Hans Demant: Mr Suzuki?
Executives at GM Europe were reportedly outraged when “Mr Opel” jumped ship to arch-rival VW, after the Wolfsburg boys entered an alliance with Suzuki. After all, Demant had been instrumental in developing the Opel Agila, a rebadge of the Suzuki Splash built in Hungary. Since Demant’s departure, Opel has left the Agila to the wolves, saying it would develop an all-new “premium” city car, to take on VW’s Up head-on. VW’s response: deciding that its Euro-focused Up was too expensive for the booming Indian market, and announcing to Autocar that instead it would… rebadge Suzukis. The Suzuki Alto (aka Maruti Suzuki A-Star aka Suzuki Celerio, aka Nissan Pixo) will form the basis of an entry level Indian VW, while the Suzuki Wagon R will underpin an Indian Skoda model. Because nothing builds a global brand like a good rebadge (just ask GM). Sounds like Demant should be pulling a paycheck from Suzuki as well as from VW.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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WagonR is not that bad, I know someone who has one.
"Executives at GM Europe were reportedly outraged when “Mr Opel” jumped ship...." Did he leave with the coffee money or something? Why else would GM executives be outraged? Makes no sense to me especially in the blow dry hair exec circles where ego is all. Find one of these twits who could care a toss about anyone or anything else and you've met a miracle.