(First Posted November 8, 2013) This Opel Kadett C hatchback was an unexpected find. I’d seen an online ad for it a few months back; it was located a couple hundred kilometers away. I was certainly intrigued, and I’m always on the look out for an unusual but mechanically straight forward car. The Opel would have been right up my alley, but a lack of garage space and budget had dissuaded me from even checking it out. However that worked out for the little Opel (and CC) as it has landed in good local hands.
image source: wikipedia
The Kadett could be Opel’s most storied name. Certainly it is one of the most long lived with it origins dating back to 1937. A break followed World War II until the name was resurrected to live again from 1962 until 1991. Always a small, economical car the first Kadett is perhaps most memorable for its second life as a Moskvitch. As part of the war reparations to the Soviet Union the Kadett design and in fact the whole production plant was carted off to the outskirts of Moscow.
image source: wikipedia
The Kadett story picks up again in 1962 with the Kadett A. Envisioned as a Volkswagen Beetle competitor but in a rather more conventional mold, its design was also adopted largely for the Vauxhall Viva HA, with some changes and updates. The Kadett A is most known to auto enthusiasts for its role as Richard Hammond’s ride in the Top Gear Botswana adventure. His bleats of “Oliver!” as the little car sunk into the muddy river have to be one of the more memorable Top Gear moments. So struck by the car’s character he had actually had it restored to its former glory at his own expense.
The Kadett B succeeded the basic A by late 1965 and was a larger, more substantial evolution of the “A”. During its lifetime the B offered a full line up of body styles including two and four door sedans (limousine in Opel speak), two and four door fastback, two and four door wagon, as well as a coupe. This generation of Kadett reached the American (but not the Canadian) market with the front end and trim of the Olympia (starting in MY 1968).
Launched in 1973, the Kadett C was Opel’s variant on GM’s T-car platform and was widely admired at the time for its clean and attractive styling. As GM’s first world car, the plan was to sell versions around the world with the same body structure but different engines and styling. The Kadett was first sold in Brazil as the Chevrolet Chevette, appearing there even before the European release. Other variants include the Vauxhall Chevette, Chevrolet Marajo, Isuzu Gemini, Holden Gemini, Saehan Motor, Daewoo Motor, Daewoo Maepsy, Maepsy-Na, Buick-Opel, Pontiac Acadian, Pontiac T-1000, and Isuzu I-Mark. The North American specification Chevrolet Chevette is probably the most familiar to American readers.
Available body styles were two and four door sedans, three door hatchback, coupe and a rare cabriolet variant. A three door hatchback with a truncated length like our example was launched starting in 1975 and was known as the City to differentiate it from the station wagon like “Caravan” hatchback.
The City was billed as a Volkswagen Golf competitor but suffered when compared to the more modern Golf with its front wheel drive and fully independent suspension. The Kadett’s drive train was traditional rear wheel drive with a live axle located by a two bar/Panhard rod system. The front suspension was independent with double a-arms, coil springs and anti-roll bar. Four wheel drum brakes were even available on some early and smaller engine Kadett Cs but soon all variations were standardized on a front disc, rear drum configuration.
Engine options ranged from a tiny carburetor equipped 1.0L four cylinder to fuel injected 1.9L / 2.0L cam in head four cylinder engines in the Rallye. A smaller 1.6L cam in block motor with carburetors could be had in the more basic Kadett as well making 74hp. Our featured car has this engine, but the most common motor fitted was a smaller 1.2L pushrod four cylinder. Transmission wise, a floor mounted four speed manual was standard, with a five speed available on the GT/E models. The 1.2L and 1.6L cars could also be had with the GM TH180 three speed automatic as well.
This particular Kadett is from 1978, which means it benefits from the facelift of 1977 (Kadett)/1978(City) with composite headlights and relocated signal lights. It also has the upscale Berlina trim with more exterior chrome and interior equipment. That said it is still pretty bare bones inside. The larger 1.6L S engine was also fitted as part of the Berlina package, which no doubt helps cope with the automatic transmission.
The current owner recently acquired the car from a retired military serviceman who’d brought this Kadett back with him from Germany. He was tackling some brake work when I passed b,y but plans to get the Opel roadworthy soon. The body and interior looked to be in quite good shape. Sourcing mechanical parts shouldn’t be as much of a problem as one might suspect, since the Kadett C was sold in the US (but not Canada) as the Buick-Opel and many of the suspension bits are similar to the much more common Chevrolet Chevette.
Nice find David.
IMO the less bulky bumpers and matte black mirrors really improve the exterior compared to the Chevette. That’s a nice shade of green too. I remember the Chevettes had a lighter green metallic paint, like the photo you posted previously.
I realize that GM perhaps figured this was a design with a limited future, given that it
was RWD. But I am surprised they didn’t try to make it more competitive with the Rabbit, Civic and Horizon. Namely in a more modern suspension and more overall refinement. I don’t think ‘class-leading’ was the mandate/goal for GM for a number of their car lines back then.
Think I prefer the Chevette dash.
Well, I suspect the City’s primary target was not the Golf, but the contemporary Ford Escort, which was generally similar in size, price, and engine selection. (The Escort was a little bigger and somewhat more expensive, but the lower end of the German model lineup matches up pretty closely with the City’s.) The Mk2 Escort was also RWD and if anything was less sophisticated than the Kadett since it had Hotchkiss drive rather than coils and trailing arms.
Cute; and even rarer (on this continent) than a Charger six! I like that shade of green too. This is bound to create some double-takes on the street.
One of those wonderful double-take cars you occasionally run into at car shows: Walking up behind it, you know what you’re seeing, and then you get around to the front . . . . .
Ive always preferred the Vauxhall styling to the uninspired flat front of the Opel/Isuzu/Holden versions, quite rare here with that front sheet metal but plenty about in Vauxhall clothes.
I love these Kadett C hatchbacks!
I used to go to Germany quite frequently when I was a child in the 1970’s to visit family and these were everywhere in many odd but wonderful colors.
My unlce had an early white Kadett C sedan but soon traded it in for a larger Rekord D sedan when my aunt proclaimed she didnt like the way the Kadett drove. He has always been a confirmed Opel driver even to this day when he is 88 and still drives his Astra H sedan.
Very interesting find. Seeing these Kadetts gets me on my GM rant about their small car strategy of the 1960s and 1970s (and beyond). Such a shame that this car didn’t arrive in the U.S. in 1973 as well (with the full range of body styles). It would have sold like crazy in the aftermath of the OPEC shock. Of course, I never understood why the Kadett wasn’t sold in the U.S. as a Chevy from the get-go. If the goal was to woo counter-culture types into buying a VW alternative, there couldn’t have been a stranger place to go than a Buick dealer. At least Chevy would have been a logical place for buyers to go in search of an economical car, even if they weren’t import intenders. Seems to me that a U.S. built, low-priced Kadett B sold as a “Chevrolet something” starting around 1967 or so would have gotten a nice jump on VW and perhaps would have spared us the Vega catastrophe.
Part of the answer to your question is exchange rates. By the mid-’70’s the German mark had gotten to the point where an Opel was getting badly over priced. I don’t remember actual prices back then, but by the end of the German cars an Opel Manta’s price was to the point where you could get something larger in an American GM product for the same money.
While hindsight is cheap and easy, GM didn’t do too bad with the Opel. It was one of the more successful captive imports brought over, and it sold under its own name, not having to be re-badged as an American brand. Doing more with the brand, like we’re so quick to suggest now, would have demanded a corporate attitude change that GM wasn’t capable of. Not only would such a change have done more with Opel, but it would have also headed off the eventual path to bankruptcy.
US built Kadetts wouldn’t have had the currency issues. Surely they could have duplicated Opel production over here for less than they spent getting the Vega into production. I agree that GM executive ego had more to do with the Vega than common sense and good business.
GM did duplicate Opel production in the USA. The Opel Kadett C(the hatch version) was sold under the Chevy Chevette name plate from 76-87. Oddly enough the Chevy Chevette debuted in Brazil in 1973 a full 6 months before the Kadett C debuted in Europe.
If you were asking about why GM could not duplicate the front end of the Kadett C here in the USA, well you have to ask USDOT as it took them till the 1980’s to make a ruling change to allow the “Euro” style lights on USA market cars.
Not exactly a duplicate. The American Chevette was based on the Brazilian version of the T Car, which was a global platform built in various derivations all over the globe. The Chevette engine was completely different from the Opel, again a Brazilian version of an Isuzu engine.
Most of all, suspension tuning, and other aspects of the two cars were quite different. The Chevette and Kadett shared a basic structure and suspension design, but the execution is different.
The hatchback Kadett was sold as a Chevy. It was named Chevette and was sold from 1976-1987.
Not quite. See comment above.
Would it be fair to say the relationship between the Chevette and the Kadett is more akin that between the first U.S. Escort and European version?
True but it can also be said that the Kadett C was actually a derivative of the Chevy Chevette and not the other way around as the Chevy Chevette debuted in Brazil 6 months before the Kadett C did in Europe as Opel seemed to have dithered a bit and took its sweet time in releasing it.
Leon, Opel developed and designed this car. Thus all T-Cars are derivatives of the Opel Kadett C, regardless of when they were actually put into production.
Technically the rear suspension if a form of the ancient torque tube suspension. No it doesn’t go all the way to the transmission like the original versions but that extended input is what keeps the axle from rotating when it is asked to transmit power.
Ah hah! I did not notice the solid not uni joint on the phone & was wondering about that. Effectively a 3 link then.
Also the front with spring on lower arm & shock on upper arm is a strange setup, apart from needing 2 load paths it must suffer when the ball joints wear.
There is a u-joint right in front of the little cross member that attaches the torque tube to the chassis.
I’m not sure how this un equal length control arm set up will have any more significant problems when the ball joints wear than any of the other billions of cars produced with similar front suspensions.
The load on a standard shock absorber is relatively minimal. There were cars where the shock actually attached to the body on old BOF cars such as 50’s era GM vehicles. Now when you put a set of air shocks on them that was a different story.
I realise there is a uni joint there but hadnt noticed there wasnt one in the ‘normal’ place in front of the diff.
All I meant about the front suspension is normally the spring & shock loads go through the same arm and the other just locates. Its obviously not a big deal, just something different.
Wasn’t that more or less the same principle as the Rover SD1, albeit with a Panhard rod instead of the Rover’s Watt’s linkage (and of course minus the self-leveling system)?
Yes. The Chevette is the same way. Probably safe to say it was the last vehicle to use that style of torque tube suspension.
The 82-02 F-body used a torque arm suspension with the torque arm connected at the back of the transmission. Yes it was an arm along side of the drive shaft, rather than the drive shaft running inside of it, but the function is very similar to the old school torque tube.
Exactly 30 years ago a classmate had a Kadett C Rallye. Fuel injection, 2.0 liter, 110 hp.
More than enough for such a small and light car.
Opel churned out loads of sporty versions of the Kadett, Manta and Ascona in the seventies and eighties. I think they made more go-fast editions of Average Joe family cars than any other automaker. Also lots of successful professional race and rally cars, something like this 190 hp Kadett. (Photo: Cristiano Luzzago, Italy)
One of my brother’s friends had one, and he was the envy of his little group. Everyone else had the usual BL/Ford junk that 17 year olds could afford in the UK in the 80s, but his little Kadett was much faster and better handling than the rest. He drove like a loon and had regular accidents, including smacking into a bus with my brother in the passenger seat. He bent the whole car (panels were creased on the opposite side from the accident), but he still kept it going.
Good car. I’d have one.
That picture of the Kadet City being loaded up is more 70s than a ABBA compilation album. Wonderful!
The 70s – the decade that style forgot, but CC will never forget!
Note also the number plate plinth below the bumper – from memory the Vauxhall Chevette had the plate there and the VAUXHALL spelt out between the lights to differentiate it from the Opel. It also had a Cavalier like nose, before the Cavalier
The woman’s long black skirt looks up-to-date….in the Bible Belt.
(As tiny as my country is, we do have a Bible Belt)
I wouldn’t have thought your country was that tiny; I come across plenty of your countrymen down here.
My late Uncle had a 1979ish Vauxhall Chevette in the mid-late 80s. It was a NZ model, but probably identical to the UK one, and it did indeed have the Vauxhall letters above bumper and the number plate below. Not a car I remember with delight. Not sure what GM was thinking, but we got the Isuzu, Holden and Vauxhall versions new…at the same time…
Nice find Dave! I’ve never seen one of these hatches, we got the Holden in sedan, (2-door) wagon, side-paneled van (did Opel/Vauxhall I wonder) and the coupe which seems to have a slightly different side window shape.
Vauxhall Chevannes were sold in NZ the body is identical to the Japanese Aussie version from the Apillar back, theres one all dressed up that roams my suburb.
In the main subject photo and the Kadett C brochure pics, why are the lock cylinders placed in front of the door handles? Not beneath the handles, like on the majority of cars.
Chevettes had them underneath.
Seems like a very awkward location to insert a key, especially for a left hand drive car.
I think it’s just the type of the handle. It’s not a “conventional” handle, like grabbing the handle with your fingers and pushing the knob with your thumb.
On the Kadett C your fingertips reach behind it, you pull, and the door is open. The lock cylinder would hinder your fingers if it was beneath the handle, sort of. (Can’t come up with anything else)
I totally appreciate what you are saying. And I realize the different door handle types. But in the Chevettes (and many North American cars), the lock cylinder
is a separate hole in the door panel from the handle. And it is often beloew the handle. See the Chevette pic below.
By placing the lock cylinder in front of the handle means you’d have to reach across the door handle with the key as you are opening the door at the same time with your other hand.
Unless it’s a primitive way of testing the driver’s sobriety. : )
I don’t know about you but when I open a vehicle that I have to use the key I unlock the door with the key, remove the key and then use the handle to open the door.
I never thought about this before, but I normally unlock the the car with the key in my right hand and pull the handle open (or push the button & pull the door open) with my left hand.
It’s just my personal preference being right handed. Having the lock cylinder level with the handle would actually make it easier for me.
Strange ergonomically, as a large majority of cars are not like this Kadett…
On the driver’s side, I lightly hold the handle with my left hand ready to open, and simultaneously unlock with my right, then pull the handle and door open. The key still in my right hand, ready to start the car. I do the opposite on the passenger side… opening the passenger door handle with my right hand. Key in my left hand.
Vast majority of cars I have seen, have the lock below or on the opposite side of the handle than this Kadett C. Entering this Kadett on the driver’s side, you are reaching across the handle while your left hand is holding it, if your key is in your right hand. As you are ready to insert in the ignition with your right hand.
Seems quirky ergonomically, as I know of no other car like this.
Its interesting that it shares the key hole placement with the 1979-1985 Toronado too…
Interesting. I hadn’t noticed that. The Mark 3 Cortina also had lock cylinders in line with the door handle, but in this case they were integrated into the ‘plinth’ covering the actual handle part, but they were ‘behind’ the handle, not in front. Never realised how unusual this location was.
In Brazil, they taped some possibilities for the Chevette potential http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2009/05/13/the-coolest-brazilian-chevettes-ever/
the local version of the T-body was even available as a small pick-up/ute/bakkie who was made until the early-to-mid 1990s. http://www.flickriver.com/photos/hugo90/4182380775/
These were very common to see around here in my childhood, I especially liked the silhouette of the hatchback, which to me always looked like an upside down banana with its smooth arc in the rear. Unfortunately, these are pretty much gone nowadays, most Kadett’s still around today are either the last models or earlier ones than the C model.
A few made it into the UK but nowhere near as common as the Chevette.There were some very attractive Opels in the 60s and 70s
Small correction. The Golf/Rabbit did not have fully independent suspension, the rear was a coil sprung beam axle like my ’75 Audi Fox had.
The Mk 1 Golf had a torsion beam, which one could arguably call semi-independent, but I suppose that’s hairsplitting.
It took the biggest auto manufacturer in the world with totally superiority to design and produce a sub-compact car in the ’70s with RWD and solid axle to conquer the world. Only thing missing was the iron duke.
Got to give it to GM.
Re the original pre-war Kadett, GM offered the 1938 Kadett new in New Zealand as factory RHD. Very bizarre, and no, I’ve no idea why. One of the survivors has been painted up for war re-enactments, here’s a pic from when it was for sale earlier this year:
Long live the Canadian variants! Here is a pic of the Pontic Acadian, around 1985.
Vintage.es has a new set of pix from Madrid in the ’70s. Lots of ’60s Opels, Renaults, and Seats. Only one American car visible, a Dart.
https://www.vintag.es/2019/11/madrid-1970s.html
I don’t know how this article got past me the first time around! That license plate caused an immediate bout of Heimweh (home sickness). It was registered in the Ortenaukreis with the city of Offenburg as county seat. That was the county I grew up in.
Uncle Otto had a Kadett A and I remember marveling at the speedometer changing color. The Kadett B was driven by some of my teachers and I had few km with one of them. Indeed they were better than a Beetle in every regard.
My best friend owned the Kadett C for some time and I was considering buying a Kadett D but moved to the US before that happened.
Thanks for bringing back the memories!
Point of clarification: the pre-’77/’78 cars had composite (replaceable-bulb) headlamps, too; it’s just they were round ones. Sealed beams were almost entirely not used on European-market cars.