A French Tuneup For German Cars

After years of losses with GM, Opel quickly turned profitable under Peugeot

- Tami Holderried, Christoph Rauwald, and Ania Nussbaum, with Leonard Kehnscherper

The giant Opel factory in Rüsselsheim, an industrial city a half-hour’s drive west of Frankfurt, appears little changed from last summer: Employees still wear “We are Opel” T-shirts. The melody that rings out every few minutes, signaling that someone needs assistance, is the same. Body panels for Insignia sedans and Zafira minivans still follow the same yellow marks on the concrete floor on the way to their “wedding,” where workers add the engine and transmission to the frame.

One thing, though, is dramatically different: The cars that roll off the end of the line are sold at a profit. “When I see friends in the pub, I can finally put the keys to my Opel on the table with pride again,” Matthias Deschamps, a 33-year assembly-line veteran, says looking over the production floor. In July, when the carmaker reported its first profit since 1999, “there was a big sigh of relief.”