I haven’t seen one of these in years! One of these being a 1958 Opel Olympia P1. I remember years ago thinking, yes, it does look like a Nomad! Offered from 1958 through 1960, these Opel Olympia Caravans, along with a two and four-door sedan body style, and a small panel van were a pretty common sight on U.S. roads at one time. Found in Fernley, Nevada by Fred, this Opel is available, here on craigslist for $6,500.
There were actually two trim levels offered initially, both a standard Olympia and an Olympia Rekord though the name changed during its production run of over a half million units. After 1960, the Olympia/Rekord P1 was replaced by the slightly larger Rekord P2. I had a high school friend whose older brother had one that looked very similar to our subject car (they always seemed to be blue or green) and I remember him stripping parts off of it before sending it off to a junkyard. It suffered from some rust but I recall it being in fair shape and not a likely bone-yard candidate.
Powered by a 45 HP, 1.5 liter, inline, four-cylinder, engine, the seller states that it, “does not smoke or knock…“. The sole transmission available was a three-speed manual gearbox actuated by a three-on-the-tree shift.
Opel’s GM ownership probably played a role in the rather familiar body lines of this P1. It definitely has a ’50s Chevy/Pontiac vibe to it, in a more diminutive form of course. The body appears to be very solid with no sign of rot, just some surface rust bleeding through on the roof. The trim is all attached and still presents well as does the front bumper’s plating. The seller mentions that he has a straight rear bumper included in the sale along with new taillights. I don’t believe that I have spied another with a roof rack.
I wouldn’t refer to the interior as “killer” (the seller’s description) but admittedly, it shows well. It definitely has a ’50s feel to it with its two-tone green and white vinyl upholstery but what’s going on with the front floor isn’t clear, ugly floor mats perhaps? The cargo area shows some typical signs of use but nothing outsized.
This is a really cool little car (“Crazy Cool” according to the seller) and it is in surprisingly sound shape. The mileage isn’t listed but it probably doesn’t matter at this point. I’m surprised that I haven’t come across one of these Opel Olympia/Rekords sooner; as previously mentioned, they were pretty commonplace at one time. I’m steering more towards a purist with old cars these days, (no, I wouldn’t consider this Opel to be an LS swap candidate) and that would be my direction with this example, maintain its originality. What would yours be?
Wonder if there’s room under the hood for a GM V6….
Love this car. If it was anywhere near me, I would have to have it as my next project. Price is right too.
My uncle, who was stationed in Germany for the U.S. Air Force had one in a dull red color. He was there from the late fifties through the early sixties, and, brought it back when he returned to the U.S in 1963. He drove it till the mid seventies. It was then traded off when it came time for something new.
I recall it made many trips for visits between his air base in Texas and our home in West Virginia toting his family of seven.
I’m with Jim, by gar, it’s been a while. This was the 1st Opel we saw in any numbers. I think mostly because it reminded Americans of what our cars looked like, only smaller, not some goofy beetle looking thing. Have to remember, in the late 50’s, small cars was slim pickens, and a limited market among ’58 Buick/Olds buyers, but there was a call for small cars up and coming and GM knew it. You had VW, of course, Renault, maybe a Fiat, and these. Asian cars were still years away. People, while leery at first, but found out they were better than any of the others, and paved the way for the slightly more popular Kadett, and the very popular Manta. People that had Opels usually bought another. I’d love to have this, except it’s horribly anemic for any highway driving, but for short trips, you’ll see, stuff like this will once again be popular. Since we’re not quite there yet, this is still a toy, (Opel parts?) and will be a tough sell.
the Brits, Sweds, French’n Itialians had ’em here too then. Least in the NE… & Boston has as many from there as currently as R in SoCo. Trains, trucks and planes brinnging them back’n forth (hi end 1s) those 2 places constantly since the 40’s.
what ?
My first car was a 1960 Opel, the same orange/coral as the one in the ad. No oil filter, so the oil got changed every 1000 miles. Drove it my senior year at the University of Tennessee, so the orange and white color scheme was super cool. It was followed by a 1968 Kadett, a 1970 Kadett, a 1975 1900 Sportwagen, and a 1981 Chevette that was really an Opel in disguise. If they still imported them from Germany, I would still be driving them.
I B membah dem. Looked like a kadette L or manta but w/a fastback wagon/liftgate.
Gross HP for North American versions was 56HP.
https://www.automobile-catalog.com/car/1958/2411330/opel_caravan.html
My first car was a 2dr. 1964 Opel kadet wagon . Loved it but didnt realize it had a 6volt electric system and fried the regulator twice. Traded it for a 63 ford Fairlane.
I see some 55 Nomad characteristics in the profile pic.
Cool old Opel.
When I spotted this car on Craig’s List, I knew I had to submit the tip. My Grandpa’s last car was an Opel Rekord 4 door sedan. A ’56 or ’57. The speedo was in KPH. When my mom heard that Grandpa was doing 100 with us kids in the car she went through the roof.
I went with Grandpa and my uncle Ken to the hardware store to get some pipe. The 8 ft length obviously didn’t fit in the Opel. We rolled down the windows on the passenger side doors. Uncle Ken up front, me in the back, holding onto the pipe through the windows. Fortunately, Grandpa kept it below “100” on the way back to his farm. A wagon with a roof rack would have come in handy.
Sweet! This is a very appealing little wagon, and it looks like it needs relatively little done to make it an economical vehicle for local errand-running. Seller states that a replacement can be had for the cracked windshield – I’d be sure to check into that. Seller states that it was built by GM France, but as we all know, these are from GM Germany (to my knowledge, GM France never produced cars)
An Uncle by marriage drove one of these. I remember one day I hear this car coming up our long dirt driveway and could hear a loud whining noise as he drove up in first gear. When he got to the house I said sounds like front shaft gear in your transmission is going out. He said he thought it was the throw out bearing. I asked did you have your foot on the clutch pedal as you were driving? He said no, and as I had just had a class on the very subject at the mechanics school that I attended, (Shasta Jr. College, now Shasta State College) I said I believed it to be the transmission. He said well he had an extra transmission in the back if I wanted to changed it out. So I did the job free of charge and it solved his problem. He was a happy man and so was I, we both went about our lives without much intervention.
I seem to remember hearing at one time that the 4 cylinder engine in Opels at that time were actually Buick v8’s cut in half. Now I don’t know if that’s fact or not, but open for comments.
God Bless America
Hi John, I never heard that about Opel motors. I read, the 1.5 OHV 4 cylinder was basically the same motor introduced in 1937. I had a Opel Kadett wagon with the 1.1 motor, same as the 1.5 here, I think, but dual carbs. The 1.5 here was not the same motor as the 1.5/1.9 cam-in-head motors later. It did wicked holeshots, but not much after that. I beat the crap out of that car, and it never failed. When I say Opel owners usually bought another, after that wagon, I had a ’68 Kadett “Mini-Brute”, and several Mantas. I thought they were great cars.
’29 – ’14 GM was involved. Now a Continentl consortium may pick them up, nother near 20 yrs on their own (the 1st 20 I believe @ founding).
https://europe.autonews.com/article/20170305/ANE/170309871/opel-s-relationship-with-gm-grew-turbulent-through-the-years
Ask me they treated ’em like a bad stepfather (leave it to the multi-nationals, esp usa based).
Very cool little wagon. If I didn’t already have a hobby car I would certainly consider this one. If it’s as nice as it appears, the price seems very reasonable.
I have had a ‘53, ‘58, ‘59 and a 60. The ‘53 had a three speed transmission [like this one] and if ever a car cried for a four speed, this one did. Third was too high and second too low, making it almost impossible to drive in city traffic. I kept it about a month. The others were great.
I had one of these wagons in 1964. I could have out ran it on take off. It was so slow.
Rust-free vintage Opels [or almost any car] in Europe are unheard of. For that reason alone there are collectors in Europe who would love to have this car. But the current problem is shipping costs. This car should be shipped in a container, not Ro-Ro [roll-on, roll off] because the car needs to be able to reliably start so they can be driven on and off the ship. Currently the cost for a 20′ container to a western European port is probably more than the asking price for the car. And then one has to get it from Nevada to the east coast of America. I can see the total shipping costs alone exceeding $10,000.
And if it ships out of the Port of Baltimore, it’s possible to add a couple of weeks to the travel time when the container ship gets stuck in the Chesapeake Bay! [Every day we could look out the window and see the “Ever Stuck” sitting in the mud, it was almost directly north of our home.]
Pre-Covid, this car would have been quickly snapped up by eager European collectors. Now due to shipping costs, that’s probably not going to happen. My advice to the seller would be to take it off the market until shipping costs return to normal, probably around 2023 or 24.
The Vauxhall sold by Pontiac was a much better car. The opel was a death trap in an accident compared to the Vauxhall. I started my collision repair working on all these little imports and was the start of not looking at a design but driving a car likevthe volvo that protected my family. i would buy a vauxhall victor wagon today anywhere. It really di look like a 55/56 chevy