Does Belinda Curse Magna?

First it was revealed that Magna Corp was not the winning bidder in the Chrysler deal (contrary to many reports). The latest slight against the Stronachs (and that Russian billionaire who bought into the company) is the loss of the X3.

Specifically, Magna Steyr (who, you may remember, is building the KTM X-Bow) has lost the production contract for the BMW X3 SAV (which is Bayerische-speak for SUV).

Now here's my take on all this. Now that Magna has allll this extra production space (though, does anybody buy X3's? You see 5 X5's for every 1 X3 ... but I digress), and since KTM has given them the XBow contract, I predict increased XBow production!

I read somewhere that there was a limited number of XBows that could be assembled yearly, due to the production capabilities of Magna Steyr's Austrian facility. Now that we have more space, we can have more XBows! The only downer (for KTM fans, not for Magna) is that the BMW contract extends until 2010 ... so if my predictions prove correct (which they rarely do), you can buy an XBow instead of Olympic tickets ($60,000 = 1 men's hockey ticket).

Belinda to Spearhead Chrysler?

Everybody who's anybody in the world of cars knows that the DCX board wants to get rid of its Chrysler division (specifically because it "cheapens" the image of the other brands), and that a number of potential suitors have been named.

Now, there's really no need for those of us who don't own Daimler-Chrysler stocks to really care about any of this, but as a Canadian, and one who tends to follow federal politics, I'm liking the Belinda spin on this story.

Ms. Stronach decided to leave federal politics, in order to return to the company founded by her father, Frank Stronach. She will act as executive-vice chairperson, and I'm sure she has the potential to move up the ladder (there's no glass ceiling when your father's the company founder). You can read all about that story here.

Magna is, according to News WLNS, the current leader in the race to own Chrysler, and is apparently also the take-over bidder most supported by the various unions of Chrysler. This could be one of the leading reasons Ms. Stronach decided to leave politics, and go back to the autoparts giant. Why deal with sexism and being called a dog, when you can own Dodge?

In other Magna news, the previously mentioned X-Bow is being assembled by Magna-Steyr, the Austrian subsidiary of Magna (which also assembles Chrysler products).