mmarshall

Most of us in CAR CHAT, of course, keep a lot of this already in our heads, but, nevertheless, it can still get confusing to remember who owns who in the auto-industry, especially as the whole industry gets more and more global. Here is an updated (October 2013) list that Consumer Reports has just published of auto manufacturers selling in the American market....which also includes, in their ownership, some non-American makes.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/n...what/index.htm

The auto industry has a very confusing family tree. The past few years have seen partnerships, sales, separations, bankruptcies, and entire divisions killed off, making it difficult to keep up with who owns which car brands.

As automakers slim down to become more profitable and efficient, a number of changes have been made in recent years. We have seen storied names, such as Hummer, Mercury, and Pontiac, fade away into the history books. We have seen others, such as Chrysler, Jaguar, and Volvo, find new international corporate parents. And some, such as Aston Martin, remain in flux.

To help clear up some of the confusion, we present a basic road map to navigate who owns which car brands among the major automotive companies that sell in the United States. Of course, the list is definitely subject to change. To find out how the major brands perform, see our brand report cards.


BMW owns: Mini and Rolls Royce.

Fiat owns: Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Ferrari, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, Ram and SRT.

Ford Motor Company owns: Lincoln and a small stake in Mazda.

General Motors owns: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC. GM owns a controlling interest in Opel and Vauxhall in Europe and Holden in Australia. (The U.S. Treasury Department is in the process of selling off the remaining GM stock holdings.)

Honda owns: Acura.

Hyundai owns: Kia.

Tata Motors (India) owns: Jaguar and Land Rover.

Mazda mostly independently owned (Ford has small stake)

Mitsubishi is independently owned.

Daimler AG owns: Mercedes-Benz and Smart.

Nissan owns: Infiniti. (Nissan, in turn, is owned by Renault.)

Saab is owned by National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS).

Subaru: Owned by Fuji Heavy Industries with Toyota a minority partner.

Tesla: Toyota is a minority partner. Partnership with Daimler AG.

Toyota Motor Company owns: Lexus, Scion, Daihatsu and Hino Motors, with a stake in Fuji Industries (Subaru's parent company) and Isuzu.

Volkswagen owns: Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, and overseas-brands SEAT and Skoda.

Volvo is owned by Chinese-automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, aka Geely.

OKSTANCE

whuuuut...im learning so much! lol

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

I know all mine, but nonetheless a good reminder thread.

Ford still owns a minority stake in Aston Martin. 40 Million iirc.

Don't forget Oldsmobile.

And I noticed theres no mention of Suzuki in this article

mmarshall

....apparently not enough of a stake to be listed here, but, of course, this is CR's list, not mine.



Olds went under years ago....probably too long ago to be a factor on the list. Same with Chrysler's old Eagle division.


Suzuki's gone...they left this country several months ago. And no company that sells in the American market (apparantly) has any stake in Suzuki.

mmarshall

You (or me) may personally not need the list most of the time, but I think that at least some people will find it useful. And I myself sometimes forget the difference between Bentley/Rolls-Royce owners and all of the smaller Japanese-market firms that Toyota owns.

pshep138

Didn't Ford own Mazda not long ago, as well as Aston Martin? I'm sure they don't currently, I'm just trying to get my history straight.

Most people don't know tha Chrysler owned Lamborghini for a number of years in the '80s/'90s. The Diablo may not have existed were it not for Chrysler.

Marklouis

nice. no clue Volks owned Lambo.

I8ABMR

I remember seeing a family tree back ion the day that showed all this. Cool to see this. Thanks for sharing

mmarshall

Ford owned a significant share of Mazda for a long time. That's why Mazda stopped selling their home-Japanese-market trucks here around 1990 and gave us rebadged Ford Rangers/ 2-door Explorers for the Mazda Navajo and B-Series trucks. Mazda/Ford sedans and hatchbacks also often shared the same basic platforms, but were not re-badges as we know them.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Olds ended in 2004 though (less than a decade). Eagle was five years earlier.

Right but it should have been mentioned that they left. CR omission

I8ABMR

LOL my best friend in high school had a Mazda Navajo and it was easily the biggest piece of garbage I have ever seen. It had 4 transmissions in 3 years. YIKES!!! It left us stranded on LA freeways twice and until today is a HUGE reason why I will not buy American cars. It was a rebadge that didnt do Mazda any favors in gaining more customers. This is why you will never see one of those on the road today. They are all in a junk yard where they belong

mmarshall

Ford trucks have actually had a pretty good reputation for quite some time, notwithstanding the Explorer roll-over debacle of the 1990s, which was as much the Firestone Wilderness tires and owner-neglet as it was the Explorer itself. The rebadged 2-door Explorer/Navajo was not as affected as much because it was lighter and sometimes used different tires at the factory.

Four transmissions in three years sounds more characteristic of the 90's-vintage Chrysler minivans, with the notoriously weak 4-speed Ultradrive automatic, than of Ford Ranger/Explorer-based vehicles like the Navajo, though, from what can remember, Consumer Reports rated the Navajo worse-than-average in reliability. Did your friend overload his Navajo above the factory-recommended limits or drive it up and down a lot of steep grades in very hot weather? That, of course, contributes to early transmission failure.

I was a Mazda fan myself in the late 80s and early 90s....I owned three of them. I agree, though, that Ford should have thought twice before they forced Mazda into their own re-badged trucks. The earlier, Japanese-designed B-series pickups were quite well-built (better, IMO, than the competing Toyota pickups of that vintage, which routinely rusted out the bed-mounts), and those B-series, I remember, won the J.D. Power award for Best Quality the year before Ford forced the conversion.