Comments about this vehicle

Author	Message
sixcyl ◊ 2007-10-28 10:14
sixcyl ◊ 2007-10-28 10:14	Looks like an Opel Rekord, but in England?
DynaMike ◊ 2007-10-28 11:24	Strange indeed. But this is a 1957 Opel. Not a Rekord, it's a Kapitän. Edit: 1957? No, that's a typo...: 1954 of course -- Last edit: 2007-10-28 11:59:29
greybear ◊ 2007-10-28 13:46	Why is this strange?
Ingo ◊ 2007-10-28 13:53	We think, that there was nearly no export of Opel-cars to the UK.
Sunbar ◊ 2007-10-28 13:56	The first post-WWII Opel sold in the UK, that I am sure of, was the 1963 Opel Kadett [A].
Ingo ◊ 2007-10-28 13:59	Oh, the Kadett A, too? Wasn't this a too big rivalry to the same-sized Vauxhall? By the way: the Kapitän above also can be driven by a foreigner. It's obviously a LHD one. The main export countried for RHD-Opels were (still are) Japan and Ireland. How it's in Ireland? Did they have mainly Opel, never Vauxhall (like since the 80ies) or was it different in the 50ies and 60ies? -- Last edit: 2007-10-28 14:01:18
Gag Halfrunt ◊ 2007-10-28 13:59	It seems to have French style yellow headlamps.
Sunbar ◊ 2007-10-28 14:45	Ingo wrote Oh, the Kadett A, too? Wasn't this a too big rivalry to the same-sized Vauxhall? .... Vauxhall had only just introduced the HA Viva in the small car market, which was dominated by BMC (Austin/Morris) and Ford, so sales were low. I guess GM considered there was plenty of room for two models to take on the competition. About eighteen months later the RHD Rekord [B] was sold in the UK. I worked for the UK's GM division that imported the Opel's (General Motors Limited at Hendon) at the time, they were not part of Vauxhall Motors and reported directly to GM in North America.
chris40 ◊ 2007-10-28 16:16	I think I'm right in saying that the Kadett A - the one resembling the HA Viva slightly - was never imported into the UK officially; the first model to be imported was the Kadett B, equivalent to the HB. A friend of mine was the son of the newly-created local Opel dealer; a Dutch couple had broken the transverse front spring on their Kadett A, and they had a hell of a job getting a replacement.
Ingo ◊ 2007-10-28 17:59	In Germany the most British cars were totally unknown (except Mini, Landrover, Range Rover, Jaguar and Rolls Royce). Yes, in the 70ies you could see sometime an Austin 1800, that was it. Surely, in car-magazines there were test-reports and also advertises, but this had no meaning for the real market. Some brands had official importers (which often were only a bigger gas-station with a added garage), but I must say, that the absolute majority of the British cars, I'm seeing here in this forum, I have never seen on the streets, except in auto-museums in Commonwealth-countries or in old Britsh movies, very often I even have never heard the names of the models. As a child of the 70ies,I remember only three British cars, which were sold in Germany under their British names (except the models remarked above) in just a bit remarkable selling-counts: the Vauxhall Chevette (the Kadett C-derivate), the Bedford CF -only the MK1-, which should fill up the place of the Opel Blitz (Chevette and Bedford were sold at Opel-dealers) an the Chrysler Sunbeam (sold at Simca Talbot-dealers, at least with the Talbot-logo). Nearly all other British cars, also British Fords, I have only seen in neighbour-contries like Holland, Belgium an Denmark.
chris40 ◊ 2007-10-28 18:13	Bit off-topic, this, but ... going back a bit further, I remember seeing in Holland in the 60s a surprising number of British Fords with German plates, notably the Consul Capri 335 and the Corsair. I've also seen one or two Austin Maxis as well as 1800s. I'm surprised they tried to sell the Chevette in Germany, though; I'd have thought it was too much like the Kadett C (which was much better built, anyway).
Sunbar ◊ 2007-10-28 18:49	I think your comments are right and the Kadett A I remember (the grille and headlights are very familiar to me) was probably LHD. The timing of the Kadett B matches better the Rekord B that was definitely imported. Its introduction was slightly more than a year later.
Bravada ◊ 2007-10-28 21:10	Ingo wrote Oh, the Kadett A, too? Wasn't this a too big rivalry to the same-sized Vauxhall? By the way: the Kapitän above also can be driven by a foreigner. It's obviously a LHD one. The main export countried for RHD-Opels were (still are) Japan and Ireland. How it's in Ireland? Did they have mainly Opel, never Vauxhall (like since the 80ies) or was it different in the 50ies and 60ies? AFAIK, they had both until late 1970s when the lineups were unified and the dealers were given the choice of retaining either marque, and for some reasons chose Opel. Interestingly enough, that meant that Vauxhall factories sometimes made RHD Opels (as there was no point in retooling e.g. Bochum for RHD Astras already made in Luton).
antp ◊ 2007-10-28 22:10	The amount of comments is inversely proportional to what is seen of the car on the main picture I suppose that it is still worth listing if it is rare in UK? (is it?) -- Last edit: 2007-10-28 22:11:09
chris40 ◊ 2007-10-28 22:34	Yes, always was scarce as hen's teeth. The odd one came back from BAOR, maybe.
DynaMike ◊ 2007-10-28 22:41	Sorry, Chris40, but herr my knowledge of the English language is insufficient... What do you mean with BAOR? -- Last edit: 2007-10-28 22:41:33
chris40 ◊ 2007-10-28 22:53	British Army On the Rhine. At one time quite a number of British Army personnel brought back German cars when their tour of duty was over. I can remember in the 60s, before the EEC got itself sorted (more or less), the Army wives coming over from Mönchen Gladbach to Venlo to do their shopping, because foodstuffs were much cheaper. Some used their cars with BAOR registrations, but the Army ran a bus service on Saturdays!
Gag Halfrunt ◊ 2007-10-28 22:55	BAOR = British Army on the Rhine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Army_on_the_Rhine
DynaMike ◊ 2007-10-28 22:57	Thanks Chris. Never heard of BAOR, even though I was born in Sittard, south of Venlo... Every day I learn new things on this site, which is really great!
Sunbar ◊ 2007-10-29 11:46	Bravada wrote ......., that meant that Vauxhall factories sometimes made RHD Opels (as there was no point in retooling e.g. Bochum for RHD Astras already made in Luton). Opel and Vauxhall plants that had common models were always (and still are) building both Opels and Vauxhalls. For example Elsemere Port and Bochum build both LHD and RHD Opels plus RHD Vauxhalls. A Vauxhall Astra is not always UK built and Opel Astras (RHD and LHD) are regularly built in the UK. -- Last edit: 2007-10-29 12:00:17
Ingo ◊ 2007-10-29 20:36	Yes, as Sunbar said it. You only can find out by the chassis-number, where the Astra was built. My japanese friend says, that the RHD-Opel for the Japanese market were built in South Africa. I don't know, if this is true.

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1954 Opel Kapitän

1954 Opel Kapitän in Arabesque, Movie, 1966

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