The current state of affairs in Europe

[I Rosputnik]

The car market in Europe currently does not good right now and it's effecting motorsports with Chevrolet and Peugeot leaving their programs and even making other consider leaving.

In recent developments over the month Ford and GM are being grilled over selling cars in Europe, Renault recently axed half of it's range in the UK and PSA have axed 8000 jobs.

All while Volkswagen dominates everything and Fiat is slowly making gains buy their slow merger with Chrysler.

So is there any light at the end of the tunnel of the car market in Europe? I somewhat see GM leaving Europe, but I fail to see how Ford could. (The UK is one of their largest markets!)

[JHamilton]

I think either GM or Ford leaving Europe would be very shortsighted, but in the world driven by stock prices that may be what happens.

The problem with GM is that 75% of their chassis designs (that's a rough estimate) for the American market come from Opel/Vauxhall or Holden. Evidently American designers can only create ladder frame truck chassis and SUVs. Even with the losses incurred since the reorganization the thought has been that it is worth it for the engineering investment. How long can you convince shareholders of this?

[I Rosputnik]

As things look, Opel is now very close to being killed off. (And I guess Vauxhall would die off too.)

It's funny, when Ford had a large number of brands they sold them off, while General Motors seems to think death is the best option.

Meanwhile PSA is coming under fire from the French Government. (Some how 8000 becomes 14,000...)

[DS"]

Originally Posted by I Rosputnik

As things look, Opel is now very close to being killed off. (And I guess Vauxhall would die off too.)

Too bad the GM wants to keep all patents from Opel, or else Opel would be already sold. The same kind of behaviour also killed off Saab, but what can you do? You can't take away Opel from GM as we aren't in a socialist state.
Granted, Opel did some dumb decisions in the past, but GM did even dumber ones. Instead of strengthening Opel, they decided to push their rebadged Daewoos.

And it would be really bad if Opel just outright disappeared, as we would then have an market dominated by BMW, Mercedes and VW/Audi. Surely, the three companies deserved to be where they are now. But we need decent competition among our own carmakers, because manufacturers from abroad can't provide it. After all, their market share is too small compared to the "big three".

[FIRE]

Opel is doping very badly in the last decade. In what state is sister brand Vauxhall?