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| The newest generation of Vauxhalls are 'sensational' |
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But for the time being at least, he's staying with GM and concentrating solely on his huge portfolio of companies and their products. Products such as Vauxhall and the Astra.
'I think the newest generation of Vauxhalls, such as the Astra, are sensational and will be highly reliable and extremely durable.'
He's already proved that he's prepared to dump certain badges. GM's South Korean-built Daewoo products, for example, are now Chevrolets in most parts of the world. So does he still need the Vauxhall marque?
'Well, we do and we don't. If you could wave the magic wand and bring it all under one brand - let's say, Opel - without a short-term dramatic increase in sales I think we'd do it because it makes all the sense in the world. But, for the time being, we just don't see any reason to do so.
'And although the value of the Vauxhall brand in the UK is not as good as I would like it to be and not as good as it was a decade-and-a-half to two decades ago, I think that with continued strong, interesting products of very high quality that are great fun to drive, that can always come back to us.
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| Could Vauxhall become Opel? |
'And without doubt, Britain today is a better place to make things than Germany is. Germany is tougher than Britain. Germany, as used to success as they have been over the last 40-50 years are having a real problem as a country dealing with the new reality.
'Everything got bigger and better. The German manufacturers were wondering how anybody could challenge them. Now, all of a sudden, the whole thing is starting to crumble and they literally don't know how to deal with it. And that's the tricky part.'
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