This is a good summary of what is going on over there. Pretty pathetic if you ask me, and ethically wrong from a financial standpoint but the timing is in question with the bailouts (why didn't they use the money for their own sake??). I wonder why GM needs to keep Opel going when they can just use Vauxhall? Two identical brands in close proximity?

Why American Taxpayers Are Paying For The Big Mess In Europe

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Dropping brands is not inexpensive. Individual dealerships have franchise agreements with GM that give GM some exposure if their brand is dropped. Just google about the cost of dropping the Oldsmobile and Pontiac brands if you want a sense of the scope.

Because Opel has a good design house, and a lot of GM's better designs originate from Germany, rather than the rathole known as DeeeeeTROIT!

Absolutely costs a fortune, but in the long run it simply multiplies the cost. I am talking about advertising, printing, marketing material, trim changes, etc for almost the exact same car between Vauxhall and Opel. Opel is the big one IIRC, Vauxhall is at the mercy of Opel design and engineering anyways. Vauxhall plant produces Opels and Opel plants produce Vauxhall.

__________________
TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Oh hey and then there's this! Money out the wazoo.

UPDATE: Spyker Files Lawsuit Against GM Over Saab Automobile

__________________
TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Few people in GB would know what an Opel was, but everyone knows what a Vauxhall is. Vice versa in Deutschland.
There are plenty of Yank Tanks in GB too, but not much newer than seven or so years old.
I passed two newish Dodge Ram pickups with what seemed like the worlds largest trailers on (somebody's racing team) near Newark, Notts, a couple of months ago and about a mile further on there was an old, white El Camino with a orange patches.

I seem to recall Opel being up for sale a few years ago and then it was yanked from the market. The engineering there is the best reason for keeping it in the hands of GM.

By the way, GM got Opel for free after WW2. It was a bombed out shell, but German industry needed rebuilding and GM had the tools and the talent.

Some of the real high performance cars GM puts out come not from Opel or Vauxhall but from Holden. The new Camaro is a narrow and shorted version of the Holden Commodore which was last seen here as the Pontiac G8. This car, which is also sold in China as the Buick Park Avenue, will soon be back on the US streets as the Chevrolet Caprice PPV (Police Patrol Vehicle). It is also sold in England as a Vauxhall something or another.

By the way.....

GM's stock price is down mostly because it made the decision to not pay any dividends until it was back on its' feet. Investors do not like stocks that don't pay dividends.

There is also a great deal of concern that if Romney is elected he will dump the remaining 500 million shares of GM the US owns in order to make a political statement. Romney will be able to point out the giant loss the US had to take and claim it was a failure of Obama's, and then Romney might go so far as to take steps to make GM fail totally in order to 'prove' he was right about GM all along.

True? I don't know and don't really care. I don't own any GM stock.

But Wall Street cares, and many investors are looking at every option Romney might take to make Democrats look bad. Steps such as this would also allow Romney to blame Obama for everything that goes wrong for the next four years.

Such is the reality of the stock market, or perhaps the un-reality.

And it is for reason such as these that I don't invest in stocks.

And......

The Pontiac G8 is limited to 135 mph. The Chevy PPV is not and will hit 179 mph.

This should make all those Police chases a bit more interesting.

Before anyone complains that it isn't Bush's fault anymore. Let me just concede to you that Obama took the ball and ran with it. Notice: This is not a defense of Obama. It's just my favorite cartoon for the subject.

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Remember, Safety Third!
'99 E300 Turbodiesel, '82 300TD, 1996 12V Cummins Turbo, '94 Neoplan - Detroit 6V92TA

Speed limited in the G8 is removable if you want to outrun some piggies. Of course, Motorola is faster than motors

https://www.superchips.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7769

are you talking about the upcoming new 2015 camaro or the current one--I cant really see it being smaller than the g8 or commodore, with its big fat ass....

nowdays yea,
but at the beginning--obd1 yrs, the data stream speed was dismal until around 88 when it hit warp speed on a few--and by 90 all gm computers were up to class.

The current one.

GM says 35% of the chassis is unique to the Camaro; the rest is Commodore.

Of course, the body and the interior are totally different from the G8/Commodore. The similar parts are all under the skin or in the running gear.