WILLIAMS HUNT PICKS UP OPEL FROM DEPARTING GM
Following its recent announcement that it is leaving the South Africa market (again), General Motors has confirmed that the Opel brand is staying behind. From January 2018, the Williams Hunt group will exclusively distribute Opel products through a nationwide dealership network of 35 outlets. Williams Hunt, with currently the largest share of GM sales of all other dealerships at 20%, will own some of the dealerships, while others will be franchised. The Opel SA brand has averaged about 320 cars sold every month since January.
“Opel has had great success in South Africa,” said Bill Mott, Director of International Sales Operations. “Many of our models have enjoyed great popularity among the buying public and have received rewards and acclaim from the motoring press. Opel customers can expect the same quality of aftersales support and no changes to existing warranties. We will ensure that our customers receive outstanding sales and aftersales support as we continue to further grow in the South African market.” Williams Hunt will also continue to support Cadillac, Chevrolet, HUMMER, Isuzu and SAAB products too.
As you already know through our previous articles on the subject, the Peugeot Citroen Groupe of France has bought Opel AG from General Motors. The transaction has not been finalised yet, but it looks like a done deal. Peugeot Citroen SA already has its own new team which will handle Mzansi. However, from a distribution, marketing and administrative point of view, the international deal will not affect Mzansi. That is to say, Peugeot and Opel will continue operating as completely separate businesses, even though they will effectively be selling cars that are technically the same. In fact, the next-generation Corsa will run on the Peugeot Citroen platform, which means it will share its underpinnings with the Peugeot 208 and Citroen C2 among others.
Speaking of cars, Opel is launching its last new product under the GM SA banner within a few months’ time. It’s called the Crossland X and is pitched just below the Mokka X. It is in fact, the second X-branded Opel after said Mokka. In 2018 the first Opel product to launch here will be the Grandland X, a bigger SUV to rival the likes of Ford Kuga and Volkswagen Tiguan. Unfortunately there are no plans to rebadge the half-tonne Utility bakkie as an Opel, which means once Chevrolet stops producing it, that will be the end.
