A couple of weeks ago, it was confirmed that Sergio Marcchione was interested in merging Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) with either Volkswagen (VW) or General Motors (GM). At the time, neither company wanted anything to do with it, but let's be honest, VW has the greatest excuse not to, despite surpassing Toyota as the largest automaker by volume. That still doesn't mean we can't think about what might have been. Enter the world where GM and FCA decided to come together - a world where The Big Three suddenly became The Big Two.
Personally, I believe GM would not want the F of FCA. Although Marcchione might see that as a deal breaker, GM just offloaded their last European brands, Vauxhall and Opel, to PSA. Although that doesn't mean they left the entire European market, taking on the Italian arm of FCA would be incredibly burdensome on the company as a whole. I believe GM CEO Mary Barra would take into account the size of the brands and the value they would add compared to the heavy cost of bureaucracy and the social turmoil rocking the Eurozone. I also think that Ferrari, and thereby Maserati and Alfa Romeo, would likely be reluctant to work as part of an American company, not to mention the high cost to GM of maintaining those brands. Furthermore, looking in the past, GM does not have a great history of maintaining European luxury brands (ahem, Saab).
So that leaves the C side of things for GM to handle, and here is one plan I think they might have considered.
Jeep
Keep it as it is! As one of the most recognizable brands in the world with some of the strongest brand loyalty, Jeep is FCA's most profitable brand. With a few exceptions, the company has taken an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" policy towards refreshes and redesigns. Jeep's customer loyalty is also very strong, so hopefully, GM would know better than to mess with the brand too much.
Dodge
Remember Pontiac and how it was originally GM's sports and muscle car brand? Well, it was a shell of its former self when the brand was shelved in 2009, but this would be a fresh start for GM to pursue a similar ethos with Dodge. Without needing to design brand new rear wheel drive platforms, although that would be welcome, GM could relaunch a line of sports and muscle cars with Mopar. Let's just hope history doesn't repeat itself.
Ram
With two full lineups of pickup trucks already, it would be difficult at first to justify another GM truck brand. Ram's saving grace, however, is a gap in the US pickup truck market. At the moment, there is a strong lack of sporty, utilitarian and affordable trucks. Ram could restart this market and target the average blue collar worker. Chevy's Silverado lines would go a little further up-market serve the successful contractor and the Colorado would be geared as a fun truck for an active and traveling family. GMC's Sierra line would be pushed a little further upmarket to further fill its current niche of upper-middle-class executives who don't mind getting their hands dirty. If that plan doesn't work out, the Ram name, although it would be diluted, could be reapplied onto the commercial van industry.
Chrysler
This one is tricky. GM already has two luxury brands — Buick and Cadillac. Fortunately, The General has cleared the way a little by moving Cadillac further upmarket and injecting it with some testosterone. This would leave Chrysler to deal with its new (step) sister brand, Buick. Since Marcchione recently decided that Chrysler will move away from sedans and into a majority SUV based company, GM could inherit that very strategy. The GMC and Buick lineups would then have to be rearranged to prevent some cannibalization, not that they have already have an addiction to badge engineering.
