Opel’s foray into the Australian market, which began in late October, 2012, has come to an end. Having sold just under 1600 vehicles in that time period, Opel has decided that the Australian market is not viable for its wares.
Australian outlet Drive interviewed Opel officials in Australia who claimed that Opel was unable to price itself competitively in the marketplace. Their Astra compact was simply too expensive to compete with offerings from other makers like Toyota, Mazda and Hyundai, whose compact cars are among Australia’s top sellers.
Opel’s launch also raised questions regarding internal competition with Holden, GM’s Australian arm. While Opel maintained that it would offer a “European brand experience“, the fact that Holden once offered the Astra did little to help clarify matters for Australian consumers.
Sure glad the Buick Verano doesn’t look like a Mazda like the Opel Mokka does.
You do know the Buick Encore is the Opel Mokka….
I meant Astra. Title and picture confused me before coffee.
“…which began in late October, 2012…”
“Their Astra compact was simply too expensive to compete with offerings from other makers like Toyota, Mazda and Hyundai, whose compact cars are among Australia’s top sellers.”
Did something fundamentally shift between Oct 2012 and Aug 2013?
What kind of marketing plan was this?
Possibly the former Susan Docherty’s.
She ran Chevy and Cadillac in Europe, not Opel. The responsible party is probably someone from the interim Opel crew from last year. Or Girsky.
Right; you’d think that Opel would have already made an appearance in Australia before now. Apparently, it didn’t for good reason.
I wonder what resources GM sunk into this misadventure.
Seemed kinda dumb when they alredy have the Holden brand.
What the hey is going on in the GM Marketing tube?
I should have went into marketing.
1600 units, was that only one model I presume?
I mean hell, they can afford to make a boneheaded move that the majority of people can call before it even happens, yet it took this long for us to get the commodore?
No surprise here even Oz politicians look like adolescents frozen in middle-age.
The Opel in the picture has its steering wheel on the wrong side. Tell me that is just TTAC’s doing, after all who has a file photo of a right hand drive Opel Astra. If GM had anything to do with it, that would be news.
When I saw the Opel Australia site only showing LHD cars, I also feared GM decided to import LHD models despite having RHD Vauxhalls. It was definitely not the first time they did something like this (in any one of the RHD markets).
Fortunately (?), it looks like Opel marketing was just too cheap or lazy to take pictures of RHD cars in this case. It does make you wonder how much thought and effort was put into this silly idea.
pathetic. can’t have enough words to describe how pathetic this is.
This doesn’t surprise me. I’ve read Australia has the most competitive vehicle market in the world.
Just because Opel doesn’t make it here, doesn’t mean it’s doomed. GMH has worked closely with Opel in the past and could do so in the future.
I don’t think there is room in the Australian market for Holden and Opel. Australians are used to buying their Opel’s with Holden badges so I fail to understand why any one would mess with that. GM should know better.
It would be difficult to justify an Opel Astra in Australia, even if you were familiar with the previous models badged as Holdens. You can get a Holden Cruze with a hatchback and a diesel for far cheaper, and it’s made in Australia.