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

[Go Oilers Go]

Lets start by saying im a university student that owns a 96 grand am v6 with 255km on it with an engine light that never goes off.

I also live in edmonton alberta where last week the temp was -42c without windchill.

my roommates own a prelude, infinity g35 and a saab (all older models).

to make a long story short I was the only one who got to work that morning and i never even plugged her in.

[Eddie Jaguar]

No matter the parent company - its about people that actually make this car. So despite the fact that the Ford company purchased the Jag, it will still continu its quality traditions.

[Jmomo]

Continued from below: A young girl that works for me drives cars her dad gives her because her dad is a mechanic and he works only on foreign cars. She drives these hondas and acuras to work for a little while with 180k on them and they aren't around long and they break. HEAD GASKET PROBLEMS CONSTANTLY. You can't compare apples to oranges as far as work goes. My family's vehicle service record shuts anyone up that thinks they know cars. I'll admit GM screwed alot of people with stuff that was inferior in the 80's and 90's, and they have also helped more than they hurt. Saturns have been built in tenessee, pontiacs are built in michigan, my dads new trailblazer was built here in Ohio, all the vans are built here(including the fords). The only GM product i have that isn't built in america is my camaro that was built in canada. All i can say from an experienced mechanic that has been working on cars since i was young, you will ALWAYS, and i repeat ALWAYS get a better, more dependable life cycle out of a decent american car. There is no comparison in the mechanical aspect from the 1950-1970 or the 1996-present American cars(aside from the vettes camaros and mustangs which are always better cars than a cavalier). 70's and 80's american cars were not very good but still our 1974, 1976, 1979 gmc vans where excellent 450k mile vehicles. as well as a 1983 chevy that was retired with 395k. Toyota doesn't have a comparable vehicle to any of our working class vehicles like a silverado or f series pickup, or our GM vans or ford econolines. Toyota has a pickup truck that is a half ton, which is worthless, that is nothing more than a corolla with a truck body. As americans we should be proud of what we have done in this industry. We invented cars, found ways to build them cheap, and ultimately, we constantly perfect the best vehicles on the earth. With regular maintanence a good GM will outlast anything on the road including chrysler and ford.

[Jmomo]

My comment continued: A young girl that works for me drives cars her dad gives her because her dad is a mechanic and he works only on foreign cars. She drives these hondas and acuras to work for a little while with 180k on them and they aren't around long and they break. HEAD GASKET PROBLEMS CONSTANTLY. You can't compare apples to oranges as far as work goes. My family's vehicle service record shuts anyone up that thinks they know cars. I'll admit GM screwed alot of people with stuff that was inferior in the 80's and 90's, and they have also helped more than they hurt. Saturns have been built in tenessee, pontiacs are built in michigan, my dads new trailblazer was built here in Ohio, all the vans are built here(including the fords). The only GM product i have that isn't built in america is my camaro that was built in canada. All i can say from an experienced mechanic that has been working on cars since i was young, you will ALWAYS, and i repeat ALWAYS get a better, more dependable life cycle out of a decent american car. There is no comparison in the mechanical aspect from the 1950-1970 or the 1996-present American cars(aside from the vettes camaros and mustangs which are always better cars than a cavalier). 70's and 80's american cars were not very good but still our 1974, 1976, 1979 gmc vans where excellent 450k mile vehicles. as well as a 1983 chevy that was retired with 395k. Toyota doesn't have a comparable vehicle to any of our working class vehicles like a silverado or f series pickup, or our GM vans or ford econolines. Toyota has a pickup truck that is a half ton, which is worthless, that is nothing more than a corolla with a truck body. As americans we should be proud of what we have done in this industry. We invented cars, found ways to build them cheap, and ultimately, we constantly perfect the best vehicles on the earth. With regular maintanence a good GM will outlast anything on the road including chrysler and ford.

[Jmomo]

My family owns a business that requires us to use vans as our most viable source of transporting our goods. we have been in business since 1959. All of the vans run at least 5 hours a day without being shutoff at any stop(so the starters last hundreds of thousands of miles). I am the mechanic and i had to put a set of head gaskets in a chevy van that was a 1 ton 4.3 vortec with 320k miles on it because the thermostat stuck(which can happen to any car) and my driver didn't catch it until the needle was burried and the van was shooting out antifreeze. We also have in our fleet a 1997 chevy van 2500 with 290k, a 1989 chevy g10 that has 410k, and two years ago we retired a 1985 chevy g10 with 517k miles on it(still runs, it is too ugly now to use for the company) we also have two ford vans, a 1997 and 1999 econoline 2500. one has 260k the other has 310k. the fords have had to have front end work and new steering boxes about every 130k. This problem has been corrected in the newer vans. I just put ball joints in the 1989 chevy with 410k a couple weeks ago and THEY WERE THE FACTORY BALL JOINTS. The GM vehicles are the best for daily abuse and they take it 365 days a year rain, snow, or shine(company based in ohio). I was fortunate enough to be given a corvette by my father when i turned 16 and for the past 10 years i have driven it about 15 times a year and it is as reliable as a new one(it has about 50k miles on it). i also have an 1968 oldsmobile 98 with 40k original miles on it. it was my grandfathers and it runs flawlessly, again, as dependable as a 2010. I bought a 1995 camaro in 2002 with 38k miles on it and what a fun car. It has a corvette lt1 and it is fun to drive. It now as of november 2009 has almost 70k miles on it and i haven't driven it but 20 times a year for the past couple years because i have decided i'm giving it to my kids so i want to keep the miles down. It does have a little motor work and a Carl Rossler 4l60-e tranny(Runs 11.4 in the quarter with 4.10's in a stock GM 10bolt posi with tons of racing miles on it) but it has been an awesome car(never seen rain or snow). My younger sister drives a 2004(i think) grand am with 80k miles and it has been flawless. My girlfriend at the time, now my wife, had a nice 2002 nissan pathfinder that she drove for a while until the wheel broke off sideways from a wore out tie rod end at 130k miles. What a piece of junk it was. It rode nice but honda, toyota, nissan, those brands aren't built as tough as our stuff.