Bailout Would Help German Giants, Too

German giants BMW and Daimler are rooting for a bailout of the Big Three, since a bankrupt Detroit would devastate sales and cripple parts-makers they all share, Bloomberg reports. The US is the top market for BMW, No. 2 for Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz. Meanwhile, Fiat, Peugeot, and Renault—which compete with GM and Ford in Europe—worry the bailout will unfairly sway competition.

Purchased parts account for 75% of a car’s value, so a hit to component makers would resonate throughout the industry. “You can’t underestimate what would happen when a large player collapses,” BMW’s CEO says. Its stock went up today, as did Daimler’s, partially from optimistic news of the American bailout. An association of European automakers is asking for $52 billion of low-interest loans and incentives from the EU. (More automaker stories.)