History of Opel Motor Cars / Automobiles

• 8.6.4. Opel

• The Adam Opel Company, which was formed in 1863, started out making Lutzmann cars under licence in 1898 and French Darracq cars two years later.

• In 1902 the company decided to produce their own cars. Early models include the 10/18 PS Doppelphaeton and the 4/8 PS Doktorwagen 2-Sitzer.

• By 1913 they were the largest car maker in Germany.

• In 1929 the company was acquired by General Motors.

• Opel started production of the Olympia model in 1935. It was the first mass-produced car with a chassis not seperated from the body. By 1940 over 168,000 had been made.
  
  

• The model was also produced from 1947 to 1952. In 1953 it was replaced by the Olympia Rekord and 580,000 were made by 1957.

• Between 1937 and 1940 Opel produced the Kadett. The A and B versions were produced from 1962 to 1973, with over 3.2 million made. 

• From 1958 to 1975 the Opel name was used in the United States; the cars being sold by Buick dealers. The top Opel models being the Kadett (1964-72), Manta (1971-75) and the Opel GT (1968-73).

• The top selling “super-mini” Opel Corsa was introduced in 1982 and by 2002 over 11 million, under a variety of names, had been produced.

• In addition to Germany the Corsa has also been built in Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Mexico, South Africa and Spain.

• Production of the Opel Vectra started in 1988 and by 2002 over 4.5 million had been made. Up to 1995 this model was called the Vauxhall Cavalier in Great Britain.

• The Opel Astra was first produced in 1991 and well over 7 million have been produced. The model has been built in Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Great Britain, India, Poland, Russia, South Africa and Ukraine.

• Since car production started over 100 years ago Opel have used about 40 different model names.

• Models available in 2007 include the Astra, Corsa, Meriva, Speedster, Tigra, Vectra, Vivaro and Zafira.