Last year, Porsche gave Magna an eight-year contract to build the Cayman and Boxster models from 2012 on. Magna engineers immediately went to work and toiled with tricky tasks, such as the stiffening of the Boxter’s body. Which they say wasn’t, well, stiff enough. Then Porsche went to Volkswagen. Then Opel came and went. Finally, Volkswagen bought parts of bankrupt Karmann and needed to use the capacity. Cayman and Boxster will be built in Osnabrück, Instead of the Boxster body, Magna was stiffed and asked to pound sand.
Not exactly. Magna is pounding the table and wants money. €400m in restitution at least, reports the Austrian Wirtschaftsblatt. As payment for work invested into the new Porsche generations. Volkswagen and Magna are involved in “intensive negotiations” writes the Austrian paper. Other than moolah, Magna would also entertain the thought of getting assignments that make up for the cancelled contract.
Magna could start its own auto company. They have the knowledge, but not brand.
A matter of time I guess.
Magna has wanted to be an OEM for years. They first tried in the 90’s and Ford told them to make a decision to either be a competitor or a supplier, but not both. Stronach has made some enemies along the way. Just what the world needs, another OEM producing more vehicles in a world that is awash in excess capacity.
They should just buy Saturn and Saab and have their own line..Use Saturn for the
Honda and Toyota’s of the world and Saab to smack Acura around.
Such an amazing and complex story (in terms of relationships) between the OEM’s (VW, PAG, Opel(GM)), the Tier-1 (Magna, Karmann), the local states (Niedersachsen), nations (US, BRD, UK, Be, Ru), supra-states (EU), the king makers (Piech, W. Porsche), the hired hands ascendant (Winterkorn) and descendant (Wiedeking & his CFO) and looking for the next wave (Wenemer, Demel), the politicians (Eu, Federal, US), central banker types, unions, banks, debt holders …
Not as funny as the installments of the B.S. autobio but equally entertaining.
Bertel, Thanks for the continued updates, interpretation and prognostication here, and Happy Thanksgiving to you!
I wondered why Magna was not trying to buy Volvo – instead of Opel until I realized that the deal was to be done with other people’s money (Russian).
I realize that there are a lot of ego’s at stake in a Magna purchase, however it’s just a deal too far for them.
Who’s got the money, other than China, to buy failing enterprises such as Chrysler, Fiat, Opel, Saab, and Volvo? More importantly, when growth outside of China is weak, why should Chinese firms play foreign-acquisitions instead of domestic product investment and upgrading? Also, does anyone WANT a Chinese Saab? Do they want the currently-available Chinese MGs?
The managers at Magna actually are a bunch of morons. How many times have they been told by the VW board to keep their one-eyed jack behind the zipper. They decided otherwise and wanted to play with the big wolfes. Now their little friend got chopped off.
Not only got they screwed by GM but most notably by the German government, who only looked out to give Opel what Opel wanted at the time, namely a MAGNA led consortium solution, to keep the voters calm until election day.
Now that party is over as well and MAGNA did not even realize they where used for a purpose and there never was a chance to transfer US- technology to Russia and Merkel new it.
Somehow I can’t have much sympathy for Magna. They were big boys and should have been aware that their actions would cause big problems with some of their customers.
i doubt magna will ever become a brand… way too much money to set up in a market that wants no more cars
and they risk losing every customer they have