Nice car! No cross your fingers for the brand!
just kidding.
Nice car! No cross your fingers for the brand!
just kidding.
KFL Racing Enterprises - Kicking your ass since 2008
*cough* http://theitalianjunkyard.blogspot.com/ *cough*
Nice car, congratz, the CDTIs are very popular over here.
"Religious belief is the “path of least resistance”, says Boyer, while disbelief requires effort."
Seems that Opels will be sold in the US under the Buick brand...
Buick to get next-gen Astra in 2011
Minimising losses can maximise net gains
and alsoBuick to get next-gen Astra in 2011
05/06/2009, 9:52 AM
By Drew Johnson
General Motors will cut ties with its Saturn brand by the end of the year, but that won’t mark the end of Opel vehicles in the United States. Saturn currently stands as GM’s Opel import division, but that responsibility will soon switch over to Buick.
Although rumors of an Opel-ized Buick have been swirling for some time now, GM’ Product Board has officially signed off on the plan, according to GM Inside News. However, the first Opel-sourced Buick product will not be based on the Antara (Saturn Vue) or Insignia as first thought, but rather the Astra hatchback.
The Saturn Astra hasn’t exactly set the sales charts on fire, but GM is hoping for a different outcome when Astra switches over to the Buick brand. Unlike the current Astra, Buick will be getting an all-new model designed with the U.S. market in mind.
The new Astra will roll into Buick dealers in late 2011 as a 2012 model, although the Buick version won’t likely wear the Astra nameplate. In order to keep costs in line – a major problem with the Saturn Astra – GM will produce the Buick Astra in North America. GM has yet to officially decide on a production location, although the company’s Lordstown, Ohio and San Luis Potosi, Mexico plants are the early frontrunners. It remains unclear if both the three- and five-door variants of the Astra will make it into Buick’s lineup.
Although there has been a lot of talk about GM’s plan to sell Opel, that decision won’t affect future Opel-sourced Buick. GM is actually looking to sell Adam Opel, not GME Europe AG. GM Europe owns the rights to all of Opel’s designs and engineering, regardless of what happens to the Adam Opel brand.
both from leftlane enwsRumors began circulating earlier this week that Saab was in talks with Fiat, but the struggling automaker’s CEO flat-out denied the existence of conversations with the Italians. That doesn’t mean that the government of Sweden hasn’t held talkswith Fiat, however, as a spokesman at the Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications confirmed.
“We have had contact with Fiat,” said Hakan Lind, the Ministry’s spokesman, told Reuters. “The meeting was about Saab.”
He didn’t confirm any details beyond the existence of the conversation, but given Fiat’s apparent interest in acquiring all of GM Europe, including Opel, Vauxhall and Saab, it seems plausible that the Swedish automaker could become part Italian.
Yet Saab says that Fiat is not interested, despite Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne’s announcement that his goal was to acquire all of GM’s European operations.
“We [are] not aware of Fiat,” Saab spokesman Eric Geers told Agence-France Presse. “Of course we know that there have been discussions in Germany but not specifically on Saab.”
Saab CEO Jan Ake Jonsson told Tidningarnas Telegrambyra “It was the head of Fiat who put two and two together and turned it into four, but that’s nothing I want to speculate about. We aren’t holding any discussions with Fiat.”
Saab says that it has about 10 interested parties, none of which include Fiat, and that, according to Jonsson, it is “expecting an indication of their interest this week.”
With conflicting reports coming out of Sweden and Italy, really anything is game. Months ago, when GM first announced that it would sell off its Saab unit, analysts immediately predicted that Fiat would emerge as a potential suitor. At the time, Fiat’s cash situation was far more flush than most other automakers and CEO Marchionne’s suggestion that the industry would need to consolidate seemed to go hand in hand with Saab’s need for new ownership.
KFL Racing Enterprises - Kicking your ass since 2008
*cough* http://theitalianjunkyard.blogspot.com/ *cough*
So in other words Buicks won't be Opels.
And by the looks of things neither will Opels be Opels...
Lack of charisma can be fatal.
Visca Catalunya!
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