Nissan/Renault Deal talks

[bing101]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-29/nissan-renault-are-said-in-talks-to-merge-create-new-company


The article mentioned that Nissan and Renault are considering to merge with each other to form a new company.

[Brandon]

Considering they share the same CEO and are pretty darn close to being one company now, it won't change much.

[nexus73]

Now we can have crappy Japanese cars and good French cars....LOL! 

The merger that I wished would have worked out: Chrysler and Daimler-Benz. 

Rick

[Brandon]

Now we can have crappy Japanese cars and good French cars....LOL! 

The merger that I wished would have worked out: Chrysler and Daimler-Benz. 

Rick

Would have been nice, but Daimler-Benz only acquired Chrysler for one reason.  That was, to raid Chrysler's cash reserves.  The tie-up should never have been allowed to happen, IMHO.  And I will drop dead first before I have to drive any Mercedes or Smart.

[Takumi]

Now we can have crappy Japanese cars and good French cars....LOL! 

The merger that I wished would have worked out: Chrysler and Daimler-Benz. 

Rick

Would have been nice, but Daimler-Benz only acquired Chrysler for one reason.  That was, to raid Chrysler's cash reserves.  The tie-up should never have been allowed to happen, IMHO.  And I will drop dead first before I have to drive any Mercedes or Smart.

I will too, but for a very different reason. Mercedes is responsible for the 25-year import car ban.

[jakeroot]

I will drop dead first before I have to drive any Mercedes or Smart.

I will too, but for a very different reason. Mercedes is responsible for the 25-year import car ban.

Not single-handedly though. They may have led the charge, but the government only took their proposal seriously because of how many other manufacturers were involved.

[Max Rockatansky]

The last thing that needs to happen is having French cars come back to the U.S.  But then again both companies share the same CEO so this really isn't a shocker.

[jakeroot]

The last thing that needs to happen is having French cars come back to the U.S.  But then again both companies share the same CEO so this really isn't a shocker.

I'm pretty sure it'll be happening. PSA (Peugeot/Citroen) is launching a car-sharing service this year as its first steps back into the US market: https://goo.gl/Q2fhu7

I'm waiting patiently for the day that I can finally buy a C4 Cactus. Preferably in brown, with a diesel engine and manual transmission.

[Henry]

And then you remember the Renault Alliance and Encore, which were built in conjunction with AMC? Eventually, AMC was bought up by Chrysler, and the rest is history.

[nexus73]

And then you remember the Renault Alliance and Encore, which were built in conjunction with AMC? Eventually, AMC was bought up by Chrysler, and the rest is history.

Don't forget the Premiere, which was a decent sized sedan placed under the Eagle label.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Premier

When I was young we had a decent number of Peugeots, Renaults and Simcas around with an occasional Citroen seen.  French cars, English cars and Italian cars were a regular presence that dried up, leaving the Germans and Japanese, followed by the Koreans, to fight for the import-buying dollar.  It will be interesting to see how the Chinese and Indian vehicles do in the USA as the years roll on.  In a strange twist we have Buicks made in China being imported into the USA. 

Rick

[jakeroot]

It will be interesting to see how the Chinese and Indian vehicles do in the USA as the years roll on.

Chinese vehicles, I could see building a significant presence, especially in the electric market (as those are booming in popularity in the PRC). Indian cars, on the other hand, probably not. Our markets are wildly different, unlike us and the Chinese. That's why Buick is so much more popular in China than in the US. The Chinese do "American" better than us.

[briantroutman]

One of the major disappointments, automotively speaking, in my lifetime has been the demise of "foreign"  cars in this country. Sure, foreign nameplates may have a significant share of the market, and many of those vehicles are built outside the U.S., but increasingly, they're vehicles designed for the U.S. market that have had all of their foreignness focus-grouped out of them.

So if we did see Renaults on American shores again (which Renault-Nissan has repeatedly denied throughout their partnership), I suspect they'd be little different from the Americanized Nissans already sold here–albeit with some Renault emblems and design cues.

Years ago (largely before my time), foreign vehicles were sold in the U.S. practically in the same form as in their home countries with only minor (and sometimes awkward) notifications to meet U.S. safety, lighting, and emissions regulations. The cars' alien styling, bizarre ergonomics, and mechanical quirks were typically left unaltered. You were lucky if the owner's manual, controls, and warning labels were all translated into English.

And then you remember the Renault Alliance and Encore

Don't forget the Premiere...

And don't forget the Medallion–a hardly-changed North American version of the Renault 21 sold from 1988-89. This may have been one of the rarest mid-market cars sold in the last half-century, and my family owned not one but two! One was branded as a Renault, the other as an Eagle.

[Max Rockatansky]

The last thing that needs to happen is having French cars come back to the U.S.  But then again both companies share the same CEO so this really isn't a shocker.

I'm pretty sure it'll be happening. PSA (Peugeot/Citroen) is launching a car-sharing service this year as its first steps back into the US market: https://goo.gl/Q2fhu7

I'm waiting patiently for the day that I can finally buy a C4 Cactus. Preferably in brown, with a diesel engine and manual transmission.

I was reading the wikipedia page, does that thing really have less than a 2,400 pound curb weight?

[jakeroot]

The last thing that needs to happen is having French cars come back to the U.S.  But then again both companies share the same CEO so this really isn't a shocker.

I'm pretty sure it'll be happening. PSA (Peugeot/Citroen) is launching a car-sharing service this year as its first steps back into the US market: https://goo.gl/Q2fhu7

I'm waiting patiently for the day that I can finally buy a C4 Cactus. Preferably in brown, with a diesel engine and manual transmission.

I was reading the wikipedia page, does that thing really have less than a 2,400 pound curb weight?

Could be. Obviously I haven't seen one in person (haven't been overseas since its release) but it's sort of this quintessentially-European car that auto journalists can't help but love. The low curb weight but tall body means that it can be a real hoot in the corners (read: frightening).