The big news from the motoring world this week is that German brand Opel and British brand Vauxhall have been bought by the PSA group from France. PSA group are the parent company of Citroën and Peugeot. For the past 88 years they have been under the umbrella of the General Motors group. This purchase makes a real superpower in European motoring.

Opel Automobile GmbH CEO Michael Lohscheller said: “We are proud to join Groupe PSA and are now opening a new chapter in our history after 88 years with General Motors. We will continue our path of making technology ‘made in Germany’ available to everyone. The combination of our strengths will enable us to turn Opel and Vauxhall into a profitable and self-funded business. We have set ourselves the clear target of returning to profitability by 2020.”

A management team from the new French owners will take over and will present a plan in 100 days, which they claim will see the company back in profit by 2020.

Sales

Car sales for the month of July have shown the predictable rise that comes with the two at the end of the registration plate, but this follows on from the less-positive news that new car sales in the first half of 2017 (totalled 91,185) declined by 10% when compared to new cars sold during the first half of 2016. During the first six months of the year, new car sales declined in every county, with Donegal experiencing the largest decline at 18.6%, while Cavan had the smallest decline of 4.4%. New car sales in Dublin accounted for 40.6% of the total new car market. With the rise of sales since 172 started the trade is still expecting the year total to reach the forecasted level of 132,000.