What will Opel mean for Skoda in 2012

[RSwag]

Last GoAuto had the head of Volkswagen Sales, Nick Angelis heading to Opel to head up their entry into the Australian market.

Nick was highly regarded at VW and was a surprise loss given what he has achieved over the last 4-5 years. You have to ask yourself why he would make such a move unless he sees another VW type emergence in the Opel product.

It appears all the media to date surrounding Opel has been positive and setting it up to be a strong competitor to VW, something Skoda hasn't even managed to do even though it's in some cases a better product, and price wise will be more of a comparison.

In fact I believe in the latest interview with the head of VW Oz the lady running now stated that Opel make very good cars but 'we are not worried' referring to it's impact on VW, making no mention of Skoda.

I wonder whether Wiesner shares the same view for his product, well no I realise he is not good at picking market trends so he probably would share the same view for Skoda!

Whats the general consensus now Opel are about to cone onto the playground, will it havens impact?

[Greg Roles]

As a rep myself ( medical ) people change for an advancement, more pay, or they are bored / have personality clashes / problems with policy. I don't think what you are selling really comes that much into it. I expect Opel have promised him career advancement, a nice pay rise, and something new, all very appealing from a sales rep point of view.

Skoda can be controlled by VW, so it would never be allowed to directly challenge it,, and I reckon VW is very worried, some serious competition coming from all fronts, least of all the Asian market! Best news is this might just make VW become a bit more competitively priced, a win for the consumer.

Opel is indeed a bold move, in a tough climate, but they do have some cracking cars.....

[GTi Bhoy]

Opel product is nowhere near what VW offers.
Nothing to worry about for VW its all the people who bought old Astras and Barinas that dont want Korean rubbish that will buy Opels.

[RSwag]

Opel product is nowhere near what VW offers.
Nothing to worry about for VW its all the people who bought old Astras and Barinas that dont want Korean rubbish that will buy Opels.

Do you know much about the globally car market GTi Bhoy??

Google the words VW competes with Opel or similar and you will find that Opel is the biggest competition VW have in Europe to date. Opel are regarded as having as high quality vehicle in build and finish, you will see they are one of the only manufacturers to laserweld there chassis like the VW group do.

To say they are no competition is just plain wrong.

[K1W1]

Opel have been coming to Australia "this year" for about the last four years. When I start seeing them actually for sale I'll stop yawning every time I read a story about how they will shake up the Australian market.
This is a totally boring subject.

---------- Post added at 02:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:37 PM ----------

you will find that Opel is the biggest competition VW have in Europe to date.

The key words being "in Europe" which is a market that is not dominated by Asian manufacturers like the Australian and US markets are.

[Jake02]

I'm only saying this: unlike a friend of mine's 2008 Astra, I'm pretty sure Skoda/VW's don't pack up at 100,000km.

[K1W1]

I'm only saying this: unlike a friend of mine's 2008 Astra, I'm pretty sure Skoda/VW's don't pack up at 100,000km.

Neither do many of the Astras I have seen around with way, way more than 100,000 kms on them. No matter what the model there will always be cars that die soon, plenty that die in the middle and a few that seem to run forever. I saw a 1960's Toyota Corona being driven around quite happily the other day so by using your one car story and my one car sighting we should probably all be buying old Toyotas rather than either Astras or Skodas.

BTW Jake. It took me about 3 seconds to google a query ("Skoda engine failure") and find this post on Briskoda.
"Hello Friends. I need help, a BIG HELP from some/all of you regarding a situation I have with my SKODA OCTAVIA 1.6 FSI
I have a 56 reg. OCTAVIA that has run ~36k miles. I bought this as a used car from Robinson SKoda in Norwich for £6K when it had 34k on it.
Just before the end of year, my car failed to start. RAC was called and the computers hooked up diagonised a burnt ignition coil.
The car was taken to Citygate Skoda, Colindale as it was still under SKODA RETAIL WARRANTY (came as part of purchase from Robinson SKODA).
Citygate first confirmed the problem was ignition coil. Few days later, he said spark plugs had gone bad - ironically 4 months ago, i spent 500 k to have 4th year/40k miles servicing which involved replacing sparkplugs among other things.
Later they said they needed to remove top of the engine. And latest update is the valves need to be relaped and rebuilt which would cost be 3k!!!"

[Jake02]

Oh KIWI what a shame we disagree again. Of course all cars are different and I'm not saying that a Skoda isn't going to pack up at 100k, but in my experience with both Opel and Skoda/VW products (that is, many friends/relatives owning them), Opels are more unreliable and fairly less well built than Skodas/VWs. The JD Power survey results reflect this, where in the UK Vauxhall is often near the bottom, Skoda near the top (but VW down the bottom as we know).

Opels are vastly better looking than Skodas (especially the Insignia vs Superb saloon) but otherwise, Skodas are a superior product and hopefully the Australian public realise this. Opel will also have a huge gap in their lineup - an SUV (and anyone who calls the Mokka an SUV can get out) so they won't be doing too well initially. Of course, Astra familiarity will help but if they can't price it like Holden did then they needn't bother.

^Nothing above hasn't been said before, there was a recent post about this RSWag.

[K1W1]

I think the big problem will be who is actually going to sell them?
Last I heard they were going to largely be sold by joint Holden / Opel dealerships but I cant see that working for long.

[Lindsay]

I can't wait for Opel to return to Aus. My Astra was the most reliable car I've ever owned. The thing that bothered me the most was that Holden didn't offer any of the cool options that you could get on the european models. My parents had a 2003 TS Astra and they had a few problems with it, but nothing too major. It had 150,000 kms on it when they traded it in for an AH and it still drove like new.

[phaeton]

I think Opel will sell Skoda/Peugeot/Renault numbers or just a bit more with the Astra.

How many people will by the Astra for the Astra name ?
How many people will by an Opel badged Astra ?

Opel is a new brand they still will have to work very hard to be competitive.

[K1W1]

I wonder if any of the HSV Astras from the late 1980s are still around? From memory there were only between 50 and 100 actually manufactured.

[dArK5HaD0w]

How many people will by an Opel badged Astra ?
Opel is a new brand they still will have to work very hard to be competitive.

there r many many here in oz who've rebadged their "holden" astra back to "opel" astra. badge, sticker, plates....the lot.
i for 1 had an astra myself - but i didn't put opel badging on it, i simply de-badged it.
i still miss her......

[GTREA]

Dad bought a 1978 Opel Ascona SR in the UK when Opels were sold side by side with Vauxhalls over there, similar to what they are proposing here with Holden.

Opel had there own dealerships for a while then were sold from Vauxhall dealers, then phased out of the UK.

I can see history repeating itself.

Having said that I'm all for Opel here, Astras a mighty fine looking car, as all Astras have tended to be when first released, and I think it will sell in decent numbers and will certainly steal from the Golf.

Myself personally would consider trading our Skoda vRS estate on an Opel Insignia VXR estate if that comes here

[onyertod]

This week I am in the UK so have had the chance to see Astras and Insignias in the metal and they sure look the part.

I think that once in OZ they will sell some cars at the expense of the likes of VW Golf but I really think that other Euros like the french marques and Alfa and Volvo have more to worry about than VAG, especially Skoda.