In 2009, General Motors (GM) announced to move its European headquarters from Zürich, Switzerland to Rüsselsheim, Germany to strengthen its German subsidiary Opel.

[3] As of July 2022, General Motors's European operations are conducted by Cadillac Europe GmbH (distribution of Cadillac vehicles and Chevrolet sports cars),[4][5] General Motors IT Services (Ireland) Limited in the Republic of Ireland (provision of IT services) and GM Auto LLC (ООО Джи Эм Авто) (a separate subsidiary that distributes the Chevrolet Camaro, Tahoe, and Traverse models in Russia).

Originally both Vauxhall and Opel had operated independently of each other with totally separate product lines and were direct competitors outside of each other's home markets.

See also David Hayward's Automotive history: GENERAL MOTORS 1908 TO 1933[9] Outlines in detail the company's development, acquisitions, key directors, particularly Guy Nicholas (Nick) Vansittart (1893–1989) see Lendrum & Hartman and James D. Mooney (1884–1957) involvement with Adam Opel A.G. and politics between the wars.

By the early 1970s, GM began to merge the product lines of Opel and Vauxhall, with the development of a series of common platforms from which a range of vehicles could be derived.

This in turn allowed manufacturing resources to be pooled, therefore Opel badged vehicles were produced in Vauxhall factories and vice versa.

Isuzu would later pull out of IBC Vehicles in 1998, with Renault (and later the Renault–Nissan Alliance) taking its place in the venture – which was subsequently renamed as GMM Luton, manufacturing the Vivaro family of light cargo vans.

The newly created AWD struggled as an independent business away from GM, and collapsed in 1992, bringing an end to the lineage of Bedford trucks and the Dunstable plant was later closed.

GM divested its minority equity interests and dissolved the partnership in 2005, following a legal fight regarding the conditions of a put option afforded Fiat.

As the sale of Opel has been negotiated two days before, with the preferred bidder the Magna consortia, both companies were in effect ring-fenced from any GM asset liquidation.

[17][18][19][20] Magna stated that their plans for Opel included attracting GM or third-party carmakers to build their cars and electric vehicles in Antwerp.

[22] However, negotiations broke down with Magna over details, particularly the sale of intellectual property rights and distribution of all future GM products in the former Soviet Union.

GM announced that final bids were to be placed with them by July 20, which resulted in three bidders:[23] Towards the end of August 2009 there were doubts over whether a sale of Opel would actually go ahead, though a German government official later revealed that talks were continuing.