The Opel Omega B1 (aka Vauxhall Omega PFL) Design

[Doctor Gollum]

How ever much you dress it up, the Omega B is a mainstream GM product, not a premium one. That's it, it was relatively inexpensive and relatively well equipped... In fact I suspect the specification is why you insist on confusing it with luxury/premium executives.

It had to be well equipped to sell. That's all there is to it.

Although I should add, had it only ever been produced in GLS, CD and CDX specs like the Omega A/Senator B, its strengths would have been the same... Comfortable, capacious large family car with decent road manners.

[TheBoy]

How ever much you dress it up, the Omega B is a mainstream GM product, not a premium one. That's it, it was relatively inexpensive and relatively well equipped... In fact I suspect the specification is why you insist on confusing it with luxury/premium executives.

It had to be well equipped to sell. That's all there is to it.

Although I should add, had it only ever been produced in GLS, CD and CDX specs like the Omega A/Senator B, its strengths would have been the same... Comfortable, capacious large family car with decent road manners.

At launch, badge snobbery was not an issue, and the Omega sold well. It was in the luxury exec market. And would have remained so if further developed, but by the late 90s, its biggest problem was the need, in the UK, for a status badge.

[BazaJT]

Yes perhaps what Vauxhall/Opel could have done with/could do with is a "premium"brand as Toyota did with Lexus and Citroen are doing with the DS range[there are no Citroen badges on the new DS's]whether or not GM could pull it off is another matter.Sadly badge snobbery/status is alive and well,people buy into the marketing that the likes of BMW,Mercedes etc are better built from better quality components,are more reliable and so on it all comes down to peoples perception of a particular brand.

[Doctor Gollum]

Quite. GM upmarket is Cadillac, not Opel and certainly not Vauxhall... And as a Cadillac, it bombed.

Had it been sold in Europe as a Cadillac then GM would probably have been alot stronger here.

[Kevin Wood]

Quite. GM upmarket is Cadillac, not Opel and certainly not Vauxhall... And as a Cadillac, it bombed.

Probably because it had more than about 50BHP/Tonne and didn't corner like a water bed.

Had it been sold in Europe as a Cadillac then GM would probably have been alot stronger here.

Hmm. Not sure there were enough "Boss Hog" wannabe's here for that to have worked.

[TheBoy]

I don't think Cadillac works as an EU brand, like Chevvy etc, it has a downmarket feel over here.

[Doctor Gollum]

Ffs that's my point... Had the Omega B been marketed as a Cadillac, it might have been a better start than trying to pass the STS as a luxury car.

[Nick W]

Right or wrong, but the image Cadillac has in Europe is very different to how Americans see them!

[Doctor Gollum]

Would that still hold true if the Omega B had only had a Cadillac badge on it rather than the Vauxhall/Opel/Chevrolet/Holden one?

[TheBoy]

Ffs that's my point... Had the Omega B been marketed as a Cadillac, it might have been a better start than trying to pass the STS as a luxury car.

It'd be a brave company to attempt to release that they see as their premium offering on a downmarket (in EU) brand...