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For many years now Opel has been strugling
mainly because of multiple quality problems.
Starting 1995 Opel has worked very hard to
improve the quality of their cars and to provide
better engines.
I owned a 2.5L V6 5spd (same engine then on some NG900s) Vectra for 50 months. The car was good but the engine tended to develop very small
oil leaks which would not damage the car but which do polute the
environment. Having these fixed was a rather expensive thing with
a total bill that amounted to near $2000 over 3 years. There were
other problems. One elecric window motor needed replacing and
on very cold days the check engine light would go on if one
would cruise in 5th gear. The engine would also get quite hot
on those warm summer days, but it never overheated. All this
in a car that costed new around $22'000 was kind of nerving,
but then again it offered more value for money as initial
puchase then most other cars here.
My wife now has a 2000 model Opel Astra and up to now it has
turned out to be a much better car then my 1995 Vectra.
Still looking at all I think Opel lacks quite a few engines
which it would need. They also lack the 4WD option for some
of their cars which would sell better if 4WD was available.
The image problem is mainly due to the fact that Opel engines
have not been available in strong enough versions to create
eye catcher versions ie. Golf V6 4Motion
Opel also still has a problem with the German Car press. As a
GM owned sub. they often get bad reviews cause they're not
100% German company. Considering this I think GM should pull
the plug in the long run on OPEL's being manufactured in Germany,
honestly Spain, Netherlands and many other places in Europe have
much lower social charges. Also GM/OPEL should move the company
HQ to Ireland where taxation would be much more vavourable.
To have company HQs in Germany is PLAIN STUPID!
To put it in a realistic way, the German Gvmt. has been raping
GM/OPEL with higher solcial and taxes (they got less subsidies)
then they put on VW and other German car manufacturers.
So why stay in Germany a place where
workers only work 35 hours a week, makes no sense.
All this combined with idiotic Unions in Germany, higher taxes
a poor product range has put GM/OPEL in quite a bit of trouble.
I hope the Wagoneer will simply pull the plug on German manufacturing
of Opel cars and move the plants and HQs to places where GM is welcome.
Germany's SPD loves unemployment so lets give em a few more social
cases to deal with. The Germans no longer want to work so why
give em work.
I think it will take 10 years to fix and restructure OPEL and when
it's done the only thing left that's German should be the OPEL
brand name.
After that is done GM/OPEL will again be able to generate profits.
Regards,
Coolknight
, Wed, 17 Jan 2001 18:15:09
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