Yes, in the midst of the GM – Opel divorce, the tell-me-why-we-went-upmarket-again Insignia turbo six has appeared on our favorite Spanish auto blog Motorpasion (hola amigos!). I could summarize their info, but I know that our Best and Brightest are a multilingual mob—or at least] listened to Dora the Explorer way too many times. So here’s the quatro uno uno from la boca de caballo. But remember: these are spy shots. No digas ni mu or ni pío de esto.
Es una pena que nuestro lector Daerox no haya podido acercarse algo más a esta unidad del Opel Insgnia OPC, ya que hubiesemos podido verlo con total claridad, puesto que iba totalmente desnudo al ser el protagonista de un reportaje fotográfico.
Pero menos da una piedra y ya que en la presentación privada sólo pudimos ver su frontal, ahora, aunque en la imagen se vea algo pequeño, también podemos ver su trasera, que presenta un nuevo paragolpes con lo que parece un pequeño difusor, flanqueado por una salida de escape a cada lado.
La información oficial todavía está por revelar, así que todos los datos son meras especulaciones, pero recordemos que se hablaba de un motor V6 Twin-Turbo de 320 CV con los que plantar cara a rivales como elVolkswagen Passat R36 o el Audi S4
RS4. De momento, apunta maneras con esa tracción integral y unas vías más anchas. Y por que no, con una estética muy bien conseguida.
Car looks good, wish I knew what the words meant!
Why did Opel go upmarket?? I thought we discussed this here many times. With Mercedes, BMW, and Audi sullying their brands by going further and further down market, customers can now abandon the mass marketers to get the luxury name, and it is killing Opel, Ford, etc. They have no choice but to provide the luxury features people want if they want to keep the customers.
@dwford :
Why did Opel go upmarket??
Why did Opel spiral downmarket from the 1960s on? The Kapitäns, Admirals and Diplomats of the old times were credible Mercedes competitors with I6 or V8 power. The later Rekords and Senators were still credible mid- and fullsize RWD sedans and wagons.
Then they killed the Senator and only let the Omega live. A few years ago, the Omega was killed (or moved to Australia to live on as the Holden Commodore)
Why did Opel go upmarket?? I thought we discussed this here many times. With Mercedes, BMW, and Audi sullying their brands by going further and further down market
Mercedes, BMW and Audi are not luxury or upmarket brands traditionally.
Mercedes’ brand value is based on longevity and tradition, Audi’s brand value is based on quirky technology of Audi and the brands which were merged into it (DKW, NSU) (3=6, Wankel, turbo, quattro, TDI, FSI), BMW’s brand value is based on the way their cars handle and drive.
So why should BMW need to make only unobtainable expensive gizmofied leather wrapped monster machines? Their best cars have traditionally been the small ones.
2002. E30 3-series. 1-series.
dwford:
Because GM had this really dumb idea to bring the Chevrolet brand to Europe.
(They really aren’t bringing Chevys to Europe, they’re bringing Daewoos. The only model North American Chevy that is sold in Europe is the HHR. Everything else is a Daewoo.)
(The Corvette is sold as a Corvette, not a Chevy)
(I find it hilarious that the description of the HHR on the German Chevrolet site is “The rebel in the Chevrolet family”)
Can anyone say where this picture was taken? The buildings in the back are quite interesting.
Oh, and the car looks cool too. It would never dawn on GM to import it into North America.
I really should speak Spanish since I seem to have inherited some random Latin genes or something. My brother looks so vastly different from me it’s alarming.
Nice Opel. Sweet! Hey GM, if only you had… ah, eh.
(Sort of off topic) Mexicans/Latinos make some pimpin’ car parts it seems. Like Garrett cores!
“… is a Mexican made Garrett core. Good pins, nice internal fins, dense as hell, good solid old school technology.
The Garrett core is a nice piece. Does what it needs to do.”
-Eurojet blog
Also, if you like Latin themed or Latino cartoons, then you should absolutely watch The Mysterious Cities of Gold. It was on Nickelodeon. Esteban, Zia and Tao – remember them? My gosh Nickelodeon should have a sequel or a spinoff or a Latin edutainment show based on those characters!
“Why did Opel go upmarket??” was a rhetorical question. I answered it myself with the sentences that followed. The written word really is the worst form of communication.
Sad too, I might be the only person who was actually looking forward to seeing the whole Saturn=Opel thing develop.
Because GM had this really dumb idea to bring the Chevrolet brand to Europe.
And such a dumb idea it was, too. It gives GM three luxury brands in Europe (Cadillac, Opel and Saab), and effectively cuts Opel off from the mass-market sales in needs to survive, while selling Chevies and Cadillacs that Europeans don’t give a damn about.
As far as I can tell, GM thought that intracompany cannibalization and brand dilution worked so well in North America that they’d try it in Europe, too.
You’re not missing out on much if you can’t read the Spanish.
“It’s a pity our reader Daerox couldn’t get a little closer to this Opel Insignia OPC, because we would’ve been able to see it clearly given that it was totally naked as it was featuring in a photoshoot. [run-on sentences are normal in Spanish]
But it doesn’t matter and though in the private presentation we could only see its front, now, though it’s a bit small in the image, we can also see its rear, which features a new bumper with what appears to be a small diffuser flanked by an exhaust tip on each side.
The official information has yet to be revealed so all the specs are mere speculation, but let’s remember that there was talk of a 320hp twin-turbo V6 with the intention of facing off against rivals like the VW Passat R36 or the Audi S4. For now, it hints at its abilities with all wheel drive and a wider track. And why not, with a very well implemented aesthetic.”
I think that’s Barcelona.
Looks like a reskinned 1975 Chevrolet Monza.
After 5 semesters of Latin Spanish (They have a different dialect in Spain) I could understand quite a bit, but thanks to Sr. Carlisimo I got the whole idea.
Nothin much really. Opel Insignia+ turbos. I think it’s a nice idea, as they already make performance models of most of their line-up.
This car is gorgeous. I hope GM brings it over here in a similar form, and hopefully with AWD. I’m never going to own a FWD sedan if I can help it.
I too am watching the Opel-Saturn thing unfold too. They should have planned ahead and sold the Insignia here as the Aura (or just skipped the whole rebadge thing). Of course they might need to build it here to actually profit from it.
Dunno why they don’t promote their Saturn products better and build some of the Opels in the USA (or Mexico at least) so they can profit from these nice products they sell everywhere else.
Imagine an Astra or Insignia wagon. Yeah…