The Truth About Cars » Germany

Karmann Lives, Kindof

Bertel Schmitt — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:57:02 +0000

Nine months ago, German Karmann declared bankruptcy. The maker of the venerable Ghia, and until recently contract manufacturer and specialist for ragtops, fell victim to the sad fact that Fahrvergnügen doesn’t agree with carmageddon. Now, Volkswagen, one of Karmann’s main customers, picked up the core pieces of the maker. Volkswagen isn’t taking over Karmann (that would [...]

Bloom: Obama Administration Blindsided By Independent GM Board

Bertel Schmitt — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:14:06 +0000

The Senior Counselor to the U.S. President for Manufacturing Policy; and Leader on the U.S. Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, Ron Bloom, was utterly clueless. He told Reuters that the Obama administration supposedly was just as flabbergasted by GM’s sudden reversal on the Opel deal as Angela Merkel and the rest of Germany [...]

Abu Dhabi Wants A Second Date With Daimler

Cammy Corrigan — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:04:46 +0000

Reuters reports that Aabar Investments is considering increasing their stake in Daimler AG from 9.1% to 15%. Aabar is already Daimler largest shareholder and this move, should it happen, will further cement this position. The Abu Dhabi investment fund paid $2.7 billion for the 9.1% stake when the share price €20.77. Since then, the share [...]

GME To Rüsselheim, Where Chaos Reigns

Bertel Schmitt — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:18:26 +0000

This week’s chronicle of the Opel saga starts with good news and bad news. The good news: GM’s European headquarters will move from Zurich, Switzerland, to Opel’s home in Rüsselsheim near Frankfurt, Germany, reports Die Zeit. The paper: “With the move, the company probably wants to collect points to calm down the German government.” Let’s put [...]

Magna To VW: All Is Forgiven, Come Home, We Need You

Bertel Schmitt — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:22:11 +0000

When Magna was buying Opel (along with German help and alleged Russian mobsters) Volkswagen made noises about dumping them as a supplier. Vergeben und vergessen. “If Magna doesn’t act like a competitor, we will continue to do business as usual,” a Veedub spokesman told German tabloid BILD (via Reuters.) Now is not the time for VW [...]

Berlin To Whitacre: You Are Beyond Salvage

Bertel Schmitt — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 07:28:43 +0000

An uncouth interview, given by GM Chairman Ed Whitacre to the German newspaper Muenchner Merkur at the sidelines of an event at the Texas Lutheran University, has shut the doors on any donations Berlin may make to Opel’s cause. Aus. Vorbei. “I think we won’t be needing money from your government for Opel,” Whitacre said to [...]

GM/Opel: German Government Money? Us? What For? On Second Thought …

Bertel Schmitt — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:06:37 +0000

The Opel/GM saga has more twists than New York’s Peppermint Lounge. Yesterday, we reported that GM’s Smith & Reilly went to Berlin to beg money from German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle. They received the cold shoulder. Like good salesmen, they didn’t take no for an answer. Yesterday, a spokesperson of GM said (apparently, in German…): “Our company [...]

Wild Ass Rumor Of The Day: Meet the 1 Series-based Roadster

Edward Niedermeyer — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:20:27 +0000

Think the new Z4 is a bloated boulevard cruiser unworthy of the roadster-implying Z badge? We’d tend to agree. Which is why we were chuffed to see renderings of a possible BMW 1 Series-based Z2 roadster in the most recent Auto Motor und Sport (print edition). Several Einser engines will be available say AM und [...]

Regal: More Than Just Bred On the Autobahn

Edward Niedermeyer — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:51:46 +0000

The single trim level is what tipped us off, and if we’d looked closer at its spec sheet, we’d have seen that its manufacturing location is listed as “Rüsselsheim, Germany.” Automotive News [sub] reports that Regal will be built in Germany for 15 months before production shifts to Oshawa. Which makes the Regal even more [...]

Berlin To GM: You Break It, You Buy It

Bertel Schmitt — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:08:42 +0000

GM’s John Smith, and a freshly minted GME CEO Nick Reilly went to Berlin to see German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle, hat in hand, hoping for some Opel funds. They left empty handed. “I expressed my expectation that General Motors should basically carry out the financing itself,” Bruederle said after the meeting. Bruederle said that Smith & [...]

Quote Of The Day: The Five Billion Dollar Question Edition

Edward Niedermeyer — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:19:37 +0000

The catalyst for all this was the EU saying you only made the money available to one investor. The board did what they should have done and revisited the issue… It’s been a confusing decision, but I don’t think it was handled badly. The circumstances changed from the time this started. The financial part of [...]

GM: Opel Can Be Independent But Not Global

Edward Niedermeyer — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:40:41 +0000

GM CEO Fritz Henderson’s promises of independence for Opel made the right noises, but they carefully avoided any discussion of the actual role GM envisions for its German division within its global strategy. The latest updates seem to indicate that GM will keep Opel for its engineering expertise, but that the brand will be subordinate [...]

Berlin, Magna, Sberbank: We Want Our Money Back!

Bertel Schmitt — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:27:52 +0000

Magna and Sberbank want their money back. Everything they had so far invested into Opel needs to come back from GM, says Das Autohaus in Germany.” We are in negotiations with GM and we hope that we don’t have to go to court “, said Sberbank boss German Gref. “If all else fails, we’ll defend [...]

Moody’s To GM: What Have You Been Smoking?

Bertel Schmitt — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:25:42 +0000

After GM announced that they would keep Opel after all, they boasted that “the GM plan entails total restructuring expenses of about €3 billion, significantly lower than all bids submitted as part of the investor solicitation.” After hearing the statement, industry insiders snickered that €3B would be “hardly realistic.” Now, credit rating agency Moody’s confirms that [...]

Magna Hearts GM

Bertel Schmitt — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:12:55 +0000

After scraping by owning Opel together with alleged Russian mobsters, Magna has given up aspirations of being a car company. Magna wants to “focus on its core competencies,” and will continue to be a supplier and contract manufacturer. This is what Magna’s Co-CEO Siegfried Wolf said to Germany’s Handelsblatt. Magna’s cozying-up with GM continues. “We have [...]

GM and Opel: The Winds of War

Bertel Schmitt — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:16:43 +0000

When GM’s Fritz Henderson called Magna chief Siegfried Wolf and told him that GM had an irreversible case of seller’s remorse, Wolf’s flabbergasted counter was: “Are you joking?” Fritz told him he’s dead serious. Opel will stay with GM. Now, all Wolf has left for GM is unsolicited advice: Give more freedom to Opel and [...]

Breaking: Bob Lutz To Be New Chairman of Opel

Paul Niedermeyer — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:13:36 +0000

Spiegel Online reports that Bob Lutz will be named Chairman, and head of the Supervisory Board of Opel. Carl-Peter Forster, who threw in his hat with the Magna buy-out, resigned on the news that GM intends to keep Opel. Forster, the first German to head Opel in decades, was seen to be more independent of [...]

Opel: Germany Definitely Wants Its Money Back

Bertel Schmitt — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:24:10 +0000

What happened two days after GM blindsided most of Europe, including Russia, with their decision not to sell Opel after all? As announced the next day, Opel workers in Germany laid down their tools today. Tomorrow, workers in Opel plants in the rest of Europe will follow. Yesterday night, German Chancellor Angela Merkel picked up the [...]

Opel Workers Set to Strike, Germans Recalling $2.2B Bridge Loan

Robert Farago — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:36:11 +0000

GM’s last minute (i.e. post-German election) decision to pull out of a deal to sell its European Opel division to a consortium lead by Canada’s Magna Corporation has left chaos in its wake. The Associated Press reports that Opel workers throughout Europe are planning to strike GM on Thursday, protesting the automaker’s planned “rationalization” of [...]

Magna’s Demel Ready to Take Opel Helm

Bertel Schmitt — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:04:34 +0000

The sale of GM’s Opel to Magna/Sberbank is being mulled-over in Brussels (decision by November 27, maybe.) Sperbank’s Oligarch Oleg Deripaska finally was allowed to enter the United States after his visa was denied because of mob-related suspicions. He finally met Fritz Henderson, and some FBI agents. There is talk that GM doesn’t want to [...]

Opel FUBAR: CYA OR DOA?

Bertel Schmitt — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:49:30 +0000

The GM-Opel-Magna-Sperbank deal is on its last gasp. On Friday, GM’s chief Opel negotiator, John Smith, said that nothing will happen until the GM BOD will get around to reconsider the sale at its next regular meeting on November 3, says Reuters. In the meantime, the matter turns into a chain letter exercise. Chain letters [...]

Brussels Impales Opel With Giant Fork. Turkey In Serious Condition

Bertel Schmitt — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:36:28 +0000

A certain website that concerns itself with facts about automobiles, had opined more than a month ago: “Once matters move to Brussels, they come to a crawl. Whoever wins the German elections has all the time they want to dispose of Opel. If it goes kaput, they can blame the Americans and Brussels.” The Opel matter [...]

Porsche-VW Anschluss: The Worrying Bits

Edward Niedermeyer — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:54:54 +0000

Volkswagen and Porsche are about to make it official, as Volkswagen has now bought nearly 49.9 percent of Porsche. And though we’ve had plenty of time to get used to the idea, there are some troubling indications for the future of the Porsche brand in particular. As usual, the worries begin with an executive (in [...]

EU to GM: “Deliver That Letter, The Sooner The Better”

Bertel Schmitt — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:18:17 +0000

Another day, another Opel that is still not sold yet. As reported before, EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes made good on her previous threats (which were ignored in wholesale fashion) and said that the €4.5b ($6.72b) in – mostly German – state aid for Opel may be against EU rules. So what now? One option [...]

Wild Ass Rumor of the Day: GM to Put Opel into C11

Robert Farago — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:16:53 +0000

The Wall Street Journal reports that GM is developing a plan B, should the European Union decide that the German government subsidies upon which the Opel deal depends are a violation of some rule or another. “[EU competition commissioner Neelie] Kroes pointed to ’significant indications’ that Germany had made €4.5 billion ($6.72 billion) in state [...]