Opel, Chevrolet complementary brands as GM competes globally

FROM DETROIT FREE PRESS: Chevrolet is GM’s best-selling brand, the engine that drives the automaker’s U.S. operations, with 1.3 million sales in 2009. Opel, too, is vital to GM.

It’s GM’s No. 1 brand in the important European market, with 1.2 million sales last year. That makes Opel GM’s second-biggest brand worldwide by a wide margin. It exceeded Buick, Cadillac and GMC’s combined U.S. sales by more than 2 1/2 -to-1 last year.

Opel is the yin to Chevy’s yang. The brands are vitally complementary as GM shapes its new global strategy. Neither is complete — or able to compete with global automakers like Ford, Toyota and Volkswagen — without the other. MORE»