Why, do you think, was the Mercury Capri so much more successful than the Opel Manta?

Pure and simple, i'm from Australia where as holden has carried on the Opels and marketed them out here Astra's Vectra's and Barina's which are Corsa's over in Europe. Where the smaller Fords have done alot better in sales over here compared to the Euro trash imports we get over here. Pure and simple Americans hate Europeans anything European besides German is seen as shite!!!!


GM TECH|||Doesn't it also have to do that the european cars were seen as small and dangerous?


Opel was sold in the US, have seen an Opel 1900 caravan (Ascona A-type) when I was in Seatle in 1989.


Also the Pontiac LeMans has Opel roots as they are based on the Opel Kadett the model they used just before they turned to the Opel Astra. Further a lot of US types from the GM-fleet have an european Opel design, only don't carrry the name.


Opel was never an official brand in the US as they were sold by Buick dealers as captive imports. GM's sale of Opel models like the Kadett through Buick dealers in the late 1960s and early 1970s, yielded ambivalent results; the Opels were generally well-regarded and sales were decent but never substantial. In the 1970s, when Buick decided to phase out its Opels and sell small Isuzus instead, the result was a handful of cars carrying a truly global but very amusing brand, Buick Opel by Isuzu


That's maybe the reason the Manta didn't make it.


All the cars that I have driven privately have been Opels, Ascona 16S (A-type, 75), Manta 18 GT/J (B-type, 84), Vectra 16i. Have allways enjoyed them driving, unfortunately with the car prices rocketing skyhigh and my current leasebudget, I had to switch brands for my company car.|||http://www.britishtaxdiscs.co.uk/gallery鈥?/a>





The same thing Happend in Britain between the Ford Capri and the Opel Manta.





The Capri was the more established car and the favorite of the people, as were most thing Ford at that time.


Many Ford models were built in Britain and were seen has British cars. Opels were still seen as German and little was known about them.


People didn't realize both companies were actually American.


I did like the later Manta GTEs based on the Manta 400 Rally car, but even I am a Ford Capri fanatic and prefer it. (not the Mercury Capri, they seem to have spoiled the American version)


The link is to the best of the Brit Capris, The Brooklands 280.|||Honestly speaking Opel manta were better cars.


Less sales were mainly due to various reasons.





The price difference,after sales service,cost of parts and likely advertisement and marketing.





However the opel manta was more durable and trouble free cars of that time.





I have seen Open manta still moving around in orignal condition.|||Isn't Mercury only sold in America? Opel is not, or if it is it doesn't have even a slight holding. So, of course, the Mercury is going to do better in America.|||B/c it resembled the Mustang so much.|||It wasn't, it was a piece of junk.|||What do you mean?