The History of the Opel Kadett: Opel's Small Car From 1936 to 1991

Opel Kadett key facts

The old 1cars page explained the name: a "Kadett" is a cadet, a young officer in training. Opel kept the military-rank theme with later cars such as the Kapitän and Admiral. For most of its life, the Kadett competed with Volkswagen, first with the Beetle and later with the Golf.

1936: a small Opel with a steel monocoque

Heinrich Nordhoff presented the first car in December 1936. He was then a technical adviser in Opel's sales management, and from 1948 he would run Volkswagen. Production had begun that autumn at Rüsselsheim, next to the larger Opel P4.

It was Opel's second model with a self-supporting body, after the Olympia. That made it lighter and stiffer than rivals with a separate chassis frame. A simplified Dubonnet-type front suspension, which Opel advertised as "Synchron-Federung", gave independently sprung front wheels. Hydraulic drum brakes and turn indicators were standard.

The engine was a water-cooled 1,074 cc side-valve four from the P4. It produced 17 kW (23 PS) at 3,400 rpm. The old 1cars page quoted a kerb weight of about 750 kg and a length of about 3.8 metres, figures that match a car of this class.

The car sold well. In 1938, it held 59 % of its class in Germany, and the K38 Spezial was the country's best-selling small car in 1938 and 1939. Production stopped in May 1940 because of the war, after about 107,608 cars by German Wikipedia's count.

War reparations and the Moskvitch 400

After the war, Opel could not restart production of its small car. Much of the production equipment from Rüsselsheim and Berlin went to the Soviet Union as war reparations. There, a factory built the car with few changes as the Moskvitch 400 from 1946 to 1956.

The Soviet car was always a four-door, because wartime changes to the tooling had prepared that body. Our page on the Moskvich 400 and 402 follows that branch of the story. Opel itself resumed car production with the Olympia.

1962: Bochum's first car and the Beetle rival

The name returned in 1962 on an all-new car. Opel built a new plant in Bochum for it, starting construction in 1960. Production began on 10 October 1962, and the car stayed in production until August 1965.

The new model had a 993 cc engine with 29 kW (40 PS) at 5,000 rpm. From September 1963, the Kadett "Super" offered 35 kW (48 PS). Body styles were a two-door saloon, a coupé and a three-door estate called the Caravan.

At launch, the saloon cost 5,075 Deutsche Mark, about 100 DM more than a Volkswagen 1200. It offered more interior space, a larger boot and better visibility than the Beetle. Compared with its rival, the Opel was licensed for four people instead of five. Opel built 649,512 Kadett A cars, including 126,616 Caravans and 53,468 coupés from Bochum.

1965–1979: rear-wheel drive, Rallye and GT/E

The Kadett B appeared at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 1965. It was 5 % longer, 7 % wider and 9 % heavier than the Kadett A. The range grew to two- and four-door saloons, coupés, the LS fastback and three- or five-door Caravans. Engines ranged from 1,078 cc to 1,897 cc and from 33 kW to 78 kW (45 to 106 PS).

The B series also gave its mechanical basis to the two-seat Opel GT. Sporty Rallye versions used the 1.9-litre engine with 66 kW (90 PS). More than 2.7 million Kadett B cars were built by July 1973, including the upmarket Olympia A.

The Kadett C of August 1973 was Opel's version of General Motors' worldwide T-car, and its British relative was the Vauxhall Chevette. It was the last small Opel with rear-wheel drive. Engines produced 29 to 85 kW (40 to 115 PS). The GT/E of mid-1975 arrived about a year before the Volkswagen Golf GTI, first with 77 kW (105 PS) and later with 85 kW (115 PS).

The Rallye 2.0 E had 81 kW (110 PS). An open Aero version, converted by Baur in Stuttgart, sold 1,341 cars. Production ended in July 1979 after about 1.6 to 1.7 million Kadett C cars, built at Bochum and Antwerp.

1979: the switch to front-wheel drive

The Kadett D of August 1979 was the first Opel with front-wheel drive and the first front-drive car of the General Motors group. It came as a three- or five-door hatchback, a two- or four-door saloon with a small boot lid and a Caravan estate. In the UK, the same car was sold as the Vauxhall Astra.

Engines ranged from a 1.0 with 29 kW (40 PS) to the 1.8 E of the GTE with 85 kW (115 PS). A 1.6-litre diesel with 40 kW (54 PS) followed in 1982. The drag coefficient fell by 15 % to 0.39. Opel built about 36,300 GTE models in Bochum and Antwerp before the Kadett D ended in July 1984.

1984: Car of the Year and the last of the line

The E generation arrived in August 1984 and was named European Car of the Year for 1985. Its rounded body was much more aerodynamic: the three-door hatchback had a drag coefficient of 0.32, and the GSi reached 0.30. Compared with the Kadett D, that is about 18 % less drag, by our calculation.

Petrol engines produced 40 to 115 kW (54 to 156 PS), and diesels 40 to 60 kW. The GSi 16V had 110 kW (150 PS) and a factory 0–100 km/h time of 7.9 seconds. Bertone built a cabriolet from May 1987. In the UK, the car was the Vauxhall Astra Mk2, with a saloon called the Belmont.

The design lived on outside Europe. It became the Chevrolet Kadett in Brazil and the Daewoo LeMans and Daewoo Nexia in South Korea. Daewoo-built cars were sold in the United States as the Pontiac LeMans. The Nexia was still built in Uzbekistan until 2016. In Germany, saloon, hatchback and estate production ended in July 1991, and the cabriolet followed in May 1993.

Six generations in numbers

By our count, the five generations with known totals add up to more than 8.8 million cars, and the D series would push the total higher still. The Opel Astra F took over in 1991, and Opel treats the Astra as the continuation of the Kadett line. Our history of Opel covers the company around it.

Buying a classic Kadett today: which one to choose

Among pre-war cars, the 1936 model is rare and charming but slow. Spare parts are scarce, so look for a complete car. If you want a sporty post-war Kadett, look at the Kadett A coupé, the Kadett B Rallye and the Kadett C GT/E, which arrived a year before the first Golf GTI.

The Kadett E GSi 16V is the youngest and most powerful choice, with 110 kW. Check any example for rust in the sills, floors and wheel arches, and make sure that sporty versions are genuine. Period figures in PS convert to kW with the 1cars power converter. The Kadett and Astra faced the Volkswagen Golf for decades, and our published comparison of the Opel Astra and Volkswagen Golf shows how that rivalry stands today.