Quote:
|
Originally Posted by SobeSVT
Good catch! That is beacause that how SEAT started. It was the Spaniard version of FIAT. Until VW took over SEAT, the SEAT cars were just rebaged FIATs.
|
Yup, that's how they got their start back in the day. Fiat basically started Seat to be the "Spanish Fiat" with the blessing of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. They basically built rebadged Fiats for the longest time. In fact, iconic Fiat cars like the 600 ended up as the Seat 600. When Fiat ended their partnership in the late 1970s/early 1980s, VW stepped in and bought a piece of the company. They took 100% of the company sometime in the early 90s and are now controlled from Wolfsburg.
VW decided a few years back to 'separate' their brands into two groups: The "classic/conservative" group was lead by VW and included Bentely, Skoda and Bugatti and The Audi "Sport Group" in VW's empire was to be made up of Audi, Lamborghini, and Seat. So you'd have the "Sport group" anchored by the very German Audi while supporting two Latin brands like Seat and Lambo who could pig-back on their technology. Good idea, I suppose. The basic plan for Seat was to create a "cheaper Alfa Romeo" to be sold throughout Europe, playing on their Spanish heritage (their tagline is "Auto Emoccion", just as Alfa Romeo's was "Cuore Sportivo"). VW group designer (and former Alfa/Fiat Designer) Walter da'Silva is responsible for the current look of the cars and they're passingly Alfa-ish.
I don't know if this has truly happend in recent years though. I think that the Seats are all very attractive cars and much more stylish than Skodas. But if this article is true and VW is lookin' to dump them, who knows where they'll end up? I don't think Fiat has it in them to just take them over. They're still trying to shuffle Fiat Brand, Iveco, Alfa, Lancia and revive the company. To take on Seat (even if this is possible) would be a long shot. No matter what happens, I hope that they don't get sucked into some sort of Chinese conglomerate that will just suck them dry for their technology and throw back the rest.
Just my opinion of course.