A month ago, I wrote about a talk with a friend of mine who still has his high-paying job at a German automaker. He had listened to Sergio Marchionne’s appeal for government intervention in a European car industry suffering from overcapacity. My friend said that his employer and other German makers are strictly against governmental tinkering and artificial resuscitation of automakers in distress. He reported that their order books are full, and they are happy to take the market share of European makers in distress. Now, this memo finally arrived on Sergio Marchionne’s desk.
“German car companies Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW are against any sort of European Union intervention that would help companies shut down excess automotive factories, carmakers’ lobby group ACEA president Sergio Marchionne said” today to Reuters.
ACEA is the club of European auto manufacturers. While most ACEA members agree that overcapacity is a problem in Europe, the group’s German members are of a different opinion, Marchionne said. He continued:
“The three German makers appear united against an EU intervention. The issue is on the table, and we’re trying to understand what the German position is.”
Well, Sergio, I spent most of my professional life translating the thoughts of German auto executives into comprehensible words. Sometimes, all I had to do was break them down into bullet points.
- The German position is that they are doing just fine.
- Their order books are full.
- They are happy to take the market share of European makers in distress.
- They are happy that the Euro is still relatively affordable, which is good for their exports.
- They agree that there are too many car makers in Germany, but they are convinced that it’s the weaker that should look for other employment.
Where do I send the bill?
Now if only you had a photo with him showing the middle finger!
sorry about that Sergio, Germans are famous for their mechanical skills, Americans are great at software, French do perfumes and scarves, the Japanese at details, the Chinese at manufacturing, and what do Italians do best? Other than pasta and the dolce vita, I have no idea, certainly not cars
You’re being unkind. Italians do exceptional car styling, inside and out. Enzo Ferrari knew a bit about high performance engines too. Fiat has a long record of small, utilitarian affordable transportation. It’s execution where they fall short.
Giorgetto Giugiaro’s ItalDesign is now part of VW Group, so the Germans appear to have design taken care of, too.
Yeah, what have the Romans ever done for us? Monty Python can answer that question…
Auto executives are naturally against any government intervention when things are going well for themselves. Big surprise. But it’s naive to think that they wouldn’t be there with their collective hands out if things were reversed and they were the ones floundering. Am I terribly cynical in believing that the same holds true for most industries? The requested subsidies are invariably for supposedly high-minded reasons having to do with the greater good, but who’s kidding whom?
Mr.Sergio is used to Government support,at least in the US.So why not in the heartland of governmental control as well?
Of course car companies that are doing well are against government bailouts. Just wait till they are in trouble and they’ll all sing a different tune.
The top dog VW started out as a creation of the German government, got it’s new lease on life after the war as a ward of teh british government, and had the provincial government as a stakeholder for most of its existence (maybe now even). But nooo , no government interference! When we’re making money, it’s all ours.
Very succinct.
“….Marchionne’s appeal for government intervention in a European car industry suffering from overcapacity.”
How is that supposed to work? An overpaid, Very High Commissioner at EU level (with an equally overpaid, equally useless staff) deciding what the European car industry is going to produce?
Similar to the EU farmer markets, subsidizing farmers for overproduction, buying up the excess and selling it for cheap outside the EU, to ruin other manufacturers?
Sergio must be smoking some really strange stuff.
Ma che cazzo… according to the “tooltip”, the picture of Piëch is taken from http://www.alfasport.net/ of all places (specifically, from http://www.alfasport.net/newnews/View.asp?id=1364).
It’s extremely disturbing that it’s natural for people to search for Piëch photos on Alfa Romeo-related sites…
I was going to open a chain of debtors prisons. Then i realized that Germany beat me to it. They now control Italy, Spain, Greece and probably a few more that I’ve forgotten about.
“Where do I send the bill?”
Ren Cen?
This German macho control thing has got me worried..they are scary folks…history has proven it.
I dont want Europe to be a subdivision of Germany!
Too much power in one place..and that place being Germany is a BAD thing!
I`m sure glad I live in the U.S. and not France!
Blame the Germans that some countries in southern Europe have corrupt and stupid politicians.
Countries like Greece should hold their politicians (and other corrupt persons) responsible and put them in jail for a long time.
Maybe so. But in this case, as with Greece, they are 100% correct. More government meddling is not the answer here. Even Sergio gets that.
The reason German cars sell well, is because their good reputation.
Germans have had their fair share of screw-ups and not every product has stellar performance, but the truth is that German engineering and manufacturing (of which autos are a subset) is highly admired and coveted world-wide.
This doesn’t come to one overnight…is decades of discipline and hard work. You reap what you sow.
Having said that, that sometimes leads to arrogance and even outright superiority complexes. Not long ago there was a history channel feature in which they discussed that German superiority complexes was what did them on WW2.
Imagine invading the Soviet Union, a few months later declaring war to the USA, while still fighting a down-on-their-knees but still undefeated British Empire!
Not considering all the troops commited to Greece, Yugoslavia, Norway, North Africa and other countries.