Opel, who are under GM’s European division, have announced plans of selling the brands in China. This will eventually open up to countries in the Asia Pacific region, Australia and South America. Current GM brands in China, include Buick, Cadillac and Chevrolet.
“We will market Opel as a European designed car in the premium segment. There are a growing number of Chinese who like European cars and have the money to afford them,” said company spokesman Andreas Kroemer talking to a German publication.
They have yet to set a date for sales to begin, but the company has previously sold around 4000 cars in the country as a testing phase. Currently the only other way you could get an Opel car in China was through Buick, which included the Opel Insignia-based Buick Regal in its product portfolio.
This will soon change and analysts predict that Opel will initially export cars to China until it has established a market position in the country. It will then assemble cars locally to avoid import taxes, which usually increases the price of the car by 20 percent.
Due to it being marketed as a premium brand, Opel will be competing against the likes of BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen who have been in China for sometime now. It seems that if ever the German-made brand make a return to Malaysia, it will be priced to compete at the premium level, and not the affordable category it’s priced at in Europe.
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ooh yesss, pls bring it here..insignia looks sexy n powerful
If it is BMW level of pricing they are looking for, then forget it. They are not even better than Peugeot, and wants premium pricing….. We dont need you back then, Opel..
BMW and VW??? another wishful thinking … GM if you are reading this, do your homework!
It can barely compete with VW, how to fight with BMW & MB?
compete with VW?? re u sure…VW better than BMW and MErc la bro…VW owner of Porsche, Audi, Lambo, Bentley, Buggati, Skoda, SEAT, SCANIA and soon Proton (jooking)…
quote “It seems that if ever the German-made brand make a return to Malaysia, it will be priced to compete at the premium level, and not the affordable category it’s priced at in Europe.” … why?? should be affordable category as in Europe as well not beemer prices…
maybe they afraid to face T&H head on…
Should be a good news if Opel make a return to Malaysia. The latest product offerings are quite good, quality should be on par with VW (come on man, its German engineered not American!) but comes with more stylish & sexier package. Opel may not have the prestige of Benz, BMW, Audi , but it should be able to compete with semi-premium brands like VW, Alfa, Volvo & Citroen.
Better ask Naza who CKD the new Chervolet Cruze to CKD this…. hmmm wonder the hatch back showed is a competing model with 308?
Opel is with Skoda lar !!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0koda_Auto
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel
please study history properly…everyone know Skoda is with VW…OPEL is with GM
btw i just suspect I read the message wrongly….
Tikus if you just refer to the level Opel should compare itself to….then I guess you are correct.
opssss sorry…maybe you refer to the range of product…then its my fault….sorry :)
Friend… I mean the level of products is on par with Skoda not the company own by Skoda.
ya and that’s why you saw my apology as I miss read it…haha in fact i entered twice for the apology :)
ko malu saje…
actually opel makes quite a good car… well from the past la, and singapore has imported insignia turbo… very good looking car, and germans car has distinctive driving feel, even peugoet just sits in between german and jap.
if they can just price is like H&T then they are welcome … but i doubt they can la.. ahhaa…
at least earliest we can get a car below 180k is VW rolling out CKD loh… pls pls ….
jap car is just too “hollow” feel to drive la…
I see Opel and VW in the same league as Honda and Toyota…but somehow in Malaysia VW pricing is in no-man’s-land..hopefully them Germans are more realistic in pricing their CKD cars…
VW same level honda and toyota..hahaha, jooking right??
test drive the latest scirocco then comment…
Those Opel Kadet was famous here in the 70’s.. ; )
There are still some on the road in my Kampung.
Two or three ‘Kadett’, one ‘Manta’ (which was my dream car when I was a child) and one ‘Kapitan’ from 1959 which looks as new…
Anyway, Opel damaged it’s reputation with the infamous ‘Astra F’. I once had one and it was the worst car I ever owned…
“It seems that if ever the German-made brand make a return to Malaysia, it will be priced to compete at the premium level…”
if Audi finds it hard to compete with BMW and Mercedes in the premium segment in Malaysia, then Opel hm… it gives something to the one who wanna bring it here to think about.
“It seems that if ever the German-made brand make a return to Malaysia, it will be priced to compete at the premium level…”
I don’t think Opel will be priced directly at the same level as the big 3 (Merc, BMW, Audi), possibly slightly lower for the same spec/performance. Insignia is Opel’s biggest car at present, pricing probably will be similar to VW Passat CC. Opel should already be aware of the position of their brand.
With the increase in salaries in China, a lot of potential customers should be able to afford this. It’ll be interesting to see how many Opels are sold a year after launch.
Opel was present in India once upon a time.
started up with really expensive cars and absolutely no advertisement
their spare parts were priced in the BMW category despite the fact none of its cars were declared class leading.
The brand ended up offering big discounts, ruining the resale value and gave the image of high on maintenance, something which haunts the Chevrolets to this day
the brand disappeared in 2005
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPMz4G0o8hA
here is what this grandpa did to GM in India
oh yes full refund of the original price
Not sure about the rest of Asia Pacific, but they have to be insane to think they can get away with that kind of branding here. It’d be like buying an Alfa Romeo, except you don’t get to brag to people that you have an Alfa Romeo.