West Germany: G.M. v. Everybody

The Mercedes has long ruled the autobahn as a symbol of affluence for West Germany’s economic Wunderkinder. Though still the most elegant German car on the road, Mercedes is now being challenged by a brash newcomer. Last week German auto buyers began to place orders for a set of autos created specifically to overtake Mercedes. The challenger is Opel, General Motors’ West German subsidiary and Europe’s most exciting automaker.

Sales on the Rise. Opel’s challengers are three new sedans whose handsome lines show a trace of Detroit breeding while retaining a pleasing European touch. Designed by former Chevrolet Stylist Clare MacKichan, who was dispatched to Germany for the job, the cars use already developed engines and identical body shells, are made by Germany’s most automated auto plants. Opel was thus able to price its $2,270 Kapitan, its $3,050 Admiral and its $4,400 Diplomat as much as $300 to $1,700 below Mercedes models of roughly similar size, interior appointments, power and styling sophistication.

Opel last year increased its output by 54%, the biggest production gain of any major automaker in the world; it also raised its sales to $775 million and made a $40 million profit. Equally important, Opel last year enlarged its share of the competitive German auto market from 16% to 23% at the expense of a tough rival, Volkswagen. The Opel auto that did the trick is the little Kadett, which was introduced 18 months ago. After a slow start, the Kadett finally caught on; Opel sold so many Kadetts (177,443) in 1963 that Volkswagen’s share of the market declined from 34% to 28%.

Way to Go. Clever strategy is behind Opel’s new models. Bought by G.M. in 1929, Opel lost most of its factories to Allied bombs; much of what was left was carted off to Russia. The company pulled itself together after the war by producing medium-priced and thoroughly unexciting autos that became the favorites of German small business men, who would have felt out of place driving a Mercedes. But in the early 1960s, after the company had recovered its financial health, Opel’s Ohio-born Managing Director Nelson J. Stork, 59, a veteran in G.M.’s overseas divisions, began to level his sights on Volkswagen in the low-cost range and Mercedes in the high-priced group. Says Stork: “We decided to shoot for more customers and try to keep them by offering everything from a one-liter small car to the biggest.”

Opel still has a way to go before it overtakes Volkswagen or Daimler-Benz, the maker of Mercedes, both of whose annual sales are well above the $1 billion mark. But Director Stork can draw confidence from the fact that his strategy of offering many models is precisely the same one that Opel’s U.S. parent used in the late 1920s to sail past Ford and become the world’s largest automaker.

Competition was appearing for Volkswagen on other fronts as well. Introduced in the U.S. last week was a pert new British auto, the Sunbeam Imp. Made by the Rootes group and powered by a rear-placed aluminum engine, it seats four and sells on the East Coast for $1,495, which is $100 less than the beetle-backed Volkswagen.