[Butta]

GM mulls selling Opel cars in U.S. - magazine
Reuters, 03.10.04, 3:30 PM ET

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp. is considering selling models from German unit Adam Opel AG in the United States under its Saturn badge, GM Europe chief Robert Lutz was quoted as saying in a German magazine.

Lutz said in an interview due to appear in WirtschaftsWoche on Thursday that since Opel was not present in the United States, it would be possible to transfer the design.

"Right now we're looking into, among other things, whether Opel conforms to American specifications and where changes might be necessary," he said.

According to Lutz, GM wants to brand Saturn with a European image. A final decision whether Opel vehicles would be used, however, has not yet been made, he added.

GM is responding to pressure from the Opel works council, which believes the lack of a presence in the U.S. represents a disadvantage versus other competitors such as Volkswagen AG .

Opel Works Council Chairman Klaus Franz welcomed the decision, even if the Opel brand would not itself be used.

Full Article Here

 

[joey]

GM would probably prefer to use that cheap Dawoo junk to save a few dollars and increase our trade deficit with Asia. You know the Opel Vectra would make the Malibu look bad.

 

[Tone]

This at least makes some sense out of Saturn.

As I've written elsewhere on this board, if GM is going to keep all these divisions, it needs to rationalize the relationship between them. The traditional "Sloan ladder" doesn't really make sense anymore, especially when each division has so many offerings.

It may make more sense to pair mass market and upmarket divisions that share brand characteristics. Eventually, GM then could treat the offerings of the pair more holistically to make sure that buyers move up when they can.

Logical pairings/grouping might include:

Chevrolet, Suzuki and Buick - conservative/value-oriented - "a lot of car for the money"

Pontiac and Cadillac - sporty and performance-oriented - "the car for people who love cars"

Saturn, Subaru and Saab - engineering oriented, "the thinking man's car"

As long as each group stayed within its brand character, there shouldn't be too much overlap between similarly priced brands. And each group would have a logical path for buyers to move up to.

 

[Maetrix66]

MAW, LOAD UP THE HICK-UP TRUCK, I'M GONNA GO GET ME MY SPEEDSTER!

Seriously, if they choose to bring the speedster here, I will sell various body parts to get one,

then rebadge it as a Pontiac Fiero

 

[johnd89]

one speedster for me too PLEASE!!!

 

[simmonsmb]

Yeah, I'm down with the Speedster too. If they can bring it over, that would seriously present me with a dilemma between the Solstice or the Speedster..... I know they're bringing the Lotus Elise (same car as the Speedster) to America starting this summer or next summer, but that starts around $30k. If they were to be able to import the Speedster for less than that, that'd be awesome.

 

[paul8488]

Originally posted by simmonsmb@Mar 15 2004, 07:55 PM
Yeah, I'm down with the Speedster too. If they can bring it over, that would seriously present me with a dilemma between the Solstice or the Speedster..... I know they're bringing the Lotus Elise (same car as the Speedster) to America starting this summer or next summer, but that starts around $30k. If they were to be able to import the Speedster for less than that, that'd be awesome.

are you sure the elise is the same car as the speedster? i sure didn't think it was! i could be wrong, but i really doubt lotus'd spawn an opel. i wonder what saturn will have though... a kappa vehicle or the speedster?

 

[simmonsmb]

Ok, just had this thought.
Just released a few weeks ago that Saturn has confirmed getting a car based on the Kappa architecture, right? Talks a while back about Opel using Kappa as well as the Vauxhall VX Lightning concept based on Kappa. Put all of this news together here, same Kappa car gets rebadged 3 ways, Opel-Vauxhall-Saturn. Add in the Solstice and that's 4 ways the Kappa architecture could be used right off the bat with the major change being the Solstice version and the Opel-Vauxhall-Saturn version with only badge and minor body reworking among those three. Produce 20,000 of each and that's 80,000 vehicles. Build the Opel-Saturn version alongside the Solstice here in the states and build the Opel-Vauxhall version in the UK.

Any thoughts on this??

 

[simmonsmb]

Originally posted by paul8488+Mar 15 2004, 03:19 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (paul8488 @ Mar 15 2004, 03:19 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-simmonsmb@Mar 15 2004, 07:55 PM
Yeah, I'm down with the Speedster too.  If they can bring it over, that would seriously present me with a dilemma between the Solstice or the Speedster.....  I know they're bringing the Lotus Elise (same car as the Speedster) to America starting this summer or next summer, but that starts around $30k.  If they were to be able to import the Speedster for less than that, that'd be awesome.

are you sure the elise is the same car as the speedster? i sure didn't think it was! i could be wrong, but i really doubt lotus'd spawn an opel. i wonder what saturn will have though... a kappa vehicle or the speedster? [/b][/quote]
http://www.elises.co.uk/models/vx220/index.html

Unnoficial Elise site created by an enthusiast. I had read this various places as well, but this page makes it easy.

 

[thatoneguy]

Originally posted by simmonsmb@Mar 15 2004, 08:24 PM
Ok, just had this thought.
Just released a few weeks ago that Saturn has confirmed getting a car based on the Kappa architecture, right? Talks a while back about Opel using Kappa as well as the Vauxhall VX Lightning concept based on Kappa. Put all of this news together here, same Kappa car gets rebadged 3 ways, Opel-Vauxhall-Saturn. Add in the Solstice and that's 4 ways the Kappa architecture could be used right off the bat with the major change being the Solstice version and the Opel-Vauxhall-Saturn version with only badge and minor body reworking among those three. Produce 20,000 of each and that's 80,000 vehicles. Build the Opel-Saturn version alongside the Solstice here in the states and build the Opel-Vauxhall version in the UK.

Any thoughts on this??

wow sounds like something i said ... like 2 months ago

 

[GM_Guy81]

If GM wanted to (spend the money to redesign) bring the speedster here, they would have done it already. Now that we have kappa, it just doenst make sense. That said, bringing saturn opel models with similar styling would go along way towards helping saturn out.

 

[SUPERBADD75]

Yeah, I'm down with the Speedster too. If they can bring it over, that would seriously present me with a dilemma between the Solstice or the Speedster..... I know they're bringing the Lotus Elise (same car as the Speedster) to America starting this summer or next summer, but that starts around $30k. If they were to be able to import the Speedster for less than that, that'd be awesome.

an Opel speedster is NOT a Lotus Elise. hell, the elise we get here in America is going to have the 1.8 liter Celica engine in it. the Speedster is its own car, it's just a blatant copy of one of the best handling cars on the planet.

 

[Ming]

Imagine a Saturn interior like this:

 

[Jay]

Judging by the looks of that God-awful looking Ion sedan, this move can't happen fast enough. That car looks like 10 different companies built the body and couldn't put the parts together properly.

 

[Tone]

Originally posted by SUPERBADD75@Mar 15 2004, 02:54 PM

an Opel speedster is NOT a Lotus Elise. hell, the elise we get here in America is going to have the 1.8 liter Celica engine in it. the Speedster is its own car, it's just a blatant copy of one of the best handling cars on the planet.

Well that's sort of true. The Speedster is based on a lot of Elise parts, though it is a bit bigger and does use a GM drivetrain. Lotus actually builds both cars.

To quote Autoweek:

"Not to dash your fantasies, but the Speedster is purely an image thing for Opel, full stop. It is built in limited production numbers; Lotus will assemble just 3000 for GM each year."

See - http://www.autoweek.com/search/search_disp...979101&record=1 for the full article.

 

[simmonsmb]

Originally posted by SUPERBADD75@Mar 15 2004, 03:54 PM

Yeah, I'm down with the Speedster too. If they can bring it over, that would seriously present me with a dilemma between the Solstice or the Speedster..... I know they're bringing the Lotus Elise (same car as the Speedster) to America starting this summer or next summer, but that starts around $30k. If they were to be able to import the Speedster for less than that, that'd be awesome.

an Opel speedster is NOT a Lotus Elise. hell, the elise we get here in America is going to have the 1.8 liter Celica engine in it. the Speedster is its own car, it's just a blatant copy of one of the best handling cars on the planet.

Taken from "european car" magazine:

The Opel Speedster is really a co-design and a co-production with our good friends from Hethel, Group Lotus.
.....
We were not disappointed, because it turned out to be a Lotus first and an Opel second.

http://www.europeancarweb.com/features/0205ec_opel/

Different engine, same suspension, built alongside each other, look almost identical except for the Opelized front end. The Elise has changed since the Speedster was designed off of it, but when these cars were out in 2002 they were essentially the same car.

Back to the topic at hand, if Saturn gets rebadged Opels, that will be a big step up for Saturn.

 

[dm01usa]

This plan could work but remember the current L-series is the prior Vectra and we all know how well that vehicle is selling in the US

 

[bgclarke]

Originally posted by joey@Mar 15 2004, 01:39 PM
You know the Opel Vectra would make the Malibu look bad.

In case you weren't aware, the Malibu, Opel/Vauxhall Vectra, and Saab 9-3 are all built on the Epsilon platform.

Visually, yes the Vectra is a better looking beast, but the underpinnings are all the same.

 

[joshpsf]

I'm all for bringing Opels here. I've ben waiting for this news for years. Hell, drop the saturn brand alltogether. Opel can be an upscale competitor instead of a brand one settles for.

 

[kmacleod]

Originally posted by Ming@Mar 15 2004, 09:01 PM
Imagine a Saturn interior like this:

Ming,

What the current Vectra/Signum has and what the current Malibu lacks........

Saturn should receive nearly the full range of Opel Products. From the Corsa thru
the Vectra Wagon.....Unaltered, With drivetrain options INTACT.........

Saturn's motto should be:

Frisches Denken, für bessere Autos.


Ken

Der neue OPEL Philosophie ist SEHR GUT!!!!!

Da-Da-Da....Hmmmmnnnn a TRIO song :bounce: .......