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They used to be big back in the day when hot hatches ruled and we had Golf vs Astra (Vauxhall for the UK) but then we got crossovers and mini-SUV and GM had the
by tibbydudeza 5y ago
They used to be big back in the day when hot hatches ruled and we had Golf vs Astra (Vauxhall for the UK) but then we got crossovers and mini-SUV and GM had their own problems to invest in the brand.
Nowadays they make rebadged Peugeot/Citroen cars.
- _trampeltier 5y agoOpel Manta .. they made even movies about two movies about it :-)
- overhero 5y agoopel rekord is the real deal, man.
- tibbydudeza 5y agoLotus Carlton.
- tibbydudeza 5y agoCheesy German movies from the 80's.
- chrismeller 5y agoHeh. I was thinking the same thing: “yeah, so what if they do?” Horrible shame, that lack of Opels.
- dpe82 5y agoAre you suggesting the plant closure is due more to waning popularity of their cars rather than availability of parts?
- MrRiddle 5y agoUnpopularity probably affects their negotiating abilities.
- throwaway0a5e 5y agoUnpopular doesn't mean bad sales numbers. If you listen to the white collar internet you'd think that nobody buys Nissan and FCA (I'm sorry, Stellantis) but that couldn't be further from reality.
- Macha 5y agoOpel annual sales in 2019 was 800k, half their peak of 1.6 million in 1999 and there sales graph is basically a steady continuous drop in that period: https://carsalesbase.com/europe-opel-vauxhall/ https://carsalesbase.com/europe-opel-vauxhall/ The people who historically would have bought Opels or Vauxhalls (thanks to high numbers of UK imports, you used to see both here) now tend to buy Toyotas and Kias mostly today, at least in my country.
- fy20 5y agoOpel is owned by one of the biggest car manufacturers in the world now, so it's more likely they are diverting parts to their more popular brands.
- MrRiddle 5y agoProbably, same principle though.
- rsynnott 5y agoStellantis, the controlling company, is more or less an aggregation of all those car brands which makes you go "wait, _they're_ still in business?!", so, I mean, it's kind of plausible.
- mprev 5y agoI’m no fan but it’s reductive to call them rebadged Peugeots. Like just about any car you buy, including a Rolls Royce, they are built using a shared platform. In this case, it’s one of the Stellantis platforms.
- gsnedders 5y agoRolls Royce has actually been moving _away_ from shared platforms; only the Wraith and Dawn (both in their final year of production) are on a shared platform. Certainly there's still shared components with BMW, but they've gone back to being more bespoke.
- zz865 5y agoOpel used to be owned by GM since 1931. From Wikipedia: "In the 1990s, Opel was considered to be GM's cash cow, with profit margins similar to that of Toyota. Opel's profit helped to offset GM's losses in North America and to fund GM's expansion into Asia" The GM bankruptcy contributed to Opel downfall. It makes PSA cars because PSA bought them in 2017.