GM not selling Vauxhall-Opel

[ashmicro]

http://www.faz.net/s/RubD16E1F55D21144C ... ntent.html

 

 

Fuck. That means we're stuck with it.

[RedSparrow]

Hilfe bitte! Meine Deutsche ist nicht sehr gut!

[ashmicro]

The gist of it is that GM are not quite as skint as they thought they were, and they'd like to give European Ops another go. As far as I can make out, the Spam Govt. has bunged them a few quid on the QT.The Boxhead Govt. however is making noises that the deal-breaking may or may not be legal, and is threatening to tie people up with piano wire.

[brammy777]

My german used to be good, now isnt. But anyway, i dont know the ins and outs of GMs collapse and company structure, but it always struck me as odd when they were going to sell off and opel and vauxhall. The brands seem to be doing better lately anyway, the new Insignia is apparently leaps and bounds better than the Vectra was.And future wise, they seemed a better prospect than alot of the dead brands GM was peddling in America. But anyway, the penny dropped and they have cancelled, lets hope they keep the factories open and dont ask the british government for funds.

[ashmicro]

CAR Magazine recently ran an article quoting industry insiders who said that GM Europe was the only arm of the business which was making money.My own "industry insiders" (ahem) tell me that the Insignia is an unreliable and needlessly complex piece of shit. This would appear to be borne out by the fact that when a friend had his 09 Disastra picked up under warranty (again), the TWO consecutive Insignia courtesy cars both fucked up. One locked him out, the other spunked the contents of its rad out at the KFC Drive Through.

[brammy777]

So i was sort of right about the money making thing then haha.But ive only seen reviews of the Insiginia, so these reports of it being unreliable are interesting.So of all the vauxhall large hatches, the cavalier is still your best bet then? haha.I have seen millions of insignias lately, no doubt the fleets are picking them up left right and centre.

[Pete-M]

I have seen millions of insignias lately, no doubt the fleets are picking them up left right and centre.

That'll be the car hire companies. Avis used to get unbelievable deals on Cavs and Vectras when I worked for them, similar deals to the mental "Get them seen" deals Daewoo and Hyundai used to give 'em. Basically free to the hire company for 6 months as long as they give 'em back pretty much undamaged.I've noticed almost all the Insignias I've seen on the road have been Europcar ones. I know when I worked for one large hire firm the deal with purchasing 'em was you bought 50 Mondeos for around £10k each and you got whatever was in unsold stock, so we'd quite often get Ghia Xs in beige or whatever or weirdly specced Veronas, but every now and then 10 ST200s would turn up and myself and the other managers would all have quick company cars for a few months.Sometimes things went hideously wrong, we once had 40 brown X reg 2.0 16v DTi Vectras. Another time we ended up with a load of white possibly Maltese hire car spec 1.0 Corsas - all with AC but no rear wiper. At Avis we had hundreds of purple 5 dr Clios all with "M???GFL" reg plates. There were loads of weirdly specced Volvo V70s there as well, they were mainly "S???TAV" registrations. Sad that I remember reg plate series of loads of old hire cars.The first Focuses we had were S reg 1.8 Zetec 5drs with sunroofs, no AC, and no passenger airbags. They were the only Focii I've ever seen without passenger airbags. Most of them had doors that would fly open randomly or wouldn't shut properly, that made things interesting.Europcar seem to have loads of black Insignias..

[Mr Lobster]

We've got a fair number of Insignias at work. Only seems to be rental fleets that are buying them as the discount on them is quite considerable They are needlessly complex though, we've not seen any actually break down - as in won't go - but have had a fair number of annoying electrical faults. That seems to be a Vauxhall theme though as quite a few Corsas develop electrical problems and die as well.

[Cavcraft]

Great news locally as far more chance of a reasonably secure future for the workers, who are naturally breathing a little easier with the news.Vauxhall were making a proft hence GM's decision not to sell and they are, or were, planning on making a 'shared platform' chassis at Ellesmere Port which various other barnds under the GM banner were going to use.Obviously that might not be as big as plan as first envisaged if GM flog off the crap like Daewoo etc. New Astra is under way I believe, or is just about to be, and like the prvious model E.Port got the gig because they were considered the best plant to make them out of the group.Don't know anything about their fleet policy but the workers get offered barnd new cars for very low rates which they keep for something like three months and they then get sold off cheaper to car hire companies. Whether that's the reason they shift so many I don't know, but if they're making a profit then it can't be such a bad thing.Anyhow good luck to the workers I say, hopefully they will be safe for a good deal longer yet.

[Guest]

I'd rather they keep Daewoo to be honest, at least Daewoo are knocking out some coherent-looking motors. The Vauxhall range looked pretty attractive throughout the 90s, what happened? Everything's really gawky-looking now.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I'm glad theyre not selling, Was that Deripaska bloke not involved with the Magna approach? After his gr8 work as custodian of LDV Vans i'm surprised he was given a hearing as a suitor, actually i'm not as he's bezzy mates with assorted UK politicians of various colours isnt he.

[Mr Lobster]

New Astra is under way I believe

It is indeed. Saw a transporter full of new, Opel badged Astras on the M62 on Monday, presumably destined for export.

[AnthonyG]

Its bloody excellent news they are not selling Opel/Vauxhall, regardless of whether you like the products or not.Magna and partcularly GAZ/Deripaska could not be trusted, just look at the fiasco of LDV. You can't trust the Russians in business, to them it's just a continuation of the Cold War. Magna was just a trojan horse - a Russian bank was putting up all the cash.GM without Opel would have been seriously weakened in terms of product design ability, for example most of the stuff they sell in South America is Opel based - the Corsa is one of Brazil's biggest sellers.Plus they may want to copy Ford in bringing European stuff over to the US - I guess this will depend on how the Fiesta is received over there next year. (The Astra was sold over there, but as a Saturn, which hardly received any marketing cash in the last few years)I reckon it will be a busy night for the pubs around Ellesmere Port!

[AnthonyG]

Basically free to the hire company for 6 months as long as they give 'em back pretty much undamaged.

That was the deal to BSM for the Corsas. Free for the time that they had them.BSM made mega money on this as they would charge the instructors £XXX per month for provison of the car. Don't know if they are getting the same generous deal with Fiat, wouldn't have though Fiat would need to promote the 500 at such expense.

[Mr Lobster]

No, they're not. Basically, Vauxhall said to BSM that they needed to start paying for cars and they couldn't have them free anymore. So BSM went and got a deal with Fiat at a relatively low price.

[Guest]

If I recall BSM did a press release stating that they chose the Fiat 500 because of it being cool and fashionable, thereby implying that the new Corsa isn't.Bet someone from Vauxhall phoned them up with a quivery "angry" voice after that ice-burn.

[Station]

New Astra is under way I believe

It is indeed. Saw a transporter full of new, Opel badged Astras on the M62 on Monday, presumably destined for export.

Ha, I saw that too! Unless there was a convoy? I don't really know who to trust, I can't see any future for the Ellesmere Port or Luton within 5 - 10 years. It's had so many scares and threats along the way.

[Cavcraft]

What they GM) did was to wave the axe over Ellesmere Port (and other plants) and say if they didn't up productivity/cut production costs/save money/get the quality as good as possible they would get whatever model built elsewhere.Ellesmere Port always did manage that criteria and it was alleged due to that it was pretty much always on the cards they'd get the new Astra contract but there's nothing like the wave of the axe to scare people in to saving money etc!

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

That is good news. The idea of Unipart Canada trying to run a massive car firm would only ever end in disaster - i.e Phoenix and Rover.As for the Insipid being unreliable, well it'll take a while to iron the bugs out. What GM ought to do is to have unilateral "world car' designs - i.e sell the Corsa, Astra and Insignia in America/Canada as a Chevrolet or whatever and ditch everything else. Four or five very closely ralated model lines made both sides of the Atlantic. GM in the US already have the outgoing Astra and Vectra badged as Saturns, possibly only in Canada though - I saw quite a few.GM stuff might be dull but its basically alright. I would have ditched the Vauxhall name though and rebranded everything in Europe as Opel, basically 'doing an Audi' and reinventing GM in Britain. The Vauxhall name has too many Council estate/hire car connotations. The cars need to be desirable so they can stop giving stuff away to hire fleets - either that or GM take the hire car market in Europe by the bollocks and do it themselves.

[ashmicro]

All good sense, Reverend. I've seen Mondeos and Fuxkasses in NCIS:Los Angeles, so Ford have got the idea already.

 

 

However, the Boxheads at Opel are now going to go on strike, although there's thankfully no mention of "National" Socialism.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8343517.stm

[FredTransit]

Never understood the thinking behind striking when there are job cuts on the cards. Surely that just gives the management more justification on getting rid of some/all of the workforce?

[Cavcraft]

Funnily enough I don't remember Opel workers offering to strike if Vauxhalls closed. Undoubtably with the backing of the German government they thought they were sitting pretty.I reckon Magna must be mightily pissed off by the way, their big cheese was given a bells and whistles tour of the Ellesmere Port plant very recently

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

However, the Boxheads at Opel are now going to go on strike, although there's thankfully no mention of "National" Socialism.

Nice, that's really going to help their cause. Like when Ford were on strike at Dagenham, all Ford did was step up production at Cologne. Suddently hordes of properly built Cortinas with panel gaps you could measure with a feeler gauge rather than a ruler came across........If Ellesmere Port was threatening to be the No.1 GM plant in Europe, I'd be working my bollocks off at Opel, couple of hours of standard rate overtime just to make sure Russelsheim can stay on the pace.Or go on strike and lose a few thousand cars for an already very fragile car company.Hmmm............

[FredTransit]

Forget Vauxhall/Opel/GM, what's this I hear that Threshers will be closing loads of their outlets.

Are you on the wagon then Sir T?

[brammy777]

Forget Vauxhall/Opel/GM, what's this I hear that Threshers will be closing loads of their outlets.

Yep,the company which owns them all went into administration last thursday.Wine rack here has been shut since, and not openedI feel sorry for the staff, as it was pretty much pay day and they havent been paid yet.

[FredTransit]

Surely just before Christmas is a very stupid time to close a booze company?

[FredTransit]

How many Lutons do you want??

[Timewaster]

Back on topic (and yes, I accept the relevance of a Luton!)...Did anyone see the BBC breakfast report which showed an LBC production line of red Traffic/Vivaro vans?.....An order picked up after the demise of LDV......For the Royal Mail.... Who are ALSO going down the pan we're told.This country really is screwed!

[Mr H Sceptre]

Does anyone else think that the new Astra looks very much like a larger 5dr Fiesta?

 

[FredTransit]

Actually I think it looks like a large insect....