Word: opels
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Steel is still the Ruhr's Siegfried Line, but the modern emphasis is less on producing it than using it. Dozens of smokeless, smartly designed plants turn out machine tools, chemical equipment and truck bodies; General Motors' Opel subsidiary 18 months ago opened a $500 million factory for its new Kadett small cars at Bochum-symbolically built over an abandoned coal mine. At Essen and Dortmund, Krupp, Siemens and AEG have put up new plants to manufacture everything from turbogenerators to X-ray apparatus. Also sprouting are plants for electronics parts, TV sets, plate glass and clothing...
...sale later this month in 422 selected Buick showrooms will go a newcomer that has already proved its mettle in Germany. The car: the Opel Kadett, a compact made by General Motors' German subsidiary in a new $250 million plant in the Ruhr, which G.M. feels will be more profitable if it produces at a higher volume. The Kadett's good looks have already dented Volkswagen's sales in Germany (TIME, Nov. 29), and G.M. hopes that the same thing will happen in the U.S. The company sold Opels through Buick once before, but dropped them...
Competition has sharpened because U.S. companies in the past year have brought out sleeker and more comfortable compacts, which the increasingly style-conscious West Germans are switching to. Opel's sales jumped spectacularly in 1963's first three quarters-up 39% to 228,000 cars. The rise was led by its new Kadett model, which is 6 in. shorter than the standard VW but roomier inside, and sells in Germany for $1,269 v. $1,245 for the VW. Ford's best seller is its new Taunus 12M, which is 7 in. longer than the Volkswagen...
...Opel Kadett was rated highest among all small cars by Germany's controversial consumer magazine DM, which placed the VW second and called it "old-fashioned," estimating that it offered less comfort, visibility and speed than the Kadett. (The Ford Taunus 12M was rated lower because the testers faulted its road-holding.) Confident Volkswagen says that it could have sold more cars if it had only had enough manpower and plants-a shortage that the company is remedying by building one new plant and expanding two others. With a limited supply of cars, Volkswagen is concentrating mostly on sales...
...Germany's economic miracle is simmering down, the economy of West Berlin is heating up. As the 14th annual West German Industrial Exposition closed in Berlin last week, new investments were moving in from several sources. General Motors is completing a new plant to make parts for its Opel subsidiary, joining such other U.S. industries in Berlin as Otis Elevator and Yale & Towne. Two German textile firms are also building factories there, with a total investment of $51 million. West Berlin's Deutsche Industrie Bank has announced that its loans for industry have been running at twice...