Dissecting Opel's failure in Australia

As we reported last week, Opel, General Motors' German subsidiary, announced that it was pulling out of the Australian market after less than a year. The brand sold a meager 1,530 cars from August of 2012 to June of 2013, and simply never really appeared as a legit competitor to its primary target – Volkswagen.

Now, Car Advice is wondering what went so wrong. In a lengthy story, the Aussie publication interviews a number of dealers and Opel Australia's PR manager, Michelle Lang, about the shut down, what preceded it and why Opel's efforts were kind of broken from the start. What's remarkable is that it sheds light on the thought pattern behind the shutdown, which makes a fair amount of sense.

Click over to Car Advice for the full read, it's a good one.