Remember the Renault "Alliance"? It was a bastard product of Renault's 5% stake in AMC in 1979 (and a true bastard at that...). Renault execs ran the company, and by '83 AMC was a majority owner. Btw, a core motivation for the Renault investment was U.S. government restrictions on "American" content on auto sales, designed to protect labor.
Didn't end happily for AMC. After a bizarre series of events, from U.S. security concerns over Army contracts to the assassination of the Renault Chairman by whacked, commie terrorists, Renault soldout to Chrylser in 1987.
But things might be different now: Ghosn is for real. And ambitious.
"Ghosn is for real. And ambitious."
Frankly, I'd rather have Mark Fields (in charge of Ford's turnaround plan) rather than Ghosn. Ghosn did a good job in making Nissan profitable, but their sales are faltering badly now (worldwide they took a nosedive bigger than GM last month).
Fields turned around Mazda and Ford of Europe. If you remember a few years back, Mazda was bleeding cash and sales, and Ford of Europe was the real dog dragging down profits. Now Mazda's sales are soaring worldwide and Ford of Europe is doing well..... and they continue to do well even after he left. Mazda's biggest sellers are in the last year or two before being due for a redesign/facelift and their sales are still increasing. That's not very common.
Nissan can't even sell a 4 cylinder Altima anymore because of
oil burn and fire problems