Whilst driving to work yesterday down the A500 I saw a load of new astra's being delivered all with opel badges front and back.
Are these to be re-branded to vauxhall and if so why?
Anyone on here know?
Whilst driving to work yesterday down the A500 I saw a load of new astra's being delivered all with opel badges front and back.
Are these to be re-branded to vauxhall and if so why?
Anyone on here know?
Can't imagine it.... Opels would be LHD surely?
Could be a mistake, or could be some sort of fiddle like adding a valve cap and saying they were UK built, isn't the VX built here, but the Opel built in Europe?
Who knows?
Well I too thought the Astra was being made in UK.
Ellesmere Port, near Liverpool is a main plant for Astra production, both Opel and Vauxhall versions - same as the continental plants which build Astra all do both Opel and Vauxhall.
Rhd Opels are common in Republic of Ireland and Malta and a number have been imported for use here - about 10 years ago one of the big car supermarkets in Cannock was taken to court over importing Opel and re-badging them as Vauxhalls - it's illegal even for private individuals to do that.
nb - putting Opel badges on a Vauxhall is more common here than the other way round - but it would still have to be sold as it's original brand.
I imagine that the same can happen for all Opel/Vauxhall models.
So whats the difference between Opel and Vauxhall versions?
On a transporter, did not see if they turned off towards dealer or not.
The Vauxhall brand is only sold officially in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - the Opel brand being used throughout the rest of Europe and would have replaced Vauxhall in the UK if the Magna deal had gone ahead - Australia and New Zealand use the Holden brand - the rest of the world is mainly Chevrolet. This is all for the same models built in a plant that suits GM not related to the consumer market being sold into.
When GM introduced fuel injection, in the '80s for the 4-cyl Family-B engines fitted to Vauxhall Astra 1.8 (Opel Kadett), Vauxhall Cavalier 1.8/2.0 (Opel Ascona) and Vauxhall Carlton 1.8 (Opel Rekord), sales outstripped European plant capacity, by a long way, so engine/transmissions were brought in from Holden in Australia as they had spare capacity - but they were indistinguishable from German-built engine/transmissions - although Luton assembled Cavaliers and Ellesmere Port assembled Astras they brought the fuel injected engines in from Germany and Australia.
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