Wednesday, Feb 20, 2013
Dubai: Opel and Liberty Automobiles, which has the rights for Dubai and northern emirates, are both aiming for a fresh start in engaging with retail and fleet customers with five new models being launched on February 23. The two also hope to cover most bases with a range that starts from Dh53,000 to Dh175,000 (Insignia OPC) and more additions to come in later.
Liberty Automobiles, which is also the Cadillac dealership, expects to sell the first Opel unit to a retail customer on February 23 itself. On the fleet side, commitments have already been made with the rental car operator Budget for the Corsa model.
Other brands in the fleet mix would be the high-end Insignia and Corsa.
The Insignia is a completely new Opel badge for these markets and replaces the Omega. “It’s a new chapter for Opel here and plan to develop a success story hand in hand,” said Gilbert Nassar, brand manager for Opel at Liberty. “There is a 360-degre marketing plan and we will spend a lot of money on this strategy as soon as the models are formally launched. That’s when the big bang will come and we are positive about the outcome.
“We are selling the complete deal — a German product at an affordable price and supported by Liberty’s experience.”
Along with its counterparts Opel has been mired in the slowdown within Europe’s automotive market. But Opel is looking to overseas territories with a newly minted line-up that also includes its small car version, Adam. But Adam comes only in the manual version and that puts the model outside of the UAE’s requirements which stipulates automatic. A sport-utility vehicle is another route the carmaker, owned by General Motors, is taking to.
For the moment Liberty is thinking of February 23 and building up the sales momentum thereafter. “We have enough shipments of all the five models available to us at the moment,” said Nassar. “The fleet side is equally encouraging with the new Corsa getting accepted by all the big operators. And everyone else tends to follow what the big operators do.
“Opel is good to go.”
By Manoj Nair Associate Editor
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
