Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[anV6]

So reinstate the 100,000 mile warranty to the whole VX range and launch a car in the executive class, with a standard kit as mentions above and we are on the right track?

I think it will take more than that to shake the snobbery concerning Vauxhall out of people's minds.

[Pmacca2000]

Yes but you need to start somewhere and saying your product is reliable is a good start and VX have done this before

[anV6]

Yes but you need to start somewhere and saying your product is reliable is a good start and VX have done this before

But it doesn't look like it did much for them though, right? Maybe the reason they stopped?

Offering a longer warranty may have helped the Koren brands to increase their market share. But that doesn't help them in being looked at as premium badges, which is the goal here, correct? It helps them to sell more cars. Vauxhall already sell plenty. This is not the problem. But the longer warranty won't make people pay BMW-ish money for a Kia. But this is what we need a premium Opel/Vauxhall brand for. So they can sell the cars for more than they can an Opel/Vauxhall. If they can get more money for the cars they can make them better. A longer warranty won't really help much here. I think it should be there. But it's not even scratching the surface towards the main goal IMO. 

[Pmacca2000]

If you sold the new product for £50,000, loaded with luxury and plush finishes and the technology to make it appealing with a 100,000 mile warranty I would hope it would at least get a second look from any BMW, Audi or Mercedes customer?
Clearly not badged as VX or Opel it would stand out?
Maybe fase out the Opel name and sell VX throughout Europe and slowly reintroduce the Opel as the high end brand?
If memory serves, Opel a precious stone?

[Doctor Gollum]

 

Opal is a stone, Opel is, or rather was, a man.

The only reason the Vauxhall brand exists, and I mean only given all the products are either European or Global, is that GM management are worried that they would lose their market share if we all became Opel.

Don't believe me? Ask yourself why Chevrolet was pulled in the UK

Buick could work as a global premium brand... but consider that the new Insignia is already a rebranded Buick LaCrosse, so that's not going to work, and expect to be sorely disappointed when the 3.6 version doesn't get sold in Europe.

[anV6]

If you sold the new product for £50,000, loaded with luxury and plush finishes and the technology to make it appealing with a 100,000 mile warranty I would hope it would at least get a second look from any BMW, Audi or Mercedes customer?
Clearly not badged as VX or Opel it would stand out?
Maybe fase out the Opel name and sell VX throughout Europe and slowly reintroduce the Opel as the high end brand?
If memory serves, Opel a precious stone?

If the new product wore the proposed premium badge and would be worthy of it's badge, then certainly 100,000 miles warranty would be very welcome and a great addition to the package. All I was saying is the extra warranty alone wouldn't do much to change the perception about Vauxhalls, as it didn't.

About discontinuing the Opel name and keeping Vauxhall, that will never happen. Easier to happen the other way around. Although supposedly they tried it in the UK and Opel didn't fair very well there. Reason they kept it Vauxhall. But no chance of killing the Opel name in Europe. No chance at all. Too much of a following. It would be like killing the VW name. Will never happen.

Using the Opel name as the premium badge won't work either. Too much history. It needs to be a brand new badge, since GM just doesn't have any brands under it's umbrella which could do the job in Europe. When Cadillac, which is their top premium badge doesn't have what it takes to do the job, no other current GM badge can. Buick is just Cadillac for different people and cheaper. Chevrolet is the mass market badge. Holden will link back to Australia where it is basically Vauxhall. With the internet info travels. Even the now dead badges like Oldsmobile and Pontiac wouldn't cut it. It needs to be European, even if Opel/Vauxhall is American owned. It needs to be European in essence. It doesn't matter who owns it. Look at Land Rover and Jaguar which are now owned by an Indian company. For the general public is still British. This is what counts. They buy it because they see it as a premium European brand.

The new premium brand will need to be European to be successful in Europe and GM has none now. So it needs to be new. 

[Pmacca2000]

Any ideas on a name, I was thinking Elite as the first top spec omegas were, Opel as in the jewel but I get the point and yes, GM Europe were trying to sell both VX and opels through the one dealer network in the early 1980s? Possibly to fase out VX and thankfully it failed!

Eather way we are looking at the thinking executives car here, Vauxhalls Lexus before they started making ugly cars 😋

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

GM Europe have no interest whatsoever in becoming involved, again, in the luxury car market, so it aint going to happen.
The thinking used to be that they needed to have flagship models, often sold at a loss, to give the brand some credibility, and help sell cars lower down the model range.
Some brave accountant decided that this actually wasn't necessary at all, and that they could never really knock Mercedes/ /BMWetc of their perches, and he has been proved right.
 R&D money is now dedicated to cars which don't use fossil fuel, and eventually don't have drivers, rather than something which weighs 2 tonnes and uses a gallon of fuel every 23 miles, but has really comfy seats.
It really isn't going to happen. Ever.

[Doctor Gollum]

When you say ever, do you mean never ever, or just ever?

I ask because if there is so much as a glimmer of hope, then there is no possibility of these nonsensical debates from ever ending. Ever...

[Kevin Wood]

When you say ever, do you mean never ever, or just ever?

I ask because if there is so much as a glimmer of hope, then there is no possibility of these nonsensical debates from ever ending. Ever...

 

I'm not sure what makes you think that the total absence of hope will change anything.

[anV6]

Any ideas on a name, I was thinking Elite as the first top spec omegas were, Opel as in the jewel but I get the point and yes, GM Europe were trying to sell both VX and opels through the one dealer network in the early 1980s? Possibly to fase out VX and thankfully it failed!

Eather way we are looking at the thinking executives car here, Vauxhalls Lexus before they started making ugly cars 😋

I'm not too big on Elite. First it's too obvious. An "elite" badge called elite? Second it has too strong of a connection to Vauxhall. We want to make people forget Vauxhall, right? 

So I think it would need to be more creative than that.

[anV6]

GM Europe have no interest whatsoever in becoming involved, again, in the luxury car market, so it aint going to happen.
The thinking used to be that they needed to have flagship models, often sold at a loss, to give the brand some credibility, and help sell cars lower down the model range.
Some brave accountant decided that this actually wasn't necessary at all, and that they could never really knock Mercedes/ /BMWetc of their perches, and he has been proved right.
 R&D money is now dedicated to cars which don't use fossil fuel, and eventually don't have drivers, rather than something which weighs 2 tonnes and uses a gallon of fuel every 23 miles, but has really comfy seats.
It really isn't going to happen. Ever.

Yep. Like I said myself, I doubt it will ever happen. But it's still fun to chat about it. 

[anV6]

When you say ever, do you mean never ever, or just ever?

I ask because if there is so much as a glimmer of hope, then there is no possibility of these nonsensical debates from ever ending. Ever...

 

I'm not sure what makes you think that the total absence of hope will change anything.

Hmmm, I'm not sure where the debate is really. 

Pmacca2000 and I are merely having a nice chat about a subject we both seem to like, cars. All that, in a car forum too. So I'm not seeing anything out of place here.

So I would agree with you. The absence of hope wont change anything. We will keep enjoying talking about it.

[Pmacca2000]

In fairness anv6 and i are enjoying talking about brand development and while VX have no intention of developing an upmarket brand it's interesting to develop the idea and see were it goes, especially if things change and VX could theoretically use some of our ideas?
Any ideas on a name?

[Doctor Gollum]

When you say ever, do you mean never ever, or just ever?

I ask because if there is so much as a glimmer of hope, then there is no possibility of these nonsensical debates from ever ending. Ever...

 

I'm not sure what makes you think that the total absence of hope will change anything.

Ho humph... off to start a classic bus tyre thread