Why does the UK have Vauxhall and rest have Opel?

Hi I live in Britain and in the UK we have Vauxhall but the rest of Europe when I go on holiday ive been to Greece, Spain, Cyprus and France and they all seem to have Opel why is that?|||The Vauxhall and Opel brand names belong to General Motors. Vauxhall was originally a British company. Opel was European, so GM have stuck with the familiar names in their former home countries.|||As others have said General Motors took over both companies Vauxhall in 1925 and Opel between 1929 and 1931 (they were part owners for a while). Although both were part of GM they kept a lot of their own design expertise (and so the cars were quite different) and their own markets until the seventies or so, Then the ranges were gradually amalgamated, the opel designs tended to win out as they were much more suited to european use, whereas many Vauxhalls were more transatlantic and whilst this was ok in the fifties tastes changed. Its worth mentioning that the Vauxhall reputation was badly damaged in the 60's as they rusted very badly, 3 year old cars often having holes in the body. Many factories closed (Luton, main base of Vauxhall being a really big casualty). For a while Opel did sell models which did not compete with Vauxhall in the UK- the Opel Manta was probably the best example as it competed with the Ford Capri and Vauxhall did not have a car like this in their range. Their various cars are now made in various factories around Europe. They still have a plant in UK at Ellesmere Port, which as far as I can tell, makes Astras both for UK and export.|||Vauxhall was a UK motor company


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall_Mo鈥?/a>





Opel was a German company.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel





They both got taken over by GM (US General Motors) or more correctly


GM had bought Vauxhall, and GM became the Majority shareholder in Opel





And for a while in the 80's they rebranded most if not all Vauxall cars Opel.


eg the then new Vauxhall Nova became the Opel Corsa within a few years,


the name it had always had on the continent of Europe.





Clearly someone in marketing has decided that using the old British name might fool some into thinking it is a more 'local'/less European car !





Exactly the same car, exactly the same build and factories..... well except LH/RH drive...


perhaps (cynically) an argument to price it differently (*) is the underlying reason.





(*) the EU demands that all products have the same price throughout the EU.


So by calling it something different, perhaps they can price it differently.


Johnnie walker does it with Red Label and Black Label whisky...


one for UK, one for outside UK.|||Hello





It used to be that Right hand drive were Vauxhall and built in the U.K and Right hand drive were Opels and built in Germany.


Then it all got mixed up lol the Vin number will tell you if yours was built in the U.K or Germany.





Andy C|||Vauxhall was a British company


Opel was German, both were taken over by General Motors|||Probably because someone else already has the name Opel in Britain or the other way round.





It's the same with Lynx spray. It's called Lynx in Britain but every other country it's called Axe.