Comments on: GM prepared to ‘give away’ Opel/Vauxhall

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:21:39 +0000

Wouldn’t it be great if both Ford And GM ‘gave’ their Aussie businesses to the Australian government. Then we could combine the expertise of both and create a new Australian owned company to focus on selling quality cars to the middle-east and Asia-pacific region. Sure that would cause job losses, but nowhere near as many as the inevitable total pull-out of manufacturing will. More likely I guess, is that both will be purchased by Chinese companies for their expertise and tradition, but manufacturing will undoubtedly go. Yeah, I know..I’m dreaming..

By: BK

BK — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 01:39:09 +0000

GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson looks like that guy Josef Fritzl. No wonder GM are in trouble

By: Frontman

Frontman — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 01:24:50 +0000

With the plethora of Zeta platform builds being cancelled, maybe it’s simply a case of Holden not being salable at all or that (sic) GM feels a little guilty after Holden being shafted by Messers Lutz and Co in building the Heavy Zeta in the first place.

Quote from GMI
[Since then Cadillac's parent company has faltered financially, CAFE legislation has came down hard and GM's main cash source (U.S. government) wants them to focus on fuel efficient small cars. This is throwing Cadillac off track it appears and the derailment is going to hit hard with the announcement that the Epsilon II DTS replacement has been green-lighted.

Cadillac, like several other GM brands, was to get a sedan off of the Zeta rear-wheel drive platform. In Cadillac's case, such car was going to be the DTS replacement. GMI has been told that GM had several goodies in store for the Zeta Cadillac; including the Ultra V8 (now dead) and a 435 HP turbocharged 3.6L High-Feature V6 (in limbo, possibly dead). Development work on the Zeta-based DTS replacement was halted several months ago by GM brass, but GMI is told that development was not far past the design stage.

Expect the Epsilon II Cadillac DTS replacement to show up in 2013 as a 2014 model-year vehicle. Although we have not heard a specific name]

By: WVB

WVB — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 01:13:40 +0000

GM’s probably forgotten they even own holden.

……..oh and sir one more thing today,
what about that little 2 bit company down under? …..err Holden I think it’s called.

Ahhmm, Just give that away aswell. Maybe make it the ‘plastic toy’ to who ever picks up Opel & Vauxhall!!

By: MisterTwo

MisterTwo — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:16:24 +0000

AAA, how can Holden be more valuable than Opel? Opel develops and manufactures all of the cars it sells (except VXR8), is in multiple world markets with several factories. Agila, Corsa, Astra, Insignia, Tigra, Zafira, Meriva etc. That’s a lot of cars. Up until the VE Holden didn’t develop it’s own cars from the ground up – Aussies seem to conveniently forget that the Commodore was always basically an Opel Rekord/Omega with some detail changes and different engines.

By: gearboxdawg

gearboxdawg — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:36:20 +0000

The only reason Holden is surviving because it is part of a large conglomerate. If Holden was a stand alone company, it doesn’t have the economies of scale in bulk purchasing of materials and auto parts. It would be nice to see Holden be in Australian hands but its unlikely because its the crown of the Australian industry and has significant brand loyalties.

By: Frenchie

Frenchie — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:45:05 +0000

There is some creative “thinking/accounting” going on here.
The article says that they are selling only a stake in Opel and this is purely to protect Opel from going bankrupt.

Maybe the new stake holders will be able to cut costs enabling Opel products to be more cost effective?

By: JEKYL & HYDE

JEKYL & HYDE — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:14:37 +0000

if opel,gm and holden can’t readily agree at what price they can make,wholesale,retail some of there best quality and higher selling models,then god help them.toyota is made everywhere,sent everywhere,sold everywhere.don’t see them wingeing.maybe a few of their creditors could help them see sense…

By: milobob

milobob — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 09:55:42 +0000

bye bye astra.. hello more korean/american crap!

By: Limited Slip

Limited Slip — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 09:46:49 +0000

GM have to get rid of non profit making arms of their business………..HOLDEN havent made a profit for years and are only still in business because of Australian GOV handouts……so it makes sense to give them the arse.