El Cucuy

I read this over at bimmer.org:i>:

LONDON (Reuters) - Germany's Quandt family, the largest shareholder in Munich-based automaker BMW AG, plans to sell its stake in the company, Britain's Sunday Times newspaper said.
: Citing car industry insiders, the newspaper said the Quandts were negotiating with Ford Motor Co and Volkswagen AG to sell their 48 percent stake for ``at least'' 20 billion pounds ($31.59 billion).
: The newspaper also quoted an unnamed BMW executive as saying Ford was in turn negotiating with Volkswagen to divide up the BMW marques between them -- Ford would buy BMW and Volkswagen would snap up luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce.
: Last month, BMW ditched its loss making British-based Rover car company and has since been seen as a possible target for a takeover bid in the consolidating global car industry. Ford bought utility vehicle maker Land Rover from BMW at the same time.
: The Quandt family and BMW officials have said repeatedly in recent weeks that BMW was not for sale.<p>parkerpt
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mpm

The Quandt family has been pretty disappointed with mgmt. They are the ones who drove the stake through Rover.

I'm not sure what VW would gain by picking up Rolls. Clearly Ford would round out their product line by adding the rear wheeled Germans to its arsenol.

Hmmm...

mpm
'00 silver/onyx and still hoping for the Porsche takeover by the Chairman

El Cucuy

I believe they lost Rolls-Royce in the deal to BMW when they bought Bentley, but the details of the destiny of the R-R nameplate has always been confusing to me. I've heard that RR would continue as is, they would be shut down, the nameplate would run to 2002/3 and then VW would get RR but lose the right to the RR name (????), etc. It's all a mystery to me.

As far as wondering what VW would gain from Rolls, why own Bentley and Bugatti? I guess it's just the globalization of the automotive market. Just who all does VW own? Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, Bugatti, Skoda, Seat. Anyone others I don't know about?

Concerning Porsche, I'm sure Piech would love to own his grandfather's company. Wouldn't that be nice.<p>parkerpt
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MA6

My understanding is that VW owns the factory and the right to produce RR cars until 2002. At that point, the name and all would go to BMW but the factory in Crewe, England would still be owned by VW. VW would still own Bentley, however.

Completely messed up in my opinion.

Ryan S

Someone told me yesterday that my A4 was built in Mexico! I asked and he drove a VW Jetta.. Laughed