All Midsize General Motors Vehicles to Be Developed by Opel

With Opel in the Drivers Seat Cars such as the Current Pontiac Grand Prix Would Never Happen

Is General Motors finally seeing the light? Automotive experts have long questioned why GM chooses to engineer its small and midsize front-drive cars in Detroit rather than look to its European operations for assistance.

After all, GMs Opel division has produced some wonderful vehicles over the years, far better than the majority of the American automakers domestic products. When Cadillac needed a new midsize model it turned to Opel for its Catera, and despite its odd appearance the Cadillac that zigs helped to change perceptions about the brand, ushering in the current CTS.

Changes are afoot to incorporate a new generation of front-drive small and midsize global architectures, the Solstices Kappa being most prominently featured in the news as of late. Other models, such as the compact Astra are being re-branded as Chevrolets in South America too, showing that a single car global strategy, similar to premium brands like Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, is possible.

As reported in Detroit News earlier this week, Opels chief executive said the German automaker would be in charge of developing all of GMs future midsized vehicles. This would mean that cars such as Pontiacs poorly executed Grand Prix would probably never see the light of day, allowing this GM division to directly compete with brands like Acura, Chrysler and Nissan that currently under-price and over-deliver with their respective TL, 300 and Maxima in comparison.

According to Reuters news agency, Germanys Welt am Sonntag newspaper stated that Opel would assume "a central role in the midsize class," citing Opel chief Carl-Peter Forster.

"In the past we developed vehicles of the same class in several areas of the world. We do not want to continue to do so; this will be more strongly consolidated," the paper quoted Forster as stating.

This is good news, as Chevy, Pontiac and Buick midsize cars should be as well-made as the Opel Vectra. After all, the Chevy Malibu and Malibu MAXX, plus the upcoming Pontiac G6 share the Vectras Epsilon chassis architecture, so it would only be natural to design them all at one location.

Anyone who has driven a new Opel in Europe and has had the opportunity to compare it to a similarly priced domestic GM product, such as a Pontiac Sunfire, Grand Am, Grand Prix or Bonneville, or any car from one of GMs other brands including some of the new Cadillacs, will know the automaker is on to something by allowing the German manufacturer to get more involved in its North American operations.