Last week I heard it rumoured that General Motors would like to consider some sort of merger or strategic partnership with France’s Renault, and Japan’s Nissan. My first thought, upon hearing that news was that it sounded like a terrible idea – something along the lines of what SwissAir did back in the late 90s. Strategic partnership my ass. They eventually folded and were replaced by CrossAir. I’m not sure how they’re faring.

My belief that such a partnership would be a terrible idea is basically derived from my belief (and the evidence) that General Motors is a terrible company. All the automakers have been seeing declining sales lately, in no small part due to the rising oil prices. But Nissan I believe makes some very attractive trucks and sport utility vehicles, not to mention the unabashed bad-assness legendary 350Z. Their line of full-size pickup trucks is widely regarded as one of the best.

So my question basically for Nissan, is why on earth they would want to jump on board the sinking ship that is General Motors. But the stories in the papers continued, and it appears that the companies are at least in agreement that they would like to discuss the concept. Was I a complete moron?

Apparently not:

Wall Street analysts Monday said they are skeptical of how the alliance would benefit GM. They are also unconvinced it would be formed… “This creates additional complexity as the new alliances would be competing against each other,” he said. “GM already has too many brands. Adding Nissan into the mix will only create more complexity.”

Goldman Sachs analyst Robert Barry said in a report that the logic of an alliance is unclear, and he’s skeptical that it could address GM’s key problems: retiree benefit costs, a reputation for poor product quality and falling U.S. market share.

It’s nice to find out that my evaluation of the proposed merger is not completely off-the-rocker. I suppose time will tell…