PSA in talks to acquire Opal

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Re: PSA in talks to acquire Opal

Post by CitroJim »

white exec wrote: Astra altogether more spacious.
Really? I recall driving a hired Astra in the early 90s and it was like driving a sardine tin. No space, very claustrophobic and no visibility...

In fact it wasn't a real Astra but the Far Eastern copy of it that looked exactly like the genuine article... The Astra I think was the early 80s one... I guess later ones were much better...

white exec wrote:BX and Xantia like stepping out into the fresh air.
I found that once after driving a 307; another car I found very claustrophobic. Getting back into the Xantia really was a blessed relief... It felt like I was driving a greenhouse it was so light and airy :)
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Re: PSA in talks to acquire Opal

Post by white exec »

The Astra I quite liked was this one, the Mk.4. A colleague had a 2.0 litre, top-of-range, in lustre-near-black, and the delicious Aisin auto box:
Image

I did have the misfortune to be lumbered with a 1.6 one of these - and in custard yellow - for a few months. A miserable experience:
Image

There have been so many Astras!
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Re: PSA in talks to acquire Opal

Post by daviemck2006 »

The mk1 astra was brilliant, the mk2 a disaster. It was far more cramped than the original and want on to become a Daewoo something pile of poo.

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Re: PSA in talks to acquire Opal

Post by Richard_C »

The driver for this is GMs desire to get rid of its unprofitable European division. I say unprofitable, but you can never really be sure. I have had mostly Citroens and SAABS with equal enjoyment and you will recall that GM dumped SAAB a few years back. True, SAAB never made a profit, but soon after acquiring them GM "repatriated" the intellectual property (brand, patents etc) to the USA and charged SAAB a licence fee, so they moved profit from a high tax area to a lower one (USA). Much like Disney Corp and Euro Disney if the reports are to be believed. I doubt they would have stayed in so long if the European business was making a real end-to-end loss.

Still, GM Europe is up for sale and PSA probably want to jump closer to VW Group sales and turnover. I see some big problems. The van manufacturing in Luton does Renault as well, so may be divested early on. Looking at passenger cars and comparing with VW group - although VW has lots of brands and variations its fundamentally very few floorpans and engines - you can look across the range and see the equivalent VW, SEAT, Skoda and often Audi. A merged PSA/GM Europe will have too many engines and basic designs, some huge rationalization will be needed to avoid being like BL in the early days (23 different engines when Ford had 5).

That bodes ill for the UK plants, sorry to say and may put some dealerships at risk as well. If they get it wrong it puts the whole PSA group at risk. Less choice for consumers as well.
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Re: PSA in talks to acquire Opal

Post by CitroJim »

white exec wrote: I did have the misfortune to be lumbered with a 1.6 one of these - and in custard yellow - for a few months. A miserable experience:
Image
That's the same model I disliked so much in it's far Eastern guise - I just can’t think of what it was called or who in the Far East made it..

Was it a Daewoo?
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Re: PSA in talks to acquire Opal

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

CitroJim wrote:
That's the same model I disliked so much in it's far Eastern guise - I just can’t think of what it was called or who in the Far East made it..

Was it a Daewoo?
Yes. one of the names it went under was the Daewoo Le Mans, but there were many different names used...over in America it appeared as the "Pontiac Le Mans" which from the name you might expect it to look just a touch less boring! The 1960's cars bearing that name couldn't have been more different.

https://www.hemmings.com/magazine/hsx/2 ... 80581.html

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Re: PSA in talks to acquire Opal

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

Electrek yesterday posted this story

Opel could become an all electric only brand as GM is considering selling it to Peugeot Citroen

https://electrek.co/2017/02/16/opel-all ... t-citroen/

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Re: PSA in talks to acquire Opal

Post by white exec »

An interesting bit of speculation. Opel certainly do have an appropriate Logo!

Brexit won't help keep UK plants open; tariffs could appear both ways - components in, vehicles out. Not clever.
Blair's speech today spot on - but I'm afraid he's just not the right person to be delivering it. Where did you go, David...?
Last edited by white exec on 18 Feb 2017, 08:48, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: RE: Re: PSA in talks to acquire Opal

Post by mickeymoon »

white exec wrote: Blair's speech today spot on - but I'm afraid he's just not the right person to be delivering it. Where did you go, David...?
I couldn't have put it better myself!
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Re: PSA in talks to acquire Opal

Post by Stickyfinger »

you're in a lift with Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler and Tony Blair. You have a gun and two bullets, what do you do?
















you shoot Blair twice, then pistol whip him until you're sure the job is done then throw him out of the lift making sure he lands on Jean-Claude Juncker


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Re: RE: Re: PSA in talks to acquire Opal

Post by mickeymoon »

Stickyfinger wrote:you're in a lift with Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler and Tony Blair. You have a gun and two bullets. What do you do?


Shoot myself!
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Re: RE: Re: PSA in talks to acquire Opal

Post by mickeymoon »

Stickyfinger wrote:you're in a lift with Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler and Tony Blair. You have a gun and two bullets. What do you do?


Shoot myself!
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Re: PSA in talks to acquire Opal

Post by Stickyfinger »

You cannot do it three times, you only have two rounds :)
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Re: PSA in talks to acquire Opal

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

Stickyfinger wrote:you're in a lift with Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler and Tony Blair. You have a gun and two bullets, what do you do?
















you shoot Blair twice, then pistol whip him until you're sure the job is done then throw him out of the lift making sure he lands on Jean-Claude Juncker


(Saddam & Hitler are dead btw)
I would shoot the cables holding the lift, and then the automatic braking system, so the lift then plunges down the shaft uncontrollably. Unfortunately I would have forgotten that I had got on at the second floor, going down (and there is no basement), so that Blair gets out with either minor or no injuries (the slippery bar steward!).
Last edited by Hell Razor5543 on 18 Feb 2017, 16:10, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: PSA in talks to acquire Opal

Post by demag »

Let's hope they don't make an electric equivalent of the 1.6hdi engine or it will be curtains for them.


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