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That'd actually be a good idea - GM have way too many brands, and need to head in that direction. The brand shedding they've done in recent history is a good start, but there are still ten active brands they run outright, not counting the many they have partial ownership of...
I agree. It's such a simple philosophy that's worked for Ford so far and GM are slowly catching up. Toyota only have a couple of different brands (eg Lexus and Scion) and whilst VW have a few, they keep the platforms the same with the exception of the ultra-luxury/sports cars.
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Yup, although GM has made significant progress with it's other small car brands by using Opel's platforms, so it's a two way street. SAAB, on the other hand, were even more notorious than Opel for reinventing the wheel, and GM got a lot less back...
I know GM were trying to push Opel into the brand space SAAB used to occupy, but that pretty much hasn't worked - Europe don't see Opel as a premium brand, and Vauxhall is only doing well in Britain because they didn't follow that edict, and quickly returned to competitive pricing.
This is something that really needs to be fixed if the Opel brand is to be recognised in new markets. Sure, I look at the jump from the Corsa B to the Corsa C and then to the Astra H era of Opels (from my own experiences) and then I see over the years that they've come a long way in terms of quality, but then so have many other makers and it doesn't make sense to push it upmarket when it's never been that upmarket brand. They probably should've kept just the SAAB name for that reason.