An Opel with an identity crisis
11/07/2025
Are you one of those people who think that old cars still have "personality"? Then ask the Opel Kadett E what it has to say about it. Because the fifth generation of the eternal officer's candidate took on at least 21 different identities in the course of its life.
It almost goes without saying that there was a Vauxhall offshoot on General Motors' T platform in the UK. Incidentally, it already bore the name Astra, which was only introduced in continental Europe with the successor model. In addition, the notchback version was considered independent enough to be given its own name: Belmont.
For the South African market, GM actually dared to sell the backpack Kadett as the Opel Monza, while the hatchback was allowed to keep its German name. Traditionally marketed with US names in Brazil, the Opel Kadett and Caravan were sold there as the Chevrolet Kadett and Chevrolet Ipanema.
On the US market, a Kadett E with a new radiator grille revived the Pontiac Le Mans in 1988, which was also available in South Korea as the Daewoo Le Mans. The Asians were by far the most colorful, calling their T offshoots either Racer, Super Racer, Cielo (New Zealand), Fantasy, Heaven (both Thailand), Pointer (Chile) or simply Daewoo 1.5i (Australia), depending on the model year, body shape and sales market.
The further development called Daewoo Nexia was even available in Western Europe and was built in Uzbekistan as the Chevrolet Nexia until 2008. The licensed model from China was called the Guangtong GTQ 5010 X (not to be confused with the GTQ 5010 XA, which was based on the Kia Pride) and fortunately we were spared this.
In Canada, the Opel Kadett was offered from 1987 as the Passport Optima. Interestingly, it was the only one of the Isuzu imports to be given its own brand name. Only not in Nigeria. There it was also called Isuzu Optima. Even when the Passport brand was discontinued in 1991, the Canadians did not have to do without the compact German. From the following year, it was called the Asüna GT and Asüna SE there - depending on whether it had a hatchback or notchback.
With the successor, the name "Astra" was agreed upon regardless of whether Opel, Vauxhall, Chevrolet or Holden. Only not in South Africa. There it was still called the Opel Kadett.
