Word: citro
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Charles de Gaulle's government is squirming over a new affront to French pride - and this time the transgressor is a Frenchman, Pierre Bercot, the imperious head of Citroën, France's second biggest automaker. Climaxing months of secret negotiations, Bercot revealed plans last week for a union of his ailing company with Fiat, the Italian automaker that ranks fourth in the world, behind only the U.S. Big Three. "It is not a question of Citroën's troubles," Bercot said, "but the problem of the entire European automobile industry." That problem, as the French...
Much to the chagrin of the De Gaulle government, which was caught by surprise when Chrysler took over faltering Simca in 1963, a French solution for Citroën's problem seems remote. Bercot insists that his company will "not fall under Fiat control"-"but what he has negotiated is not too far short of a Fiat takeover. According to the reported agreement, Fiat will buy a 30% interest in Citroën, presumably from the tiremaking Michelin family, which holds 56% of Citroën. Fiat would then reduce Citroën's dangerous $100 million-plus...
Piling Up Trouble. Citroën has long been heading toward a classic industrial disaster. Founded by a flamboyant Parisian named Andre Citroën in 1919, the company has been controlled for the past 30 years by the Michelins, who generally consider autos an adjunct to their profitable tire business. Citroën's two basic models, the tinny, 20-year-old 2 CV and the 13-year-old, bullet-nose DS, were highly successful in the 1950s and early 1960s, when automanic Frenchmen would wait months for a car. That situation no longer exists, but Pierre Bercot...
...Citroën's share of the French auto market has skidded to 21% since 1965, when it held a peak 31%. Profits have vanished, despite 1967 sales of 500,000 cars worth $896 million. Piling trouble upon trouble, Citroën last year bought Berliet trucks, which has earnings problems of its own, and began tooling up for a medium-size car, still three years off, in cooperation with Germany's NSU. Early this year, having also started work on a fast, Maserati-powered touring car, Citroën went to the government for $60 million. Bercot...
...ITALY is almost overrun with cars, but that has not stopped Fiat from selling more autos in Europe than anyone else ($1,300,000 last year). This year it stands to increase its share of the European market from 20% to 25% if Citroën comes into the fold. At home, sales have fallen off under competition from imports and from government-owned Alfa-Romeo. But Agnelli, Fiat's ardent pan-European, is more than making up for the decline with increased exports. Taking a tip from Detroit, he is bringing out several new models, including the fast...