The Fiat Grande Punto platform was developed in conjunction with GM's Vauxhall/Opel Corsa. Other models to use GM derived underpinnings include the Fiat Croma, Alfa 159 and Alfa Brera.

Fiat could form a new alliance with General Motors in the European and South American markets that would be in addition to its proposed relationship with Chrysler according to media reports that cite well placed sources.

The news came from Automotive News yesterday and if any alliance went ahead it would come almost exactly four years after a previous relationship between the two ended acrimoniously when GM was forced to pay Fiat US$2 billion to extract itself from a 'put' option that could have made it buy out the remaining 80 percent of the Italian carmaker.

That relationship had in fact kicked off in 2000 when GM had purchased a 20 percent stake in Fiat for US$2.4 billion. During the five year marriage the two carmakers combined purchasing and developed several new platforms together that still underpin several current Fiat Group Automobiles models including the Fiat Grande Punto, Fiat Croma, Alfa 159 and Alfa Brera, as well as a diesel engine joint venture project that still exists.

According to the ANE source the talks with GM are at an early stage. He said the discussions are not an alternative to Fiat's ongoing negotiations with Chrysler. ANE stated that if combined, Fiat, Chrysler, Opel/Vauxhall and GM Latin America sold 7.05 million vehicles in 2008. That would have made it number two in unit sales after Toyota Motor Corporation. The deal would not include Saab's and Chevrolet's European operations the source added. GM is presently in a similar position to Chrysler in that America's biggest carmaker is now also being propped up by U.S. Treasury Department emergency loans. However Fiat Group President Luca di Montezemolo was quite dismissive of the media reports that are linking Fiat to GM. "They've written about it in the newspapers? No, no," he commented to reporters yesterday.

GM CEO Fritz Henderson said yesterday that GM plans to split its European operations (Opel/Vauxhall) into a separate business unit which will be spun off. "More than six people have expressed interest, serious people," he told reporters. "Many of them are financial players, some of them are industrial players. I would expect that work would get done in the next two to three weeks, so that process has kicked off."