Possible Renault & FCA merger: Cancelled.

[CodeRedR51]

Everything I've read says that Sergio Marchionne and Carlos Ghosn were the driving force behind the merger talks, without the both of them commanding the proceedings I can't see how this had any chance of going through.

Ghosn has been away for a while now. Highly doubt he had anything to do with it.

 

[EngieDiesel]

Ghosn has been away for a while now. Highly doubt he had anything to do with it.

According to the original article you linked:

In March, reports surfaced indicating that Renault was planning to launch a bid for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in a move which had been previously discussed under the past guidance of former Renault-Nissan Alliance chairman Carlos Ghosn.

Given that these talks have apparently been going on for quite a while now, Ghosn was most definitely involved in it in the past and probably helped lay the groundwork. Had he not been booted from everything last November this merger proposal might have even come a few months sooner.

But Ghosn doesn't control Nissan anymore, and given that Renault has a 43% stake in Nissan it's not surprising that they don't want a direct competitor rolling up Renault's operations. So not very surprising that it fell flat.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Many of the Fiat Chrysler dealers around where I live (NorCal, which should be prime Fiat territory) have ceased selling Fiats in the last year. I was actively pursuing buying a 500 Abarth, and there were a grand total of 5 available in the entire Bay Area, non of which were manual transmissions. In addition to that, Fiat's OWN US website still shows 2018 year model for all of their cars. They must surely be departing eminently.

The 124 is a Miata, sure, but (barring the Abarth) just worse in ways it really shouldn't be. They should have given that thing a big fat 2.4L N/A lump and made it an unapologetic cruiser. The 1.4T, especially when paired to the automatic, is awful.

I wasn't wrong.

https://jalopnik.com/dead-fiat-500-officially-1837841556

With the 500 and 124 exiting, I don't see how Fiat can possibly still exist in the US. The brand must be exiting as well.