Experts are torn, with one camp favouring a shift to the dominant European brand. Others believe it will be too costly to rebadge the cars in the UK, and throwing away more than 100 years of brand heritage is, at best, risky, as UK consumers may not be receptive.
Of course it will be expensive and complicated to rebrand Vauxhall as Opel, but it certainly makes the most sense. Vauxhall is a 103-year-old brand that no longer means very much to anybody. The marque also struggles with its credentials, and those it does have tend to align it with sales reps. Not that there is anything wrong with Vauxhalls - after all, they are simply rebadged, German-designed Opels. If you own one, which I do, you will know that it is fair to describe them as workhorses, which is, perhaps, why they are so favoured by fleet managers.
Whatever you think of the brand, Kevin Morley, a former managing director of Rover, has come up with the most logical and non-emotive reason for rebranding Vauxhall as Opel. Now a professor, and director of business studies at the University of Warwick, Morley told The Times that the cars will almost certainly be rebadged - specifically, to appeal to the Russian market.
He thinks the Astra, in particular, will be perfect for that market - in which case, the Ellesmere Port plant where they are built could benefit. Morley believes the idea of retaining the Vauxhall brand in the future is futile, because the name means nothing to the Russian consumers.
It will be sad to see the Vauxhall name go, but, while the British public can be sentimental, they also soon forget.