The adult Dutch who have never sat behind the wheel or in the back seat of a Kadett can probably be counted on one hand. In 1991 it was time to say goodbye to the loyal Opel; the first Astra was coming. Even though the Kadett was still available as new exactly 30 years ago, the approaching farewell was tough.
If you hear the name Opel Kadett, you will undoubtedly be transported in your mind to a time when you stood in line for the video store on Friday afternoon to rent a VHS, when smoking in a full restaurant was still accepted and 60 hp in a C-segmenter was sufficient. used to be. At the time, a bullet went through the church in Rüsselsheim: it was over and out for the Opel Kadett. After decades of unprecedented success, Opel hung up on the name and decided to take the nineties by the scratch with the Astra, a name that has been used in England since the end of 1979 for the Kadett twin brother of Vauxhall.
The fact that such a standard name would disappear from the street scene did not bother the then Techzle editors either. In Techzle 6 of 1991, we took a look back at all generations of the Kadett. The success of the Kadett, you saw several in every street, made it a very ‘normal’ car at the same time. An inconspicuous car, not least because it was never really a flashy means of transport, not even for the ‘common man’. It was just a car that did what it was made for, nothing more, nothing less.
In 1991 there was much less of an enthusiast group than now. This is also evident from the retrospective. The editor on duty clearly had difficulty with the sometimes somewhat derogatory attitude of some towards a car that by its wide representation had proven to do something very well: Probably the critics, the folks who look down on the Kadett (riders) like that, are addicted to another brand for whatever reason, and find anything that tends to be “average” below par. the rest of the population has a different opinion, as shown by the enormous sales success of the Kadett. “
The gems
For whom the practical and familiar of the Kadett with a little more jeu wanted to combine, there were of course the GSIs. When the Kadett was coming to an end, they already had it in them to become longer cherished cars than the bread and butter-versions. Nowadays you unfortunately have to search a lot to find a neat copy, but then you have a nice piece of car history in your hands. Especially when you find a GSI Convertible. A car that was already an outsider in the Kadett range at the time. “It is the only one who manages to shake off the modal image outwardly. And that is also thanks to the Italian designer Bertone. Where the GSI with roof is often mistaken for a Kadett, the luxury convertible harvests. admiring glances, with or without top “, we stated in 1991.
At that time, the older generations were mainly cheap second-hand means of transport and the Kadett B, C and D could not really enjoy a popular classic status. Later that did pick up, although that actually applies especially to the B and C. The Kadett A, in 1991 already quite advanced, has become a rarity. Remarkably enough, it was even tipped in 1991 as an ‘interesting second-hand’. “Even now, the 25 to 28-year-old A-Kadett can participate in traffic without any problems. The animal is easier to steer and shift than many of today’s cars and with its top speed of around 120, it is still fast enough.” In that regard, we can only conclude that a few things have changed in that perception in the past 30 years.
His successor
Opel had undoubtedly signed on in 1991 for the success of the Astra in the years that followed. That was of course still uncertain when looking back at the Kadett in Techzle 6 of that year. In fact; much more than a blurred photo of the back of Astra F was apparently not available at the time.
In any case, in 1992 it turned out that Opel had done nothing wrong to continue with a clean slate after the Kadett; the Astra left the showroom like crazy in its first full year. At that time no fewer than 40,000 were sold in the Netherlands. The Astra G only slightly exceeded that in its first year, but the first Astra still counts as the most sold. Over the past decade, Opel’s compact mid-sized car was unfortunately no shadow of its great-grandfather in terms of sales numbers. It is hoped for Opel that the next Astra can at least revive the Kadett years somewhat in that area.