Community Question: Should General Motors Make A Bid For The Jeep Brand?
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Amid reports Chinese automakers have begun eying Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles for an entire buyout, China’s Great Wall Motor Company stepped forward and publicly confirmed its interest. However, it’s really just interested in what is arguably FCA’s greatest asset: the Jeep brand.
According to Fiat-Chrysler Authority, Great Wall aspires to be the world’s largest producer of SUVs and it has a deep interest in acquiring the Jeep brand. Although FCA has officially rebuked all claims that Great Wall has reached out to begin negotiations over a Jeep or the sale of FCA itself, it didn’t rule out the notion of selling the brand off.
That’s why we’re here to ask if General Motors should step up and make a bid for the iconic Jeep brand.
Jeep has a storied history in the United States, despite trading hands with a few owners over the 20th and 21st century. FCA, arguably, has done the most to help the brand thrive, though. Per analyst estimates, the Jeep brand alone may be worth more than FCA in its entirety at roughly $33 billion.
Looking at General Motors, the automaker lacks a true off-road identity, which many believe was lost with Hummer. Purchasing Jeep would gain GM access to an avid customer base, and as the crossover and SUV market continues to steal passenger car sales, it’s not necessarily a risky bet, but rather it seems like a smart investment. And as GM moves away from unprofitable markets such as Europe, North America and China continue to print money in SUV and crossover sales.
However, there are likely some roadblocks. Purchasing just one brand from FCA would likely come with many caveats. Foremost, Jeep isn’t operated on its own as it stands. It shares dealerships with other FCA brands and the plants where Jeeps are assembled also build additional FCA product. Some serious reshuffling would be needed to make it work.
Not to get political about this, but let’s not kid ourselves either: we have a feeling most Americans would feel better about a U.S. automaker holding onto a brand like Jeep rather than the Chinese carmaker.
So, what say you? Would GM be foolish to pass up FCA’s crown jewel? Or does it not make sense with GM’s current trajectory? Vote in our poll and talk to us in the comment section below.
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GM already had Jeep & got rid. Years ago GM had Hummer (& it was making a decent profit), it got canned along with Oldsmobile & Pontiac. Again HAD it been managed right GM could of turned Hummer into a decent Jeep rival & marketed it’s rough tough heritage & it’s wartime kudos. Hummer merchandise – caps, belts etc etc could of been another lucrative business also, but Hummer was binned along with it’s potential because at the time it was not PC.
It’s could have, man. Don’t write out any professional emails or anything with “could of” – you’ll never see another promotion.
Alternatively, it’s ‘could’ve’. Use contractions and apostrophes often to confuse and befuddle others.
It should also be noted that Hummer (H2 and H3) were basically glorified pick-up trucks and really nothing special. Just an image vehicle which are really laughable today when you see one with 24+” wheels and tons of chrome. Usually driven by a skinny Hispanic or a delusional Italian. Lol
On the other hand, Jeep has a solid reputation off road.
Bob, that’s what I was referring to regards future vision, yes the H1, H2 & H3 were not the best due to H1 being designed for war not public sale & H2 & H3 being based on GMC / Chevy SUVs. Given time & the right product/s a niche & moneymaker could of come of this & Hummer could of been GM’s Jeep or Land Rover rival division.
The H1 was sold and built by AM General and had nothing to do with GM.
Yes with good product, Hummer could have worked especially in today’s SUV obsessed market.
GM acquired AM General & then rebranded them Hummer changed from HumVee.
100% FALSE!
AM General, which remains an independent company and government and military contractor, sold the rights to the Hummer brand to General Motors in 1999. It continued production of the original civilian Hummer (dubbed by GM as the H1) until June 2006 when it ceased production.[9]
AM General built a separate factory to build a new Hummer H2, designed by and marketed by General Motors. The vehicle went on the market in 2002, and was produced under contract to GM until January 2009. AM General did not build the Hummer H3, and the firm is not part of General Motors Corporation.
**You guys should really stop making ***t up. It’s obviously in fashion right now in the US but there is such thing as facts.
Try Wikipedia dot org
@V8 Jon re “GM already had Jeep & got rid. ” — Could you please fill that in with a few basic facts?
In found some information in the en.Wikipedia.org article on “Jeep”, which contradicts V8 Jon’s claim that “GM already had Jeep”. I allow myself to quote the first two paragraphs of section:
No General Motors in there. GM is only mentioned further down in that section, in this sentence:
GM won the legal battle with Chrysler/Jeep over the grill design!
I don’t think FCA would ever cut loose the Jeep brand.
Maybe some form of a merger?
FCA could spin out Jeep with an IPO, while still owning a majority interest. That’s how they can determine the true value of the Jeep brand.
No!
GMC is here! And I would love to see it go after Jeep and Land Rover.
That what I would like to see. Even if they just go after Jeep and let Cadillac go after the high end Range Rover would be fine with me.
Everybody wants Jeep. There’s nothing left at FCA is you break out Jeep and they won’t sell it on it’s own. This is just journalistic nonsense.
What if a Chinese brand says that they would like to bid on Cadillac tomorrow? Is that news?
Everybody wants Jeep for the reasons I have already mentioned, hence why Hummer managed right would of put it alongside Jeep & Land Rover in the few brands with unique pedigree, yet with massive appeal.
For no reason other then to keep it an American company, why not. From a business standpoint it is profitable,
Opel out Jeep in! But GM look’s to be getting serious with off road worthiness so maybe not.
Jeep purists would hate the idea (in the beginning) but it’s better then seeing it go the other way.
FCA and Jeep ARE NOT AMERICAN AND HAVEN’T BEEN SINCE THE 90’S!!!!!
Are you referring to the Diamelrizing? What is your ideal scenario?
MB took over Chrysler and later dumped it. What are you asking?
Fate of Jeep? and Daimler-Benz acquired Chrysler, different co. then MB!
Jeep is an extremely valuable brand which is recognized around the world. FCA is for sale and has been for over 2 years now. It would not be a good business decision to break off Jeep and Sergio Marchionne has no intention of doing so. I still think FCA will be sold as a whole.
VW was a candidate before the emission scandal. Now we are left with Hyundai/Kia or the Chinese.
Yeah, thanks former GM’er Bob Eaton for that one! Lee Iacocca stated bringing Eaton in from GM was the biggest mistake of his career and that he should have put Bob Lutz into that position. Lutz would have told Daimler to pound sand. For those around back then Chrysler was in a strong place in 1998 when that happened and was sitting on a ton of cash. Daimler just drained them dry and left the bones. Having spent time at GM then Chrysler as a contract employee and now back at GM I have see how that all played out.
Didn’t Mary Barra already rejected Sergio Marchionne’s overtures in acquiring Fiat-Chrysler and then merging with GM?
A lot has changed since then, Open and Vauxhall are now gone. And Sergio may be more desperate to make a deal.
This is a mixed bag.
GM would be buying a iconic brand which is good. But it would take a lot of investment to maintain it.
GM would not want to continue the Fiat based products or FCA engines.
This would mean they would need to invest in both.
That or just keep the Wrangler and sell it though GMC.
But for the price they need to build more than that.
Or GM could just build their own Wrangler like model as a GMC and not be boxed in by styling.
Let’s face it the Wrangler is like the Mini and you can’t change it much or improve some areas limited due to styling.
“Or GM could just build their own Wrangler like model as a GMC and not be boxed in by styling.”
The HX, I wanted to see that one make it wheater it was with Hummer or GMC!
http://www.offroadxtreme.com/news/is-gm-considering-a-wrangler-competitor/
Styling is why Jeep sells so well.
Styling helps sell it but it also limits it too.
It is a blessing and curse all at once.
They have done well to evolve it but one has to wonder wher it would be if it was given a more open chance to grow.
I’m not sure . I can see both sides of the equation , but if GM got busy it could build a direct competitor to Jeep .
In the old days if a company thought that a sale of a product from another firm would hurt its bottom line they would buy it and keep it out of their competitors hands or just kill off the brand that was seen as a rival .
Buying it to keep it out of the hands of the Chinese would be great , but GM would have to sink alot of money into the brand to make it a more quality SUV ( the Grand Cherokee for ex. ) .
Tough call ……………
One reason Jeep has done so well is that GM and Ford quit the mid-sized 4wd segment and left the field open to FCA. Bringing back Trailblazer/Envoy type vehicles would fill that gap (Ford’s pending reintroduction of the Bronco is intended to cash in on this segment). Jeep wouldn’t be worth as much as it is if it had been faced with American branded competition and FCA might not even be around anymore if GM and Ford had been in the game.
I would love for Jeep to become American again but I feel GM is not the right partner.Perhaps Ford but they Cant afford it. Would love to see a group of independents purchase and produce them just to save the iconic brand. WE are becoming second tier auto producers in our own country and losing ground every year.
Now that GM is rid of Opel and other offshore assets it might make more sense for GM to acquire FCA and their assets and make use of them. Jeep of course is the crown jewel but they have other product that sells well and have a good offshore marketing and sales network. Another thing is FCA has put TONS of money into refurbishing their assembly and manufacturing plants and GM could add significant US based capacity should NAFTA be restructured to make manufacturing in Mexico or elsewhere not advantageous for sale in the US.
With the move to electrification and automation, all companies have too much production capacity already. And electric car production will mainly come from China. Think Apple, where 100% of products come from China. Ford is moving the Focus production to China and are sourcing more parts from there just like all the others.
I would be ok with GM taking over FCA for nothing. They already paid the 2 Billion to not have to buy them. This time around it should be free.
The Italian company who owns and controls FCA may not agree to this… Lol
GM to acquire FCA?
The reverse is has more probability in my humble view.
BTW, Alfa Romeo, the other global brand of FCA, has just been re-introduced to North America, offering the Stelvio and Giulia (the greater sister of Giulietta).
Alfa Romeo has been assigned the role of global premium performance brand — it makes me think of BMW.
A TV station here just recently reaired the 1967 film “The Graduate”, where Dustin Hoffmann plays a young graduate who doesn’t know what to do in his life and gets in erotic troubles with the mother of a girlfriend. Music by Simon and Garfunkel.
The graduate gets a present from his parents for passing the exam:
an Alfa Romeo Spider.
In red, of course.
Alfa Romeo another brand (include Saab here too) that wasn’t marketed right, yes the occasional wrong model here & there but doesn’t everyone now and again. Brands with much heritage, sporting DNA & yet undersold & left fighting for their very existence
Leave Jeep where it is, otherwise, GM will ultimately find a way to kill it. They can’t help it. It’s in their DNA. GM is doing “o.k.” and they’ve got their hands full with that.
There should be a law that states that GM is not allowed to buy anything that’s worth keeping.
Can GM buy jeep and rename it hummer?
The greatest value of Jeep is the value of the name. It is known globally and also not just seen as a American brand but a global brand.
You can’t create name equity line that you have to earn it.
Wow that would be a marketing move right up there with New Coke!
Jeep is a brand with world wide recognition value as the car with which the USA conquered the world in the previous world war.
FCA is the first owner of the brand to recognize its potential and has developed it with huge success.
While in 2009 (before the Fiat-Chrysler merger) 340 thousand Jeeps were produced and sold, this rose to 1.42 million in 2016, with production no longer only in North America, but also in Europe, South America, China and India (my information comes from another blog, not own research). Jeep also shares engines and platforms with other brands in the FCA empire (the Jeep Renegade and Fiat 500X look quite different, but ride on the same underpinnings).
Oh, say others, we didn’t know what Jeep can be, and now we want to have it!
I think it is ridiculous to think that FCA would sell its cash cow, and cripple its other brands by the same token.
If FCA wants to sell Jeep I’d love for GM to buy it. But I’d be ok with Ford buying it too. I’d hate to see jeep become a Chinese brand.
Why? Like most Americans, you most likely spend most of your money on Chinese made goods and Asian cars dominate the sales charts in the US.
Does this mean that dodge is in serious trouble? Are they bleeding this much cash that they have to sell off pieces to stay in business?
If so then I am all for jeep being sold to anyone, seeing dodge have a downward slide would make me happy!
Seeing folks laid off at Dodge shouldn’t make anyone happy.
It makes more sense for the Chinese to buy FCA. It gives them instant access to vehicle distribution and dealerships to sell their vehicles in counties they are trying to penetrate.
Totally! If FCA would be bought by a state owned Chinese company, Ford and GM would have no other choice but to accelerate their plans to move production and parts sourcing to compete. This is exactly what the Chinese are doing to Volvo. New models are now made in China.
Ford is betting the farm in China (with 6 new plants) and transferring significant production to China from Canada and the US. Let’s hope the Ford family is learning the language… 70% of Fords built in China (including those for exports) will be full electric by 2025.
https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2017/08/22/ford-furthers-global-electrification-expansion.html
Sales of EVs in China far outpaces the rest of the world and now Ford is getting in on the action. It just signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a Chinese company called Zotye Auto. the companies will explore how they could build a new line of all-electric passenger vehicles in China. The 50:50 joint venture would sell the vehicles under a local brand name. The two will also look into developing, marketing and servicing the new line of EVs. Foreign automakers cannot get subsidies for EVs unless they manufacture those cars in China. And they have to get a Chinese partner to manufacture there.
I thin k it is too late for that. If GM shows any typed of interest the little Italian man will say, “A ha! I knew it! You want me. Admit it. You. Want. Me. You. Need. Me.” And even it was maybe almost true that GM wants a little slice of Chrysler, the whole messy can of worms would be wide open again. And this time, some folks might start to believe it. If GM wants it, the best thing to do would be to let the Chinese buy it from FCA, then buy it from the Chinese. It may cost a bit more, but it would keep the little Italian’s mouth shut, and that is one cost we can ALL live with, but not without. More, though, I am with Jon V8. Rebuild Hummer before anything else. At least you still have all the dies, etc.
Why do you think GM still has the dies and after all these years why do you think they are worth anything? Do you actually think that you could just re-start production of old and totally outdated products?
I say … go for it. Jeep is an American brand, let’s keep it that way. Maybe GM will do something with Jeep that FCA never did that’d do great. What? Take that 1941 model, update it with the safety specs required, keep it simply appointed. Offer it up with few options, auto, a/cm, cruise, hard top/doors, one engine option (4 cyc like the original). This will open the door to 4WD buyers who can spend $20K …. not $35K to $40K. Now … for those who’d like “more” offer up an accessories catalog with all he modification parts others want.
@Brad Barefoot:
Actually, Jeep is today an international brand. Produced on four continents.
“Maybe GM will do something with Jeep that FCA never did that’d do great. What? ” — Yeah, what?
When FCA took over, Jeep sold ~340,000 units per year, in 2016 1.42 million. 2 million are projected for next year (2018).
“open the door to 4WD buyers who can spend $20K …. not $35K to $40K.” — the Jeep Renegade would the one for you: “MSRP* STARTING AT $17,995”
Others may look rather for the 2018 “Grand Cherokee Trackhawk” with its “supercharged 6.2L V8 engine” delivering 707 HP, but OK, this is with MSRP starting at 85,900
More on the www at jeep.com or the August 24 article on “Automotive News” by Jamie Butters and Tommaso Ebhardt: “FCA envisions Jeep as global SUV giant to fulfill auto dreams”