Opel is one of the biggest auto manufactures in Europe, but there history goes much further back than the automobile. Adam Opel founded the company on January 21, 1863 making and selling sewing machines. In the 1880’s bicycles were just starting to get popular and by 1885 Opel was producing 2,000 bikes yearly among being the leader in Sewing Machine production. Opel quickly became one of the most innovative bike manufactures and every one of the Opel brothers was an outstanding prize winning racer.
Early History
In 1898 Opel bought the rights to Lutzmann and sold their cars under the name Opel-Lutzmann. The Opel-Lutzmann partnership was short lived and two years later Opel started another partnership with Automobiles Darracq S.A. of France to produce vehicles under the brand name Opel-Darracq. The vehicles consisted of Opel bodies mounted on a Darracq chassis, powered by a 2-cylinder engine. Opel started building cars of its own design in 1906 and a year later they stopped the production of Opel-Darracqs. By 1913 Opel was the largest car manufacture in Europe and production consisted of bicycles, cars and motor cycles. In 1929 General Motors bought 80% of the company and in 1931 bought the remaining 20%. Over the past century Opel has built many cars that were badged as other GM brands that are sold around the world.
The Golden Age and Beyond
From 1958 to 1975 Opel was even sold in the US under their own name when they were sold through Buick dealers as captive imports. In 1971 Opel was launched in Asia and in the 2000s it joined its forces with Saturn. Opel is currently one of the largest automakers in Europe and it is likely in the near future all the high end Opel models will be the same as the Saturn models in the US, like Acura is to Honda
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