Well, well, well. Long time no see! An Opel Senator B (second generation), caught in the role of ringmaster, surrounded by many older family members.
Kapitän-Admiral-Diplomat-Senator, historically, that’s the whole line-up of the flagship ‘Big Opel’ sedans. Comfortable cars, rolling along just fine, operating a notch above the contemporary top models of other European mainstream carmakers.
The Senator B was offered from 1987 to 1993. By the way, that’s not a layer of dust on the rear window, it’s a sunshade on the inside.
The ‘donor car’ for the Senator B was the successful Opel Omega A, introduced in 1986. An exemplary aero-shape from the eighties. Some of its direct competitors were the 1983 Renault 25 and the 1985 Ford Scorpio.
The Omega’s 2,730 mm (107.5”) wheelbase remained unchanged, yet with an overall length of 4,845 mm (190.7”) the Senator was 158 mm (6.2”) longer than the Omega.
The car in the museum has the Opel C30LE engine under its hood. That’s a 3.0 liter 12v inline-six with a Bosch Motronic ML4.1 fuel injection system, maximum power output 156 DIN-hp.
What we have learned so far is that the Senator B was not related to the later Cadillac Catastrophera (the Caddy was based on the Opel Omega B and Senators never had a V6 in the engine bay).
Now take a seat and hit the road! If you prefer to drive a Senator with a five-speed manual transmission, that is.
The CD top-trim level came with a digital dash and a four-speed automatic transmission with a power, economy and winter mode.
Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all.
It was a pleasure to meet you, Senator! Some adjacent old Opels will follow, last year’s selection can be found right here.
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Amazing the Senator still had hand crank front windows.
Electric on the CD.
I’m sure this has been mentioned before, but the whole idea of GM purchasing SAAB was to offer an upmarket brand in the Euro market. Opel could move upward only so much.
Typical GM, it managed the situation poorly, especially with the Cadillac BLS (Bob Lutz Special) built by and expensed to SAAB while it was trying to survive.
WIth GM doing so poorly China, maybe it regrets abandoning Europe.
No regrets. Opel had been losing money for a long time, and its only future was to become just a badge engineered brand for someone else.
Ford is losing lots of money on its passenger cars there too; it’s only staying there because it makes good profits on its commercial line (mainly the Transit). Opel had stopped building its own trucks a long time ago, and that’s the main reason GM dumped it. Without trucks it had no future.
Your posts are always so well-complied, photographed, and presented. Very attractive design. The 1978 Senator, was one of my favourite styled cars of that era. Made the similarly-styled Ford Fairmont, look frumpy. Nice article!
Thanks! Second gen Opels Kapitän-Admiral-Diplomat and first gen Senators (like in your picture) can still be seen frequently, especially at classic Opel events, of course.
But a Senator B? Must have been 25 to 30 years ago since I saw the last one.
I meant to say ‘compiled’, not ‘complied’. lol You always do excellent work Johannes. Plenty of care and thought, into what you present. And it is much appreciated!
Though less aero, I felt the Senator A was more original, at its introduction. The Senator B, is obviously heavily influenced by the 1984 Audi 5000. And I found the Ford Taurus a fresher, and better design.
As the current owner of a Saturn (Opel) Astra, Buick Tour X (Opel Insignia Sports Tourer) and past owner of a Regal GS (watered down version of an Insignia OPC), I am an unwitting Opel fan boy. Nice to see this. Have to say…no aesthetic chances were taken here with the exterior design .Were these big Opels priced below the baby Benz’s and BMW 3 series of the day? Who were the target buyers? Seems to me maybe reasonably well to do Euro seniors who wanted big and comfy but nothing to fancy.
The Senator was segmented somewhere between the contemporary BMW 5-series and 7-series and the Benz E-class (W124) and S-Class.
As they say in its homeland: does it belong to the ‘Obere Mittelklasse’ or the ‘Oberklasse’?
The writing was already on the wall of course. This market went almost completely to Mercedes-Benz, BMW and later on also to Audi. At some point, sooner or later, all mainstream carmakers (like Opel, Ford, Renault, Peugeot) simply stopped with E-segment/’executive’ car models.
RWD, I-6, advanced styling, loads of room. It’s a very attractive package and always interesting to see how a large corporation can have completely different personalities in marketplaces around the globe. Over here we would have had the very rectilinear Buick LeSabre and/or Park Avenue playing in this same space at this time that couldn’t be any more different.
My favorite uncle was a die-hard Opel guy, from long hair and Kadetts in the 1970s to a mustache and a string of Asconas through the 1980s (and maybe a Manta or a Monza?), and then eventually a goatee and several Omegas in V6 Wagon form after that as he worked his way up the ranks at the BundesBank. He never got to the Senator, it did have a whiff of retiree about it, I think he was happy with the Omegas as being large enough for my three cousins before he passed…
Who were the target buyers? Seems to me maybe reasonably well to do Euro seniors who wanted big and comfy but nothing to fancy.
They were popular with folks who needed some torque to haul a trailer (or something else) for a relatively modest amount of money and who prefered a petrol engine over a (turbo-) diesel.
Don’t know if those were the “target buyers” – but those were the ones who bought. And – well, you’re quite right – very often seniors.
Hey, i just found one of these out in my corner of Eurasia! Guess my take on this big Blitz will have to wait until 2025 – can’t have too many Senators all at once, especially in an election year.
Interesting cars, bit of a last hurrah for large Opels. They’ve pretty much gone extinct in the wild, haven’t they? Even in the early 2010s, sightings were getting scarce, but now finding one – even in Europe – requires a museum ticket.
The Insignia B was bigger than the Senator in all respects though (the A was about the same size, but wider).
Different times, different sizes (in a given segment). Today’s VW Polo is as big as a VW Golf IV. You have to stay within the same time frame for a comparison.
For me, the most worthy replacement for the Senator was the Vectra, beyond the fact that it is considered a replacement for the Ascona, I think it had all the characteristics to be one (despite being somewhat smaller than the Senator).
Right! Easy on the Senators…
Liked the Senator A so much more than the Senator B. The wedged and edged body shape as well as the (very) slight broughaminess of the interior. The Senator B looked somehow “plain” in every aspect in comparison.
Here’s my daily driver in summers since 2003: Opel Senator A 3,0 CD. I am the second owner. Still a quick, comfortable and reliable car after 250,000 miles. I used to have a Senator B too, a very nice model with adaptive damping but the design of the A is definitely more distinctive.
Very nice, enjoy it! Where is this, Finland?
And agreed, the first gen Senator just looks more ‘stately’ now.
Uppsala, Sweden.
OK, thanks!
Ah, very nice – a very early one with the blacked out venti openings in the rims.
Very few of those left here or the Holdens that were cribbed from them early VN Commodores were still setup for the Opel/Vauxhall /6 and the method of converting them to V6 was particularly crude, no they werent set up for the out going Nissan 6 like some people assume that ship sailed with the expensive Yen.
These are good-lookers to me, and the doors came to Australia – yes, the doors.
Holden had been selling the 1978-based Commodore (with local mechanicals), latterly with a Nissan straight six, but by ’88, they needed a bigger car to compete with the Falcon. They borrowed lots of styling of this Senator, the doors outright, but somehow blanded it out, and beneath, bashed up and widened the old Opel chassis, though nastily keeping the skinnier old front end. Was meant to also have the lovely 3.0l Nissan six too, but exchange rates made that impossible, so at the last minute they grabbed a 3.8 Buick front driver and shoved it in lengthwise so cruddily that the upper radiator hose still ran from what was now the back of the engine! It felt like they’d barely bolted it in, so much did it rattle and vibe. The car was tinnily lightweight, and given a $2 Shop interior. It went like hell, and was reliable, but by god, it was otherwise a bloody horrid car. Live axle and skinny front end, it handled appallingly. There’s no doubt Europe got a far, far superior car from Opel.
Not ugly, but not interesting either. And crude as a doorless dunny.
The doors came complete Justy, did you forget about the Euro grade outer doorhandles that warped in the sun, yes it was still on the earlier floor pan they only widened the body, the 3.8 was tuned for high torque just above idle so yes they went ok 225 for a V6 was fair hauling along after being run in good VNs could hit 230 flat out a friend worked in traffic patrol when those cars were new and NZ police had the 6s, the UK police had the Vauxhalls that topped out at 138mph.
NZ for some strange reason could get both the Euro and Aussie versions and the oddball Aussie built straight six cars destined for Asia and a few of the later twin cam V6 versions Aussie did not see, I prefer the later 3.8 models and absolutely detest the later Shitrolet 3.6 powered junkers
There was as much Ferrari Pinin in there as Audi 5000!
They were excellent cars – very refined and comfortable, but zero badge prestige so were a bit of a flop. I often mused that GM should have made a deal to badge them as Bitters – like the lovely coupes they briefly sold.
Would probably not have helped much outside of Germany though.
I guess it’s difficult to make up posh brands.
Yes, ofcourse, Ferrari Pinin, that’s it! No wonder I think these are handsome.
Do wish Ferrari had made that as their first 4-door, instead of that lumpen PurpleSandwich (or whatever it’s called) that they released recently.
My family has owned many Opels incl. Omega A over past decades and it’s an important brand for me, even though Volvos are more my thing. The fact is that Opel doesn’t have anything like this in production today and that’s a shame! But I get that times are different nowdays and these big rwd sedans don’t bring the money in unless it says Mercedes or BMW. The last big Opel was Omega B in 2003 (although the platform lived elsewhere a few years more). Guess they tried to fill the gap with Signum and there was also that rwd Insignia concept car, which then became the family car but it’s just not the same.
This was lovely and also good car. The UK’s “Car” magazine had their ambassador for Stuttgart/Munich/Ingolstadt, Georg Kacher, dismiss it in 650 words in a Newcomers article.
In the ending of 80’s GM Brazil was testing both Senator and Corsica to be released as Chevrolet Opala / Diplomat. Unfortunately our economy was worsening more and more and only the Opel Omega won the passport card to be the new Brazilian Chevrolet flagship. Beyond the Holden and Daewoo derivatives this Senator could be also a new Chevrolet Celebrity to compete with Taurus. Even the egg crater grille resemble Chevrolet cars of the 80s-90s and its design style is as bold as the beautiful Taurus I.
Thanks for the info, always welcome. Was the Brazilian Omega also available with inline-six engines? The Opel Omega 3000 was quite a machine!
Yes, both 2.2 4cil. and the inline six 3.0 imported from Opel and since 1995 the Chevy 250 4.1 prepared by Lotus. Omega A was made until 1998 replaced by the Holden VT Calais.
The Senator’s forebear: Top of the line 1937 Opel Admiral (Image: Opel GmbH)
Late here, so very, very late, but we got these new in NZ from 1987-89, and as a young teen I found them very handsome cars, even if most were painted in sadly nondescript colours. RHD though, so basically Vauxhalls with the Opel badges. A classmate’s parents bought a Senator new in 1987, so I grew up seeing it around town a lot. I have to say, the rounded rear wheel arch looks so much better than the flat topped arch used on on the Omega and Holden’s VN Commodore (which was basically the Senator glass house with the Omega wheel arch). Very few left here now, but every now and then one pops up for sale, and I always check out the photos and silently wish I had a bigger garage…