Chevrolet's European exodus: Will this be the last brand to turn its back on Europe?

Looking at the bottom 10 brands by volume performance in the UK last year, there are young upstarts, such as MG and Infiniti, with a massive challenge ahead, but it would be far too early to predict their death. MG needs to recruit more dealers and use its new MG3 to raise awareness. Infiniti may have the most difficult task of all to shift the dynamics of the executive premium segment.

Much like Chevrolet, rival Korean brand SsangYong is looking to rebrand with a new name to shed the baggage of its past.

It is working on building its dealer network and improving its product quality, although it will be difficult to match the sort of success seen by Kia and Hyundai without a sharp focus on making the product more European. SsangYong will have to be super-competitive on price, at a time when all manufacturers are offering great deals and when the Dacia Duster suddenly gives new meaning to ‘value for money’.

Chevrolet vs Kia

Look back to 2001 and Kia was a value-focused brand with a model line-up that wouldn’t have worried French manufacturers. How things have changed.

While Kia was posting registrations of 12,000 units, Chevrolet was then of course, Daewoo, a rival Korean brand owned by GM and struggling to secure a foothold in the UK at 19,000 registrations.

Both were at similar ends of the product spectrum at the start of the 2000s, but a big investment in product, design and manufacturing meant that by the time GM made the decision to rebrand in 2005 to shrug off the negative connotations of the Daewoo badge, Kia had already grown to almost 37,000 units.

This was even before the Government’s scrappage scheme and just before the launch of Kia’s European manufacturing centre and the European-focused Cee’d.

Meanwhile, Chevrolet was left behind at 15,422 units and while registrations did increase to 18,660 units in 2009, the brand struggled through the recession and never made an impression on UK consumers.