True future of Saab and Opel revealed soon

Automotive heavyweights are in the final stages of finishing a long-fought deal to sell off large chunks of Saab and Opel which, in a bizarre twist, will actually help secure the future of both brands.

As the respective players ready their pens to sign a deal that would split General Motors' ownership of Saab and Opel among numerous stakeholders, it's business as usual for both brands. However, when the deals go ahead (likely to be in the coming weeks) it means that Saab vehicles will remain on sale in Australia for the foreseeable future, and that there is a slim possibility of a return to Australia for the Holden Astra.

Components and manufacturing specialist Magna, which for decades has assembled vehicles under contract for numerous brands, is expected to take a 55 per cent stake in Opel, while General Motors will retain 35 per cent and 10 per cent will go to employees.

Saab, as previously reported, is to be bought by sportscar maker Koenigsegg which has secured funding from Russian sources, among other backers.

At the Frankfurt motor show, Carl Peter-Forster, the chairman of the Opel Supervisory Board told media it was important both deals went through smoothly because General Motors planned to continue having a business relationship with both brands.

"General Motors will still have some interest in Saab and continue to support and collaborate with Saab," he said. "That's part of certain financial constructions which will be revealed once it's time.

"Saab in the future will be an important customer of Opel and General Motors. It will be a partner for Opel and General Motors. So it's definitely worth more if it's alive and healthy than if it's made insolvent," Peter-Forster stated.

Speaking of the Opel sale, he said: "You never can be 100 per cent sure that the deal will go ahead. It's not formally signed yet, but I think all stakeholders are very interested in closing the deal in the near future."

Newspaper reports in Europe have speculated that the new owners may take production away from Western Europe and move it to Eastern Europe, including utilising GM's Russian factory.

"There is a constant misunderstanding about what Russian production will do," he said. "Russian production is for sales in Russia -- and for a long time for nothing else. Russian production is to develop the Russian market. And we will import vehicles into the Russian market."

However, he said, at least one Opel plant in Western Europe is poised to close.

"We most probably can't avoid a plant closure. Magna said they will look at every option but it's most likely that we can't avoid a plant closure."

When asked what this meant for the future of Opel's engineering division at Russelsheim, the home of the Corsa (our old Barina before it switched to a Korea-sourced GM-DAT engineered model) and the Astra small cars, he said: "The idea is to stay part of the global engineering network of General Motors.

"It will be part of the next couple of months and years to see how the role is adapted, but we believe we have skills here [Russelsheim] for high-tech medium and small cars. These types of cars are important as the world downsizes its cars, and that's why we believe we'll be an integral part of the General Motors network."

Much like Holden is a GM home room for large cars, Opel is the GM home room for small cars.

When Peter-Forster was asked by the Carsales Network if Opel might close Russelsheim and begin sourcing cars from GM-Daewoo in Korea, he seemed genuinely surprised at the suggestion.

"No, there is no plan. I've not heard of this."

Regardless of the outcome of the Saab and Opel deals in the coming weeks and months, owners of Saabs and Opel-sourced Holdens should not worry. Carmakers have a legal obligation to carry parts and offer service back up for at least 10 years after the car was manufactured.

The next generation Astra (pictured) has been cancelled for Australia as Holden gears up to produce the hatch version of the Cruze locally from next year. However, if the new owners of Opel can reduce the cost of the Astra it could come here as a premium alternative to the Cruze.

Although both the new Astra and new Cruze share much of their underpinnings the Astra uses better materials and components to enable it to compete head-on with prestige Europeans small cars such as the Volkswagen Golf.

Check out the Carsales Network’s Frankfurt show preview and brand-by-brand summaries. And stay tuned for more Frankfurt show news and first drives in the days to come.

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