-J-P-L-

I was reading an article about Tesla's money problems and the prospect of bankruptcy. Author was talking about how the average margin on a vehicle is about 6%. Not sure of the accuracy of that but sounds legit. 6% profit margins is a pathetic number in the marketplace in general. He made the point of saying building cars is "dumb" because of how hard it is and how hard it is to make money.

Meanwhile, people think they are getting ripped off by today's "outrageous" car prices. On the contrary, a $35,000 car is a miracle for only costing that much. Think of every aspect of the car and imagine bringing it all together for $35K.

mmarshall

I agree that the average car, today, is not the rip-off that many claim it is. But buying a car, in most cases, is not like just walking into a grocery store and walking out with a bag of groceries. It is long, drawn-out process, can take hours, and, unless one agrees to a pre-determined Internet or no-dicker-price, can result on a lot of bargaining and calculating. Few other things in life, outside of a house, are bought that way. In addition, dealerships can, and often do, take advantage of high-demand/low-supply vehicles by padding the figures with add-on markups, not to mention all the things that the Business-Manager tries to sell you after you are done with the salesperson.

mmarshall

Back to GM and Ford, as of now, this story may just be more rumor than fact.

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/05/30...t-about-tesla/

I myself, as I have said before, have strong doubts that American regulators would approve the merger of two giant corporations of this size.

-J-P-L-

The idea of Ford and Chevy being the same company is sacrilege. It'll never happen.

That would be like CNN and Fox News merging.

mmarshall

On the other hand, who ever thought that Mercedes and Chrysler would, some day, be part of the same corporation? In fairness, though, neither one of those two companies is anywhere near the size of Ford or GM. Regulators would probably have to be smoking dope to approve a Ford/GM merger....not necessarily because it would be a "sacrilege", but because it would simply control too much of the American market.

Like I mentioned in a previous post, can you simply imagine all of the F-150, Silverado, and Sierra full-size truck sales in one large corporation?

-J-P-L-

Chrysler and MB weren't really competitors though. GM and Ford have been the biggest automotive rivals for 100 years.

Imagine Mustang and Camaro, F-Series and Silverado the same company? Branding and heritage would suddenly become irrelevant.

mmarshall

On that one, I'll probably have to agree with you, although the European 3-way rivalry between Renault, Fiat, and Volkswagen has also been of note. If Renault ends up buying Fiat (Fiat has been looking for a buyer for years), it could be comparable to a GM/Ford monolith in size.

tex2670

CNN and FoxNews merging actually makes more sense--there's no overlapping viewers. Having Chevy and Ford under the same umbrella competing for the exact same customer is nonsense.

tex2670

@-J-P-L- is exactly right--a merger like DaimlerChrysler makes a heck of a lot more sense. The resulting company expands its customer base. Of course, that's just a bad example of a merger on any level.....

mmarshall

Well, I wasn't really disagreeing with JPL...my point, was, though, that Daimler and Chrysler were, at the time, smaller companies than GM or Ford, and more likely to have regulators approve the deal. I'll be very surprised if regulators approve a Ford/GM merger.

geko29

If absolute share price is the arbiter of a well run company, than anyone who buys any stock other than BRK.A (Berkshire Hathaway) is a damn fool. Closed yesterday at $297,060 per share.

Toys4RJill

Huh? I said usually. Not always. Not absolute. Nor arbiter. And my use of usually was only referring to Toyota over Ford.

Toys4RJill

IMO, after mulling it over for a while, this merger would make sense for the both of them. Some believe there is a sizable shift and change coming to the automotive landscape. Currently auto sales are declining. and if there were a recession to happen, one of these two companies would not be standing in the future. Add in the idea that EV cars are coming, I do not think Ford or GM can survive.