I lived in Germany in 1975 and drove an Opel 1600 which was a fine car and kept up with most of the cars on the autobahn. Had enough room for my family of 5 to tour europe. Flew home next to an executive from GM and asked him why they didn’t just import that car since they owned Opel, instead of building the Vega and the Chevette, both crappy cars. He gave me a lame non-answer about parts and manufacturing issues. They didn’t know what they had.
Flew home next to an executive from GM and asked him why they didn’t just import that car since they owned Opel, instead of building the Vega and the Chevette, both crappy cars.
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Not just the Opel. My parents rented a Ford Capri sedan for our month long visit to Germany, around 1976 timeframe. The car was really well built and handled the Autobahn pretty well (in the right lane 99% of the time). I learned to drive stick on that car. I ask the same question, why didn’t Ford make that same car in the USA?
I worked and lived in Russelsheim, the home of GM Opel in ‘96. It was the Opel-Saturn 2902 project involving an adaptation of the Opel Vectra to create the all-new Saturn L-series (midsize). It was a hack job that extended the length and width of the then-current Vectras and we used those parameters to design the new Saturns. I don’t know how the Vectra turned out but those Saturns were really nothing GM could’ve been proud of.