Opel shutting down in Australia effective immediately

[BroadyFord]

LOL! That didn't last long!

Just now via Dowling on Twitter:

BREAKING: General Motors' European brand Opel shutting down in Australia immediately, one year after arrival. Dealers and staff told today.

[Brazen]

One less piranha in the tank.

Good cars though, but a very competitive market and they had very lacklustre marketing.

[DanielXR8]

Originally Posted by Brazen

One less piranha in the tank.

Good cars though, but a very competitive market and they had very lacklustre marketing.

Aren't Opel owners going to be thrilled when they have to pull up at a Holden dealer for warranty and service.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by DanielXR8

Aren't Opel owners going to be thrilled when they have to pull up at a Holden dealer for warranty and service.

Let alone the trade in values......

[KIWI-1]

FBT (not).

[Brazen]

Originally Posted by KIWI-1

FBT (not).

It would not have helped. Crappy marketing, no SUV at all (crazy) and a falling Australian dollar probably all conspired against them.

[karj]

Originally Posted by Brazen

It would not have helped. Crappy marketing, no SUV at all (crazy) and a falling Australian dollar probably all conspired against them.

Changes to FBT, announced 2 weeks ago, would not have had any impact on this decision. It takes more than a couple of weeks weeks to plan and announce an exit strategy.

[Brazen]

Originally Posted by karj

Changes to FBT, announced 2 weeks ago, would not have had any impact on this decision. It takes more than a couple of weeks weeks to plan and announce an exit strategy.

Sometimes decisions can be made very quickly (not saying FBT was the reason though).

[KIWI-1]

Originally Posted by KIWI-1

FBT (not).

Originally Posted by Brazen

It would not have helped. Crappy marketing, no SUV at all (crazy) and a falling Australian dollar probably all conspired against them.

Someone will blame it on the FBT for sure.
Bloody good cars but one of those 'wonder why' scenarios? Australia is a market with hundreds of choices and less than 1% of world car purchases.

[neptune blue]

Originally Posted by KIWI-1

Someone will blame it on the FBT for sure.
Bloody good cars but one of those 'wonder why' scenarios? Australia is a market with hundreds of choices and less than 1% of world car purchases.

Well spoken
Less than 1%
I wonder how they managed to get there business case up in the first place
Why would you bother

[Brazen]

Originally Posted by neptune blue

Why would you bother

They also came in at the most competitive points at the market (light, small and mid), where the competition is fierce.

If you are going to start up in Australia start in a segment where you can make a buck, like dual cab utes. Where people pay up to 50 grand for those Thai-made things.

[Wretched]

:( that's disappointing.

[Franco Cozzo]

They advertised heaps, I saw a lot of their ads.

Maybe too late? Look at the Australian dollar.

[CFOUR]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

They advertised heaps, I saw a lot of their ads.

Maybe too late? Look at the Australian dollar.

i never saw 1.

[DFB FGXR6]

The launch of Opel in Australia was in response to the massive downturn in sales in Europe. They were trying get rid of excess volume by setting up in Australia and cash in on all of the work done by Holden establishing names like the Astra.

They assumed they would fool buyers into thinking their cars were prestige just because they are made in Europe. In their home markets, Opel's/Vaxhaul's are the seen as a mainstream brand like Toyota or Mazda are to Aussies. This same thing applies to Citroen and Peugeot, bottom feeder brands in their own market sold as 'Prestige' brands here.

Good(ish) cars, but not at the prices they sell them here for.

[fte50]

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

The launch of Opel in Australia was in response to the massive downturn in sales in Europe. They were trying get rid of excess volume by setting up in Australia and cash in on all of the work done by Holden establishing names like the Astra.
.

Couldn't be further from the truth - GM Holden actually did away with them with the introduction of their Daewoo made Holden range.
Then with the 2008/9 GFC impact GM nearly sold Opel off as was originally planned to do so before the governments stepped in.
After 2010 and no selling of Opel, they now cant have Holden selling the Daewoo range of Holdens alongside with Opel Holdens so the Opel brand is established as a separate entity to not cannibalise showroom sales.

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

They assumed they would fool buyers into thinking their cars were prestige just because they are made in Europe. In their home markets, Opel's/Vaxhaul's are the seen as a mainstream brand like Toyota or Mazda are to Aussies. This same thing applies to Citroen and Peugeot, bottom feeder brands in their own market sold as 'Prestige' brands here.

Good(ish) cars, but not at the prices they sell them here for.

Just like every other imported car the other side of a Great Wall, they are prestige.
The Merc that outsold our own grown Falcon taxi is itself a taxi in Germany but still considered prestige here, then you get people paying in excess of 50K for a bmw corolla etc. go figure.

With the exception of stupid Australia, its natural for a manufacturer to dominate sales in their homeland, and that certainly does not translate to being a bottom feeder brand.

[revcore]

It was doomed from the start. Their Australian marketing team were worse than useless then throw in to the mix the ailing automotive industry here in Australia and you have to ask what on earth were they thinking?

[Iggle Piggle]

Originally Posted by revcore

It was doomed from the start. Their Australian marketing team were worse than useless then throw in to the mix the ailing automotive industry here in Australia and you have to ask what on earth were they thinking?

They sponsored the Melbourne Footy Club

[BroadyFord]

Seems strange. They're in the middle of building a new dealership in Armadale (Melb). Be interesting to see what happens with that.

I reckon this is more of a positive than a negative; one less brand for local producers to compete with.

[Spammy]

Originally Posted by BroadyFord

I reckon this is more of a positive than a negative; one less brand for local producers to compete with.

You serious - they sold 2/5 of nothing ...Toyota prob lose more cars off the back of semi trailers each week than these guys sell.

[olds]

All importers are going to be in trouble AUD 90 - 80 -70 cents US in the future a change in Gov. might even see it back to 55.

[2011G6E]

Very very popular brand overseas, and have been for many years.

However, they're virtually unheard of here in Oz. Given the huge choice of very good cars from all over the world we have access to at the moment anyway, it was probably a bit foolish to try and jump in with something middle of the range. Most of the success stories lately have been new models that are cheap and packed with features.

Originally Posted by fte50

Bluntly, a big fat YES, let everyone buy a car they don't want so long as you know your children will have jobs.

Honestly, it was good enough for our forefathers to drive local made, were they lesser of a human being than the population of today?
I remember a generation of people who weren't concerned of brand image, and yuppy statements.

In hindsight though, people must be hard pleasers if they cannot find any compromise within them to drive a local, be it on size, efficiency quality, performance etc.

I know plenty here will disagree, but if we all drove a falcadore would we be any worse off?

Yes, we would. Once you let the local players know that they had no competition, why try harder to build better cars? It's like restaurants overseas that automatically add the tip to your bill...what incentive is there to try harder when you know you're going to get the money anyway? That's what killed the American industry back in the seventies and eighties...shoddily built lumps that Yanks honestly thought were :the best in the world", even as it fell apart around them.

Do you honestly think people should "compromise" and put up with whatever they have dished out to them, ignoring the best the world outside has to offer? That they should pay more and use patriotism as a reason to buy cars that they DON'T want?
Obviously by your post, you do.

Our "forefathers drove local" because they were virtually forced to...they had been lied to that our local cars were the best, couldn't be equalled, and until they actually were exposed to foreign cars, they didn't know what they'd been missing. It was a real culture shock to find out that what you believed were expensive options were merely standard features on them funny foreign cars. That's one way that history is repeating itself today. We see foreign cars coming out with all sorts of features and fitments that are either optional or just plain not available on Australian built cars like the Falcon and Commodore.

Don't believe that back in the 1970's people didn't want foreign cars...they wanted them alright, but strong tariffs and import duties kept people out of them, meaning they had to grudgingly drive whatever the local makers dished out and told them to be happy with. They'd been brainwashed by advertising that honestly made them believe that they were lucky that they were buying primitive sedans with gas guzzling engines and rudimentary suspension and lack of standard features.

Why do I mention the old days? Because it's true...if you don't remember the past, you are bound to relive it...and we pretty much are in some ways. Ford didn't accept that the public had changed it's needs...not "wants", but needs...and the Falcon just wasn't part of it any more. There were and are plenty of better packaged better equipped cheaper cars that do the same job.

[castellan]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

Very very popular brand overseas, and have been for many years.

However, they're virtually unheard of here in Oz. Given the huge choice of very good cars from all over the world we have access to at the moment anyway, it was probably a bit foolish to try and jump in with something middle of the range. Most of the success stories lately have been new models that are cheap and packed with features.




Yes, we would. Once you let the local players know that they had no competition, why try harder to build better cars? It's like restaurants overseas that automatically add the tip to your bill...what incentive is there to try harder when you know you're going to get the money anyway? That's what killed the American industry back in the seventies and eighties...shoddily built lumps that Yanks honestly thought were :the best in the world", even as it fell apart around them.

Do you honestly think people should "compromise" and put up with whatever they have dished out to them, ignoring the best the world outside has to offer? That they should pay more and use patriotism as a reason to buy cars that they DON'T want?
Obviously by your post, you do.

Our "forefathers drove local" because they were virtually forced to...they had been lied to that our local cars were the best, couldn't be equalled, and until they actually were exposed to foreign cars, they didn't know what they'd been missing. It was a real culture shock to find out that what you believed were expensive options were merely standard features on them funny foreign cars. That's one way that history is repeating itself today. We see foreign cars coming out with all sorts of features and fitments that are either optional or just plain not available on Australian built cars like the Falcon and Commodore.

Don't believe that back in the 1970's people didn't want foreign cars...they wanted them alright, but strong tariffs and import duties kept people out of them, meaning they had to grudgingly drive whatever the local makers dished out and told them to be happy with. They'd been brainwashed by advertising that honestly made them believe that they were lucky that they were buying primitive sedans with gas guzzling engines and rudimentary suspension and lack of standard features.

Why do I mention the old days? Because it's true...if you don't remember the past, you are bound to relive it...and we pretty much are in some ways. Ford didn't accept that the public had changed it's needs...not "wants", but needs...and the Falcon just wasn't part of it any more. There were and are plenty of better packaged better equipped cheaper cars that do the same job.

If you look at our aussie cars in the past you will see the fact is they were made for us aussies in this land.
Look at the USA cars pre 80's they were to big.
The jap cars to small.
European cars to weak.
And if you buy utes, we made the best.
Look at the first falcons no problems in the USA but hear fell apart and the commodore did as well, so they had to make them for aus conditions.
One has to remember the roads we had back in the day and not just your city driving hacks.

[Wretched]

more info

http://theage.drive.com.au/motor-new...802-2r4ch.html

[DJM83]

What a shame. I came close to an OPC Astra too.

[JC]

Originally Posted by DJM83

What a shame. I came close to an OPC Astra too.

Hope you had some Kleenex handy......

[superfly]

Wow, didn't see that coming. I did see plenty of ads on TV though.

[XRtowcar]

Has taken years for Renault to re-establish itself and Opel want to do it in twelve months.

[Struggo]

What a waste of money

[karj]

I just read the news article posted by Wretched a couple of posts ago.

Opel only managed to sell 1530 vehicles in the year they've been here.

My crude calculations indicate that is roughly 127 a month nationally, or 4 per week per mainland state/territory (including Tas).