So he took over Ferrari now plans to split.

He's stepping down at the end of 2018, that's four years from now. He will be 66 by then. He wasn't going to be president for life.

There's plenty of time to groom a successor(s).

 

A former client who was healthy, yet nearing his company's mandatory retirement age, once told me "no dying man ever wished he'd spent more time at work" at his retirement party. That stuck in my mind as I mulled the thought for two weeks, then acted.

It convinced me to retire eight years earlier than I had planned.

Good on him.

 

Just enough time to destroy Chrysler, Jeep, Fiat, Alfa, Maserati and Ferrari.

 

This is the longest he'll last. With what's going on at Ferrari four years is too far out to predict.

Why he'd make such a pointless and negative comment now is baffling.

 

add: Viper, Dodge and Lancia, though I don't believe his stewardship will have that draconian effect on all these marques. As to Ferrari, I'm less certain.

 

+1

 

Actually it is not at all unusual to have a succession plan in major corporations. Certainly some CEO's are megalomaniacs, glad to see Marchionne is not in that category.

 

This is not news. He had originally planned to leave around 2017 and was public about it. The heir will be John Elkann who cares about his legacy. Born in New York, he is unknown and wants to make a bigger name for himself in the US. If he were in line at the local Starbucks, nobody would know who he is. More specifically, he cares about the Fiat/Agnelli legacy going forward and not so much the Ferrari legacy. He is an Agnelli, not a Ferrari. I still believe that someday he will spin Ferrari off to raise cash.

 

He has just mentionned what it would cost to see him leave now.

 

Great Quote I look forward to using it someday

 

Kudos to you for being gutsy!!

A nice quote by your former client btw.

 

Change is good. By getting rid of Luca now there is a more open playing field for sucessors. Sergio can raise people up in the next 4 years.

As to viper he revived it, viper was dead before sergio. The new car developed under his tenure car didnt sell, he is sticking with it and doing a supercharged vesrion.

Lancia was dead long before he got there. Alfa looks set for a renaisance, and the 4c is a sergio creature. Maserati I dont love the new cars but they do drive and sell well.

The Hellcat powered cars are awesome, those are sergio beasts. Its not all bad in sergio land. He is a little too cheap on development, but he is building FCA into an upsacle manufacturer and abadonign cheap crap which is what Chrysler and Fiat primarily produced. Samer move.

 

Viper sales are in the toilet. I wouldn't raise that one up on the plus side.

Alfa Romeo is a complete an utter mess, especially in the US. Not one car has been delivered, there's still no system to order cars for the future or any word when that will be possible, there's no word on when Launch Edition cars will arrive being told "the next few weeks" since July. Dealers have no clue what is going on and Alfa USA won't say. They don't even answer their email.

Bringing the Maserati down to Lexus level with left over parts and chassis but with a $25K additional price tag is foolish. Trying to get 75,000 car sales with this car is more than foolish.

Yes, Sergio.... the accountant. The bean counter. He's the one to save these classic Italian brands.

He has one major success -- Bringing Jeep to Italy. Unfortunately his Jeep with Fiat parts hasn't been so well loved here.

 

Viper didnt exist before sergio took the decision to revive it. Yes they priced it too expensive and did not develeop it enough. But he is trying and that we have a viper at all is credit to sergio. Plus we have the hellcats, those are awesome epic machines, what is bean counter about those.

He has taken existign designs that sell and developed and honed them further, he builds cars people actualy want.

The dart is a flub, but then we dont really buy a whole lot of small cars in the USA, but yeah he could have done a much betetr job of it. The trucks are doing great, and he is commign out with better minivans a market chryco still owns.

Alfa Romeo has great product comming down the pike. That its not in the USa yet, so what, he needs the right product first. Let me ask you, prior to segio haow many decades do you need to go back to see alfa sales in the usa, and even then alfa was sellign a 20-30 yo car. In europe what was alfa selling before sergio, warmed over fiats. many here love the 4c, how many other car companies do you see being so bold or building such an elemental pure machine. The french used to sell here, in bigger numbers than the Italians, I dont see them planning ona comeback, or even having any potetial product.

I love the way he has handled unions.

Maserati, I agree the designs are lexus insipid. But drive one they drive great, and they sell well, better to exist than make lovely failures,. For the Italian brands sergio is going upscale, he gets it, you cant make money selling cheap crappy cars(Fiat), and you certainly cant afford to make them in europe. Upscale cars with some deign and usp can be built in europe and sold for a premium. That is why BMW a sedan maker owns Rolls BMW and Mini each the premium car in their segemnts.


Fearri will sit on top. Maserati will be premium and Alfa premium over say Vw and compete with audi by being more sporting. In fact his product line is sporting versions of jpanese/german cars with Italian panache, thats his usp. Ruining ferrari, the current pdk only cars for fasionistas to got o the cappuchino bar and 65 yo billionaires with a who bunch of cheap branded scholk in stores is not exactly great. Yes it has been prifitable, but ferraris today are more aspirational than desireable, at least if you DRIVE.

A bean counter woudl make cars like GM used to, real gilded crap. Sergio has had his misses, but he has also produced some truly epic and awesome machines. The guy actualy dives fast cars, fast enough to crash on occasion, I think he knows cars and loves them, not too many auto execs you can say that about. But yeah he is also a buinessman so he makes cars thta sell too.

Everybody wnat to jump down this guys throat. Ferrari has capacity to produce 10k cars per year, It struggles currently to sell 7k cars, thats why they volountarily reduced production this year to maintain "exclusivity". Its client base are not really perofrmance people more like rich wanabees who liek standign in line at abusive dealers so they can have the latet car to go with their rolex daytona, it has alienated much of its prior core customer base. Building cars to serve the current fashionista crowd and offering some additional prioduct within the 10 k limit is a great plan, its expanding the badwidth to incorporate a traditional client base. Luca was a drama queen who played all types of nasty politics favorites etc and ran Ferrari like a handbag brand company. If they return to making some great cars again that is good.Plus with Luca there, who was ever going to rise up to run the place. Luca did his job, saved the company created mystique, the luca show got stale and made a market for competition, time to move forwards.

He may f it all up but for now I will give sergio the benefit of the doubt

 

I hope he doesn't F'up Fiat. It hits the NYSE Monday..