General Motors’ European operations have commissioned a comprehensive study to investigate public opinion of Opel in Europe, GM Authority has learned from sources with unconfirmed track records with the publication. The review, which is said to be extremely secretive, is divided among several companies driven by one coordinating firm and will measure current perception, reputation, and public image of the Opel brand in several European markets.
The research, according to sources, was set in motion due to the concerns of some within Opel that the brand is widely seen as damaged goods following consistent losses and failed attempts to sell the operating unit by parent General Motors. While specifics were not provided, the study is said to be taking place in many European markets, but specifically excludes Germany and the UK.
In addition, several options are being considered and studied, including ditching the Opel name entirely, selling Opel vehicles as Chevrolet, Buick, Vauxhall, as well as the overarching GM brand, and various combinations of each. The review process is also said to extend to sales operations, with strong support for unifying Opel and Chevrolet sales outlets all over Europe.
A full report is said to be due by year’s end, with real actionable recommendations. The news comes on the heels of Opel’s 2020 plan, which promises 23 new or revised models and 13 engines by the year 2020; ironically, 2020 may not take place for Opel if the study recommends to move away from the Opel brand in some way, shape, or form.
Comments
How is that going to help them with the underutilized factories?
Raise demand with a better or more accepted brand and the factories are no longer underutilized all of a sudden.
why dont they just ditch opel and bring over buick? most of the cars are the same anyways. buick is doing well in china,its a different market yes but they cant do any worse, so what do they got to loose aside money? their loosing it any ways.
That would be a very straight-forward, clear-cut plan. Perhaps Germany and the Uk can hang on to Opel and Vauxhall, respectively, for a bit of time… but the risk might be losing even more sales by introducing an unfamiliar brand (such as Buick). If that were to happen, however, it should be expected for the new Buick to move upmarket even further.
In general, I love idea of a global Buick seeing as China may soon be a trend setter.
I also like the idea of Vauxhall given the history and good will in the UK.
Chevy works, like the Koreans selling both value and premium; however, Chevy is also damaged goods in Europe.
GM could work because I see Opel as more GM than anything else–they take an Insignia and sell it as a Vauxhall, Buick or even Chevy depending on market. While I would love seeing the marques grow and GM recede, in this case these would be like GMC cars.
Opel is uber-damaged and its Germanic roots mean little anymore.
I say just cut opel and focus on Vauxhall especially since the two do share similar lineups marketing etc
Vauxhall is Opel just in the UK. Vauxhall relies on Opel for all it’s model.
So not so! The Astra station-wagon was designed and engineered in Milbrook (England), and is built solely at Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port plant for export to all Opel markets.
Similarly the Vivaro (a joint venture with Renault) and Astra vans are both built solely in Britain and exported as Opels to such far-flung markets as South Africa. Incidentally all Nissan and Renault right-hooker versions of the Vivaro are also built by Vauxhall.
The Opel/Vauxhall Ampera (Volt) is built in the good ‘ol US of A.
The mighty Vauxhall VXR8 GTS is a re-badged Holden imported from Australia. This model is not marketed as an Opel anywhere.
Then there is the Combo van that is a joint venture with Fiat and is built in Turkey both as Opel and Vauxhall. Finally the Movano van (another JV with Renault) that is built solely in France.
Does Manchester United ever play foosball in Deutchland?
chevy FTW 😉
If this is really true, and this rumors will appear in Germany, I’m sure that’s the end of Opel, not only for the brand but for the hole company. Replacing the old name Opel by GM or even Chevrolet will smash the sales.
GM is not very liked in Europe; Chevrolet stands for cheap cars from South-Corea, Vauxhall… nobody can pronounce outside english-speaking countries, Buick is unknown in Europe.
Now I am sure of what I have ever feared: GM’s managers are completely sick in their heads.
Well, if this is true — and we don’t really know how much of its is, since the sources that brought this to our attention don’t have a proven track record with us — then we need to keep in mind that whatever decision is made will be supported by substantial market research and data.
Furthermore, Chevrolet will become a force to be reckoned with in the future when it comes to the mainstream automotive market in Europe and elsewhere; think Ford and VW level. The European image of South Korean crap will be gone within a few years.
As far as the possibility of introducing Buick to replace Opel, that’s just a possibility — of course; but if it does happen, there are proven business operations that can handle the transition smoothly and advantageously. Let’s not forget that GM is in business — and it has professionals who can do these things very well given the proper resources and strategy.
I think it’s worth considering at this point. Opel and Buick are already one brand so why not recognize that officially? The Buick brand is completely new to Europe and they’ve already got some great cars like the Adam, Insigna and Astra. Add in the LeCross and others and you’ve got an impressive lineup.
GM needs to turn the page in Europe.
In England there is no chance of replacing Vauxhall with Chevrolet, currently Vauxhall outsells Chevrolet by about 20 to 1. The same applies to Opel in Germany. However, there are some markets in Europe where the Opel brand is a dead duck so it makes sense for GM to look at alternatives BUT introducing the Buick name would cost a huge amount to establish and would take a long long time. Vauxhall has a limited brand recognition, mainly in Northern Europe, but would still require alot of investment and advertising – as for pronouncing it – anyone can pronounce any name once they know what it should be, before Opel were kicked out of the UK it was always pronounced Opall. If GM could do it they would replace everything in Europe with Chevrolet, it suits their global marketing plans, but they know that would result in a wholesale collapse in Euro sales.
There is no justification in dumping the Opel or Vauxhall names for “damaged” American names. Opel and Vauxhall may be struggling to sell, but they would starve themselves within a MY if they were named Buick or Chevrolet.
Damaged American names? care to explain? it seems Opel and Vauxhall are the damaged ones here. Opel and Buick are near twins, Buick is upscale and is doing very well in China as an upscale luxury brand. Buick has that edge going for it as an additional Luxury brand for Europeans. It may be new to Europe but it has a Solid History. Fiat is a “damaged” name in the US and they are back. and is soon bringing Alfa Romeo with them. another company with an iffy history in the US and Alfa is being marketed as a upscale Luxury brand. So Why cant Buick?
Grawdaddy is that opinion or fact? Frankly, it’s a baseless opinion. I work in market research and sometimes you would be surprised what a new brand can do.
A new “old” brand that’s unfairly associated with clumsy, ineffiecent, lazy, poorly built, unreliable barges?
A new “old” brand name won’t do anything if that name is long damaged from self-inflected harm. Cadillac wasted away for 57 year before the CTS saved it, and even today it hardly registeres in Europe. That’s not a failure of product, but of brand image and association.
Now do it for Buick and Chevrolet. Shake off the negitve image crap like fins and chrome. Nobody builds junk like that anymore, but it’ll be an uphill battle to make Buick and Chev look like something 21 century if all anyone can think of is chrome and fins.
Bluntly, it would be easier to reposition Opel and Vauhal, known brands with a seperate history that reflects European tastes than to hype and promote brand names who’s history reflects that of (historic) American tastes.
Again, you’re basing the supposed fact that Buick is “damaged” on what data? Your personal perception? That’s fine, but let’s be clear about that then.
One, that may not actually be the case in the real world. Maybe Buick is damaged goods in the eyes of enthusiasts who only care about slalom results and quarter mile sprints. But that’s not even close to 5% of the car buying public, which makes your statements even less than relevant… again assuming that Buick is “damaged”.
Two (and I am going to throw some conjecture your way) I don’t think Buick is “damaged”. Some facts here:
– Buick is new to Europe, so even if it does have a “damaged” reputation doesn’t mean it’s actually damaged in the market of discussion
– Buick sales are up in the U.S. where I am assuming you are referring to it as being damaged. So how is it that a supposedly damaged brand increases its sales as quickly as Buick did?
Lastly, never underestimate the one-two punch of good product and good advertising, properly positioned for the target market. I’ve seen double-digit swings in the perceptions of major brands within a fiscal quarter when it’s aligned with bulletproof creative and a well executed campaign.
I also have to point this out: your reference to Cadillac hardly registering in Europe is because up to 2012 (or late 2011) Cadillac was never officially available there; it was a half assed job being conducted through a sleazy third party import and distribution company with no marketing and no official presence. I tried to buy a CTS Sedan three years ago in Germany and four years ago in Switzerland. They didn’t even have Cadillac dealers back then in both countries and promised that a CTS would show up in “about a month”. It never happened. So if Cadillac is in some way struggling in Europe, it’s not because of a negative perception but rather a half assed effort of doing the simple basics like logistics, inventory allocation and distribution on GM’s part.
Buick of old is DEAD and no one will remember the Century of old within a few years.
I agree with Alex that GM will rely on solid research as opposed to the ramble of car junkies.
A case can be made for any of the above options.
australia may not be a big market for any car maker but opel have just started here with several models with their own dealers, it would not make sense to move into a new market only to kill off a brand name
http:/www.opel-australia.com.au
The strategy to bring Opel to Australia was set in motion way before this study was ever conceived.
Outside of that, let’s not forget that this is only a brand study that’s being reportedly implemented here; no one is talking about replacing Opel yet… and if they do, it will be another 3 months before that happens.
But even so, there are effective strategies to carry out a smooth transition from one brand (Opel) to the next (Buick, etc.). The synchronicity/timing of the events may be off, but previous events (like bringing Opel to Australia) don’t necessarily dictate the future.
Opel is the damaged brand not Vauxhall. Buick is an example of what can be done with a damaged brand, the only reason it survived GM’s bankruptcy was the huge sales in China however the product offensive over the last few years have moved Buick far away from the “grandad” brand it was once known for. The UK is the largest market for GM in Europe where they have the highest sales and market penetration but Vauxhall is a UK only brand. I don’t disagree with comments on Cadillac’s failure in Europe but it has everyone forgotten the BLS – hardly fits the tail fin image! It was based on a Vauxhall Vectra and built by Saab.
The whole damage to the “Opel” brand was done by GM. GM never understood the European market. GM is a financial company not an engineering company. Not thinking beyond the next quarter’s bottom line ends up in long-term disaster in this market. This is how GM destroyed the Opel brand; taking wrong product decisions (Open Sintra, anyone?), reckless cost-cutting leading to huge quality issues, not to forget that endless sale/no-sale drama. If only they had sold Opel, giving Opel some much-needed degrees of commercial and engineering freedom…
These days GM is plundering Opel’s product line (Buick, Chevy LatAm & SA) and engineering (Chevy) and not giving adequate compensation to Opel. Government Motors can reap the benefits of reconstructing their ailing shite US brands with Opel know-how and design while at the same time blaming the unit for surprisingly not being competitive due to lacking scale.
And replacing “Opel” with a US brand seems hardly promising, US cars have a solid reputation for primitive engineering (apart maybe from the Opel-engineered Korean Chevys); ridiculous pick-up trucks and outrageous fuel consumption. That’s not gonna go away easily..
But that source of your rumour definitely has an interest in further damaging the Opel brand… It’s constant rumours like this, that make Opel get stuck. Leave the brand alone, let Opel sell its products under its own brand anywhere it wants to and give it a fair share of what it achieves for GM as a whole.
GM never understood the European market! They have owned Vauxhall since 1925 and Opel since 1929 I think they have some clue as to how to operate in Europe. This idea that Opel has not taken any decisions itself is a non starter, I agree Opel have imported lemons like the Sintra in the past but they have also designed their own lame ducks eg Signum. If everything engineered in the US is so primitive how did they manage to engineer the Volt which is cutting edge design by any standards. I am not saying GM have not made mistakes of course they have but so too has management at Opel and it is going to take some very bold moves to restore GM Europe to viability again, just blindly letting Opel do what it wants locally just won’t wash anymore.
as I said, I was talking about perceptions, am not saying there are no good engineers at GM in the US….
But the Volt’s lead engineer for that matter was Frank Weber, an Opel guy…
“GM never understood the European market. GM is a financial company not an engineering company. Not thinking beyond the next quarter’s bottom line ends up in long-term disaster in this market”
You’ve succeeded in describing the Old GM. Have you seen the products of the New GM? Have you been keeping up on the new firm’s focus, priorities, and drive to create class-leading vehicles?
“And replacing “Opel” with a US brand seems hardly promising, US cars have a solid reputation for primitive engineering (apart maybe from the Opel-engineered Korean Chevys); ridiculous pick-up trucks and outrageous fuel consumption. That’s not gonna go away easily..”
Have you seen the Cadillac CTS-V? How about the new ATS? I can somewhat see the primitive engineering bit 10 years ago (even though the results were mostly the same to the driver), but not today.
If we’re going to talk about the future, let’s not dwell on the past.
” I can somewhat see the primitive engineering bit 10 years ago” I was talking about people’s perception, not saying that is necessarily fact-based (if people’s perception was fact-based, Opel wouldn’t have an image-issue) but the avg European buyer does not associate US cars with fine engineering but with what I have mentioned, and that includes Cadillac..
GM’s stance towards Opel is still pretty much old GM. Akerson is not a car-guy he is a financial guy and still acts accordingly.
Instead of providing support to Opel, GM constantly sparks new speculation about the brand by accusing it of a “loser mind-set”, not promptly denying sales rumours (orginated by VW), changing stratetgy (up-market, non up-market) and execs all the time and so on and son…
Interestingly the content of a letter Opel’s former board member W. Gäb wrote to GM when he stepped down in the 1990s surfaced this year saying that GM was turning Opel into a blue-collar brand that would no longer be able to compete with VW (http://newpaces.com/members/profile/5565/blog-view/blog_54818.htm; sorry for the crappy translation, couldn’t find a better one yet, but you get the idea)
VW (as much as I dislike them) manage their multiple brands so well, why can’t GM do that? It drives me mad to see how GM deliberately destroys its Opel brand. It’s really sad, actually.
Akerson is damn fantastic regardless of whether he is not a car guy. His goal is to make GM class leading. He, like so many Americans, had grown to dislike GM product and his outside perspective will be of great value to the car guys with whom he surrounds himselves.
GM needed a massive shake up. Lutz did a lot to restore product, so much of what we see was designed pre-reorg; however, GM has a solid team to take to company foreward.
As for Malibu, every company has failures. I don’t hear anyone mocking Serg over the Dart flop and that car ahould have been a hit considering small is Fiat’s domain.
Oh and while we are on the subject of Opel making naff decisions, the latest gaffe is the naming of it’s new small car Adam. This has quite rightly been universally panned as being a daft moniker especially as they could have stuck with the project name (Junior) which would have worked fine.
This name has one goal: to attract attention!
Some people don’t like the name (yes, it is not really a common name for a car) but the bigger part finds it modern and creative.
The reaction to this car is very positive!
Even it can’t solve the finacial problems, this car will be a success.
Yes I agree a model name has got to attract attention but it’s doing it for the wrong reasons, because it is so silly. However, there are more underlying issues with the launch of Adam. First of all it is a good design and well engineered BUT the fact it is being priced below all major competitors highlights Opel’s problem that it cannot command premium prices, unlike Mini and VW, for it’s product. In addition they are already quoting that Vauxhall will take 20% of production which will be higher than Opel’s home market in Germany which highlights the problem that they face. The fact that they have admitted the brand has suffered at least shows they are realists and judging by the strong opinions shown here you can imagine the arguments going on within GM and Opel about what to do about it, rather them than me!
Got to wonder if economic nationalism plays a part in Germany’s love affair with VW. Deep down Opel is America and everyone knows it. The Brits are not nearly so ethnocentric when it comes to shopping.
@loveopel:
you are absolutely right! The main problem is that GM doesn’t understand the European market. They don’t see, that no European would ever buy an American car in this price class.
And this will not change in the future.
Even though I don’t think that Opel has the ability to survive alone because it’s too small. GM should support Opel by producing in growing markets like China, India, South America like they do with Buick and Chevrolet.
How is it that GM doesn’t understand the European market, exactly?
@Silent Electrician:
One example is that GM pushes Chevrolet beside Opel with Opel based cars for a cheaper price and simultaneously GM asks Opel to be profitable while Opel’s sales are mainly limited to Europe.
Another example is the crisis in 2009 when GM couldn’t decide to sale Opel or not for months and made costumers insecure with that behaviour.
Another example is Lopez, a GM-manager, who in the early 90s, was only interested in reducing costs and optimizing the profit. The consequence was that the quality of the cars was very bad which is the reason why Opel has such a bad image today.
Another example is what GM did to Saab. I think, it’s clear what I mean.
Another example is that GM really thinks that they will sell Cadillac successfully here. I can only laugh about that, The future will show what will happen.
Another example is that there are constantly rumors of closing factories.
And the best example is this rumor here to replace Opel by an American badge.
All this leads to a loss of trust concerning the costumers. So they won’t buy a car.
I think GM’s management in Europe is the best example for mismanagement. Perhaps in future periods teachers will tell their students what’s the best way to destroy a brand and tell them from GM in Europe…
This type of news just adds to the impression of dithering. You don`t hear VW musing about SEAT’s survival (SEAT are in an arguably worse position).
GM needs to set a strategy and stick to it. They are behaving like the old GM in this respect – like deciding in 2007/08 to give Pontiac a chance with new product (Soltice and G8) and then in 2009 pull the plug. Or pre-2009 aligning Opel and Saturn, to then have to quickly turn about face and align Opel with Buick.
Aligning with Buick always made sense since Opel was being moved a little upmarket to compete with VW (allowing Chevy to fulfil the SEAT/Skoda position). Honda imports their mainstream vehicles over to be Acuras (the TSX) and Opel does the same with the Regal. Why cannot this continue, instead of the drip drip?
Also Buick couldn`t fill in for Opel at the moment because the volume sellers are Corsa and Astra wagon/hatchback – neither of which Buick has.
OMG
Replacing Opel with an American brand would really be the dumbest, dumbest thing, GM could do and even the thought of doing so shows again, that GM doesn’t have the slightest clue about European and especially German market.
First of all everybody with an IQ above 20 would know, that it’s still the same company, just another name. Nobody would think, “Oh, that’s a shiny new brand, much better than the old one, let’s buy it!” Even worse: Opel has a long tradition in germany and apart from recent selling problems a very allegiant fan base. Cars like the Manta, Ascona, Kadett GSI have become iconic. So the only effect would be that also these people would be driven away from GM. No true Opel fan would buy a Chevy, Buick, whatever.
It’s things like this, which makes everybody in Germany hate GM.
It’s an unfortunate issue for GM because Opel’s current product (vaux, Holden and buick included) is GM’s best mainstream product in years. We own a Buick/Opel astra and a Saturn/Opel Insignia in my family here in the US.
I don’t know why Europe doesn’t embrace the new product, but I think the only way GM can fix GM Europe is by Cadillac. Controversial yes, but GM needs to make it their BMW/Merc and offer mid-to high range cars and buy the market downwards. There’s a reason why Merc and BMW are offering smaller and cheaper models in their range and it because they can now earn those sales in north america and europe through leases. That’s where the market is going, and so GM should cut Chevy, and make Opel an entry level brand. Inbetween Dacia and VW for example, while Caddy comes in now taking over for Opel.
GM mishandled Opel moving it up market and back like VW has done with itself in the US. When GM owned SAAB they should’ve moved SAAB upmarket, in working with Opel. But GM believes that globally everyone wants a chevy as the mainstream brand, which is not the case.
So while die-hard caddy lovers will say an extended range in Europe would hurt the brand, it’s actually needed and on par with where it should be with Merc and BMW.
Well they could combine the Vauxhall and Opel names – “Ophall” or “Vauxopel” could be approaches, particularly as nearly all (excluding Vauxhall’s Holden rebadged Monaro & VXR8) of their models since the 1980s have been the same vehicles, simply with different badging and grilles.