I read that this morning.
The last time I saw a Recaro seat still in the box was at the Boeing plant in Charleston. They apparently make pilots seats as well as car seats.
Two thirds of the companies behind the most exclusive Miata currently offered–that being the MX-5 Club with the Brembo BBS Recaro package–just filed for bankruptcy.
As reported by Autocar and confirmed on its corporate website, Recaro Automotive GmbH filed for "insolvency" (aka bankruptcy) on July 30 and “approved for self-administration by the Esslingen District Court.”
In addition to the special edition Miata, Recaro seats have been found as factory equipment in many other cars, with the relationship famously going back decades with Porsche.
And according to an item on the Motor1.com site, longtime premier wheel manufacturer BBS, the German-based company of the brand, also just filed for insolvency proceedings. More to come as this is a developing story.
I read that this morning.
The last time I saw a Recaro seat still in the box was at the Boeing plant in Charleston. They apparently make pilots seats as well as car seats.
In reply to Toyman! :
Actually, not only the pilot seats, most of the passenger seats are made by them as well.
Recaro automotive which was purchased by private equity is the one going bankrupt.
Who ever could have seen making a company borrow a ton of money to purchase itself then leasing all the stuff they got out of the deal back to them at bad terms would ever turn out poorly.
I'm not sure I'd call the Brembo/BBS/Recaro package "exclusive" on the current Miata. "Expensive", maybe. But it's not limited by anything other than the buyer's wallet so not exclusive.
Recaro is a strong 80's brand to me. So now I'm looking at what it takes to put a set in the CRX :) Or maybe it already has some...
NickD said:berkeleying private equity. Have the ever done anything beneficial for a company?
Yes.
The large automotive parts manufacturing company where I worked for 25 years went from being a small/medium family owned manufacturer,supplying the big 3 and losing money to a large worldwide manufacturer supplying parts to almost everybody and making large money in the process. It was a great place to work (under the private equity company(s)), until it was purchased by a private manufacturer.
You probably only ever hear the bad stories associated with PE firms, and not the good ones.
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