Here’s one you won’t see every day: a 1964 Opel Kadett station wagon, or “Estate,” as wagons are often called. Opels were once a common sight on America’s highways and byways, but it’s been years since the former GM division imported the German compact. This example, simple as it is, is in remarkably clean condition and has undergone, according to the listing, “many recent mechanical repairs.” Vermilion, Ohio, is where you’ll find it, and it’s available here on craigslist for $8,500. Kudos to Barney for surfacing this tip!
Opel stopped importing genuine branded models into the U.S. at the end of the seventies, but they did offer altered rebadges (to meet FMVSS requirements) for years to come. Opel-based models such as the Cadillac Catera, Saturn Aura, some Buick Regals, and the Buick Cascada convertible have graced our shores in more recent times. The Kadett, however, was a regular American sight from ’62 through ’72, though actual production continued until 1993. Our ’64 subject car is a Kadett “A”, which saw production between ’62 and ’65 and was available as a two-door sedan and station wagon. Popular these were, as it’s estimated that 695K were produced over the series’ four-model-year run. The seller labels this Kadett wagon as a “turnkey driver,” and it does appear to be good to go. The finish is still sound with no fade, and the chrome-plated items have a nice luster. The body panels are straight, and no rust is observed – a notable enemy for this Opel generation.
Blistering Teutonic power this Opel does not possess; instead, it finds its way with a 1.0-liter, inline four-cylinder engine good for about 40 HP. The seller states that it’s “fun to drive,” but that’s it for running or driving characteristics. As stated earlier, the seller claims many recent repairs but does not elaborate. I’d suggest the fuel pump looks newish, but that’s about all that’s obvious in the engine compartment. A four-speed manual transmission was the only game in town, and that’s how this wagon rolls.
The interior is as austere as you’ll find, but it’s completely typical for this era. The fabric seats appear to have been reupholstered, and the carpet looks like a replacement for the original. The instrument panel is about as utilitarian as it gets, and the wayback area is strictly functional – nuttin’ fancy, but it’s in sound, unabused condition.
The laconic listing sums up with, “Unique vehicle that’s fun to drive and practical.” I can see that, but I wouldn’t want to consider this Kadett for everyday driving – those days are long gone! My only concern with this car is finding a buyer who’s willing to pony up $8,500 for this admittedly seldom-seen wagon. Sure, it’s unique today, but is it unique enough?
My wife is German and wants a German hot rod like a Porsche 911 that I can’t afford. I would be afraid to go home if I bought this Opel for her.
She’ll probably call you a schweinhund und dummkopf, ja?
Always liked these….there are some around the Dallas area but I’m going to have to pass….nice car….bet it’s good on gas !!
I had one of these, but mine was a ’74 lime green wagon. I bought it in ’84 for 350 bucks because it had an automatic trans. I was trying to teach my wife to drive and we had an ’83 Omni with a 4speed stick. She and her sister both got their licenses on it. Once my wife got her license she learned to drive the Omni no problem. Then the Opel became my work car. And rust it did. Mine also had the battery placed on the left side firewall. Inside right under it was the fuse panel. I had a guy “fix” it by putting all inline fuses and thankfully nothing went wrong. Strangely enough my wife worked with a lady whose husband had an almost twin to mine. His had the lime green interior too, mine was black. When it wouldn’t pass state inspection any more I told my wife to ask if her co-workers husband wanted it for parts. She said “Oh I was supposed to ask you the same thing”. I guess they both went to the crusher.
In this condition, we’ll worth the ask. My only concern would be parts availability.
BarnFinds, you never know what you’re going to get,,,vintage Opels were great cars.The “Rekords” were a bit behind the times for Amerikaners, but the Kadetts were just what we needed, albeit 20 years too soon. In the early 60s, choices for economical cars were few. While Detroit was dabbling in gas mileage, cars like the Valiant, Falcon, Corvair or American got peoples attention, saving gas was not on the front burner. Folks that wanted a “puddle jumper”( the old man called them) for a specific purpose, had Opel, VW, Fiat, Renault, maybe a Morris, but Opel seemed to lead the way, clearly because of the Buick connection. People who had Buicks bought Opels as a novelty. It was said, Buick dealers never liked Opel, it took sales away from Buick, and repair horror stories ensued. Even my old man had one, that I thought was mine. I said it was the reason I bought the ’68 Opel Kadett Rallye, that was also a good car. The wagon was a bit newer than this, a ’67, I think, but very similar. Some of these had twin carbs,,,that’s right. It did the best stop light holeshots through 1st gear, and we couldn’t kill it. Great find.
If you want a great read? Search out David E Davis’ road test of a ’68 Opel Kadett wagon in Road & Track. The article starts out with a picture of the new Opel in a junkyard. GM threatened to pull all advertising from the magazine, after it published the article.
It was Car and Driver.
In a much later mea culpa, they admitted that they wanted to write a complete hit piece on a car and the Opel was the likeliest target of the handful they had at the moment with writeups pending.
You’re right, it was C&D! I read that Davis was going to write a review of the new ’68 Corvette, but the ‘Vette that Chevy sent them was so bad, that they couldn’t even test it. Imagine if that review would have been published.
simple and easy to work on. no check engine light to worry about.
$8500.00? Who will want this for that money? No way, I don’t care how “nice” it is. Speedometer shows 90 MPH max, but I doubt it will hit that downhill, with a tailwind, and a small boy on a skateboard pushing it.
We had a couple Wagons, both 1968’s and 4 speed. A copper one for the kids, me and my brother to go to school in. 80 MPH on HWY 70! Dad got the white one to go to work. I got my drivers license in the white one with the 4 speed. Blew a head gasket on one of them. They used weird head bolts, spline or 12 point I believe. Marc.
My mind says why wouldn’t anyone drive a 60 year old Opel as a daily? Oh well, at least I got to remember these xrazy 60’s Opel car commercials, even if they were a few years after this nice old wagon first graced our shores
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgQT0AxgIkI
Great find. Great writeup.
The Opel dealer in El Paso promoted the Opel by mounting a large round tank on the top to somehow illustrate how much fuel one could save by driving one.
Unfortunately all the new parts might remind us of the times we have thrown way too much money on a project before we gave up and sold it. At least the Opel will survive and hopefully for the new owner the money pit is not too much deeper.
I was a parts dept. manager at a Buick dealership in the late ’60s. We also handled the Opel. They were hard to get parts for even then and the mechanics didn’t want to work on them.
Ironically, I later got interested in the Opel GTs and ended up buying them (used) to resell to Opel GT club members in Belgium.
Every time one of these show up on BF I really wonder why they imported the smallest of all Opels into the US.
I guess the bigger Rekords/Commodores would have fitted better with the american buyers, and they would have still been economy cars stateside.
The Rekord/Commodore was the same size as a Chevy Nova, the small car segment was all imports before 1971 and the VW Beetle was the hundred pound gorilla of the class. Opel had designed the Kadett specifically to compete with the VW.
Had a 68 Kadette Wagon, a 69 Rallye Kadette, and a 74 Manta. Mechanically about indestructible, but the unibody corroded to the point that it was unsafe to jack them up!
A friend of mine had one of these back in high school , I had a Toyota corolla 1970 wagon that was my dad’s. One day he came by saying that his opel was so fast it would blow mine away in a race … well unfortunately for him he was showing off a bit much speed shifting clutch sliding but I noticed he was shifting early and not finding the redline. After we actually unofficially raced he complained to me that because I left each shift a second or 2 longer I beat him. I told him him the engines are so small that’s the only way to get the most out of them. A few months later the little opels engine blew. The Toyota was replaced years later with a stage 1 Subaru wagon, that one was faster than a lot of my friends cars with 6 cylinders. Clearly we were in the midst of the first oil embargo.