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Opel reportedly mulling reviving Wartburg as low-cost brand
Despite an uncertain future, Ward's Auto is reporting that Opel is looking at the possibility of starting a new low-cost line under the revived moniker "Wartburg." Made by East German company VEB AEW until 1991, in their most recent guise, Wartburgs were cheap transportation for the Communist set, vying for breadline parking spaces with Trabants and the like. The cheap and cheerless models were assembled in a facility in Eisenach that was within sight of Wartburg castle. When the Soviet-era factory closed, Opel opened up its own factory in Eisenach the following year.For Opel, a €7,000 Wartburg could create more sales openings for the Corsa and more output for the Eisenach factory where the model is presently made. Still, it is "only one of several options" according to an Opel source, and with General Motors' financial situation, we expect options to be changing daily. If it did occur, a cheaper Corse-based economy model could make sense... but do people really have fond memories of Wartburg?
[Source: Ward's Auto | Source Images: Opel; Wikipedia, Creative Commons 2.0]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Avinash machado 9:10AM (5/11/2009)
Would be a nice competitor to Dacia. But does GM really need another brand when they are trying to shed some already.
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Alex 9:22AM (5/11/2009)
I don't think this is going to be a GM brand. GM is looking to sell off Opel, so this is Opel's plan moving forward. GM will have nothing to do with it.
DiRF 9:22AM (5/11/2009)
Well, they might have trouble selling it in English-speaking countries... just not a pleasant name... even when pronounced like it's supposed to, it still sounds awfully like "Fartburg"...
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Kitko 9:42AM (5/11/2009)
I wouldn't care about pronunciation. Dacia is not easy, too. Not to mention that most folks in the world have no idea how to pronounce Buick or Pontiac correctly. Mazda pronuncation differs from country to country. Folkswagen anyone?
As a matter of fact, Mercedes and Porsche are always (Ok, 99.9% of time) mispronounced by English speakers. Mursaydees? Porsh? Are you kidding me?
Perhaps we should all return to the original pronunciation of Detroit.
Like it or not, the name is French, détroit (strait), and should be pronounced as /de.tʁwa/ - deetruwa. That translates as Freedom City, I suppose....
~D. 9:22AM (5/11/2009)
I think this would be an idea to expand an "independent" GM-Europe. Still, it begs the question: would Trabant become the communist Mini?
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DiRF 9:25AM (5/11/2009)
Honestly, I wouldn't mind a new-age Trabant... for being communist rattletraps, they had a little aesthetic charm to their design, and "Trabant" is a better-sounding name than Wartburg.
Bloke 9:50AM (5/11/2009)
I'm curious as to how "low-cost" a Wartburg revival would be - on the one hand, it could be a cheap-and-cheerful competitor to Renault's Dacia subsidiary, or an inexpensive but high-quality alternative to VAG's Skoda. Irrespective of the case, it's an interesting move. Perhaps it might spur PSA to rejuvenate Simca?
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Jon 9:53AM (5/11/2009)
er, no. the name sounds hideous, but that's not the main problem.
GM is nearly dead and they're bringing out another brand? This just adds costs to stuff like dealership, production and yadayada. While I'm not against Opel to make cheaper and smaller cars, but it's not necessary to make and sell them under a different name. There's nothing wrong with a cheap Opel, like if they were to bring back the old "Corsa lite", under the same badge, people would still buy it. I don't need a brand to define "the cheaper division of a car company".
And to make matters worse, the cars produced could be grabbed by GM and sell them elsewhere under "different names"... oh... smells like "brand engineering", which kinda led GM to today's situation. Come on, just sell cars under the same brand. There's nothing wrong with it!
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Kitko 10:16AM (5/11/2009)
Wartburg is a castle in Germany (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartburg_Castle), think of Morris Oxford, ox-ford isn't really glamorous :-).
Speaking of bulls an oxen, Taurus, anyone?
DHG 9:58AM (5/11/2009)
Hasn't German company Herpa investigated a revival of Trabant as well, albeit at a higher price point?
www.newtrabi.com
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LoneWolf 10:30AM (5/11/2009)
Oh god, please don't bring back Wartburg.....
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Tony2X 11:10AM (5/11/2009)
Noooooo! The shame of it. When I was a kid, my father had one of the few Wartburg's to make it out of the iron curtain. I remember we had a beige wagon and it was the strangest car we'd ever had. The engine was 2 stroke so we had to fill it up with gas, then two stroke oil and we all had to rock the car. I seem to remember getting beaten up a few times at school because my dad had a rubbish car like that.
Fortunately it caught fire one night and my Dad had to watch it burn by the roadside while the fire brigade turned up. What did he get next? A blue Wartburg sedan!
Don't do it GM!
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mindtech 5:04PM (5/11/2009)
Tony2X, it seems like you and your family are not very smart. You must first put the oil and then you put the gas. That way both gas and oil mix very well and you don't have to rock the whole car like retards. But did you really do that?!? I still think it's a joke. It's not the car's or your father's fault for you got beaten at school. It's your fault for being a loser and not fighting back.
I would love to see a new Wartburg. I currently own a 1988 Wartburg 353 and it's the best hobby car. It's real pleasure to drive such car.
BosGav 4:41PM (5/11/2009)
They don't need to start up an additional brand!
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OLight 5:08PM (5/11/2009)
My father used to own a Wartburg in the 1960s, when living in The Old Country(TM). Fast forward to 2012, he lands in Frankfurt or Munich to rent a car to drive East, and is handed the keys to a Wartburg, instead of his customary Opel.
My prediction: He ingests a Valium and boards the next flight back to the US.
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Spule4 10:43PM (5/11/2009)
Very true. But, VW kept Skoda and made it a decent car, so who knows?
It should tell you how bad the IFA cars were when the brass of the SDP and other top officials of the DDR drove Volvos and Citroen CXs and GSs.