Word: opel
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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More specifically, the Cinderella company is GM Europe, a Zurich-based subsidiary that makes and sells 1.5 million West German-designed cars a year bearing the nameplates Vauxhall in the United Kingdom and Opel on the Continent. Last year GM Europe built fewer than half as many passenger cars as the North American division's 3.4 million. Yet the European side accounted for half of GM's $4 billion in worldwide earnings and almost all the company's total profits from auto manufacturing...
...auto-savoring European press. The manufacturer's success is owing in large part to the successful redesign of its market-leading subcompact, a car class in which the parent company has produced notable failures like the Chevrolet Chevette. The GM Europe subcompact, which goes by the names Opel Kadett and Vauxhall Astra, is now selling at the rate of 630,000 cars a year, making it the best-selling GM car in the world...
...European company is no one-hit wonder. The company has another best seller in its J-class car, sold as a Vauxhall Cavalier in the United Kingdom and as an Opel Vectra in other countries. Rolled out in 1988 to rave reviews for its advanced engines and styling, the Vectra also offers the best fuel efficiency in its class, split-folding rear seats and height-adjustable seat belts. The car can be equipped with an optional 16-valve, four-cylinder engine that even Mercedes engineers have hailed as the best multivalve motor in the world. GM Europe sold...
What happened to the domestic cars? In the view of a GM executive now on the European side, Opel chairman Louis Hughes, the rapid pace of change at the U.S. company came at a price. Says he: "We changed all of our cars. We downsized them twice, changed from rear-wheel drive to front-wheel drive, changed all the systems of the company, changed all the factories, then told almost every employee in North America...