John Lloyd spotted this Opel Kadett B sedan and posted it at the Cohort with this comment:
This Opel was a surprise! Parked at an electric substation behind the Ford used car lot. Has a sign on it that says it is not abandoned and is not for sale. If it sits here too long, bound to have some broken windows.
This Kadett reminds me that one of our readers, Erik, has a daily driver Kadett 1100 sedan like this one. And he owes us a write-up. I hate to put him on the spot, but how many people in the world, never mind in the US, are driving a Kadett B as their daily transportation?
Here’s one of the numerous comments left by him at previous Kadett posts:
The plucky Kadett B. I am still daily driving a 1100 sedan here in southern CA. Simple basic trouble free comfortable transportation. It does its job without fuss or pretentiousness. I am amazed at how well the engineers made a cheap car so usable without feeling as if you were in a penalty box. They just have a certain feel that I find appealing. *
* I know Paul, I still owe you a writeup on this.
Yup.
No pressure, of course.
In 1981 I was in high school and a buddy drove a completely worn out, hand-me-down Kadett, I want to say it was a 1970 model. Completely stripped, not even a radio.
The fellows at the Buick parts and service counters pretty much refused to admit willingness to have anything to do with an Opel. Even the guys behind the counter at the foreign car parts store didn’t have much in their catalogues for it.
It’s hard to imagine any Opels exist in the US because of that. Maybe folks got parts directly from Germany, I dunno.
Yes, I had a 1974 Opel 1900 Station Wagon that I got as my first car in 1981. The local Buick dealer refused to have anything to do with it. One of the parts guys spun on his heals and walked away from me when I tried to buy some tune-up parts for it. When I went back to my car, I looked back at the building and it had three big Opel signs on the building… I ended up figuring out how to use the cross reference book that a friend had grabbed from the NAPA store and knew which junk yards had a good number of them.
The rear wheel is from a VW Golf (or rabbit as they are called in the US). Strange that the front looks like a Toyota, not at all like the ones sold here in Europe.
The front end is the same as the one used on the Kadett Olympia in Europe. It was put on all the Kadetts here starting in 1968, as the Olympia was not sold here. The picture shows a Euro Olympia
Is Erik’s last name Godot by chance? Asking for a friend.
To be fair to the Buick Dealer Parts guys, I have always marveled at the cognitive dissidence which made somebody at GM Headquarters in Detroit think that Opels were a good fit at Buick. I understand the thinking that Buick dealers probably wanted small cars (even before the 74 oil shock ) and that Opels were (comparatively) high quality small cars – German! Just like Volkswagen! – but the gap between the smallest Buick and the biggest Opel offered was just too big.
To be honest, there really should have been no cognitive dissonance from a parts guy, regardless of brand. Yeah, some of the parts may have had been made in Germany, but a spark plug or alternator or fuel pump is not functionally different between a Buick, an Opel, or a Ford, Chevy, or Dodge, now is it?
It mostly came down to a Buick dealer ownership wanting to have a small car to fill out the lineup, and the sales and service department not liking no “furren job” car.
Can you imagine going into an Auto Zone and them saying they have no parts for your import? When they sold the marque, why the Buick dealership’s part counter was getting a pass is beyond me.
Well, I’m probably aging myself here, but once upon a time (in the US) there were three kinds of auto shops: chains that had nothing for imported cars (but lots of necker knobs and curb feelers), independents that sold mostly domestic parts, and independents that sold European car parts only. Not that long ago, around the time that Kadett was new.
Yes, I might be inclined to agree on an independent shop, but not at all when it comes to a dealership. For goodness sake, they sell the damned cars out front, the parts guys can order parts from the same group that sends them the cars in the first place.
To use your analogy, I would expect a domestic parts shop to not have parts for an import, or vice versa, but a full dealership who does warranty work should at least have a basic inventory of spares for the cars they sell.
Why a Buick/Opel dealer would get a pass is beyond me. If you don’t want to sell Opel parts, just don’t sell Opels.
I agree. A real bit of BS when it’s plastered everywhere to “Keep your car all GM, use factory authorized parts only” and then have the parts guy at Gaylin Buick ( my local dealer) snicker at me when I asked for a thermostat gasket for my Opel 1900 in 1981.
I think Buick’s relationship with Opel was a side effect of the Eisenhower recession of 1957–58. During the ’58 model year, sales abruptly tanked (due in part to Buick’s recent quality problems, but also because of widespread economic anxiety) and buyers started going for things like Ramblers, which briefly put the fear of dog in the sales organization. The more considered response was the Y-body Special/Skylark (and later the A-body versions of same), but those weren’t going to be ready right away, hence the captive import as a stopgap.
Once it began, I assume — GM being GM — that there was a clearly defined breakeven point (I’m guessing 20,000 units a year or thereabouts) and a fairly dispassionate decision that the relationship would continue as long as net sales exceeded that level.
Here is a picture of the European front end
Yes, and that was used on US Kadett’s in ’66-’67. But in ’68 they got the grille from the European Olympia, which was a deluxe Kadett line. The base Kadet kept the original grille in Europe.
Thanks for the info, didnt know about the Olympia, never seen it, guess they were not sold here in Sweden. I am young enough to never have ridden in one of them, but old enough to recognice them
They were, but not many. At least not compared to the regular Kadett and other Opels. Take a good look and you’ll see that the one Paul found has Swedish plates!
Wow! That’s a slightly shortened Chevy lI. I hadn’t noticed the CLOSE family resemblance before.
Shortened and narrowed, but not lowered.
Those wheels are _so little_!
Doesn’t matter. They go all the way to the pavement.
During the OPEC gas crisis, Mom’s Mustang 289 went away in favor of a copper colored 1970 Kadett, just a basic as shown (with “Olympia” grille), even to having bare cardboard door panels. Its truly overworked (in hilly Pittsburgh) 1.1 liter engine threw a rod while coasting down a hill, leaving my Dad to wonder how I managed to accomplish that feat.
I’ve always thought that this Opel was the best looking of all of the 60’s imports to the USA. It’s a very American look even though the size looked totally foreign to most Americans at the time.
Hi gang, Erik here and for Loki not Godot. Groscup actually. Yes still daily driving a somewhat nicer condition Kadett 1100 sedan. Plain basic transportation with a German accent. I would love to know what is under the hood of the pictured car. The 1.9 would make it a feisty beast. I tell people that mine is a Nova trainer or that it is a 2/3 scale model. About half of the people that talk to me about it have an Opel story of their own to share, usually fond memories. GM really screwed the pooch with marketing these seemingly as an afterthought. I have had several 1.9 cars since 1985 but the 1.1 is my favorite. I promise Paul, one day….
A 2/3’s scale Nova nails the look. Paul is not the only one looking forward to your future write up.
Why would anyone want to sell that?
The Vauxhall version was sold here actual Opels are very rare but do exist an ownership experience would be an interesting read.
Strictly speaking the Vauxhall equivalent. Unlike the HA the HB shared nothing in design with the Kadett B.
>>> “I hate to put him on the spot, but how many people in the world, never mind in the US, are driving a Kadett B as their daily transportation?” >>>
Good question. The only reason my Kadett B isn’t technically a “daily” driver is because it’s in daily rotation with an Opel Manta, an Opel GT, a P2 Rekord and a Rekord C.