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Vauxhall may have to source its cars from Korea if General Motors retains the brand after a possible sale of sister brand Opel.

The possibility of Opel becoming separated from GM leaves what one US-based General Motors insider described to Autocar as “a precarious position” in terms of future models and ongoing production in the UK.

GM is weighing up a plan involving sourcing models from its Korean subsidiary, GM DAT (formerly known as Daewoo). It carried out a similar move when it...Read the full article

This sucks! Why can't Vauxhall go with Opel? It's worked until now - especially as Vauxhall have the best range of cars they've had for a long time.

 How many people would buy a badge engineered Lacetti?

 Perhaps they can send the Saturn Astra back to us - as it's based on the European Astra!

This is getting silly Vauxhalls are Daewoos and Opels are Fiats?

Well I suppose the first Daewoos were rebadged old model Vauxhalls so the circle is complete!

The question is who gets the rights to build the Volt / Ampera?

 The late 90's Vectra left such a bad aftertaste , with its quick-release timing belts , that the last Vectra was invisible where I live. Sure the Insignia looks nice , but I dont really care what happens to GM in Europe. If Vauxhall were to sell Daewoos then only the brand would be saved , not jobs/production. Would make more sense for GM to dispose of Vauxhall with Opel on a BOGOF basis . since they've already invested a lot of money in the Chevrolet brand , trying to convince folk that Daewoos are really Chevvys.

   Vauxhall died years ago , but a lot of people haven't realised it yet.

Uncle Mellow:

Would make more sense for GM to dispose of Vauxhall with Opel on a BOGOF basis . since they've already invested a lot of money in the Chevrolet brand , trying to convince folk that Daewoos are really Chevvys.

 

The point is that an independent Opel is likely to have little regard for keeping Vauxhall (as a brand) going. Opel could probably do without dealing with the UK manufacturing activities, such as they are. Having said that, I'd be surprised if Opel didn't take Vauxhall as part of the separation, if only to stop GM from re-using the brand to compete with Opel products, in UK at least.

Vauxhall is nothing more than a re-brand of cars from a variety of different sources, Opel, Suzuki, Daewoo & Holden so, if they were separated from Opel, I see no reason to be affronted by the concept of them dropping a couple of suppliers from that list. If you like the Insignia so much you'll still be able to buy one from Opel.

 

I think Vauxhall should have been moved in a separate, individual direction decades ago. Unfortunately, it has become a 'rebadged Opel' for at least - I'm guessing here - 30 years. Apart from the nostalgic value in the Vauxhall brand held by some there is no real benefit of keeping it alive. All the efforts of bringing Vauxhall's current line up upmarket, especially the Insignia, would go to waste if Daewoo is what we will be getting next.

TheStig:

All the efforts of bringing Vauxhall's current line up upmarket, especially the Insignia, would go to waste if Daewoo is what we will be getting next.

 

Vauxhall, upmarket? In what universe?

kerrecoe:

Vauxhall, upmarket? In what universe?

True, but it's still a bit more upmarket than Chevrolet/Daewoo.

Interesting to see this has now emerged as a real possibility. May I modestly point out that I outlined precisely this option for the future of Vauxhall on these forums several weeks ago!

GM would be perfectly sensible to hang on to its UK operations in this way - the UK is GM's biggest European market after all.

I don't, however think this is quite such bad news for the future of UK production as the article implies; UK closures would be more likely if Vauxhall were part of a German-dominated independent Opel.
 

Audi Tastic:

The question is who gets the rights to build the Volt / Ampera?

That is a real good question; surely GM will not let Voltec go with Opel.

I would like to see Vauxhall remain a partner with GM and build Voltec in the UK.

roadtester:

GM would be perfectly sensible to hang on to its UK operations in this way - the UK is GM's biggest European market after all.

I think it would be a smart move for GM and for Vauxhall.  If Opel/Vauxhall were spun off into a new company without GM's involvement, chances are that they would soon kill the Vauxhall brand and replace it with Opel in the UK.  Opel has always wanted to sell products in the UK under their own banner anyway.

Spinning off the company into a separate unit that is retained by GM Europe would not only allow Vauxhall to continue to thrive in the UK, but would allow them to possibly expand into the rest of Europe to compliment the lower-rung Chevrolet brand.

Some kind of contractual time-table could be set in which, after a certain date, all future Opel and Vauxhall products must have their own unique styling, marketing, monikers, etc.  Then Opel could be allowed to re-enter the UK market under their own badge and Vauxhall could do the same in other markets.

roadtester:

I don't, however think this is quite such bad news for the future of UK production as the article implies; UK closures would be more likely if Vauxhall were part of a German-dominated independent Opel.

I agree, it would be.  If Opel were spun off completely, they could just as easily close Luton and move production to another European production site.  In fact, with Opel gone, GM could arguably expand Luton to accomodate more products in the future.

However, even if some products were imported from GM DAT or other GM Europe factories in Russia or Eastern Europe, it is not entirely a bad thing. 

People like to rip Daewoo for their older products and poor quality.  But honestly, that is in the past.  Yes, Chevrolet does import a few older Daewoo designs (Tacuma, Lacetti), but others have been completely updated (Epica, Aveo) or just replaced altogether with platforms never designed by the former Daewoo Motors (Captiva).

More importantly, moving forward, all their new prodoucts are based on new GM platforms that were co-designed with GM development centers around the world. That means that the Cruze's DeltaII platform (which will replace the Astra) wasn't exclusively created by GM DAT but had input from Opel and GM North America.  Its truly a world platform.  Same can be said for the EpsilonII platform (Opel Insignia/Buick LaCrosse/etc) or the updated Theta platform (Chevy Capitva/Opel Antara). 

So these ARE NOT rehashed Daewoo platforms and Daewoo products that would be rebaged as Vauxhalls.  They are new products brought to market worldwide by GM.  At the end of the day, that means that a Chevy Cruze made in S. Korea or Lordstown, Ohio would be no different from an Astra made in Germany or China since they would be using the same basic components.

 So... could we start seeing Opels be sold in the UK as Opel? Would the vauxhall faithful start buying Opels instead?

If opel is sold, the future buyers must know that if they made it common public knowledge that 'old' vauxhalls were actually opels, and 'new' vauxhalls are Daewoos, they'd have a ready-made customer base. And vauxhall would go down the swanny quicker than you could say "MG Rover".