Opel Bankruptcy......

[Majobie]

Now the question is - is this a good or Bad thing? I mean Astra's made by the Canadians, with Russian boss's - I'll rather buy Korean!

[dieselhead]

That could become very, very interesting indeed. Imagine Opel coming over here down under as themselves, competing with VW and Fiat. Holden? They're selling Korean cars and ancient V8s, no competition for Opel there

[rjastra]

That could become very, very interesting indeed. Imagine Opel coming over here down under as themselves, competing with VW and Fiat. Holden? They're selling Korean cars and ancient V8s, no competition for Opel there

Imagine Opel, now run by Canadians and Russians, being skewed in design to suit the tastes (or lack thereof) of their new owners.

Or, the new owners, seeing the success of the models in China, skewing the design flavour of the models to suit that huge market.

There are too many permutations to think about. I very much doubt our market is top of their minds at the moment.

More stuff

http://blogs.motortrend.com/6548606/....html#comments

[Hoya]

if OPEL is made in canada/usa will mean it will fail like GM

[Manda88]

waits for india/china to buy it out...

[dieselhead]

I was listening the news on BBC World. An auto industry expert said that Opel's prospects a very dim... The Canadian/Russian consortium put in about 700 million Euros, the German government guaranteed another 2 billion Euros in loans. According to the expert, this is only a "maintaining" deal and he's not sure the company will last too long. He said Opel needs about 25 billion Euros in the next 2-4 years to restructure, develop new models and so on. With GM going bust, Opel will need its own engineering and R&D for a lot of parts they get now via GM.
Hope this guy's wrong...

[Kudrow]

According to a source, GM were almost bankrupt as of 31 May 2009. The US government was to take ownership of 60% of the "new" GM, and the Canadian government was to take a 12% share.

See: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle6339454.ece

Below:

The Obama Administration is preparing to steer General Motors into bankruptcy next week.
Under the draft bankruptcy plan, the company would receive just short of $30 billion (£19 billion) in additional federal loans, as it seeks to shrink and re-emerge as a global competitor, The Washington Post reported.
The figure is a starting point in negotiations between the Government and GM and could change, as could the timing of a bankruptcy filing.
A cash injection that large would boost the Government's investment in GM to nearly $45 billion.
The Administration has already indicated that it plans to take at least 50 per cent of the restructured company and would probably assume the right to name GM directors, the newspaper said.
The move comes as the Administration prepares to move another troubled US car manufacturer, Chrysler, away from bankruptcy protection as early as next week
If GM files for bankruptcy, as widely expected, its healthy assets will be quickly sold to a new company owned by the US Government, a source told Reuters.
The Government would pay for the assets by assuming the carmaker's $6 billion of secured debt and forgiving the bulk of the $15.4 billion of emergency loans that the US Treasury has provided to GM, the source said.
The task force overseeing the restructuring of GM and Chrysler has given GM until June 1 to prove that it can be viable without government aid or face probable bankruptcy.
The company reached a sweeping deal with the United Auto Workers union yesterday and has given its bondholders until next Tuesday to agree to a plan that would reduce its debt.

[Hoya]

GM has done it

http://www.news.com.au/business/stor...-31037,00.html