Who owns who

So, you're buying an English car huh? That fancy Jaguar with its birds eye maple... so much nicer than any American car. In fact, no American company can compete with its elegance you say. Well, hold on to your bowler because, as nice as the Jaguar is, it's now a Ford.

The automotive world is a complicated place now and with consolidation hitting everyone it's no surprise that car companies are gobbling up each other faster than ever before.

Now, just because Volvo sold their car division to Ford it doesn't mean you can get a Mustang engine in a S60 sedan. Nor does it mean you can get Ford Focus with an Aston Martin engine. But it does mean these companies with bigger parents have a better chance of surviving long-term because of better financial stability. In fact there's a good chance SAAB wouldn't be making new designs if it weren't for GM and I don't think Volvo would have had the money for their latest 'R' line of cars if Ford hadn't stepped in.

But in soap opera fashion sometimes these companies sell their divisions so quickly that the new parent doesn't even have time to make their own changes. What do we mean? The latest Range Rover (from Land Rover which is owned by Ford) comes with a wonderful BMW engine under the hood. Why? Because BMW bought the Rover group some years ago and sold the Land Rover lineup to Ford. To put it plainly, you'd be buying an English SUV with a German engine from an American company.

Use our chart below to see who owns who.

BMW owns:
-BMW
-Mini
-Rolls Royce

Chrysler owns:
-AMC (brand discontinued -- Chrysler bought AMC primarily for the Jeep brand which was owned by AMC)
-Chrysler
-Dodge
-Eagle (brand discontinued)
-Jeep
-Plymouth (brand discontinued)

Daimler/Chrysler owns:
-Chrysler (small percentage)
-Maybach
-Mercedes-Benz
-Smart

Fiat owns:
-Alfa Romeo
-Ferrari
-Fiat
-Lancia
-Maserati

Ford owns:
-Aston Martin (SALE PENDING)
-Ford
-Jaguar
-Land Rover (bought from BMW)
-Lincoln
-Mazda (Ford owns 33% of Mazda)
-Mercury
-Volvo cars

Fuji Heavy Industries owns:
-Subaru

General Motors owns:
-Buick
-Cadillac
-Chevrolet
-Daewoo (GM owns 44%)
-Fiat (GM has decided to divorce itself from Fiat as of Feb '05, but will retain 10% ownership.)
-GMC
-Holden
-Hummer
-Oldsmobile (brand discontinued)
-Opel
-Pontiac
-Saab
-Saturn
-Suzuki (2.5%, from 20%)
-Vauxhall

Honda owns:
-Acura
-Honda

Hyundai owns:
-Hyundai
-Kia

Isuzu owns:
-Isuzu
(Mitsubishi Corp., Itochu Corp. and Mizuho Corporate Bank owns part of Isuzu.)

Mitsubishi Corp. owns:
-Isuzu (13.6%)
-Mitsubishi Motors Corp (13%)

Nissan owns:
-Infiniti
-Nissan
-Renault (Nissan owns 15%)

PSA Peugeot Citroen owns:
-Citroen
-Peugeot

Porsche owns:
-Porsche
-VW (~31%)

Renault owns:
-Nissan (Renault owns 44%)

Toyota owns:
-Daihatsu (~51%)
-Fuji Heavy Industries -- Subaru (Toyota owns ~20%. Toyota bought this from GM in late 2005. )
-Isuzu (5.9%, announced 7 Nov. 2006)
-Lexus
-Scion
-Toyota

Volkswagen owns:
-Audi
-Bentley
-Bugatti
-Lamborghini
-SEAT
-Skoda
-Volkswagen

The automotive world is constantly changing so this article is will updated as needed.

Last update: 29 Nov 2007
Latest changes were: Chrysler & Daimler split up. Man, we were late on updating that!

Comments

[Dude]

Wow grammar war much? Setting it straight, for those who defend Toyota theres 2 in my driveway that cost thousands a year in "regular" matenence. I've seen GM's die yes but the only reason they were no longer driveable is body problems. Go to a car lot, and find the ratio of used cars per brand, it's hard to find a GM. Mostly Fords and Dodges. I've seen many cars run past 300 000km no problem of many brand, I've also seen many of all brands die before thier time. If you don't take care of your car it could be a Dodge Neon, Toyota Prius, or a Porsche Boxster, it'll die.

About the whole robots make better cars, the Nissan GT-R is highlighted for a hand built engine, and typicaly human made products are high quality, and high priced products. Not only that but imagine losing your families income to a robot? Another reason the American car companies should stay.

Finaly you can't base everything on a used car because you never know what it's been through, or if you got a POS from a dealer who conned you. Buy at your own risk but don't cry when a robot takes your job because you bought a Toyota.

P.S. Mock my grammar and spelling, I'm purposly not corecting it for that, have fun!:)

[Store]

yes GM is selling Hummer, very sad but true

[car engine assembly]

Well, I think it will no longer matter if its American or English owned. I believe what's more important at this point is that whoever currently owns it is able to maintain the quality of the cars and is able to produce more great cars that would answer the consumers' needs.

[FUCK TOYOTA]

fuck you bitches American cars are way better because they are more fuel efficient and they are better looking, and they are safer than Japaneses cars

American cars are the Fouce
Japanese cars are the Civic

which one is safer

[john smith]

To the first guy: hugging is spelled with two "g's" redneck-go back to school! Also, TOYOTA IS THE BEST, HANDS DOWN!

[japan makes better cars]

every thing that first guy said is true and the rest of you guys are nut huging flag wereing fagits american cars are peices of shits ill never buy a peice of shit amercain car cause they suck balls thank you

[Paul]

The news is out 3/July/09: GM have now sold Hummer [none military models] to China

[Max]

I have owned many cars, a Chevy - Camaro, a Nissan - 300Z, a Jeep - Grand Cherokee, a Ford - F150, an Acura - RSX TypeS and a Nissan - Murano. I have been lucky and they were all great cars and trucks. My family has owned cars from almost every brand. My dad is big into Mercedes. His last two or three have had serious electrical issues.

Our company has owned more than 50 Ford trucks over 30 years and we put two to three hundred thousand miles on them all. For the most they were great trucks but in the mid 90's Ford had a large problem with their truck transmissions. We were blowing one to two transmissions a month. It got so bad that the dealership had to keep an extra one for us at all times so our trucks wouldn't be down. I think if you look over the last 100 years of making cars all brands will have had bad years where they turned out poor products.

The one thing I didn't understand is Roberts comment on robots. The most skilled laborer in the world can't make a weld the same size length and quality a 100% of the time. A robot can. My guess is if you checked your facts that a robot’s quality is far superior to a human. It sucks that a dumb machine can do things faster and better then we can but it is true. That is one of the problems with cars made in the United States. The UAW union says that only a certain number of robots are allowed in a plant. I think it is based on the number of human workers. So, mundane jobs that robots are better at go to people who can make mistakes. In Japan however there are no restrictions and you will get higher quality out of the boring jobs and save the truly skilled workers for the important jobs.

Unfortunately it is those skilled laborers who are one of the largest problems. The big three should stop paying $85,000 a year plus pension to a person tightening lug nuts. I heard and don't know if it is true but $2000 of every car's purchase price goes to retired auto workers.

Robots are the future and they are here to stay. They will take over a lot of the smaller jobs in all lines of work and I believe do them better.

[Dan]

Toyota has nothing to do with GM.

[Robert]

Every auto manufacturer has problems with their cars and trucks not just FMC, GM or Chrysler. Just by reading blogs and comments online from numerous amounts of people I see everyone has problems with their autos EVEN the foreign ones. I see one of the biggest problems is they try to push out as many vehicles as they can in a short amount of time and this causes a lack of quality. To many robots and not enough skilled labor really hurts this industry.

[shmo]

did you include mustang or am i being dumb

[gz7g6b]

Good reference. When are you going to update again. E.g. VW and Porsche?

[Mactavish]

I love the term reverse engineering, Chrysler, Gm, Ford, are these guys stupid, or do they really give a darn. These companies are in trouble for precisely this reason. Why would thier CEO's not automatically be asking thier R and D departments to be doing this to streamling thier own manufacturing and qaulity control methods?

[GremlinGriffin]

Please update your information,
Ford no longer own Jaguar & Land Rover,
The Indians are coming, Tata!

[uj]

cunts

[JOES MARIN]

who owns honda because i have a good idea for the new lawnmower

[Simon]

i believe that Porsche now own 50% of VW?

[jeff]

This page is really out of date you need to update it. Oh and this page is about cars not grammer idiots!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[frank]

I am 44 years old and I currently drive a 1967 GMC pick-up. I have always driven cars and trucks from the 1940's to the 60's. I am a self employed carpenter and I thought that I would buy a more reliable truck to use as a work vehicle. It was a 1997 Chevrolet pick up truck.

As I was driving the spare tire promptly fell out from the under carriage. Just before the gas gauge stopped working the alternator went out. Just when i thought thing were going fine the transmission gave up the ghost. Throughout owning this truck the air conditioning went on and off on it's own.

I have owned Studebakers, Fords, and Chevys. That said, I have never been stranded on the side of the road more often than the three years I owned that truck.

Good luck sorting out your problems GM. You wont find me lining up to buy one of your cars. I will quietly wrench on my old truck and keep it running just fine on my own.

Is my grammar OK? By the way Nick, "american" should be capitalized and "sentance" is spelled sentence. Good luck out there throwing stones in you glass house.

[greg]

sheesh, I own a 2001 ford mercury sable, and its a great car...ten times better than all the cars I have owned in 30+ years.

Its also the only car that has had zero issues other than normal maintnance and is in fact still usuing even now, nearly all original stuff on a lot of the car.

Unlike my 2005 vibe, which has already had major fixes & bodywork and major issues.

Personally I am figuring my next car is honda or toyota.. they are nowadays better made.

[josh]

VW for Life

[xt]

Yes fords are poor cars. Im surprised that VW owns Lamborghini, Bentley, Bugatti etc. Japanese cars have fantastic technology and Italian cars have passion jsut like the people cook great food lol. Yeah oh and Holdens are not great either. Im an Australian and im saying this....so that is something to consider.

[Steve]

For all of you who are saying how bad ford is. Have you ever driven a GM product?????
In my years grownign up we have almost always had Ford products. ALL of which we have kept for more than 100k mile with no major repairs. Ford Tempo - 230k miles (no major problems), 1993 Ford Taurus - 190k miles (some issues but due in part to machanic mistakes) 1990 Ford escort - 130k mile no major issues. Now onto my pontiacs - 99' Firebird-56,000 miles, engine blew due to a part starting to fail (no fault of my own), 91' grand am fell apart at 82k miles. I am a person who always takes care of my cars, I always get my oil changed early. I now am on my second Mazda, and they are some of the best cars on the road. Go test drive one if you dont belive me, the CX-7 has beten every other SUV in almost every magazine and review. I love Ford and the companies they own!

[poopie]

I shit on fords cus they sucky sucky real good

[George Bush]

dude shut the fuck up about grammar, the post did its job so you shouldnt give a fuck about stupid grammar mistakes