The Opel Kadett Rally: America's #2 Import in 1969

It sold for about $2300 new and was available from any Buick dealer. The Opel car, VW's competitor, clearly was a much more cool looking car, especially the Corvette-like GT and the Kadett Rallye.

If you happen to own one now, you have a car that gets 30 mpg with its 1.9L engine. The first modern GM all-electric vehicle, was an Opel Kadette prototype this year. Opel Kadetts were also raced successfully in Europe, and several were converted to all-out drag-racers in the US. They were an economy car when few then really wanted them. In fact, it was VW and Opel that were the main imported cars then (Fiat also). Japanese cars like Honda, Toyota, Datsun (now Nissan) hardly existed in the American car world. No one then bought them. If you bought for economy, you bought German made cars. It was usually a VW or an Opel.

Opel also sold its Kadett station wagons and the Mantra. The Rallye package included the two front fog lights, a racing package for the interior consisting of a tach, amperes. The car was painted differently with racing stripes. The Opel GT, which looks like a mini-Corvette, was available in the early seventies and over 100,000 were made of which 70,000 were sold in America. It was designed to have a cruising speed of 120 mph.

Both Opel cars are classics, some sell for $15,000.