General Motors Co.'s money-losing Opel brand overtook Fiat SpA with the steepest discounts in Germany last month as the unit seeks to halt a drop in sales.
Opel dealers' discounts in May averaged 12.8 percent off the list price, topping the 12.4 percent savings from Fiat, the traditional incentive leader in Germany, according to trade publication Autohaus PulsSchlag. The industry averaged rebates of 10.9 percent, the researcher said in its monthly survey.
Opel's quest for government aid contributed to a 41 percent slide in German sales through May even after the unit introduced a new version of its best-selling Astra compact. GM, working toward an initial public offering, decided last week to fund Opel's restructuring on its own after failing to win 1.8 billion euros ($2.2 billion) in aid from European countries.
"The Opel brand, which was already weakened by quality issues, has suffered considerable damage in the year-and-a-half- long aid pursuit," said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center of Automotive Research at the University of Applied Sciences in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany. "The withdrawal of the aid request offers a chance for a new beginning, but it will be a long road."
The survey, based on responses from dealers, isn't representative of Opel's sales activities, said an Opel spokesman, Ulrich Weber. He added that Opel didn't increase incentives or offer special financing conditions as some of its competitors did.
'Average' Discounts
Discounts are running about "average," GM Europe President Nick Reilly said yesterday in an interview at an industry conference in Bilbao, Spain. Heavy discounting is a bad idea after last year's government incentives, he said.
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