reddog Posted February 14, 2017 Share Posted February 14, 2017 Interesting news, as the last time I heard Peugeot had more than their fair share of problems. Is GM selling, or more or less giving away their European assets (and liabilities!!) in order to get out of the basketcase known as the European mainstream car market? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/02/14/general-motors-talks-sell-vauxhall-opel-marques-peugeot/ I'm sure if this happens Peugeot will do a big chunk of rationalising. Doubt if too many people at Peugeot will be upset if a few Brits get fired. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zugzwang Posted February 14, 2017 Share Posted February 14, 2017 41 minutes ago, reddog said: Interesting news, as the last time I heard Peugeot had more than their fair share of problems. Is GM selling, or more or less giving away their European assets (and liabilities!!) in order to get out of the basketcase known as the European mainstream car market? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/02/14/general-motors-talks-sell-vauxhall-opel-marques-peugeot/ I'm sure if this happens Peugeot will do a big chunk of rationalising. Doubt if too many people at Peugeot will be upset if a few Brits get fired. Another Keynesian abomination that should have been shot through the face years ago. The last time GM made a net profit in Europe was 1999! Not that Peugeot is any better. 50,000 redundancies from the combined company? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChewingGrass Posted February 14, 2017 Share Posted February 14, 2017 GM cars have been rapidly going downhill in quality in recent years as exemplified by spontaneous combustion and how fast certain models disappear from the roads. Who remembers the Antara? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rave Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 As far as I can tell Vauxhalls/Opels have generally been reasonably well made, if unexciting cars. I think the number of Zafiras that have spontaneously combusted is in the single figures, obviously they still have to recall them all. Peugeot spent the naughties making unmitigated cack like the 207, 307 and 407, but their recent efforts have been decent cars. There is massive overcapacity in European car manufacturing; they've all managed to kick the can down the road for a while thanks to ZIRP free money allowing them to punt cars to people for £200 a month with the hope that something will turn up 3 years down the line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittlePig Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 2 minutes ago, hotairmail said: How Peugeot is still going is testament to the corrupt French State. http://ansm.sante.fr/S-informer/Presse-Communiques-Points-presse/Affaire-Mediator-les-juges-envisagent-une-mise-en-examen-de-l-ANSM-Communique Context here https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/06/france-scandal-weight-loss-drug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayward Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 Isn't there a Vauxhall factory in Luton...? Insane inflation over last couple of years...the Vauxhall factory closing may bring folk to their senses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
One-percent Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 13 minutes ago, Wayward said: Isn't there a Vauxhall factory in Luton...? Insane inflation over last couple of years...the Vauxhall factory closing may bring folk to their senses. Ah yes, just like shutting down most of the uk's manufacturing base has brought folk to their senses. Don't hold you breath... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabby81 Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 2 hours ago, Wayward said: Isn't there a Vauxhall factory in Luton...? Insane inflation over last couple of years...the Vauxhall factory closing may bring folk to their senses. Nope Vauxhall closed in Luton in late 90s ,site has been derelict since then but now due to its proximity to the train station and increase in house costs it's prime land to build high rise apartments ...And a cosmetic medical centre .. IBC is still here they make vauxhall vans and pay £8 quid an hour for production operatives last time they advertised ..Who i dare say will struggle to afford the 1 bed 200k apartments going up next door or the 3/4 bed Redrow 400k houses also on the development ...Still the development is great news for locals ,so the council etc spin goes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trampa501 Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 On 14/02/2017 at 8:16 PM, reddog said: Interesting news, as the last time I heard Peugeot had more than their fair share of problems. Is GM selling, or more or less giving away their European assets (and liabilities!!) in order to get out of the basketcase known as the European mainstream car market? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/02/14/general-motors-talks-sell-vauxhall-opel-marques-peugeot/ I'm sure if this happens Peugeot will do a big chunk of rationalising. Doubt if too many people at Peugeot will be upset if a few Brits get fired. Yep. They may keep a few skeleton staff on in case they need extra expansion in the future. But given overproduction in the market generally, who they going to cut? Jobs in their own EU market, or in the independent England/Wales (will we still be a UK by the 2020s?) Remember the French govt has a stake in the company so they will put pressure on to favour their own voters first. Having said all that, this is probably going to happen anyway, regardless of Brexit or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diver Dan Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 Peugeot also produced 206s in Coventry, a vestige of them having previouslt purchased Chrysler Europe, who had themselves previously purchased Rootes Group. They shut that factory with little sentiment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reddog Posted March 6, 2017 Author Share Posted March 6, 2017 Can someone one explain to me how it is that European union competition laws forbid state ownership, and yet the French government has a stake in both Peugeot and Renault? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChewingGrass Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 4 minutes ago, reddog said: Can someone one explain to me how it is that European union competition laws forbid state ownership, and yet the French government has a stake in both Peugeot and Renault? My sentiments exactly, as far as the E.U. goes state ownership in the UK is bad yet fine in France. State sponsored undermining of foreign industry is fine in France & Germany as well. Buying up UK companies and shutting them down in all but name to eliminate competition is also OK. The EU has decimated UK engineering to the extent that it is now extremely difficult to procure UK made industrial equipment, try buying a building crane or an industrial gas/diesel engine. This is another one of my grudges with the E.U. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
interestrateripoff Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 More UK jobs to go. At least we have a home grown car industry..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjhodgson Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 ...and don't forget this particulaly lovely bit of EU slight of hand.... Transit Van Factory Closure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecrashingisles Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 On 15/02/2017 at 0:42 AM, hotairmail said: How Peugeot is still going is testament to the corrupt French State. You mean the active industrial policy of the French state. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reddog Posted March 6, 2017 Author Share Posted March 6, 2017 16 minutes ago, mjhodgson said: ...and don't forget this particulaly lovely bit of EU slight of hand.... Transit Van Factory Closure You couldn't make it up!! Anyway, it looks like the car industry will be going through significant change over the next 10-15 years. However cheap GM had to flog Opel/Vauxhall for, they will have got the better deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zugzwang Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 8 minutes ago, thecrashingisles said: You mean the active industrial policy of the French state. The same one that gets 300,000+ new homes built every year? Appalling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattW Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 Vauxhall/Opel hasn't built a car that has piqued my interest since the Senator that was discontinued in 1993/94. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zugzwang Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 7 minutes ago, reddog said: You couldn't make it up!! Anyway, it looks like the car industry will be going through significant change over the next 10-15 years. However cheap GM had to flog Opel/Vauxhall for, they will have got the better deal. Unlike US taxpayers, thought to have lost some $11 billion in the 2009 Auto Industry Bailout of GM, Ford and Chrysler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnionTerror Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChewingGrass Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 I knew Vauxhall/Opels days were numbered when they launched the 'New Vauxhall Viva' in the UK and did everything they could to hide the fact that it was a Hyundia i10 with a badge stuck on it. Rover pulled the same trick with the indian built City Rover' just before they keeled over. Even though the 'New Viva' was launched at the back end of 2014 I can safely say I haven't noticed a single on on the roads. As soon as a manufacturer starts badging up lower end models (lipstick on a pig) sourced from other manufacturers their brand may as well not exist anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chronyx Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 I haven't noticed an Adam either. Not saying I haven't seen one, mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reddog Posted March 6, 2017 Author Share Posted March 6, 2017 37 minutes ago, chronyx said: I haven't noticed an Adam either. Not saying I haven't seen one, mind. They have a bit of a weird line up with the Viva, corsa and Adam all in almost the same category. I personally think the Adam looks good. But for years now the Vauxhall range has been a wierd mix of GM brands from throughout the world. On the one hand you have the rebadged Hyundai/Viva, but a few years a ago you had the morano (rebadged Holden Australian muscle car). Not exactly much brand DNA. To me they are all over the place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuckmojo Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 Ex GM employee here (gone 10 years ago). GM Europe + PSA is a marriage made in hell. They totally deserve each other. It's almost as comical as merging Alitalia with Air France. A perfect fit which will result in much less than the sum of its parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Automotive Engineer Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 On 14/02/2017 at 8:16 PM, reddog said: Interesting news, as the last time I heard Peugeot had more than their fair share of problems. Is GM selling, or more or less giving away their European assets (and liabilities!!) in order to get out of the basketcase known as the European mainstream car market? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/02/14/general-motors-talks-sell-vauxhall-opel-marques-peugeot/ I'm sure if this happens Peugeot will do a big chunk of rationalising. Doubt if too many people at Peugeot will be upset if a few Brits get fired. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK, Last thing I need is more engineers on the dole, lowering overall wages Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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