Germany In July 2012: Down. Opel: Way Down

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: August 2nd, 2012

German new car sales are no longer Teflon-coated. New car sales in Deutschland were down 5 percent in July, Germany’s Kraftfahrtbundesamt reports.

Opel sales are down 18.6 percent, those of its alliance partner PSA are down 21.2 percent. Chevrolet sales are down 24.2 percent at a homeopathic level of 1,948 units. Chrysler is up 55.3 percent on 688 units. BMW sales are down 17.0 percent, while Audi sales are up 14.3 percent. Ford, down 4.4 percent, is in line with the market. Volkswagen is down only 1.5 percent and could increase its market share to 23.6 percent. Opel’s July market share is down to 6.8 percent.

Germany is Europe’s biggest car market. With the bad news from volume markets Italy (down 21.4 percent), Spain (down 17 percent) and France (down 7 percent), ACEA’s Europe report is expected to look awful.

#BertelSchmitt #Germany #GermanyInJuly2012 #Sales

Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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Itsnotagsr on Aug 03, 2012

Middle brands such as Ford and Opel have been crunched by BMW, Audi and Mercedes. They have successfully taken market share off traditional middle brand buyers who used to buy Vectras and Mondeos in Europe. Why buy a Ford/Opel when you can drive an entry level Benz or BM and try to impress your neighbours. Often their "German" car is built in Eastern Europe instead. This raises an interesting question. What do the middle brands (both European and Japanese) stand for? Their traditonal market is been captured by the Koreans, whilst their higher spec margin car buyers are being taken by the Germans...

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- Tom on Aug 03, 2012
  
  You're raising a point I've been making for years. The brands that try to offer middle of the road products are vanishing, nut just in the Auto industry, but everywhere. Our shopping habits have changed greatly over the last 50 years. Back in the 1960s, people wanted to be average, they wanted decent products at decent prices, just like everybody else. Today, we're all individualists (or so we think). A product category (like cars) either captures our imagination or it doesn't. If it does, we want something special, something that we think suits us, be it the small sports car, the huge truck, the luxury car, etc. And we're willing to pay premium prices for it, because it's something we identify with. However, if we don't care for cars (or any other product category) then we don't want to waste a single buck above the bare minimum, so that we have more left for the things we identify with. In that case, we want the car that can get us from A to B in the cheapest possible fashion. There simply isn't much of a middle ground anymore, which is the problem of companies like GM or Ford, because that's where they're at home...
  
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- NMGOM on Aug 04, 2012
  
  @tom Americans are still wiling to buy average, as long as its good average. As Mr Honda observed somewhat sadly, "We make boring cars". Well, guess what? Boring sells, as long as it's pleasant, reliable, economical, unoffensive, beige boring. But if you do boring badly, it won't sell. Opel did boring badly. Take a look at Toyota and Honda sales for the first 6 months of this year. Good sales coupled with pleasantly anesthetized boring. --------------
  
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- Mike978 on Aug 04, 2012
  
  @tom itsnotagsr and tom - +1. NMGOM - what makes you think the US market will not go the same way as the EU market? Who would have predicted 10 years ago the rise of the sub-compact and compact car class, the increased use of turbo charged engines, the removal of V6's from mid-size cars, the change from BoF to CUV's etc. You might be right about the distinction between good boring and badly done boring. But why are good riving dynamics and style mutually exclusive from reliability and economy?
  
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- NMGOM on Aug 04, 2012
  
  @tom mike978, Indeed, you make a good point. The American market could do the European thing in automotive preferences...eventually. But historically we have always had a "make do" and "good is good enough" and "whatever works" and "no big deal" culture. By being laid back, we have been less discriminating, and less demanding in precision, quality, craftsmanship, excellence, and so on. As you suggest, we as a culture may not always stay this way. You asked: "But why are good (d)riving dynamics and style mutually exclusive from reliability and economy?" ANS: They aren't, theoretically. But the problem is price. You can make the beige Camry with good economy and reliability as a FWD box that can't corner to save itself, for $25K; or you can add a decent suspension, 50/50 weight distribution, and RWD to get all that PLUS handling too, - - and you arrive at a BMW 328i for $35K. EXAMPLE: You'll note that when BMW tried to go downscale with the 1-series, they really did fail to meet initial price objectives that would have matched the Camry: the bloody 1-series still came out at about $30K! CONCL: Adding good driving dynamics gets expensive...more than many people realize. And that is what keeps all those after-market tuners in business! (^_^).. ----------
  
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Msquare on Aug 03, 2012

I think itsnotagsr may have hit the nail on the head. Opel and Ford have been squeezed a bit from above and below. But the same thing was happening to Mercedes and BMW 20 years ago when Lexus and Infiniti matched them on quality and amenities, beat them in reliability and undercut them severely on price. The Focus is a class leader, but Ford Europe just got hit with a loss last quarter. Is a Golf really that much better than an Astra? My guess is no, and the Astra is a sharper design in my opinion, especially in 3-door form. Golfs and Jettas have been criticized for mediocrity themselves. if I can get a 1-series BMW for nearly the same money as a Golf, Jetta or an Astra, what's the point of any of them?

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- Mike978 on Aug 04, 2012
  
  +1, all mainstream cars (except the Golf for now) are being squeezed by the Koreans on one hand (and other cheap brands like Dacia) and the move downwards for BMW (1 series, i-Series) and Audi (A1). This move downwards killed off the Ford Granada and Opel Omega over a decade ago because people could for the same money buy a BMW (albeit a smaller 3 series).
  
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