His workplace was once in prototype construction in Rüsselsheim. Wilfried Theiss has now been retired for over ten years. But of course he remained loyal to the Opel brand, he emphasizes. And that’s not all: the 72-year-old continues to use the “sale to employees” conditions, regularly buys a new model with flash and sells it after a maximum of two years. “There is no better way to always drive a new Opel model,” he says. And it doesn’t matter to him whose hands he sells his cars into.
He will remember his last deal in particular for a long time. Wilfried Theiss has found a buyer for his Opel Insignia Sports Tourer who works at the European Space Agency (ESA). And he took the car with him to his place of work: to the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. “I had advertised the car on the Internet,” says the former Opel resident, “and it was lucky that my buyer was visiting his mother in the Odenwald.” His main residence is in France, where he rarely stays. He works in the space center near Kourou, a small town in French Guiana. The place from which Europe sends its launchers into space.
“According to the new owner, my Insignia does very well in the tropical rainforest.”
– Wilfried Theiss –
Former colleague Wilfried Theiss continues to use the attractive conditions of “sales to employees”. He currently drives an Insignia.
But what pleased the former Opel driver most was that his buyer used to work for two other German automobile manufacturers and was actually looking for a model from their production. “But nothing he found could keep up with my Insignia.” Above all, the equipment that his used car had on board was convincing: “All-wheel drive, automatic climate control, leather seats, electronic tailgate, seat heating and seat ventilation – he was particularly impressed with the latter. Because French Guiana – the country is almost exactly the same size as Austria – is 97 percent covered with tropical rainforest, the humidity is somewhere between 70 and 80 percent, and the sun beats down at a hot 30 degrees on the region not far from the equator lies.
The Opel was on its way to South America in a container ship for around two months, but the bureaucratic process for the transfer was manageable, his buyer told him. Because Wilfried Theiss is still in contact with him. And so the new owner sent him the photo of the Opel Insignia parked at the entrance to the Guiana Space Center. The rocket in the background is an Ariane 5 model that welcomes visitors to the site. “As the new owner assured me, the Insignia does very well in the tropical rainforest,” says Wilfried Theiss happily.
February 2024
Text: Eric Scherer, photos: private