fair, Chrysler isn’t the worst company to ever own Lamborghini, but it just seems that they used the company as a publicity stunt and nothing else. In 1987, the Mimran brothers sold Lamborghini to Chrysler, which for a company that was with one foot in the grave and had to be bailed out by the federal government nine years ago, shows that some people on top were… risky to say the least. Nevertheless, after the buyout Chrysler stopped production of the Jalpa, the baby Lambo, and the infamous LM002, otherwise known as Colonel Qaddafi’s bathroom toy, leaving only the aging Countach, which was reaching its 15th anniversary at this point, in production. So Lee Iacocca turned to Countach designer Marcello Gandini and told him to design a replacement, which Gandini happily did. Unfortunately, the chair holders at Auburn Hills thought that the proposed design was “too risky”, commissioning an in-house redesign that famously left Gandini so unimpressed that he took his original design and went on to make the truly mad Cizeta V-16T. Lamborghini also made the V10 that found its way in the original Dodge Viper, while Chrysler used the Lamborghini name in F1, mainly as an engine supplier and sort of a team as well (Modena Team SpA... maybe we ought to talk about that as well), which really didn’t go that well, with Lamborghini losing money constantly, which also meant that dad Chrysler was also losing money. Moreover while the Diablo started off with strong sales by 1994 they were drying up, meaning that inevitably Chrysler sold the brand off to a couple of Indonesian businessmen before they themselves sold the company to Audi in the late 90s, with the rest being history really…
4. MG Rover-BMW
A late Rover 75
Here at Motordiction we haven’t hidden the fact that we like Rovers, now that we’ve sort of (maybe not) matured. But, to be fair, when BMW bought the kicking and screaming brands in the mid 90s it was a very bad economic move that resulted in millions being lost. See, BMW poured money into the ailing car maker, with the new 200 and Honda-derived 400-Series Rovers being launched within two years of the new ownership taking place.But the public was simply not interested in what Rover was doing anymore, which meant that sales were poor. BMW though still went at it with the Rover 75, which truly was a good car. Beautiful and elegant styling both inside and out with BMW derived engines meant that the 75 was finally something MG Rover could be proud of, but by that time it was already too late. By 2000 BMW had had enough and thus sold MG and Rover, while keeping the only profitable parts of the MG Rover Group, Land Rover and Mini, keeping the latter to this day while selling the former to Ford in 2006, where it reunited with former British Leyland family member Jaguar. This merger then, while it helped make the last good Rover, ultimately damaged BMW and meant a faster, less dignified death for Rover, which got bought out by the Chinese in 2005. And that was the end of that. Yes, I know MG is currently selling cars but they’re nothing more than rebadged Chinese stuff, and while they might not be terrible they definitely aren’t the MGs of old. What a pity…
So, this were just some of the worst. Not the most horrid ones but definitely ones that show that bad economic moves and a bad economic climate can turn a good merger into a hell in a suit. Join us next week for the second part, where we’ll see some even worse attempts at peaceful cooperation…
