If Honda and Nissan can’t survive at their size, well Subaru and Mazda are tiny by comparison.
I doubt the merger has anything to do with survival and everything to do with consolidating power and profit.
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Nothing I hope, Subaru is great and I will be furious if they fuck it up.
Doesn’t Toyota own like 40% of Subaru?
Huh.
Toyota Motors bought a little over 40% of GM’s former FHI stock, amounting to 8.7% of FHI. (The rest of GM’s shares went to a Fuji stock buy-back program.)[17]
FHI being Fuji Heavy Industry, which is now Subaru Corporation.
*Subaru Corporation:
Owners
Toyota (20.42%)
The Master Trust Bank of Japan investment trusts (14.15%)
Custody Bank of Japan investment trusts (5.28%)
State Street Bank West Client - Treaty 505234 (1.56%)
(as of September 30, 2024)[3]
Nissan made some absolutely terrible design decisions, namely the wide use of CVTs. I think this has contributed to their downfall. I imagine Subaru and Mazda will be OK.
I thought the point was to combine so that they could compete with Chinese EV’s? To better move forward with hybrid and EV vehicles as the world transitions away from ICEs? I think it’s crazy that even combined they still sell a fraction of what Toyota sells and still only puts them at #3 behind VW. I only recently learned it’s so lopsided.
Thus the question how Subaru and Mazda won’t get curbstomped when they are so much smaller.
Since it appears Toyota has an interest in Subaru and Subaru has insane brand loyalty, they should be fine. Toyota could take a more direct role through sharing technology if it would help. I don’t know much about Mazda other than they are still made in Japan and I love my CX5. I certainly hope there is room for the smaller, high quality brands. I would be concerned about any manufacturer that hasn’t made progress on hybrid and EV tech though. I hear those Chinese kids make some pretty inexpensive options.
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