Vauxhall and Opel, the European assets of General Motors, were acquired at the weekend by in a deal agreed with Magna International and Sberbank, a Canadian/Russian partnership backed with loans from the German government. General Motors itself is expected to file for bankruptcy today.
The takeover has left the future of the two Vauxhall factories in Luton and Ellesmere Port in doubt. Lord Mandleson, who has been working on a deal to save the UK arm of General Motors, has admitted he has no idea what the new owners are planning to do with the factories.
According to John Wormald, managing director of automotive analyst Autopolis, the costs involved in rebranding Vauxhall mean the company's new owners are likely to try and ride out any negative publicity from any factory closures.
Wormald said: "It will take more money to abolish Vauxhall than to keep it. The fact that some factories are going to close is going to have some negative impact but it's not the same as if Peugeot or Renault did the same thing.
"I don't think people care where cars are built."
If the UK factories close it will bring an end to UK manufacturing for a brand that launched as the Vauxhall Iron Works in 1894 and produced its first car in 1903. However since the early 1970s Vauxhalls have in essence been rebadged Opels.
In recent years the Vauxhall brand itself has been under threat. Since 2005 UK campaigns have, like the cars themselves, used Opel advertising with Vauxhall logos tagged into the end frame.
According to figures from Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders 298,912 Vauxhalls were sold in the UK last year, a fall of 6% on the previous year's sales.