Though the local auto industry in Australia is slowly drawing to a close, a few Opels will soon be found in Holden showrooms, beginning with the Cascada convertible.
Carsguide reports Holden dealers were told in a briefing to make room for the convertible on their sales floors, as well as to expect more Opels to arrive in the future. Though nothing more was said about which Opels were to follow, News Corp Australia believes the Astra could be the next in line, sold alongside the locally produced Cruze until the end of all local production in 2017.
The Cascada’s arrival to the Australian market comes after Opel as a brand left the continent in August 2013, where 20 dealerships were folded and 15 office staff based in Melbourne were dismissed due to poor sales; prior to the experiment, Opel sold their cars with Holden badges in the 1990s through the early 2000s.
Opel’s return is part of a strategy by General Motors president and New Zealand native Dan Ammann to reaffirm his employer’s commitment to the Australian market, and to Holden, as he told reporters at the 2014 Geneva Auto Show this week:
We’re going to make sure we bring the product portfolio to the market that the customers really want. The Australian market has evolved a lot… it’s going to come back to how do we best meet their needs.
The Cascada will be sold for $50,000 AUD by the end of 2014.
That’s a very shiny car to be parked on the street! Unfortunately, and though the Cascada is nice looking, I don’t think this Opel idea will go over in Australia. They’re much better off sticking with Holden and doing a gradual change to Chevrolet, or etc. Because not even Europeans who are quite familiar with Opel want an Opel.
But whatever GM, it’s been a few months maybe everyone will have had a change of heart. Not.
@CoreyDL,
Chevrolet brand name is permanently dead in Australia. Opel lasted about 8 months a year ago in Australia.Cannot understand the stupidity of this decision.
Is there some other brand which you feel GM could use in AUS besides Holden?
@Coreydl
GMNA has stated Holden will be used for all post 2017 products. Logically it makes sense. problem is going to be those imported products which at present are not faring well.
GM gives me a headache with things like this.
it’s brown
it’s a convertible
it might even have a mt but at $45K USD i would not be interested.
In the UK, they start at GBP24k (with dealers offering them for GBP20k).
And that’s with the hassle of converting to right hand drive.
GM should be able to sell it to you ‘Mericans for $30-32k. Surely more appetite for it at that price, especially with the disappearance of the Chrysler 200 convertible.
At that price, it should be a sales hit just like the VW Eos.
@spreadsheet monkey
In Australia most of our imported vehicles come highly blinged. So I would look at UK midspec pricing to make a more accurate comparison.
Just look at all of the base model Euro vehicles.
We do pay more for our vehicles, but the manufacturers put more of the good $hit into them.
Think of all of them being bought by rental car companies for use in Florida!
Seems like GM is doing everything in its power to find a use – any use – for Opel.
And when this effort fails, GM will go back to the drawing board and find some other use for Opel.
Imported from Poland.
The brown colour makes me think it should be called the Cascara.
I could see them selling well in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Auckland.
Probably not too many would sell in the Outback, but if GM would sell RHD full-size pickups and SUVs there, that would be another story.
The 3/4 view makes it look like a BMW six series cabri to me, though I’m guessing it is much smaller in real life.
*Much* smaller, because the 6-Series is a big coupe. This is closer in volume to the outgoing Chrysler 200 cabriolet, possibly shorter in length…
I’ve seen a few of these here in Germany.
Sharp-looking car.
If Opel goes down the s****** one day, they surely cannot blame Opel’s current design team. They’ve been doing a very good job in recent years.
So against all sensible advice GM introduced Opel into Australia and then spent eleven months competing against their sister brand,Holden. Pulled the pin on Opel for twelve months and now GM has decided it would be a good idea to bring Opel back. WTF
I am wondering what the next brave move from GM will be? Perhaps it will “Buick For a Week” or maybe
“Its Cadillac Month at Your Holden Dealer “
@Richardbl,
The Holden brand name is not going to die after 2017.So the same stupid decision is being made.
I don’t think that Australia is the right market in which to introduce a semi-premium brand, but GM knows best.
Looking at the car itself, it´s a decent product and offers more features than a similarly sized Audi. The detail design of the interior door skins left something to be desired but at the price I wouldn´t complain. I can see why Opel want a wider audience for the car. But anavoidably this brings me to why they re-launching Opel after so recently abandoning the brand in that market. I had thought GM was past this kind of rather cretinous management. The problem with GM is not the engineering but the people in suits who seem to be tugging at the corporate controls like lunatics struggling for the control of an aeroplane.
I also wanted to say that you can find an interesting discussion of the Cascada´s ancestor, the Opel Ascona at http://driventowrite.com/2014/02/27/the-long-shadows-of-the-past/.
Comments are welcome, especially from anyone with an expertise in the J-platform with which it shared so much. I am deeply in awe of the brand/engineering knowledge of writers and contributors here so it would be nice to hear from you and further the discussion!
Its funny watching Americans comment on the Australian motor industry, if the Cascada sells in the same numbers as the old Astra Convertible, then it’ll be sure to sell well. Holden has a brilliant line up in Australia, and the Cascada would only add to that. In concern to other Opel’s, I could see a case for the Astra OPC to be imported as a hot hatch to compete with big seller Golf GTI, but I can’t see a market for the other Astras, or Insignias or the Zafira.
Adding to a previous Comment, If GM replaced Holden with Chevrolet, sales would dramatically plummet, look at the UK, people didnt want a Chevy, they wanted a Vauxhall.