Another day, another new thing to learn, automotively. For some reason I assumed these Kadett E Caravans only came as four doors (five doors, in European parlance). But then I came across this at the Cohort posted by Roshake. It looks quite unfamiliar to me; if there hadn’t been an identification caption, it would have taken me a minute or so to figure out what it was. That top of the rear wheel opening extending across the rear of the body would have been the tip off.
But the back two thirds of the upper body look quite foreign to me.
A Google Image search does show a few of these, but the great majority are five door versions; I probably just repressed this one. It won’t be the first time.
It does seem a bit odd offering a three door wagon, as that body style was rather out of favor by the eighties. Of course Opel did have a long tradition of two-door sedans and wagons, and the Kadett had always had one since the A model. But this Kadett E was the end of the line for that; its replacement, the Astra F of 1992 only offered the five door wagon.
The Kadett E was not alone though; Ford’s Escort also offered a three-door wagon, but it ended a year or two earlier, when it was replaced by the Escort Mk 5 in 1990. So this was the end of the line for this body style, unless I’m missing someone else, in terms of a genuine three-door station wagon (not hatchback).
As to my title, more than likely someone will come up with another European two door wagon built after this, but it’s too late here right now for me to work my brain that hard.
There’s not much in here to get excited about. Typical low-end mid-late eighties.
This end looks more familiar. We got the Korean Daewoo version of this generation in the form of the Pontiac LeMans.
Sold in So America as the Chevrolet Ipanema thru mid 90s I believe!
I could only dream that Astrud Gilberto had recorded a new jingle for the TV commercials for it.
Then we had the Geo Storm wagonette and the Pulsar NX with the swappable rear end…..
In Brazil GM produced both 2 and 4 doors version as Chevrolet Kadett Ipanema. As in a Brazil of the 80’s “we sell today’s dinner to have the tomorrow lunch”, GM gave up the J-wagon project in favor to have money for launch the Kadett E range locally.
Until the end of 2000’s Chevrolet means Opel in Brazil and its cars were so popular, desired and beloved here and it makes me wonder why Opel is so obscure, so forgotten and ignored in automotive media in general. It looks to me Opel was for GM that ugly uncle the whole family hide in the attic and always deny him as a family member.
While Opel had the last of this bodystyle they did have a 4-door version right from the beginning of the previous model (Kadett D/Vauxhall Astra Mk.1) whereas the contemporary FWD Escort only had a 2-door estate until 1983, when they added a 4-door version.
Both this and the previous Kadett/Astra FWD were also available as low roof vans, using the same side pressing but without the windows cut out. Because there was no 2-door estate in the next Astra they had new (and slightly longer because of the shorter doors) pressings for the rear sides without any obvious window ‘ghosts’.
Even more curiously, the American Escort wagon was a 4-door from day one and, unlike the hatchbacks whose difference is outer-sheetmetal skin deep, has a significantly more squared-off rear than the European model.
When I think of Opel Kadett wagons, I see in my mind the much sportier 70’s generation, as well as the early 60’s ones that look like a ’58 Chevy that shrank in the dryer. This, however, lacks the charm of its predecessors. Even though it precedes minivans and crossovers, it ends up looking like it is trying to pretend to be one or the other. The Ipanema looks better because the bodyside molding matching up with the bumpers adds a horizontal line and breaks up the body sides, making the car look lower and longer.
Need an edit function! It doesn’t really precede minivans, more like coincides with the early ones. Maybe it should be seen as more of a German attempt to build something a bit like the Japanese high roof wagons.
I’m guessing that “cars from European brands that are built elsewhere” don’t count, but I always liked the VW Fox 3-door wagon that was sold in the US into the 90s.
Forgotten all about those.
Ahh good call – I did like the Fox, spartan as it was.
I thought of the Saab 95, partly because my first car was a 95, but the 95 was discontinued in 1980.
What was that one unusual Bimmer model that could look like a wagon, or fastback? Thinking it had it’s run around 2000- 2004; could be off on the dates though.
Z3 “clown shoe”.
Even when that thing was brand new and shiny with wheel covers, I can’t imagine it being attractive.
As the owner of a three-door car, though not a wagon, I like the look but accessing the back seat gets annoying at times. Though on our 2015 Golf 7 (perhaps the last year the 3 door Golf was sold in the US; I’m not sure I’ve seen another one) the seatback folding mechanism releases the fore-aft slider and the entire seat gets raised and moves forward as well, which helps a lot. Especially as the latch location provides good leverage, unlike the similar but ineffective mechanism on my old Toyota T100 which placed the release at the bottom of the seatback: almost zero leverage. All this Opel needs is a LeMans badge for that exotic touch.
It’s the longer front doors of the 2 doors hatch ?
Yep, same longer doors from the hatch.
The end of the 3 door Kadett Caravan would have been a close run thing with the demise of the 3 door Trabant universal, also in 1991.
Does the VW Polo Mk 2 count as a 3 door wagon? there were separate saloon and coupe versions, the latter with a more usual supermini profile? Or even the Alfa Romeo 146?
Perhaps also the Reliant Robin 3 wheeler, offered in hatchback and estate form until 1998? Not that this is any reason to buy one.
There were later, albeit cargo, variants of the Astra G and H vans with three (two) doors…
There were, but those Astravans used the shorter front doors of the 4/5-door models, not the longer ones from 3-door hatchbacks.
A comparison of the Astravan D and F. Because the 2 door estate was discontinued, the F was the first to have van specific pressings hence the smooth upper panel with no pressed window blanks visible on the Astravan D & E. G & H followed the same cleaner pattern but the van was discontinued after that.
The Vauxhall Astra version of these were commonplace here in the UK, as were the mk3 and 4 Ford Escort 3 door estate (2 door wagon), of which many were used on fleets.
Other than Roger’s mention of the VW Polo ‘breadvan’ and the Reliant, these must have indeed been the last 2/3 door wagon in Europe – although there were some weird conversions added to Peugeot 205’s that increased the rear capacity, and some were sold with windows and rear seats, but not sure that they were sold in any great numbers or indeed could be classed as an estate /wagon more a ‘Combi’?
One such example of fleet use (probably a small fleet at that), was Colbear Heating who used them – Mick the cheerful boiler engineer, who in my childhood eyes bore a more than passing resemblance to the also cheerful and kindly John Candy (who also like Mick died far too young) drove these when coming to service my parents oil fired boiler, or visiting our next door neighbour whom he was good friends with. The Astra was a beast of burden, always laden with a tool box and components and sat low at the rear bearing this weight, its white paint (and Colbear logo) always seemed dirty, although we were fairly rural and lived down an un-metalled road, so maybe why it looked that way!