I worked with Opel/Vx for a number of years and this seems to fit well into the direction they were starting to head in when I moved onto other projects. One of the things being explored in the Corsa niche and smaller was how the demographic view the car - female buyers (from new) were big in the sector and one thing noticed was that many such owners named their car.
There has been a much bigger swing toward this trend recently, coupled with the much wider range of "customisation" being made available from order. It's one part of the market where Mini / 500 have cleaned up recently - DS3 and now Adam are following the trend.
Vx are also very aware of the image that the brand has in certain sectors - hence no internal objections when Omega was dropped (a great shame, I loved mine). The good thing about Vx remaining as a brand is that it can respond to the local market. There's no point in trying to fix the perception of >35 year-olds who consider then to be rusty, smoky old bangers - why bother when there's a load of 20-somethings willing to experience the brand at the entry level?
Insignias will shift by the bucketload in the fleet market - good solid cashcow there. Corsa / Adam owners convert to Astra owners (I don't know what the rate is now, but it was in the mid-60%s and rising 10 years ago), and older drivers convert down to Agila / Meriva. Generally it works.
Unfortunately being strapped onto the back of GM doesn't help. And to answer Nick's question of why not move out of Germany, guess where the deals with government and unions was done when they were in deep do-do?
