1962 Opel Rekord P2 El Cachero Pickup

[Dosmo]

From the FB group "Ugly, Odd & Unique Automotive Masterpieces", check out this 1962 Opel Rekord P2 El Cachero Pickup. I have never seen one of these. I believe the license plate on the truck is from Switzerland. It is a really neat looking vehicle.

 

Posted in the FB group by Craig N Cummings.

Edited March 3 by Dosmo (see edit history)

[Laughing Coyote]

Not bad, grows on you pretty quick. Has that 50's Ford look on the front end. I would own one.

[zepher]

Nice looking little truck.

Being an Opel of that era, I bet it can't get out of its own way, though.

But, after owning and loving a 1972 Datsun 521 pickup that was completely gutless, I would drive the heck out of one of those little Opels.

[rocketraider]

I see 50s Packard in the taillights, and a little in the grille.

 

Cool little trucklet though. I've never seen one either, but it was the early 70s before many Opels showed up around here. One high school buddy had a Manta, and another a GT. I remember a couple of Kadett station wagons too, about time the tug of war ads with the elephants appeared.

[vintage1]

Cool looking truck, great color. It would be interesting to know what those cars sitting next to it are. 

 

[Dosmo]

11 hours ago, vintage1 said:

Cool looking truck, great color. It would be interesting to know what those cars sitting next to it are. 

 

I believe the car with the burgundy top might be another Opel of similar vintage in the 2-door sedan configuration, like this one.

 

Here are a few other body styles from the same approximate year.

 

 

[demco32]

On 3/3/2024 at 2:41 PM, Dosmo said:

From the FB group "Ugly, Odd & Unique Automotive Masterpieces", check out this 1962 Opel Rekord P2 El Cachero Pickup. I have never seen one of these. I believe the license plate on the truck is from Switzerland. It is a really neat looking vehicle.

 

Posted in the FB group by Craig N Cummings.

As far as I know, these models were only for sale in Scandinavia and not in Western Europe, possibly in Australia

[demco32]

13 hours ago, vintage1 said:

Cool looking truck, great color. It would be interesting to know what those cars sitting next to it are. 

 

also Opel's

[Fred44676]

I owned one of these two door Opel wagons back during the winter of 1967 while I was a student at Ohio State.  I traded a '59 Bugeye Sprite straight across for it at a little used car lot on Cleveland ave.  It went reasonably well in the snow and had a GREAT heater (the Bugeye did not!).  Four speed manual on the column if I remember correctly.  I have never seen another until this thread.  

[demco32]

10 minutes ago, Fred44676 said:

I owned one of these two door Opel wagons back during the winter of 1967 while I was a student at Ohio State.  I traded a '59 Bugeye Sprite straight across for it at a little used car lot on Cleveland ave.  It went reasonably well in the snow and had a GREAT heater (the Bugeye did not!).  Four speed manual on the column if I remember correctly.  I have never seen another until this thread.  

Yes the had good heather because it get cold in Scandinavia.

[Roger Zimmermann]

That's correct, the plates are from Switzerland. Neat vehicle!

Edited March 10 by Roger Zimmermann (see edit history)

[Laughing Coyote]

All the body styles grow on you. Not a bad line up, I've seen worse.

[1939_Buick]

10 hours ago, demco32 said:

As far as I know, these models were only for sale in Scandinavia and not in Western Europe, possibly in Australia

Not in Australia. Was the local GM Holden, locally made UK based Austin, Vanguard and various Japanese brands utes in Australia.

But did find a reference to be assembled in South Africa (right hand drive). Some unusual odd ball bakkies/utes/pickup made in RSA based on cars.

 

From Flickr

Quote

I´ve visited Windhoek and Namibia ca 1994 and 1995 - but I haven´t seen such a P2 pick-up (and no other Opel P2). I´ve looked around in the web a little bit and found an information this P2 pick-up were sold in South Africa in 1961 under the slogan "The New Kind of Opel, the South African Opel Pick-up, designed in South Africa, built by South Africans, who know, what South Africa wants".

 

A other information tells about 1000 of such pick-up were produced in South Africa. "What i know about the model is that there were a Company in  southafrica that needed 1000 pickups witch was build by opel as the P1 model. Eventualy they needed 1000 more. at that time the p1 was out of produktion and the p2 was on the market, so opel in southafrica build 1000 P2 pickups to this company. Then they still had the tools and GM in Copenhagen heard about the pickup and then imported parts to produce 1.500 cars. If they ever reached this number i do not know. my car is number 97 produced, and i have seen a bodynumber 576, so this is what they at least did produce. i have the whole story off the one i own. so there were between 1500 and 2500 produced what i know of."

And

http://oldtimerphotography.de/opel/opel-rekord-p2-pick-up/

Edited March 11 by 1939_Buick (see edit history)

[demco32]

2 hours ago, 1939_Buick said:

Not in Australia. Was the local GM Holden, locally made UK based Austin, Vanguard and various Japanese brands utes in Australia.

But did find a reference to be assembled in South Africa (right hand drive). Some unusual odd ball bakkies/utes/pickup made in RSA based on cars.

 

From Flickr

And

http://oldtimerphotography.de/opel/opel-rekord-p2-pick-up/

In those years Opel was still a good car, many years later this was no longer the case, now this brand is owned by the French PSA group.

 

[8E45E]

7 hours ago, demco32 said:

In those years Opel was still a good car, many years later this was no longer the case, now this brand is owned by the French PSA group.

 

GM gradually cheapened it down to a price with lowball trim material in the late 1970's, and forgot about the higher-end Mercedes Benz and BMW market they once competed in with the Diplomat.

 

In later years, GM destroyed SAAB with brand dilution by badge-engineering, and using crap trim from other divisions, especially this one.  9-7X Aero: LS2-Powered Saab You've Never Heard Of | DrivingLine

 

Craig

[rocketraider]

Was there anything the GM bean counters couldn't screw up?

[Billy Kingsley]

I like it! Wonder if it exists in model kit form? 

[8E45E]

2 minutes ago, Billy Kingsley said:

I like it! Wonder if it exists in model kit form? 

I highly doubt it.  It will be easier to find Station Wagon kit and modify it into a pickup.

 

Craig

[bryankazmer]

The 9-7X still had the crap quality of the Chevy it was.  There wasn’t a lot of market overlap between fans of Chevy trucks and fans of Saabs. The 9-2X was interesting as a WRX that GM would discount. The Saab 9-3 was mostly Opel-derived

 

You can see where this approach led. Once Bonneville- LeSabre-88 become the same car, two go away. 

[8E45E]

8 hours ago, bryankazmer said:

The 9-7X still had the crap quality of the Chevy it was.  There wasn’t a lot of market overlap between fans of Chevy trucks and fans of Saabs. The 9-2X was interesting as a WRX that GM would discount. The Saab 9-3 was mostly Opel-derived.

The badge-engineering did not go over at all with dedicated Saab-o-philes who liked the idiosyncrasies of the original product.  Slapping a Saab-like grille on a Subaru and a mid-size SUV common platform already shared under different GM brand labels totally alienated buyers and Saab dealers.  

 

Craig

[JamesR]

On 3/3/2024 at 7:41 AM, Dosmo said:

From the FB group "Ugly, Odd & Unique Automotive Masterpieces"...It is a really neat looking vehicle.

 

I agree with you that it is very neat looking. I also had never seen one, but my eye was immediately drawn to its styling. The color is a big part of the appeal, too, I'd say.

 

Certainly doesn't deserve to be categorized as "ugly", but I understand that's just the name of the FB group. Thanks for posting this.

[Pfeil]

Reminds me of a Nissan/Datsun sport pickup of the same era. At work we called them the little Ranchero. 

Edited March 15 by Pfeil (see edit history)

[Dosmo]

The Datsun is too cool for school!  That sounds very dated, doesn’t it?

 

That is me to a “tee”.

[JamesR]

Years ago, I saw one of these Datsuns for sale at a used lot across the street from my business. In similar condition, as I recall. I loved the looks of it, but was only interested in American or British at the time. I now regret not paying more attention to it.

[Pfeil]

5 hours ago, JamesR said:

Years ago, I saw one of these Datsuns for sale at a used lot across the street from my business. In similar condition, as I recall. I loved the looks of it, but was only interested in American or British at the time. I now regret not paying more attention to it.

You know that little engine was built under license from the Brits. You can always tell them apart from the newer A12, A13, A14, A15. The old design has head studs and bolts.

My my

 

The newer A Series 1970'a 80's style, A "A"1400 

Edited March 26 by Pfeil (see edit history)