Opel

Popular brand with a long history

It all began in 1862: Adam Opel, the son of a master locksmith, built his first sewing machine in his father's workshop in Rüsselsheim am Main after completing his apprenticeship and various jobs. The brand's name can be traced back to the founding Opel family. Opel was owned by General Motors from 1928 to 2017 and became a global brand in the 1980s. At the end of this period, nevertheless, the company got into big troubles, from which it was freed by the takeover by the French automotive group PSA. Since 1963, the well-known lightning bolt has been the official logo of the brand. It has only been "modernized" a few times in recent decades and is now two-dimensional, having previously been three-dimensional for some time.

Solid brand, refined models

Opel is active in almost all areas of vehicle production and manufactures both passenger cars and vans or commercial vehicles. The passenger car range extends from the Adam subcompact to small cars such as the Tigra and the Corsa, the extensive compact class (Kadett, Astra models in a total of five generations) to the mid-size class with the Ascona until 1988, the Vectra until 2008, the current Insignia and the Cascada convertible. Vans such as Crossland X, Zafira Tourer and Vivaro small van are also popular. Off-road vehicles such as Frontera and Monterey are currently no longer in production. Even the former prime examples of the luxury class, the Kapitän with its various model variants, the Admiral and the Diplomat, have long been discontinued and now have cult status due to their rarity. On the other hand, SUVs from Opel have been highly popular for some years now: models such as Mokka (Mokka X since February 2016) and Grandland X, which was launched in October 2017, are becoming increasingly common on European roads. Vivaro Life, a motorhome with a bed bench, swivel seats and folding table, is a special feature. Combo D, a panel van produced since 2011, rounds off the range of vehicle classes as a commercial vehicle.