With FCAU you're investing in a consolidator. I don't get your argument for the worst of breed Renault.
Ok, I would have to upack that one.
First, the products are quite bad in both companies. Both Renault and Fiat have a few models in the past 20 years that were horribly unreliable and this is reflected in the lowest resale values in the industry. Nissan is actually somewhat ok (Renault hold 43% of Nissan). I am not so familiar with Chrysler products but I hear they're not the best.
Fiat have been de-consolidating since they acquired Chrysler. They spun off almost everything they have. That was great for shareholders.
Now you are left with two of the weakest competitors in the EU and the US, combined together and sharing no platforms essentially. And now they added Citroen, which has the same lousy used resale values, again for a reason.
If you want to have a look at a successful consolidator, look at Volkswagen. They bought a bunch of brands and converted them over time to the Volkswagen common platforms. Worked great.
The only problem is, they are barely making back their cost of capital despite being a giant in the business, because..... drum roll..... this business sucks. At least Audi is working out fine.
Great management might save the day for a while, like Carlos Ghosn in Renault or Marchionne in Fiat. Both long gone. Carlos Tavares is very good as well, and used to work under Ghosn.
I would say - this is going to be a wild ride and not necessarily with great results. I really hope Fiat have a good plan to make money, because it's going to be very hard with Volkswagen breathing down their neck.
Combining Fiat products with Citroen products and labor force is like the beginning of a bad joke. You can read some auto forums to get an idea of how bad modern citroen products are.
