Dees find a Gem in Opel

[Ice]

agreed to all of the above. To all those that havent heard the name before and to the millions of households it will cover through television coverage, im sure its worth its weight in gold. An excellent strategy and what perfect timing!

[JohnBu]

While brand awareness of Opel isn't high, it won't take long as long as they recognise 'Astra'.

The Astra brand is quite odd.. you get people who love them or hate them.

A couple of my family members purchased new TS Astra's back in the day with my suggestion, they were very happy with the cars (in 98 the Astra was leaps and bounds better than the opposition), but little things did go wrong after 5-6 years which in itself isn't too bad.

BUT the issue was they weren't mechanically minded and where charged a fortune by the dealers for simple repairs, when I could have got parts from the UK at 1/5th the price, so that left a sour taste in their mouths, not the car itself.

I see the same thing with VW these days, quite a few one time VW buyers who vow never to buy another VW due to the way they were treated by VW and the cost of servicing/parts/repairs.

So I hope Opel Australia learns from this. Maybe even introducing fixed priced servicing for the first 3 years. It doesn't have to be cheap servicing like Toyota's $120, but a fixed $300 odd price like Peugeot which will relieve some buyers.

VW have really scared off 2nd round buyers with $430 first services, $650 second services.

I'm looking forward to seeing some Opels on the road, especially the performance versions. The OPC Astra looks like a cracker!