The slow death of Vauxhall?

[sierraman]

A lot of the youths seem to be getting these 'premium' brand motors at £3-400 a month to attract women. Error. Having your own gaff will get you some women. Not an Audi diesel.

[lesapandre]

Except in London where are gaff will set you back 1500+ a month. Also a lot of boys still live with their mum.

[lesapandre]

Very good 403 summery from our American friends at Curbsideclassic.

 

http://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/curbside-classics-peugeot-403-sedan-and-cabriolet-the-beginning-of-the-pininfarina-era/

[Datsuncog]

There's nothing wrong with the current Vauxhall line up,in the current scheme of things it does well enough. What does affect things though is the current skewed market and the very dubious manner in which the "premium" brands are offering certain rediculously finance and lease deals on their products to which if you do the figure work don't really add up... unless their rigging the market to suit themselves which I believe is the case.

If you look around any newish build housing estate you will find parked outside new Audis Beemers Mercedes.. etc etc... and are all in most cases rented or leased. The economies of scale of this sea change have given the premium brands the power to do this..and also the power to muscle in on previous territories which were the preserve of the main players.

A class or Astra?... Joe boring UK punter would now go for an A class or 1series for his 200odd quid a month.

 

This.

 

An exhaustive* in-depth* survey conducted on my daily trot to and from work over the past few days indicates that during the city centre morning rush, Audi, BMW and Mercedes cars account for nearly half of all passenger cars in central Belfast. Mostly 1-Series, A4s and C-Class models. Mostly new or nearly new - although a substantial number are on GB 67 or 18 registrations, suggesting fleet/hire car rather than personally purchased or leased from a local dealer.

 

Now that's only looking at a small urban subset and is not representative of overall car registrations here, but it's interesting nonetheless. It's no surprise that those doing business in the city centre (and have access to a parking space) are overwhelmingly professionals who may feel they need to project a veneer of success, so it's perhaps no surprise that I see premium German marques and virtually no Vauxhalls at all in the lines of traffic along East Bridge Street.

 

Yet Vauxhall is the third-biggest marque for new car sales in NI, behind Ford and Volkwagen. So clearly someone's buying them - although sales seem to predominantly involve the Corsa and Astra. And neither of those models say 'premium' to me - even the top-of-the-tree VXR examples just look like boggo models that have had an unwise makeover courtesy of Halfords' Ripspeed aisle. Maybe new sales are still healthy with the 17 year olds sprogs of wealthy parents, but they still seem like a car you'd escape from, not aspire to.

 

I've never considered buying a Vauxhall (other than an older model) as a modern drive, for reasons that I can't even put into words - they're just one of those street-furniture cars that other people own.

[SiC]

Corsas and the like are popular for new/young drivers as they usually include free insurance in the deal. By the time you've factored an old car and cost of insurance for that new/young driver, its cheaper to get a brand new car.

 

What the automotive industry should be worried about is the number of young people not even bothering with learning to drive and getting a licence. I don't blame them, very expensive and becoming less of a necessity these days.

[lesapandre]

Car ownership and driving licences declining in London.  Lots of deliveries by bike. Zipcar etc. also very prevalent.

[jonny69]

The latest Vauxhall adverts on Absolute Radio are bordering on desperate, offering anything they can to get people to sign up to their finance. Something ridiculous like £149 down, £149 a month including everything, 5 year warranty and breakdown cover. Then playing the British engineering card along with everything else and a whole host of confused unrelated reasons why you should buy a Vauxhall. It just comes across like begging you to PLEASE BUY SOMETHING, ANYTHING. I think once you stoop to that level of tactic you've lost all respect for your brand and then nobody attaches any value to it whatsoever. It doesn't surprise me that they're in trouble.

[Kiltox]

Car ownership and driving licences declining in London. Lots of deliveries by bike. Zipcar etc. also very prevalent.

Probably because your £1500 a month rent doesn’t get you a parking space necessarily!

[Kiltox]

The latest Vauxhall adverts on Absolute Radio are bordering on desperate, offering anything they can to get people to sign up to their finance. Something ridiculous like £149 down, £149 a month including everything, 5 year warranty and breakdown cover. Then playing the British engineering card along with everything else and a whole host of confused unrelated reasons why you should buy a Vauxhall. It just comes across like begging you to PLEASE BUY SOMETHING, ANYTHING. I think once you stoop to that level of tactic you've lost all respect for your brand and then nobody attaches any value to it whatsoever. It doesn't surprise me that they're in trouble.

Sounds cheap unless it’s got heavy mileage restrictions on it

[andy18s]

I've only just twigged thats it's the whole European dealer network that's under the knife

Whilst the vast majority will keep their business I'm sure there will be a lot of sense twitching on the meantime

The local Opel dealership has just opened a brand new building....I'm sure that wasn't cheap

[Junkman]

Although I'm unsure whether I will be able to shed a tear when Vauxhall is no more, I just went onto their website and configured an Insignia.

It was extremely difficult to push it over 24 grand and at that price it contains everything, including a heated steering wheel, double glazing

and my personal Thai masseuse sewn into the seat.

 

I find this extremely good value and consider anyone an idiot who brings his hard earned to - say - Audi.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

.....The DS was really for posh people. ....

They must all have come down to the 1955 Paris Motor Show when the DS was launched. 12000 orders in one day!?

[lesapandre]

Simple answer yes

[lesapandre]

The DS is considered quite bourgeois even today in France...think Rover P4. Sold to bank managers and business owners etc. Of course there were few new cars about then.

[wuvvum]

Sounds cheap unless it’s got heavy mileage restrictions on it

20,000 over four years, with extra mileage charged at 9p a mile.

 

(I've heard that fucking advert so many times I can practically recite it by heart.)

[wuvvum]

Although I'm unsure whether I will be able to shed a tear when Vauxhall is no more, I just went onto their website and configured an Insignia.

It was extremely difficult to push it over 24 grand and at that price it contains everything, including a heated steering wheel, double glazing

and my personal Thai masseuse sewn into the seat.

 

I find this extremely good value and consider anyone an idiot who brings his hard earned to - say - Audi.

The thing is that on a lease deal (nobody actually buys a car these days), the payments will be remarkably similar, as the Vauxhall is £24K new and will be worth £10K in three years, whereas the Audi may be £34K now but will still be worth £20K at three years old, so the actual depreciation (which is the biggest cost to the lease company) is pretty much the same.

[Bradders59]

Probably true, despite the fact that Audis are shit cars. Its all about marketing / image / buyers perception.

[sam simmons]

Although I'm unsure whether I will be able to shed a tear when Vauxhall is no more, I just went onto their website and configured an Insignia.

It was extremely difficult to push it over 24 grand and at that price it contains everything, including a heated steering wheel, double glazing

and my personal Thai masseuse sewn into the seat.

 

I find this extremely good value and consider anyone an idiot who brings his hard earned to - say - Audi.

I just configured the gransport sri nav 1.5 turbo 165 at £24k and tried carwow who has the price at £20k at my local Go Vauxhall.....

[Junkman]

Why people aren't queuing up at those Vuckall dealerships is beyond me.

I never understood people.

Because they are fucking stupid.

That's why.

 

Orl Verxilz iz shit m8 must be run by those as usual young delinquents in their Matelan polyester suits,

you know the kind, who are there on Monday morning for the first flight, at six o fucking clock, laughing.

They should be killed on the spot, simply on the grounds, that there isn't a fucking thing to laugh about at 6am.

Anyone who wastes the best bloody years of his life slaving away in a black Matelan polyester suit working

his arse off for some filthy rich fuckwits he never met and trying to be funny at 6am simply lost his right to live.

 

Yet it's those losers that somehow make it through the compuerised HR process and then are made responsible

for some atrocious ad campaign that inevitably lacks any imagination or originality whatsoever.

 

It takes a lot of collecting old sales brochures to realise that way back, when cars were made by machos for machos,

who were still allowed to smoke and drink at their offices, they came up with some ice cool shit.

 

It's those at 6am laughing polyester suit wearing University educated* limpdicks that ruin everything.

 

Not the cars.

[warren t claim]

I think the Griffin is feeling the pain for dumping cars on Enterprise rental fleets and Arnold Shark dealers.

 

Locally we have two Vauxhall dealers, Lookers and Cavcraft.

[Jams]

When you drive past lookers on sealand road and look at the stock its all dross all boring euro boxes next door you have Renault Nissan and dacia they out shine them! The colours/shapes millions of Nissan jukes!

 

Vauxhall need to pull there finger out! Start offering started up corsas Adams with free insurance and fuck all pcp wack an iPad in the middle some sexy colours

 

Mokkas are a Bit shit but slash the cost again they will fly out! The new Astra is a nice car! They overload fleets with them get them out into the network get them on the public eye! Again keen pricing. They may save there bacon!

 

You could probably rent a 3 series to what an insignia would cost you? 1 series to what a Astra?

 

Then you have giffers spending there money on Hyundai kias etc due to them being decent motors

[lesapandre]

Quite a few Mokkas about in London- often black with quite a lot of bling chrome. Usually driven by smart-looking people.

[rantingYoof]

Why people aren't queuing up at those Vuckall dealerships is beyond me.

I never understood people.

Because they are fucking stupid.

That's why.

 

Orl Verxilz iz shit m8 must be run by those as usual young delinquents in their Matelan polyester suits,

you know the kind, who are there on Monday morning for the first flight, at six o fucking clock, laughing.

They should be killed on the spot, simply on the grounds, that there isn't a fucking thing to laugh about at 6am.

Anyone who wastes the best bloody years of his life slaving away in a black Matelan polyester suit working

his arse off for some filthy rich fuckwits he never met and trying to be funny at 6am simply lost his right to live.

 

Yet it's those losers that somehow make it through the compuerised HR process and then are made responsible

for some atrocious ad campaign that inevitably lacks any imagination or originality whatsoever.

 

It takes a lot of collecting old sales brochures to realise that way back, when cars were made by machos for machos,

who were still allowed to smoke and drink at their offices, they came up with some ice cool shit.

 

It's those at 6am laughing polyester suit wearing University educated* limpdicks that ruin everything.

 

Not the cars.

I read this in Rick Sanchez's voice complete with burps and stammers and it made the experience even better.

[mk2_craig]

Where do I sign up for a months-old Astra SRI at 10k??

[sam simmons]

Where do I sign up for a months-old Astra SRI at 10k??

 

Evans,Lookers,Motorpoint etc had a few and plenty of design versions......but not "a months old" 6/9 mths..

[txe4]

I'd forgotten about the Ampera. I've never been in one, but as a concept it's the best way to build a hybrid imho.

 

Fully electric for most of the time, then on the one time a year you want to drive to the south of France you put petrol in the generator to keep the battery topped up. All the advantages of an electric car for your daily commute and no range anxiety on longer runs.

 

I didn't know we couldn't get them here any more, either, and that strikes me as part of the problem with Vauxhall higher management - they had *one* truly modern and forward looking product, and what did they do..?

 

Confirmed. Ampera owners love them. They were *the* most practical and best-engineered design. Second hand values of them in the UK are still very strong - although the potential disappearance of the last few dealers who will service them is starting to be a worry.

 

All plug-in hybrids have been compromised in some respect - tiny battery, awful performance, bad MPG on petrol, stupid price, need engine running for heating in winter, etc etc - Ampera was the best of the lot. It's been hard to escape the conclusion that the automakers just didn't want them to sell.

[Mr Lobster]

Having read a bit more on this, the reasons for Vauxhall terminating all franchises and their future direction does look a bit clearer.

 

It seems that Vauxhall are increasingly unhappy with dealers who are operating a 'pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap' style operation and are moving new cars at massive discounts and that they'd rather concentrate on having a smaller number of dealers who are making a decent margin and offering better service.  So the likelihood is that the likes of Arnold, EH, etc might be seeing some of their franchises disappearing.

 

Having a better quality of dealership who actually took some pride in the product and had faith in the product and didn't feel that the best way to sell it is to massively discount it would be a great positive step forward though.

[flat4alfa]

Link broken!

 

i assume this it?

 

https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-quality-control-balls-ups-factories/dp/1532719795

 

 

The author travels around the world and gets mugged in Poland, lost in China and locked in an asylum in the Czech Republic, but the scariest place of all was Ford in Dagenham

[flat4alfa]

All plug-in hybrids have been compromised in some respect - tiny battery, awful performance, bad MPG on petrol, stupid price, need engine running for heating in winter, etc etc - Ampera was the best of the lot. It's been hard to escape the conclusion that the automakers just didn't want them to sell.

 

This

[tooSavvy]

Quite a few Mokkas about in London- often black with quite a lot of bling chrome. Usually driven by smart-looking people.

.... If you swap the wording slightly you might get a BanHammer.... Or am I out-thinking your quote