Stellantis: The next British Leyland(?)

Stellantis has been in a bit of a bind. Falling sales, poor quality and lazy rebadging. Sounds a lot like the old lumbering inefficient giant that was British Leyland.

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[paulwatson]

Leyland vehicles was a world respected truck and bus manufacturer run by Lord Stokes. In the late sixties it was in the process of taking over the struggling Mercedes Trucks, when the labour government instructed Leyland take over British Motor Corporation, to be headed by Lord Stokes. The rest is the history you have accurately described, but the worst possible outcome of this is that Leyland Trucks got dragged down with it all, when potentially with Mercedes they would have been on a par with Scania and Volvo.
That’s the real tragedy behind it all, and typifies the decline of British Manufacturing.
Bad politics and trade unions along with poor management presided over this.

[SpeedKingV]

The title is extremely accurate, Stellantis is what British Leyland was in the 70s, lots of brands under one roof that are badly made, plus unhappy workers.

[matthewgodwin]

The description of Tesla owners absolutely nailed it.

[andybrowne]

How very true, I remember thinking this early in January, having watched the four part rise and collapse of BMC/BL/Austin Rover that was utter chaos . A most excellent article, nice car !

[MATTY]

PSA brought Opel/Vauxhall from GM and returned it profitably and it seems like someone had the idea to use this template and do it on a larger scale.

[Box-lfhv]

Apparently, Stellantis has recently cut the investment at Maserati. Not surprising.

[sambarker]

If I remember right Leyland were in a reasonably strong position in the late 1960s (not the biggest company, but they were pretty cash rich, and were gearing up quite well for the 1970s), whereas BMC were not in the best financial state (similar-ish positions to PSA and FCA pre-merger)

[fischX]

Mergers in the car industry usually never go well - they expect synergies but what actually happening is you turn multiple poor performing manufacturers into one poorly performing manufacturer with a heavy debt.

[jackking]

2008 owner, luckily on a lease, driving (un)happily using the 1.2 engine. 24k miles and the coolant has turned ink black. Dealership denies something's up. Electronics 'crash' almost hourly giving the black screen of death. Dealership claimed there was no problem driving like that until I pointed out the lack of ability to demist windows, never mind losing other safety features. Their fix? A dealership salesman walked me outside and showed me how to reset the system by disconnecting the battery for a minute and then reconnecting it. Very handy if it fails at night on an unlit motorway..
Stellantis is soon to fail. They're not listening. Unfortunately, it'll take so many well known brands with it.

[DaveP]

A friend has just had to get rid of 2 year old Corsa which would go into limp and cut out at any part of a journey. Dealers were hopeless. His son has now just bought an Astra. Same friend used to work for Vauxhall, but when I said what they are now buying are rebadged Peugeots/Citroen he refused to accept it as he would 'never buy a French car'.

[thatcheapguy]

the parallels are uncanny. but this is the car industry. car manufacturers are like empires, they start with some smart brave people and eventually get so big and cumbersome they fail.
really like this presentation, first video I've watched on this channel and have subscribed off the back of it!

[thomasdieckmann]

Interesting, I did not see that link before, but I fully follow your logic. As kind of "loyal Opel customer" I wonder for quite some time how Stellantis is positioning their brands and really do hardly see any long term logic. Your vision of the future sounds realistic, let's see.

[rofe]

I also have a bleak outlook for Stellantis in its current configuration.
But as you mentioned, this could – hopefully – lead to Citroën becoming independent again (probably just wishful thinking...) to revive Citroën's DNA.
By the way, I think the "new" Citroën logo, or rather the "reinterpretation" by the Stellantis Design Studio, is a complete flop.
The now unfortunately outdated logo design that we still have on our C5s is much cooler.
Great video, very well done, thanks & greetings from Switzerland, Rolf.

[grantandersen]

American here. I suspect Stellantis will be broken up into 3 companies
1. Chrysler Group(Chrysler, Dodge Jeep, Ram)+Alfa Romeo(which will probably be converted into Plymouth)
2. Fiat Group (Fiat, Maserati, Lancia, Abarth)
3. Basically the old PSA Group(Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Opel, Vauxhall)

[paulnutter]

i thought stellantis was joint pain you got after 12 pints of a certain beverage, never knew it was a brand

[MasinacCcC]

Nice video...hope they split and we get new C5...that I will buy in 15 years :D

[enricotor]

I miss the old Citroën so much!! That Citroën that made technological, confortable, and different looking cars. Stellantis ruined both Peugeot and Citroën.

[deepestdub]

Thanks for this. I have seen from the start that these 3 models are effectively the same car, aiming for the same customers.. It's not going to end well for Stellantis

[martinneumann]

As you know: I own a Citroën C1 which is in fact a Toyota Aygo. This means for me: I have the best of two worlds. Reliable mechanics and electronics combined with a beautiful french dress. Super! But this happened before Stellantis was founded and the Peugeot/Citroën city bug segment was killed. Take care and see you next time »»» Martin
🚗💥💨🇫🇷🇯🇵♥️

[mrbhood]

I own a citreon e c4 it's fantastic. Best car I've owned, and i have had them all from vw, Honda to Jaguar.
None are as comfortable smooth or, best of all, cheap to run and buy.