In a smart move, GM may be about to reverse course and determine that the company needs the engineers at its German car company, Opel, after all.  Opel products have most recently been sold as Saturns, but as that car company is surely closing (after its sale fell through), GM would have to find another outlet for these fine vehicles.  That should not be too hard as the economic melt down has no doubt shut the pipeline for new cars generally, so the need for solid ones which have not yet been over-marketed will no doubt increase, whatever the car company in question.  Thus, the retention of Opel and its engineering prowess makes very good sense.  “GM’s board is revisiting the Magna deal because the EU raised questions about whether political pressure by Germany was too big a factor in GM’s choice of Magna. German officials, emboldened by the €4.5 billion ($6.6 billion) commitment the country made to fund Opel’s restructuring, were said to strongly favor a sale to Magna because the Ontario-based company committed to the least amount of job loss.

German officials have publicly responded to the EU’s concerns by saying that there were no strings attached to its loans to GM. The auto maker had also been considering a rival Opel bid for by RHJ International Inc., as well as an option under which it would keep Opel for itself. Those two options were investigated by GM’s board in August and September, but ultimately were turned down.”

Here is a link to the WSJ article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703294004574511883300807774.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_business

 Michael