10 Most Googled Questions On Opel, Answered!

If you are a regular reader, you might know that we have started a new series where we try to answer what the masses want to know. In today’s featured, we pick a German brand which now belongs to Group PSA (which is a French automaker). We are talking about Opel! Read on to find out the answers to the most Googled Opel questions. We have seen this automaker in India too. They have delivered extremely good cars like Astra & Vectra but things went wrong midway and they had to wrap-up their operations, Let’s explore what might have happened through this series of questions.

1. Is Opel good car?
   

   

   Astra was one of the finest cars down the Opel lineup in India. At present too, Astra continues to be one of the highest-selling cars under this nameplate. If you are keen to get your hands behind the wheels of this machine, you can find one for yourself from the used car market. You will have to search really deep for this as the brand is relatively old and hard to find. Other models like Corsa (multiple variations) and Vectra were also very good in terms of performance.

   Read The Curious Case of Opel Cars in India

2. Why is Opel closed in India?
   

   

   Be it Corsa, Astra or Vectra, all of them were ahead of their time. These cars were good but the audience wasn’t ready for it. They wanted Indians to try out the German technology but we guess, Indians wanted something else! In 2006, due to declining sales, Opel wrapped up and Chevrolet replaced them in India.

3. Why did GM sell Opel?
   

   

   For those of you who don’t know till now, General Motors owned the brand completely. In 2017, GM realised that they needed to invest more in the European market whereas, they wanted their main focus to be on the North American market. Therefore, GM decided to sell Opel. Group PSA now owns the brand completely. Along with North America, GM also wanted to focus on China because it had a greater potential for the new emerging technology.

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4. Why is Opel not in America?
   

   

   General Motors continue to sell many Opel vehicles by the name of Chevrolet or Buick. Talking particularly about Adam City Car, USA didn’t get it because they would have been forced to make a huge investment for technical changes in order to meet the various [U.S.] demands. Therefore, Americans couldn’t get Adam.

5. Who owns Opel now?
   

   

   General Motors-owned Opel initially. As mentioned in the earlier part of the article, Group PSA now owns the franchise and handles international operations. Group PSA took over the brand in 2017. General Motors was the previous owner of the franchise.

6. Which country is Opel from?
   

   

   Born in Germany. Made for all! This is how Opel markets their products. It is a German brand which originated from Rüsselsheim. As mentioned above, Groupe PSA owns the brand completely and handles international operations as of now.

7. Why does Opel have different names?
   

   

   Vauxhall, Opel or Chevrolet, you might know it by different names but all of them belonged to General Motors. GM decided not to rename the brand because it already had built up trust in Germany so changing its name after buying it won’t make much sense. At present too, Group PSA has not changed its name and Opel continues to sell with ts initial name only. These are nothing but different brands owned by the same giant.

8. Who makes Opel engines?
   

   

   Opel-Vauxhall engines are still produced at their engineering centre at Rüsselsheim, Germany. They are still working on the R&D of making these engines compatible with electric motors. They are continuously working towards making next-gen four-cylinder engines which will work well with electric motors.

9. Are Vauxhall and Opel the same?
   

   

   They are not the same but yes, they are closely related. Vauxhall vehicles share technology with Opel and are manufactured in the same plant in Germany. Also, most Vauxhall models are engineered in Rüsselsheim am Main, Germany. During 1908s, Vauxhall was withdrawn from all the markets except the UK. Vauxhall was also sold to Group PSA in 2017.

10. Why Opel is called Vauxhall in the UK?
    

    

    The brand owned by the German Adam Opel AG group, itself a wholly-owned subsidiary of the American General Motors. General Motors again sold the brand to Group PSA in 2017. Vauxhall was already among the top-selling brands in the UK, therefore, they did not change the name. Vauxhall was there before GM/Opel took over. Therefore, the best that the brand could do is to sell the existing technology with the same name.

These were the 10 most Googled Opel questions. If you want to know anything else about the car brand, do let us know in the comments section below and we will get back to you really soon!