| There's an old, old saying that goes, "Don't believe the stories about Chrysler and Fiat setting up headquarters in Tennessee." Okay, fine. You got us. That's not an old saying—but it is true. You know what's not true? The claim that Sergio Marchionne is thinking about setting up Chrysler and Fiat joint headquarters in Tennessee instead of Michigan or Italy. After hearing rumors propagated last week by Detroit-area and auto-industry news outlets, we were skeptical. Marchionne was said to have made the remarks after a small press conference in Pulaski, Tennessee, about a new factory for Fiat-owned parts company Magneti Marelli. Having now obtained an audio recording of the Q&A, we can say our skepticism was justified. Quotes were taken out of context. The story is bogus. Encircled, along with Tennessee governor Bill Haslam, in a casual scrum of reporters, this was the exchange: Reporter: There's a lot of change in your company. I mean, the Fiat-Chrysler merger. Where's the headquarters going to be, and that kind of stuff? Marchionne: Where would you like it to be? Haslam: [Laughing] I've a vote on that! I'll vote right here. All: [Laughing] Marchionne: [Back to business tone] I don't have an answer. As you all know, I've said it before—we're working on this issue, when I have something to announce, I'll let you know. Things are progressing. This is not a conversation that reflects serious contemplation of setting up Chrysler and Fiat headquarters in Tennessee. Instead, Marchionne sidesteps the question by turning the question back on the reporter, a common and polite-enough evasion.
But what about the reports that Marchionne said local officials were "working me over pretty well." Sounds like they were really lobbying him to set up the new HQ in the Volunteer State! Nope. He was talking about the governor and other officials pushing for Chrysler to set up more production in the state. Here's the actual exchange from which that quote came. (Quote in bold; who wants to sift through that giant block of text?) Reporter: How hard are these guys working you to move more Fiat/Chrysler-type production into the South—Tennessee specifically? Marchionne: To be clear, what we moved here is parts of the components business within Chrysler . . . Part of the headlamps that are gonna go into the car that will go into production tomorrow in Toledo will come from here. And from there, I think we see a huge opportunity—they've been working me over pretty well [governor laughs], as you would expect them to do—but to be fair, I think the state of Tennessee and the governor in particular and his staff have done a tremendous job of creating the conditions for Marelli to come here. So I'm delighted with the effort that's been made so far. We'll have 850 people working here within a period of 36 months. [He goes on to talk about more opportunities to expand Magneti Marelli parts-manufacturing operations in Pulaski.] When there is an announcement about the headquarters for a merged Fiat and Chrysler—which is more of a title, anyway, since Fiat will still run Europe from Europe—it'll come with fanfare and announcements on the morning news.  from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com | |||
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