As the world's largest car company, GM is almost invisible in the Philippines.  It maintains a token presence through its Opel dealers, Opel being GM's European brand. 
Opel has reopened its doors with two dealers.  Its sedan offerings are promising, but expensive for their size.  The Vectra, Omega, and Astra are all worthy competitors for their Japanese counterparts. 

The Philippines bid for GM's plant to supply Southeast Asia, but lost out to Thailand.  On an alarming note, GM's website for trucks and cars worldwide doesn't even list in the Philippines!  How can it capture any market here with that kind of inattention?

GM brands such as Chevrolet, Cadillac, Pontiac and Oldsmobile don't seem to be well-suited to the Philippine market.  Their cars are large and thirsty, and not that nimble. 

GM has recently introduced the Suburban and the Tahoe, for the well-heeled who need lots of carrying capacity-whether it's for groceries, kids or your very own goons.

The Suburban is the U.S. largest utility vehicle (I won't even call it sporty).  It can seat 9 inside its hefty 2-ton body.  You do get a lot of metal for your money, as it costs only about P1.8 million.  We haven't tried it yet, but it will probably be a pain to drive in tight city streets, even with its brawny 5.7 liter V8, which puts out 255 horsepower.  Come to think of it, that isn't impressive for a 5.7-liter.  We don't even want to think of the fuel bill you'll get with this thing.

The GMC Savana is a huge 12-seater van powered by, you guessed it, a 5.7 liter V8. 

So what good cars can GM offer here?  Well, its Saturn brand might be suitable.  Saturn sells pleasantly-styled sedans, coupes and wagons.  Its main innovation is the use of a spaceframe and fiberglass bodyshell.  The fiberglass is lighter and more dent-resistant than metal. 

Otherwise, Opel seems to be enough for us.  A GM roadster is making the car-show rounds, and it might make it into production as an Opel.

In the pipeline is an Opel-designed car for Asia.  No details are available yet, but we'll let you know as soon as we find out more.