New Opel Boss Cures Euro-Depression With Hints At "A Proper Opel GT"
Reuters reports that GM Europe President Nick Reilly is retiring just as his successor predicts a slowdown the European auto market in the turmoil of the Euro crisis. Replacing Reilly is Opel’s CEO, Karl-Friedrich Stracke, who just last week told Automotive News [sub]
We expect that the automobile market in Europe will experience a painful cooling, and we expect a significant shrinking of the market.
And as if slow sales projections weren’t bad enough, Opel also faces a tough union boss in Klaus Franz, who is pushing for ever more production or not just Opels but Chevies as well, in the Euro zone according to AN [sub]. But despite the challenges facing Stracke, he’s still got a song in his heart… in the tune of GT. Though GM has no lightweight rear-drive platform to draw on, and in spite of all the gathering storm clouds, Stracke tells Auto Motor und Sport that
I can well imagine a car like the Manta, but with new technology and a new design. I could also very well imagine a proper Opel GT which recalls our classic model of 1968.
Ludicrous teasing? Possibly. An understandable escape from the depressing reality of mid-debt-crisis Europe? Definitely. I mean, what would you rather imagine, a cascading collapse of confidence in sovereign debt, or the scenario depicted above? Yeah, that’s what we thought…
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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Hot looks, tight cabin with decent gauges, light as hell and rear wheel drive with a stick shift at a low price point and I'm there. I don't even mind if the engine is faithfully anemic. I'm not really using my trunk anyway, but a glove box door would be a nice addition.
Ed, you have the most amazing library of car ads, or you've got some seriously mad Google skills. Nothing says '70's like a pair of plaid Speedos.
The new Opal GT: what women who want to pick up guys drive. Hey, it could be marketed in the way opposite to the original ad. Times have changed.
I've still got one of these. Had it since 1971. Im about to dump 40 - 50 grand in one to do a resto-mod. It will be modern and fast as crap.