Vauxhall, Oldsmobile and the fate of the motor industry

[TimD]

What's your take on the current state of motor manufacturing? Yesterday, General Motors casually announced that they were closing down the 95-year old Vauxhall plant at Luton, Bedfordshire. This despite the fact that they had carefully negotiated new work practices with the unions, and been awarded tens of millions in government subsidies which were to ensure the long term sustainability of the British plant.

This means that cars badged with the name of a London borough will be built in Germany from 2002.

At the same time, in America, GM announced the end of the Oldsmobile marque. After nearly a hundred years, one of the most revered marques in motoring has been snuffed out. There'll be no more Cutlasses, no more 4-4-2's, no more Auroras.

The industry pundits are saying that this is a sign of a continuing trend in car marketing. The old high-volume marques are in desperate trouble, and that in this designer age, the future is in niche marketed vehicles. Volvo and BMW are cited as the prime examples of the new world order.

What do you think? Are you a new consumer, interested in a lower-volume car tailored more deliberately at you? Or are you no more devoted to one tin box than another?

And if you drive (or have driven) a Vauxhall, does the GM decision sway your choice of future purchase? It does for me. The Corsa will probably be my last GM car, and I seriously hope that Phoenix can make a good go of the Rover marque. It would be nice to be able to support the British motor industry by buying into what is once again a British company. What's the trade-in I can get for a Corsa on a new Rover 75???!

And yes, Dan, I would prefer a nice old Oldsmobile gas-guzzler over any BMW!

[KC]

I don't agree that the old high volume marques are in trouble, just the ones that are run poorly are. General Motors have stayed afloat over the last 20 years in America based purely on customer loyalty. "My daddy owned Chevy's... so do I." Now with import cars looking much better and about the same price their customer base is dwindling. The biggest problem with GM is the top heavy executive branch of the mega-corporation is dragging them down. In the US, the ultra-lucrative light truck market was stolen from GM by Chysler and Ford a long time ago and they continue to maintain their stranglehold on it. Daimler-Chrysler has continued to make quick model changes every few years offering Mopar buyers the option for newer models every 4 to 5 years while GM continues to build the same old cars with a different set of headlights on it. The only problem facing Daimler-Chrysler is that the German executives have displaced all of the US executives that had turned Chrysler around and now they are struggling to understand the fickle US car market. In fact most of them have been scooped up by Ford.

[D428 CHO]

The huge surplusses of unsold cars from the major manufacturers definately seem to suggest that the market share for the major manufacturers operating in the UK is decreasing, either that or new car sales are falling in general. However I'm one to blame the media for a lot of our problems, for the last 15-20 years they've been (in my opinion) severely biased against the Rover Group and this continues even now, with a so called 'industry expert' commenting that the problems at Ford/Vauxhall mean MG Rover has absolutely no hope and should give up now, a slightly simplistic view to say the least. We've also got the reputation of the Vauxhall Vectra (built at the Luton plant) which has never been liked by motoring journalists for some reason. One of these forms part of my own family fleet and whilst it's not perfect it's not a particularly bad car either. In this country the Media seem intent on destroying our own motor industry for us.

I personally will always buy Rover Group (or whatever name they're trading under this week ) products, or would if I didn't prefer the much better value for money offered by used Rover/MG/Leylands. However I'm far from your average buyer who I suspect would be no more devoted to one make than another. I would have thought that what the major manufacturers are building might at least appeal to large numbers of fleet buyers which has traditionally been how such things have sold, could this trend be changing?

That Vectra of ours has to go soon in favour of a company car, I seriously hope that that will be nothing to do with GM... please let it be a Rover 75

[MichaelC]

The problem as I see it with the UK car industry is that there's no-one making interesting cars any more. If you want to buy British, you're looking at Rover or Vauxhall. They make cars which are aimed at at mass markets, and people who buy British out of loyalty.

At the other end of the scale you have all the small British sports car companies, such as Marcos, Morgan, Caterham etc, which you can't really use for serious everyday use. You can't really imagine a rep pulling up in a Marcos Mantara and trying to sell you three packs of paper and a box of blue-ink biros, can you??

What I feel that the UK needs is a company making cars like the Alfa Romeo 156 or something, a car which just stands out a little without being too outrageous. Enthusiasts will buy British sports cars, and hire-car companies and fleet buyers will buy Vectras and Rover 45s by the truckload because they're cheap to buy / run / fix (yes I do know Vectras aren't cheap to fix, work with me here!!)#
The Rover 75 and the Vauxhall Omega will be bought by the Police forces and reps who don't earn enough to buy the corresponding BMW.

[KC]

One of the things I noticed in the UK during my very short stay there was the relative low cost of used autos there. They seemed much cheaper than any used car here in the US. If it is much more cost effective to purchase a used car then that is what most people will do. Over here new cars are very expensive, but used ones are high too. Also, financing a used car is much more expensive here than a new one. The market works toward selling new cars instead of used even though the sellers have a much larger margin on used ones.

[Liz]

The car manufacturing companies have always merged and dissolved and recombined ... where are the Studebakers and De Sotos of yesteryear? ...

Not being a car driver myself, I look at it purely from the marketing standpoint, and that, it seems to me, is changing due to the more sophisticated and value-conscious consumer market.

Short answer: I don't think it's necessarily the Mass Market that is disappearing. It is the lemmings who will buy anything the car companies or anyone else is selling, just to be like "The Joneses". And maybe more people don't care who made the car, as long as when they turn the key, the engine fires up and when the car breaks down it can be fixed without an act of congress and a second mortgage on their homes. We just want stuff that looks good, doesn't cost the earth, and works.