Opel quits the Australian market

[indoctrine]

This is really sad news. I had high hopes of being able to achieve my dream of buying a new Opel oneday.

Me too.

[HoldenAstra]

I don't. Yes our dollar is weakening but that's due to the rest of the world becoming stronger again. We were only experiencing such a high due to comparison to the rest of the world. Germany would have been pretty silly to expect that to last forever

Obviously Germany did not expect weak AUD in such a short time. With the weak AUD, Opel Australia needs to pay more than before, to get the cars to Australia. Without price increase, they will probably lose money.

[poita]

Obviously Germany did not expect weak AUD in such a short time. With the weak AUD, Opel Australia needs to pay more than before, to get the cars to Australia. Without price increase, they will probably lose money.

As would every other car company in Australia

[Jen]

As would every other car company in Australia

Exactly. I hate hearing the excuse that it's the aussie dollar. Apparently petrol prices went up due to our strengthening dollar now our weakened dollar is to blame for them rising again apparently. Business practice would have them factoring in fluctuations before making the decision to import the brand, that's business 101 from an international perspective

[45Trekker]

As would every other car company in Australia

Rubbish. The Euro to the Yen has moved 35% in the last year. That means the Japanese manufacturers are laughing and the Euro people are hurting. If they bought a long way forward they are covered but as a new entrant with uncertain sales Opel probably would have had minimum forward cover. Opel has been under large financial pressure for years in Germany and does not have the financial freedom that some other manufacturers enjoy.

[poita]

All of the other Euro dealerships seem to be doing fine. If it was so hard for them why aren't VW or MB closing sites down at the least?

It's a bullshit excuse for anyone to try and use. For Opel to dip their toes into a market for only 11 months and pull the pin shows a complete lack of research and commitment from head office.

If Opel was legitimately wanting to make an impact in the Australian market they would of launched with more than 3 models.

Why not bring out the Adam if they were so concerned about the small car market.

And waiting times were a shit load less than other brands, try and get a VW with a few options within 6 months. Or the massively overrated Toyota 86.

They would have advertised outside the major cities. I'm 400km from Brisbane and didn't see one commercial for them.

People travel far and wide to buy a car if they are genuinely excited about it or if the seller puts across a good front.

It was a totally half assed attempt all round imo, and from talking to many people about it they won't get very far if they come back again.

My 2c, take it or leave it.

[hazrd]

^^^^^ 100% concur

[Jen]

Totally agree Pete

[Ice]

Agreed Pete. Amazing what seems like a lack of planning on their behalf and utter disappointment. I really had high hopes for them... alas is done and dusted.

[SIMid]

There must be more behind all this than what is happening on our shores. For them to keep promoting new models, only to be told an hour to all staff before the press release that they are packing up and leaving is saying there is something majorly wrong at Opel in Germany. All the millions invested here was for long term and yes, they should understand that it will take a few punches with losses to start with. It wasn't Opel Australia saying that this is it and handing everything back.

Maybe they expected the name "Astra" to kick start them on a win (flogging the Astra ads), which it didn't.

They should had let it run it's course for 3 years then decide to jump. Can't remember how long SEAT lasted here. Maybe a couple of years? I'm sure Renault and Skoda (as someone mentioned before) aren't selling like hotcakes, but have improved sales over the years.