Dash-Cam Outtake: 1983 Opel Ascona – Greetings From an Old Relative

Another day, another classic caught using my trusty dash-cam. This time it has a distant relation to the current family car, a 2016 Opel Astra.

 

Not only is it an Opel, it’s the five door Ascona, same as mine. Although it must be said, they weren’t called Hatchbacks in their day- that was reserved for the Kadett E, the true forefather of the Astra. And yes, I know the Ascona is a class above the Astra and its modern descendant is the Opel Insignia (the new, recently introduced model is called Gran Sport but is really a five door- just like this Ascona).

But as it is, I’ll take what I can get:

Amazing to witness how much cars have grown. My Astra- again, a class below- is bigger in every way than this Ascona, not to mention the creature comforts or performance. But that’s nothing compared to the new Insignia, which is huge by comparison.

You may be able to tell from the video this is, shall we say, a less than restored example of once a very popular car in Israel. Almost all have vanished- even the Corsa A survived much better, as outlined in this post. Which makes it even more remarkable that I happen to stumble upon this very car and even take a photo of it some time ago:

For an un-restored car, it looks remarkably well. Obviously, it has issues but it’s also apparent that it’s being cared for, which is a good thing. As I said, almost none survived in Israel. Here’s another, 1987 Ascona I photographed in a classic meeting. Also a five door, this looks much better: