Bad news coming from Down
Under (not related to the fact that their cricket team is being hammered at
the Ashes) is that General Motors is
pulling the Opel brand out of the
country. And it’s only been 11 months
since it arrived. Up until September
2012, GM had Holden holding things down, under. Then it decided to
introduce the premium Opel into that
market, with an annual sales target of 15 000.
But alas, in 2012 the company only managed to sell 541 vehicles and was on track to
deliver over 1 000 units at the
end of this year. That’s not enough to make a strong business case and thus GM it seems, really had no choice but to pull Opel out of the Australian market. As it is
in South Africa, the Opel brand
seems to be priced higher than its
equivalent rivals and that appears to have been the main problem.
Back at home, Opel is not making big splashes either. But whether this could lead to a pull-out as
well is yet unknown. To be fair though, Opel has been in Mzansi for over 25 years
as opposed to the 11-month Australian experiment.
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