Opel cuts prices to deal with car market slump
The German carmaker Opel, a unit of US giant General Motors, has lowered the price of several models to stimulate demand, an executive said on Monday in an interview.
"At the start of the year, the price of around 80 percent of popular models was reduced," sales director Thomas Owsianski told the Internet site autogazette.de.
The base price of a monospace Zafira model was cut from €21,780 ($29,825) to €19,990, a drop of around eight percent, he said.
Other models such as the Astra, Corsa and Meriva also cost less now. Like rivals, Opel has been slammed by a slump in car markets, especially in Germany, where new car registrations plunged by 18 percent in November. But Opel also suffers from problems at its parent company, which is in dire financial straits.
The German car maker has asked officials in Berlin for loan guarantees of up to €1 billion in the event that GM declares bankruptcy. "Talks are advancing well," Owsianski said, and Opel already has enough cash to keep functioning in the coming months, he added.
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"At the start of the year, the price of around 80 percent of popular models was reduced," sales director Thomas Owsianski told the Internet site autogazette.de.
The base price of a monospace Zafira model was cut from €21,780 ($29,825) to €19,990, a drop of around eight percent, he said.
Other models such as the Astra, Corsa and Meriva also cost less now. Like rivals, Opel has been slammed by a slump in car markets, especially in Germany, where new car registrations plunged by 18 percent in November. But Opel also suffers from problems at its parent company, which is in dire financial straits.
The German car maker has asked officials in Berlin for loan guarantees of up to €1 billion in the event that GM declares bankruptcy. "Talks are advancing well," Owsianski said, and Opel already has enough cash to keep functioning in the coming months, he added.
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