Opel Parts
Need Opel Parts?
At 1A Auto, it is our mission to supply you with the right parts you need to keep your Opel working in tip top shape, at a great discount. Simply put, if you are in need of a replacement part for your Opel car you've come to the right place. You'll find a large selection of new, high quality aftermarket Opel auto parts, including fuel pumps, headlight switches, ignition lock cylinders and more, as well as OEM replacement parts - the very same parts you would receive if purchased from your local dealer, but without the inflated cost. However, we don't only just sell aftermarket Opel parts online here at 1A Auto; we also carry a selection of new performance parts such as high flow air filters for your Opel car as well.
Our product development team spends over 8,000 hours a year researching the best auto parts, and they are carefully selected by our trained engineers so you can rest assured that you are getting the correct, high quality part you need for your car, at a discount price. If we wouldn't put the part in our own cars, we won't sell them to anyone else. A new aftermarket replacement Opel part from 1A Auto will save you 30-50% on average over a comparable new OEM replacement Opel part that you would get at a dealership, and our new aftermarket Opel parts are also extremely durable and reliable. Don't overpay for Opel parts and save yourself from a lot of potential headaches by shopping at 1A Auto.
You can shop for all of your Opel parts online and buy safely and securely right here on our website, or you can call our customer service toll free at 888-844-3393 if you have any questions about any of our parts, or to buy over the phone. With over 150 years combined experience, 1A Auto's customer service representatives are the most qualified to answer your questions about all of our new, aftermarket, OEM, and performance Opel car parts. Our representatives answer 99.9% of phone calls in less than one minute and emails are responded to within the hour because we know you need answers quickly to get your beloved Opel back in working order again. We also know you want your part fast for the same reason; 98% of in stock Opel auto parts ship from our warehouse within one business day so that you can get back on the road in no time, and all ground shipping in the continental U.S. is completely free. And, in the unlikely case that you are unhappy with your Opel auto part for any reason, 1A Auto also offers the only No Hassle return policy for unused items in the industry. Simply put, our competitors can't beat the 1A Advantage. Don't just take it from us - take it from over 50,000 satisfied customers!
Look no further than 1A Auto for your aftermarket, original equipment (OE) replacement, and new performance Opel auto parts and get your vehicle the new parts it needs today from Opel car enthusiasts just like you!
Opel
Opel has become General Motors’ biggest European brand. GM sold European cars under their own name in the US from 1958 to 1975. Afterwards, GM sold rebadged Opels under its stateside brands, including Buick, Pontiac, and Cadillac.
Adam Opel
Adam Opel founded the company that bears his name in 1862, in Ruseelheim, Germany, to build sewing machines and later bicycles. Adam Opel died in 1895, passing the company on to his two sons, but not before becoming Germany’s top manufacturer of both sewing machines and bicycles.
Opel first built cars in 1901, teaming up with Darracq, a French Carmaker. Darracq built the chassis and Opel the bodies. By 1909, Opel was ready to build its own car, the 4/8 PS. The car was half the price of other cars on the market and could handle unpaved roads, two facts which made the model popular with doctors who made house-calls. That earned the 4/8 PS the nickname of “Doktowrwagen”
Inspired by Ford, Opel established an assembly line, the first used by a German automaker, in the 1920s. They used it to build the two seat 4 PS. Like Ford’s “any color you like as long as it’s black” Model T, the 4 PS was only available in one color – in this case, green. Like its predecessor, Opel’s new model earned itself a nickname, the “Laubfrosch,” German for tree frog. Opel sold over 100,000 Laubfroschen. Getting better at mass production, and having recouped the initial costs, Opel was able to drop the price of the Laubfrosch over the course of its production run.
Enter GM; Exit GM; Re-enter GM
In the 1920s, GM was looking to move into the European market. GM decided it was better to buy an existing (and already successful) company than to try and build its own factories in Europe. In 1929, GM bought 80% of Opel. GM bought the rest of the company in 1931.
In 1935, Opel released the Olympia, the first mass-produced car with a monocoque body. It was also an early example of independent front suspension. Opel was setting itself up as an important engineering center for GM.
The Olympia was followed by the Kadett in 1936. Opel manufactured a small car under the Kadett name from 1936 to 1940, and then from 1962 until 1991. The Kadett, like the OIlympia, used a monocoque body. The Kadett also set a trend of future Opel models, using naval ranks for names. Opel released the Admiral luxury car in 1937 and the Kapitan executive car in 1938.
By this point, Germany was at war with its neighbors and passenger car production was halted. Due to Opel’s ties to a US business, Germany did not, at first, use the Opel factory for war manufacturing. In 1940, with war lasting longer than Germany expected, the German government took control of the Opel plant, using it to build trucks for the war effort.
When the War ended, GM was still financially the owner of Opel, but the plant was under the control of the Allied armies. All the equipment used to build the Kadett was shipped to Moscow as war reparations. About a year later, the Soviet automaker Moskvitch, released the Moskvitch 400, which bore a striking resemblance to the Kadett.
GM had to make a decision whether to take back management of Opel or let the company go. Alfred Sloan proposed that GM give the company a two year probationary period, without any extra Capital from GM. GM took over management in 1948. The Russelheim factory began to produce its old models like the Olympia and the Kapitan. The Kadett was notably absent, with all the necessary tooling moved to Moscow.
In the following years, the German economy rapidly improved and Opel rebuilt its factory. GM ultimately decided to stick with Opel. The company introduced new versions of the Olympia and the Kapitan throughout the 1950s. At the end of that decade, GM decided to introduce Opel to a new market.
Opel in the USA
Opel followed the Olympia with the Olympia Rekord, which was eventually renamed simply the Rekord. The Rekord, introduced in 1958, was styled after the fashion of American cars of the day, with chrome and tailfins. Opel also made its first inroads into the US marker by selling Rekords at Buick dealerships.
Then Opel introduced a new car in Germany in 1962. Like the VW, it was small with a fuel efficient engine, but, where the VW was round, the Opel was boxy, and where the VW was rear-engined, the Opel was front-engined. Opel named the new car the Kadett after its popular pre-war model. In 1964, GM started selling the Kadett in Buick dealerships in the US.
In 1968, Opel introduced what would probably become its most recognizable model in the US. The GT was a small, two seater sports car, available as a coupe or a convertible with either a 1.1 or 1.9 liter engine. It borrowed styling cues, like a Coke bottle shape and pop-up headlights with the Chevy Corvette, but, naturally was nowhere near as quick. But the GT was much more accessible in terms of price, looked the part, and was reasonably fun to drive. The Opel GT was fairly popular in the US, selling about 10,000 units there.
Opel took another crack at the sports car market with the Manta. Visually, the Manta looked like a European take on a muscle car. In Europe, a 1.2 Liter was standard and a 1.9 liter optional. The 1.9 was standard in the US. The Manta was known for its handling, though, and had success in rally racing.
Meanwhile, the Kadett saw two generations of improvements. In 1965, the car was redesigned and got slightly larger. The next generation of the Kadett arrived in 1973 on GM’s T-Body (shared with the Chevy Chevette).
Although these cars were modestly popular in the US, circumstances shifted to make importing them difficult. With the German Mark strong, it became too costly to import Opels to the US, and even though Opel’s small, efficient cars may have been appealing to US consumers facing the oil crisis, Japanese models were more affordable. In 1975 GM stopped selling any cars under the Opel name in the US.
Opel’s American Afterlife
Historically, Opel had done important engineering work for GM, and that didn’t change. Over the following years, GM occasionally sold rebadged Opels in the US. The Chevy Cavalier, for example, was based on the Opel Ascona. In the 2000s, the Buick Regal and LaCrosse were based on the Opel Insignia, harkening back to the earlier ties of Opel to Buick.
