Opel Commodore

Opel Commodore at a glance

A six-cylinder Rekord for a new class

Opel presented the Commodore in the first quarter of 1967 and placed it between the Rekord L and the large Kapitän. It took over the role of the Rekord 6 and shared the body of the Rekord C, but came with 14-inch wheels in place of 13-inch ones and an optional vinyl roof. Opel itself called it the more luxurious and more powerful mid-size car. The Rekord family, including its coke-bottle C generation, is listed in our Opel catalogue.

Buyers could choose a two-door or four-door saloon or a pillarless coupé, and the coupé took almost half of the A's sales with 70,333 cars against 72,597 four-door and 13,537 two-door saloons.

GS, GS/E and GS 2.8: the sporting Commodore A

The launch engines were a 2.2-litre six with 70 kW (95 PS), dropped for the 1969 model year, and a 2.5-litre with 85 kW (115 PS), later 88 kW (120 PS). From September 1967 the GS used twin carburettors for 96 kW (130 PS). In March 1970 the GS/E introduced Bosch D-Jetronic electronic fuel injection and 110 kW (150 PS); in ADAC data the GS/E coupé weighed 1,185 kg, reached 192 km/h and needed 9.3 seconds to 100 km/h. It cost about DM 13,100, and zwischengas notes that no other car offered 110 kW (150 PS) for so little money at the time. The GS 2.8 of April 1970 offered 107 kW (145 PS) with carburettors.

Steinmetz in Rüsselsheim prepared GS/E coupés for Group II rallies. The GS 3000 version had a 2,990 cc engine with three twin-choke Weber carburettors, up to 221 kW (300 PS) and 1,070 kg, and was quoted at 0-100 km/h in 5.3 seconds.

Commodore B: the GS/E coupé and the rally stripes

The Commodore B was shown at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1972, on the new Rekord D body, with the GS/E following a few months later. Its 2.8-litre six, related to the engines of the Admiral and Diplomat, produced 118 kW (160 PS) with fuel injection. Opel's data gave 9.3 seconds to 100 km/h, specialist magazines measured about 8.5 seconds, and the GS/E coupé reached 200 km/h. From 1974 emission rules cut the outputs to 95 to 114 kW (129 to 155 PS), and the 2.5-litre fell away for a time. Power steering became standard on the GS/E in August 1975. A 1973 advertisement listed the Commodore B from DM 13,955, and in its last seasons the GS/E saloon cost about DM 21,450.

Motorsport kept the image alive. Walter Röhrl and Jochen Berger won a class in the 1973 Monte Carlo Rally in an Irmscher-prepared GS/E, and Steinmetz built a GS/E with a 6.0-litre V8 of 375 kW (510 PS) for the 1974 Interserie, without lasting success. Opel built 140,827 Commodore B cars to July 1977, including 42,279 coupés.

Commodore C: Senator nose and Voyage estate

The Commodore C was shown in August 1977 and went into series production in October 1978, using the Rekord E body with a front end in the style of the larger Senator. There was no coupé, because the Monza had taken over that role. The 2.5-litre six came with a carburettor and 85 kW (115 PS) or Bosch L-Jetronic injection and 96 kW (130 PS), and the car cost DM 270 more than a Rekord 2.0 E Luxus. The two-door saloon ended in June 1981, and the Voyage estate of April 1981 sold only 3,440 cars in 16 months. Production stopped in August 1982 at 82,820 cars, and Britain knew the car as the Vauxhall Viceroy, one of the Opel-based models described in our Vauxhall history.

The Commodore name moved on. Holden used it from 1978 for its VB Commodore, which combined the Rekord E body with the Senator nose, as told in our history of Holden. In South Africa a Commodore C2 with a 3.0-litre engine was built into the mid-1980s, while in Europe the Omega of 1986 is usually listed as its successor.

Opel Commodore today: what to check when buying

Rust has thinned the population sharply. Classic & Sports Car reports that experts believe most German Rekord and Commodore coupés of the A generation were lost to rust in the 1980s, so surviving coupés often come from drier export markets. Sills, floors and wheel arches decide the price of any survivor. The same writers found the steering heavy on cars without the optional power assistance. The D-Jetronic injection of the A and B GS/E needs a specialist, and a car advertised as a GS/E should be checked against its engine and chassis records.

The 2.8-litre six is related to the engines of the Admiral and Diplomat, which widens the pool of mechanical parts. Market evidence is thin and dated. A 1976 Commodore B GS/E coupé offered on the Kickdown auction platform in Leipzig in April 2023 carried an estimate of EUR 21,000, and its seller quoted a 2021 Classic Data valuation of EUR 15,000 in condition 3+. More German cars of the period are collected in our classic cars section, and Opel's own story is in our Opel brand history.

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