Opel Monza concept rides the waves to Frankfurt auto show

It's an unwritten auto industry rule of thumb: Any concept car will gullwing doors has exactly zero chance of production outside of a Lamborghini factory. To prove the point, here's the Opel Monza concept, less a proposal for a real model than a chance for General Motors' troubled European arm to drum up some excitement ahead of next month's Frankfurt auto show.

As far as the exterior styling goes, the Monza takes some of the waveforms flowing across Mazdas and reapplies them with good results, although Opel could use other colors than gray on their concepts. Inside, Opel claims it's the first automaker to turn the entire dashboard into a giant LED projector screen, overlooking that Ford's forgotten 24-7 concept from the Detroit Auto Show 13 years ago had the very same idea.

Power in the concept comes from a Volt-like extended range electric system, with the motor running on compressed natural gas. All of this is doable, but Opel has lacked the money and the ambition to put anything like this into production over the past few decades. At this point, any change of direction would be welcome.