Kadett A, 1962
This car was Opel's answer to the VW Beetle. Although bigger, faster,
more economical and cheaper it was no threat to the VW.
Kadett B, 1965
The Kadett B was the longest built Kadett (1965 - 1973). It came
in several Coupé versions as well and was very successfull in
touring car racing. My generation (1961) knows this car as a
typical "first car".
Olympia A, 1967
As with the "big three" (Kapitän, Admiral, Diplomat) and
the Rekord / Commodore Opel gave the luxury
Kadett B a different
- but not new - name: Olympia
These cars came with the 1.7 and 1.9 liter Rekord engine.
At almost 170 km/h (105 mph) they were first in a segment which
since 1976 the Golf GTI has firmly in it's grip.
Kadett C, 1973
This car arrived at the wrong time. Although based on the older
Kadetts and therefore extremely reliable, it arrived just before
the first Golf came out which turned the small car market upside down.
It took Opel until 1979 to respond with the Kadett D. Until then
they made a lot of different versions including the now extremely
rare Aero and the venomous GTE which was actually faster than
the Golf GTI.
Kadett D, 1979
The Kadett D was Opels transition to front wheel drive. In my personal
opinion it doesn't look that great, but supposedly it is extremely
easy to work on.
Kadett E, 1984
In my opinion the best looking Kadett ever. The GSI 16 V with it's
fully emission controlled engine still delivered 150 HP out of just
a 2 liter engine and
on the Autobahn showed the VW GTI it's back. Still, the sales numbers
were locked at about 2/3 of the VW Golf sales.
Over here it appeared in a watered down version as a Pontiac Le Mans.
Astra A, 1991
As far as it concerns design the Astra is certainly a step back
when compared to the - back then - daring design of the Kadett E.
Still it sold quite good at the typical 2/3 of Golf sales.
The major problem of the Astra A was it's less than perfect quality
since around that time "allmighty Detroit" started to downgrade
Opel to US quality and safety standards.