de Gaulle's revenge, or a joke on the French?

[Decolliber]

9th December 2005 10:58
The latest rumour doing the rounds involves Ford, its Jaguar unit and Renault. The impetus appears to come from the Renault side, Renault having finally concluded that it needs to better address premium segments of the market (it's never going to happen with the Renault brand, check Vel Satis sales, and Nissan's Infiniti has a long way to go). The suggestion is that Renault initially asked Ford about Volvo (there are historical Renault-Volvo connections), but Ford is actually rather keen on profitable Volvo and sees long-term benefit in hanging on to that brand.

But the discussion then turned to loss-making Jaguar and there is some business sense to that one on both sides. Hard pressed Ford enjoys a financial gain in getting Jag off its books and can also better focus on Volvo and Aston Martin looking out. Renault gets a premium brand off the shelf that maybe it will feel it can make a better fist of than Ford ever has. The current buzz among journalists in the industry is loud enough to suggest that there is something in this one, whether or not it comes off.

http://www.just-auto.com/blogs.asp