This ad caught me off guard. I don’t remember ever seeing a four door Kadett in the US. But there it is, in the ad. And it’s not even called “Kadett” anymore; just “The Four-Door Opel”. What’s even stranger is that 1971 was the first year for the new Opel 1900 (Ascona), and Opel/Buick chose not to bring over the four door version of that.
What was the thinking behind that? Could it have been a not-so subtle dig at the new Chevy Vega, which did not offer a four door sedan?
Here’s the companion ad, for the new 1971 Opel 1900, the car I called “What The Vega Could Have Been“. It was everything the Vega wasn’t, including a more upright body with resulting better space utilization. And in Europe, the Ascona was very much available as a four door sedan.
So why didn’t they bring over that? And why suddenly offer the four door version of the Kadett, which was quite long in tooth by 1971. Kadett sales were way down in 1971, and according to one source, only available by dealer order in 1972.
This may be a highly obscure question, but this is the kind of obscure historical detail that catches our eyes here at CC, even if we may never know the answer.
What’s weird is that the 1967 US-market launch brochure for the Kadett B gave a two-page spread to the four-door sedan.
The ’72 brochure still shows the 2-door Kadetts (sedan in base and deluxe trims and wagon) along with a four-door Ascona (model names not mentioned), the ’73 fronts the Manta heavily with the title splash just being “Manta!” not “Opel” and each of three trim levels getting a two-page spread, as did the wagon with both 2- and 4-door sedans sharing a spread. That seems to have been the final appearance of any 4-door German Opel.
Oddly, both of those pictures are obviously IN Europe. The license plates give it away.
The people in the first ad look more German than American.
Hard to think up a less appealing tagline than “Buick’s Foreign Economy Car”. Who’s going to read that and think “Want!” ?
I’ve long been intrigued with the subtleties of language. By the end of the decade, nobody hawking foreign cars in the U.S. called them “foreign cars” anymore. They became “imports”, a term that stuck. Both mean almost the same thing, but while “foreign” makes them out to be some alien object that doesn’t really belong here, “imports” make them seem more like intriguing items from an exotic, faraway land. Much better!
+1 on language subtleties. Was this the result of the ad agency targeting a more “Buick” demographic? As I get older I find language changing around me, especially the vernacular.
Interestingly, that micronic fuel filter kept foreign materials out of the carburetor, so foreign materials in the fuel were bad, but not foreign economy cars. Not so sure if this was a subtlety of language or just sloppiness.
Why would anyone buy this as opposed to say a Dodge Dart? A couple mpg points over the life cycle of the thing would not make up for other things like parts/repairs/reliability and finally resale value.
Marketing has to rely on things like someone’s need to be different.
Completely different customer. Few would cross shop a Dart and Opel. Dodge had Mitsubishi cars in the showroom for the import buyer. There was way more than a couple of mpg difference and Mopar workmanship was not the greatest vs German or Japanese at the time.
I just never understood why they were paired up with Buick, of all divisions. Your typical Buick buyer would never give these the time of day. I think Pontiac would have been a better match, in my opinion.
When GM decided to bring their European cars in the U.S. for 1958, they assigned Vauxhall to Pontiac and Opel to Buick. The Vauxhalls apparently didn’t sell well (or according to some sources, competed too much with the Tempest) and were dropped just four years later. What I don’t know is why those particular pairings were made.
I could see a typical Buick owner send a kid to college in an Opel.
From what I remember, you could indeed get the Opel 1900 in 4 door form in the US for the first few years
This is correct. I’ve been sitting on pictures of one from 2014. Even saw it on the road, and it was no trailer queen.
I can’t imagine trying to buy one of these from the fat guy in a loud sports jacket who just finished closing the deal on a loaded Electra 225 convertible.
You are correct, sir. ’71-’72.
That mustard-colored 1900 2-door sure would have been a better choice in ’72 than the Vega of the same color that my mother owned back then. Still reviled to this day as the worst conveyance the family was ever subjected to.
I’m surprised about two things: that the Kadett was still being sold in 1971 (that Kadett looks pretty dated), and that there were never 4-door Kadetts in the US (though as I reflect on it, I’ve seen very few US-spec Kadetts, and they were 2-doors or 2-door wagons–my dad’s buddy had 2-door fastback with US side marker lights in the mid 1970s in Greece).
But the 1900 looks good.
Oh how the times have changed. I drove a ’68 Kadett Caravan in the early eighties, and mostly it got an occasional nostagic chuckle from strangers, nothing more.
On a whim I’ve resurrected a ’69 Kadett Caravan as a daily driver, and it’s been surprisingly pleasant, aside from the extreme attention and large number of questions it elicits from total strangers.
On the whole, people seem to find the “dated” styling quite charming in 2021
I sometimes miss my 1975 1900 (Ascona); no one ever seemed to notice it at all.
I remember people referring to these as Buick Opel’s. When their own ad states that it is “Buick’s Foreign Economy Car”, now I can see why.
Perhaps they could no longer sell them in Europe but had already made or contracted the parts. The Kadett styling is the epitome of frumpy, the 1900 the reverse.
The Ascona was actually introduced as a better version of the Kadett. The Kadett as a cheap offer against the VW Beetle and the Ascona for those for whom the Opel Rekord was too big but who wanted to drive a higher-quality car.
The Ascona was originally intended to be the next Kadett but instead became an additional model. They then restarted on a smaller replacement Kadett (the actual Kadett C) which became the basis for the Chevette.
Mission and feature creep. The same problem GM had with the Vega, except the Ascona team was at least focused enough on making it a good car to do so.
About a decade earlier Rootes did the same thing with the replacement Minx that ended up as the Super Minx and ran alongside the old model instead of replacing it.
My first three cars were Opels… ’73 Manta, ’74 1900 Sportwagen, and a ’75 Sportwagen, all bought used. Put nearly 150,000 miles on the ’74. Very good-driving cars with adequate power for the time.
I have never seen a 4-door Kadett, not even in a picture, so this was a surprise. I was very familiar with the Kadett, as our neighbors had a 1968 GT and I can remember riding in that car a few times.
As for the 1900, I could swear that a neighbor down the street had a 4-door as well as a very nice looking Manta in dark blue. They had moved from Denmark, so it’s possible they brought the 4-door with them, if privately imported cars were allowed back then.
Amazed to see a four door. These Kadetts were the #1 in sales here in the Netherlands for many years, and they were everywhere in the seventies and the eighties.
But I cannot remember seeing a 4 door version EVER!
I have never seen a fuel filter featured in an ad before today.
I wish my Golf had a “micronic fuel filter.”
Had to improvise several times when I needed parts for my Opel Manta. Made up a throttle cable using motorcycle parts and repaired sagging rear springs with Airlifts from J.C. Whitney. That particular fuel filter fits many Buicks of that era. Very easy to find. What killed the German Opel in the U.S. was the rising value of the German Mark. Yes, they should have simple built the entire car in North America. Maybe the entire line. Probably the best car I ever owned.
Somewhere along my Opel travels I heard that each dealer was allocated exactly one 4 door. The 2 door sedans are rare enough, I can’t imagine how scarce the 4 doors are today. Great cars, I will be daily driving mine soon after a year hiatus between body and upholstery shops. Called 3 glass shops today, two flat refused to work on an old car without even seeing it. Channel set rubber just like an old Beetle. Might have to try it myself this weekend.
A 1972 ad with a couple 4-doors, providing an appreciation of prices vis-a-vis the big Buicks on the lot:
Yet, somehow, here’s a 1966 ad promising a 4-door in the mix?:
I had a good friend with a Kadette back around ’80. He was ok with it, but envious of my Simca. Same size, similar engine size and performance, but more than once compared them in a Chevy vs Cadillac vein. I know, hard to believe anyone was envious of a Simca 1204, but he was and with good reason IMO. The Simca was a good and underrated car, but his views of the two speaks leagues about the Kadette.
Now I heard the 1900s/Mantas were good cars for the era, but the Kadette? Not so much.
I just remembered something.
That’s an achievement in itself, I know, but wait, there’s more!
When I was about 8, there was a Kadett wagon on the next block over, behind a fenced yard.
It had the roof cut off, and was exposed to the elements.
We kids took to pretend-driving in it. It had a manual transmission, and I was the only one who knew how to pretend-drive it properly.
I would instruct the other kids in how it worked, but they mostly just moved the lever back and forth.
I found that annoying.
But we went on many adventures with that old topless heap, when the weather was dry and the seats were less gross.
I used to pretend it was a Chevy Suburban or something, since we were small and that would adjust it’s size to scale for us.
I also pretended it had a roof, because a topless Suburban did not exist.
We would pretend it had a radio, and I would “play” Led Zeppelin or Jackson Browne or whatever.
The other kids never had ideas of music to “play”, or for that matter destinations to go to.
Combined with not knowing how to correctly pretend-drive a stick in a pretend Suburban with a pretend roof, they just went along for the “ride”.
That had to be boring for them.
Eventually they all got bored and I was left alone to drive around wherever I wanted.
That got boring for me quickly though.
Later, the Opel was replaced with an early Mustang coupe.
With a roof!
But it was only a shell minus windows and wheels so imagination was required there as well.
For some reason I pretended it was a Camaro.
Because why not?
That was an automatic so everyone could “drive”.
Eventually it was down to me and my friend Dan, and then just me.
Then one day it just wasn’t a thing to do any more.
I see the four door as a last ditch effort to take on the Japanese invasion, before GM gave up on importing German Opel and imported Izuzu “Opel” for Buick showrooms. By 1971, Datsun and Toyota were selling a lot of four door sedans here.