Opel Kadett D • The Volks-Car • From the ’70s Into the ’90s
A used foreign car. A ten-year-old Opel. That’s the story of the Opel Kadett D, first released in 1979. It stayed on the assembly line until 1984, giving way to the final car to bear the Kadett name — yet it would remain in high demand among those very “used imports.” It arrived with the first wave of cars flooding into the former Eastern Bloc.
But what was the Opel Kadett D like in its youth? How did it look beside its rivals? How did it drive, and what made it good? How reliable was it?
We revisit one of the most mass-market cars in Western Europe in the early 1980s and explore key chapters of automotive history.
00:00 • This is a Kadett!
00:45 • Opel Kadett D
01:41 • First encounter
11:51 • Opel Kadett D vs Volkswagen Golf and Ford Escort
22:20 • Endurance test of the Opel Kadett 1.3 S over 50,000 kilometers
25:42 • Step-by-step modernization
29:56 • Opel Kadett 1.3 S in the hands of British journalists
37:58 • Opel Kadett 1.6 S
41:09 • Diesel Opel Kadett 1.6 D
44:39 • Opel Kadett 1.6 D vs VW Golf Diesel
46:34 • Opel Kadett GTE vs Volkswagen Golf GTi
50:52 • Vauxhall Astra Estate wagon
55:43 • Buying a used foreign car in 1991
57:03 • Life after life
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