Opel/Vauxhall sold to Magna/Sperbank

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bpsorrel

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Well there it is! GM sold Opel/Vauxhall to Magna and the Russians!

Shame! Having spent the last 2 months in Russia I can tell you exactly what's planned (according to Russian media).

The Russian government wanted this deal to go through (with Deripaska, the man behind Gaz (Volga and Gazelle vans) and the failed LDV venture) so that the ailing Russian motor industry can get an easy kick start producing ready made and successful Opels with Volga badges. Making sense yet? Well, Gaz will be absorbing Opel and making badge engineered Opels for the Russian (etc) market. LIke with LDV, do you think Sperbank and Gaz will be keeping UK and German plants going whilst building them in Novgorod? Not very likely after 2013 according to most Russians! So, bye bye Vauxhall! Will it be missed? Well, from a jobs viewpoint I would think yes.

I hope I'm wrong, but I was really hoping GM wouldn't sell!
 
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As far as I am aware Vauxhall's problem is that there is little R&D done in the UK. So the majority of the labour force are production assembly staff. With that in mind it's going to be more cost effective to manufacture in Russia than the UK.

A tired old argument I know, but R&D within UK manufacturing does not have a loud enough voice within pressure groups.

Time for me to learn Russian for a job in Novgorod.
 
Let me know when you want to learn, my wife's a really good teacher! LOL!!!

Seriously, you're dead right and it's such a shame.
 
Let me know when you want to learn, my wife's a really good teacher!

Thanks, though I have a hard enough time learning Polish as it is and at least they have the same alphabet as us! :)
 
If you don't mind me asking, why are you learning Polish?
 
If you don't mind me asking, why are you learning Polish?

My wife is Polish. She speaks fluent English but her parents don't so it's still nice to know a few words.

How is it that you speak Russian?
 
Same as you! Wife is Russian, speaks perfect English, but not many of her family in Russia speak English, so I try my best! My mother was Russian too, but as she was born in UK, never spoke Russian to me. My Grandmother did occasionally though and I just used to laugh as a kid! :) Now I'd love to know more of her family history, but it all seems to be lost now all my Mum's family are gone. I know they left Russia in 1905, but that's where the story ends!
 
Well there it is! GM sold Opel/Vauxhall to Magna and the Russians!

Shame! Having spent the last 2 months in Russia I can tell you exactly what's planned (according to Russian media).

The Russian government wanted this deal to go through (with Deripaska, the man behind Gaz (Volga and Gazelle vans) and the failed LDV venture) so that the ailing Russian motor industry can get an easy kick start producing ready made and successful Opels with Volga badges. Making sense yet? Well, Gaz will be absorbing Opel and making badge engineered Opels for the Russian (etc) market. LIke with LDV, do you think Sperbank and Gaz will be keeping UK and German plants going whilst building them in Novgorod? Not very likely after 2013 according to most Russians! So, bye bye Vauxhall! Will it be missed? Well, from a jobs viewpoint I would think yes.




I hope I'm wrong, but I was really hoping GM wouldn't sell!

I'm not so sure Angela Mercel et al would be too keen on that!:mad: Besides which Russians are surely just as much badge snobs as anyone else. :cool: Heh tovarich I see you have a nice new German---Russian [delete as appropriate??]car.;) Yes its an OPEL INSIGNIA-----GAZ 32758 [Delete as appropriate??];) But if you want a bit more political chicanery remember Magna Steyr produced the G wagen in its plant in AUSTRIA, a large proportion of which went to------- the German armed forces.:eek: I reckon Germany has enough political / economic muscle to keep its German factories going--but who knows in this new global economy- I will be watching with interest?:dk:

p.s. I reckon at least one or possibly both of the Vauxhall plants are screwed.:(
 
My wife was reading an article in Gazeta.ru tonight saying the new Volga Siber will be scrapped to make way for Russian built Opels at the Volga plant! Seems it's happening already! Also I heard one of the Vauxhall plants is for the axe any day now! I maybe a Russofile in some ways, but even I wouldn't do business with Russians! Watch this space, I fear for Vauxhall's fate more than ever now!
 
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My wife was reading an article in Gazeta.ru tonight saying the new Volga Siber will be scrapped to make way for Russian built Opels at the Volga plant!

I wonder if initially they will be making only old generation Opels in Russia, by just transporting the old tooling. Rather in the same way as Daewoo used to.
 
Quite likely as it'll take them a long time to develop new ones there I think! Many years ago my wife worked as a translator at Lada in the laughingly named "development department" :D and they spent 2 years developing, wait for it.......a new mud flap design for the Samara model!!!! So what hope a whole new car???? :D
 
Where and when will this madness end?

Less than 50 years ago Britain was one of the worlds leading car makers and designers.

It really does sadden me to see our history and heritage go sailing down the swanee. And so quickly.


:(
 
Where and when will this madness end?

Less than 50 years ago Britain was one of the worlds leading car makers and designers.

It really does sadden me to see our history and heritage go sailing down the swanee. And so quickly.


:(

Our government, and government's before it simply don't care about manufacturing.

As a country we're finished, as our imports far exceed our exports, meaning we're bankrupt.
 
Me too!!! I hate this and wish we'd wake up and see what's happening. I read somewhere a while back the rest of the world sees us as just a tourism country! Can you believe how far we've dropped over the years. I wonder how many more of our businesses we're going to give away to China and Russia??
 
I wonder if initially they will be making only old generation Opels in Russia, by just transporting the old tooling. Rather in the same way as Daewoo used to.

Magna?s Opel Turnaround Plan Challenged by German ?Sacred Cows? - Bloomberg.com

"To save more of Opel’s 25,000 German jobs, Magna plans to move some production to Eisenach from a factory in Spain, even though wages are lower than in Germany"

So to save the failing German factories Magna has to close it's efficient non German factories, thus leading to ever greater losses.

German Opel sales have been propped up by scrappage, which has ended, so sales will plummet, costs will rise, and the German government will need to pump in billions more.

Luton will close in 2013 or sooner given the clause Renault has despite being a profitable factory producing a good product, Elesmere Port will go when the new astra has finished (7 years from now?).

Magna goes belly up, AutoVAZ who by that time will be building Opels in Russia will pick up the rest of Opel on the cheap and close the usless German plants that lead to Opels demise in the first place.

UK loses 35000 more manufacturing jobs and slips further towards economic ruin and third world status...
 
You got in one Nick! Word from Russia today is gleeful prospects of a new improved Volga range on the backs of the UK and German jobs! Sometimes I hate Russia, despite my family connections and love of the "country" itself!

I wonder what the true reason for GM caving in and selling? Political pressure? Bribes? Who knows... But I do remember news of a speach Medvedev made while I was there saying that relations between Russia and Germany would be very "cool" if the Magan deal fell through!!! Amazing eh!
 
This is why I feel we should invest in more new green technologies, as the old ones move east.

You don't have to even believe in the environmental need for it, but just accept that it offers new challenges for engineers to solve.
 
You got in one Nick! Word from Russia today is gleeful prospects of a new improved Volga range on the backs of the UK and German jobs! Sometimes I hate Russia, despite my family connections and love of the "country" itself!

I wonder what the true reason for GM caving in and selling? Political pressure? Bribes? Who knows... But I do remember news of a speach Medvedev made while I was there saying that relations between Russia and Germany would be very "cool" if the Magan deal fell through!!! Amazing eh!

GM will be hoping that Opel/Vauxhall nose dive, so it can use Daewoo as it's European money earner, without any of the costs of having European factories.

GM must have seen the steady inroads that Kia and Hyundai have made in Europe.
 
This is why I feel we should invest in more new green technologies, as the old ones move east.

You don't have to even believe in the environmental need for it, but just accept that it offers new challenges for engineers to solve.

Without any manufacturing capacity we can't do the green stuff either.

Look at the wind turbine factory that shut on the IOW at a time when our government is planning to spend (yet more borrowed cash) billions on wind turbines.

No other country would do this, other counties must laugh at us.
 
GM will be hoping that Opel/Vauxhall nose dive, so it can use Daewoo as it's European money earner, without any of the costs of having European factories.

GM must have seen the steady inroads that Kia and Hyundai have made in Europe.

Don't think Daewoo exists anymore didn't it all get rebranded as Chevrolet? In which case that probably is the money earner without actually having any assets in Europe.
 

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