#Opel

GM’s John Smith, and a freshly minted GME CEO Nick Reilly went to Berlin to see German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle, hat in hand, hoping for some Opel funds. They left empty handed.

“I expressed my expectation that General Motors should basically carry out the financing itself,” Bruederle said after the meeting.

The American version of a Chinese rebadge of a German sedan to be built in Canada will be available at your local Buick dealer starting in the second quarter of next year. According to GM’s presser, the new Regal will initially be offered with the direct-injected 2.4 Ecotec, making 182 hp. Which, you gotta say, doesn’t sound like luxury-level motivation for a 3,600 lb car. A 2.0 turbocharged version with 220 horsepower will be offered later next summer. There will be no manual transmission option (both get 6-speed autos), and in a weird turn towards the Acura side of life, only one trim level (CXL) will be available. Accordingly, the 2009 Acura TSX and Volvo S60 are shown as competitors, although the 2.4l Buick comes up short of both in standard horsepower and rear headroom. In the real world though, GM picked some pretty safe competition: the S60 sold under 9,000 units in 2008 while the TSX sold just under 32,000 units. The Regal competition that Buick should really be worried about is its slightly-larger, more-optionable Epsilon II platform-mate, the LaCrosse.

GM CEO Fritz Henderson’s promises of independence for Opel made the right noises, but they carefully avoided any discussion of the actual role GM envisions for its German division within its global strategy. The latest updates seem to indicate that GM will keep Opel for its engineering expertise, but that the brand will be subordinate to Chevy’s global ambitions. Henderson delivers the slapdown [via Reuters]:

Opel is a regional brand and I don’t see that changing. That doesn’t mean I’m closed to ideas about how it can be used elsewhere; but the measure of the Opel brand’s success will be Europe, because if you don’t win here all the discussion of exports will be irrelevant

After GM announced that they would keep Opel after all, they boasted that “the GM plan entails total restructuring expenses of about €3 billion, significantly lower than all bids submitted as part of the investor solicitation.” After hearing the statement, industry insiders snickered that €3B would be “hardly realistic.”

Now, credit rating agency Moody’s confirms that GM either made that number up, or they lied. Not even close, says Moody’s.

Wasn’t losing their precious intellectual property to the Rooskies the biggest beef GM had with the Opel-Magna-Sperbank deal? Wasn’t it clear that Sperbank wanted to sell its shares to GAZ? Wasn’t GM trying to block this deal by inserting a buyback clause? Now that GM has decided to keep Opel, those fears have evaporated. In the so far strangest twist in the Opel soap, GM is busy trying to salvage exactly the oddest part of the deal: The Opel-Magna-Sberbank-GAZ deal.

The DetN, the unofficial in-house organ of GM, reports (without flinching) that GM officials “still hope to negotiate an agreement with Magna and Russian automaker GAZ. A source familiar with the situation said GM has already contacted Sberbank.” Exactly. The same bank that is owned by oligarch Oleg Deripaska who had his US visa canceled amidst allegations of money laundering and organized crime. And who had to cut a deal with the FBI to be allowed back into the country. And who, according to the New York Times, “has repeatedly denied media reports that he had acquired a major stake in U.S. car maker GM.”

When GM’s Fritz Henderson called Magna chief Siegfried Wolf and told him that GM had an irreversible case of seller’s remorse, Wolf’s flabbergasted counter was: “Are you joking?” Fritz told him he’s dead serious. Opel will stay with GM. Now, all Wolf has left for GM is unsolicited advice: Give more freedom to Opel and tread carefully with the brand and the unions. “GM must now smooth things out and win back trust. That requires a lot of sensitivity and tact,” Wolf told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag (via Reuters).

It doesn’t look like GM will be heeding the advice. New Opel Chairman Bob Lutz and new GM-E chief Nick Reilly are known for the sensitivity and tact of a Sherman tank. Supposedly, both are here on a temporary basis only until new outside managers are found. It could be a long search, if it is a real one at all.

On Monday, Fitz Henderson will come to Germany and try to smooth over things with the workers, Opel’s worker’s council chief Klaus Franz told German media. It will be a tough talk.

The sale of GM’s Opel to Magna/Sberbank is being mulled-over in Brussels (decision by November 27, maybe.) Sperbank’s Oligarch Oleg Deripaska finally was allowed to enter the United States after his visa was denied because of mob-related suspicions. He finally met Fritz Henderson, and some FBI agents. There is talk that GM doesn’t want to let go of Opel’s R&D. Will it ever end? Magna thinks so. A Magna man is ready to take the helm.