Years of regulations, emission and safety standards, tariffs and taxes literally drove automakers from exporting product to America. With Opel not being a part of General Motors anymore… it’s hard to believe they were once sold in America at Buick dealerships. This odd little car built in Germany and sold by Buick is for sale here on Craigslist for $400 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. An offer too good to pass up… so get ready to push!
Not much info is stated by the seller other than “sitting for a long time” and “comes with spare engine”. A full restoration is in order for this to be a show car. At the least, mechanical work for it to be running and driving. Its a nice shade of blue, if original paint, has held up quite well.
The last of Opel-based cars sold in America is the latest lineup of Buick Regals. Most popular Opel’s are the GT and Manta, but the Cadette seems to see the least amount of light. As to the case of this example, hidden from sight… but ready to greet the road soon.
Kadett, John. Kadett. German for “Cadet.”
In my experience, these were pretty dismal little cars, which might be why many Buick dealers had a rough time movin’ ’em out. Not terribly fast, not especially great on winding roads, and not even as attractive — at least to me — as their shrunken-Buick forebears.
While it looks to need a full restoration, this is one that needs an Opel fanatic for a new owner. Spending much more than the price of a few cans of Krylon and some starting fluid would put the restorer in deep, deep water.
An Opel GT? Maybe. A Manta? Possibly. A Kadett? Nope. Sorry to be negative, which I try not to be, but every “barn find” is not a six-figure restoration away from making headlines at Pebble Beach….
This is worth restoring. Its a coupe, highly sought after in the right places. Btw if it has the 1,9 engine its wicked fast.
And this is a fairly rare “Kiemencoupe” (gills coupe) with that upswept beltline at the C-pillar, only produced from ’65-70 and different from the other 2-door Kadett B variants: sedan, fastback, and later (’67-73) “coupe F”. I saw a red one of these around town several years ago, really quite pretty.
These things can really move in the right hands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8QEk62TPMs
It’s a good thing that car wasn’t close by or I may have justified another mid ’70s race car project. :)
Everyone please open his youtube link – its Mandatory!!!
Thank me.later!
Ps car was a steal…. this body style with gills is very rare….
Owned one of these in the late 70’s.
Think I gave about $300 back then!
What a turd!!!
Turd?? Its a tin can with a rubber band engine, (with the smaller engine) but quite dependable and durable even if the engine sounds like its full of pebbles when it has some mileage. What are you comparing it to, some american land barge? Well ha ha see you after youve been to the garage again, gone fishing.
I always thought these looked like the 67-69 Barracuda’s little brother
Well, it’s gone, and it wasn’t a ’76, that would have been the Isuzu Opel. I’d say this was a ’67 and probably had the 1100 motor. The 1.9 wasn’t seen until ’68, and while a good motor, wasn’t wicked fast, not the ones I had, anyway. Opels were good cars, and this was a deal, if you can get parts, that is.
There may be a difference on engines sold in america vs europe. The 1900 only came in the coupe version here, and it was the high compression “s” engine with 90 or 106 hp. It may not sound much to american ears, but the car weighed less than 800 kg. In the us you got the 1900 in all versions.
It doesn’t look like a 1976, the bumpers seem like something you would see on a pre-1973.
Steve R
It certainly is a Kadett B, that was made from 65-73.
Not sure where to start. Love/Hate here. Learn to drive in one at 12 years old while my sister practised soccer my dad let me drive around the huge college parking lot. Had to hold it in second gear. That’s where the love ends. The back seat tilted at the floorboard to get into the backseat. Gave it a very strong rigid front seat back. It did a number on my face in my older brother’s first big accident. Had my lap belt on and the force whipped my face into the back of the front seat. Yeah, that’s the hate. We even had an extra front engine/suspension (1.1L so as stated, a turd) for years and someone bought it many years later and put it into another car with minimal effort. Biggest PITA that I remember from helping my brother work on these. The plastic screws on the rear light lenses. We would heat up a screwdriver with a propane hand torch and sink the screwdriver deep into the plastic to remove and then replace with real metal screws. Even with my crazy history, would love to own a Kadett Rallye. Otherwise, agree with prior comments. These things were/are horrible. Unless you have a personal connection (conceived in one maybe) run, run away fast and far Forrest.
It probably was a special horrible edition for stupid americans so they got the quality they were used to.
There was a Kadett Rallye that used that body shape. Paint it yellow with a black bonnet and stick a 1.9 and a 5-speed in it. Have fun overtaking land barges on anything with bends in it.
I had a ’69 Rallye. It was indeed fast. It used the same engine as the GT.I could get 85 MPH in 3rd gear.NOT a turd!
I currently own a 1969 kadett Rallye in gold with black stripes
I had one I pulled from a field in late 70’s. Oil pump had failed…I put vaseline in pump new gasket drove it a few years with no problems. For free car ut was ultra reliable. I passed it on for free to a friend who drove it a couple more years then they traded it for a ’66 Pontiac Catalina with 421……talk about opposites.
A very nice, preserved circa 1968 Kadett wagon sold for about $20,000 at the Motostalgia 2018 auction at Amelia Island. $20,000! Back in the day, I knew two families who had Kadetts, I think both were 1968 models. One family had many problems, hated it, traded it for a reliable but rather boring VW Beetle after less than two years. The other car was a sexier Rallye, I thought it was a very nice car. They loved it and drove it enthusiastically. I don’t recall what happened to it, but they had it at least several years.
I’m still at a loss as to why Opel would sell their cars along side Buick. I would’ve thought that Chevrolet would’ve been a more logical choice. Or possibly Pontiac.
The choice to sell the Opel was up to the individual GM dealers – Chevrolet and Pontiac had their own small cars in the Vega / Astre and Buick had nothing in that slot. GM stocked parts for the Opel, since it was part of the GM family, as was Isuzu. A lot of Oldsmobile dealers picked up Honda as a second line.
You forgot Pontiac – Vauxhall tie in during the late Fifties, early Sixties. That’s a proud English automaker for those not familiar with the name.
A neighbor had one of these in the ’70s. From what I remember about it, it was a rattle trap.
The US cars were notorious failures in many aspects. Opel tried to get in on the low end market with a car that got Opel recognized as a “stay away.” I can’t say that they have ever recovered from this debacle.
Well-I see opinions are quite strong on these. It’s a ’66-more likely than a ’76 which were made by Isuzu. I had one with the 1.1-it was a hoot to drive-it loved being thrashed and 70 was about the top speed-so slow car fast pleasures! I also thought the lines quite nice for a mid-sixties econobox, and it was quite reliable! OK-the Solex carb was not my favorite but it shifted, braked, and handled pretty well, and you could get a ton of stuff in it. Great city car and ok on Nixon era highways-maybe less so now.
The Kadett C was made by Opel in europe at least. Quality car. Isuzu was probably sold as Opel in america only.
I knew a kid in high school who had one of these. It was an ugly yellow color and while the rest of us were driving big v8 cars during the second fuel crisis, I’m sure this was what the doctor ordered for him.
I only ever see the GT’s – Manta’s – Kadett’s shown on Barn Finds, wasn’t the Kadett’s bigger brother – the Rekord/Commodore – available in the US?