@Animatronixx: stay relaxed. I don't want to start arguments. I only have said, that officially nothing Holden-related was launched in Germany.
Sure, it's possible, that they have created and produced Holden-prototypes, especially from cars, which were in European production.

The word "Vectra" was founded by a computer. The guy, who let it sort all kinds of syllables, got 400 000 D-Mark (ca.200 000 Euro) for it.

I guess "Astra" is similar artificial as "Vectra". "Astra" is also named a European TV-satellite. And "Astroh" was a kitchen-builder, which is now in bankrupcy.

"Kadett" was real German. A Kadett is a young soldier of the marine. From the late 30ies on, Opel had used names of the marine like "Kapitän" and "Admiral". "Diplomat" was added also.

To have names ending by "a" ? Or because it sounded too much like a German word ?

I've always wondered why Opel adopted the name "Astra". At that era, Vauxhall was starting to adopt Opel names e.g the Vauxhall Cavalier was replaced by the Vauxhall Vectra, the Vauxhall Nova was replaced by the Vauxhall Corsa, the Vauxhall Carlton was replaced by the Vauxhall Omega. All three of those replacement names were Opel names.

However, the Opel Kaddett was called the Vauxhall Astra in the UK so when changing the names for the replacement models, you'd expect the next one to be called Vauxhall Kaddett. But no, instead Opel adopted the Vauxhall name Astra and the Kaddett name was discarded. Can anyone shed any light on this? It seems very odd, as it's the opposite of what they did with the other names.

Of course they were built in Australia. But some of them were mounted in Germany. Possibly only for a short time or maybe even a pre-production series, I don´t know. Unfortunately I wasn´t allowed to take pictures, otherwise I could have shown you, what I mean.



I also haven´t seen any more Holden stuff over here, but that wasn´t what I stated?!? I was talking about some VT Commodores being assembled at Rüsselsheim back then. Anyway, my connections to GM Germany back then were close enough that I, for example, had the opportunity to take place in a Catera when it wasn´t already released to the public. It was one of the first wholly running Catera prototypes, but they didn´t allow me to drive the car (for legal reasons). So I know what I´m talking about and you may understand that I´m not planning to argue over things like these.



You didn´t know? This was the first Cadillac not to be produced in the US at all. They all came off the production line at Rüsselsheim I was referring to.

Wikipedia has 4 places of manufacture listed for the Commodore, all of which are in Australia. The Cadillac however, was built in Germany, surprisingly.

With Holden I cannot agree with you, Animatronixx. I have never seen any Holden-stuff over here, except some sales-brochures at oldtimer-markets (sureyl privately brought from vacations).

An old school-friend works at a Opel-dealer. He told me, that the most actual US-made GM-stuff (cars, parts, aftesale-market-extras) are available by special order at Opel-dealers (only the bigger ones, of course), even if they aren't in the official model-range (by the way: nearly no US-GM's are in the official programme over here).
But to Holden they don't have closer connections.


But with the Opel/Vauxhall-cars you're right. They are always identical cars, except LHD and RHD. Just the badges are different.

I have contacts to a guy with a good relations to a German factory, who produces hubcaps, badges, front-grilles etc. He's an Opel-fan, so he picks out Opel-parts, for him (and for private selling later on). I've seen at his part-stock, that not only Opel- and Vauxhall-cars weren't produced in the same factory, also the Vauxhall-spec parts were made by the same companies at the same time.

Holden weren't built in Australia? That's strange, especially for the Commodore which has few more changes than just the badge compared to the Opel/Vauxhall.

They didn´t get converted, but were initially built like this. The variations are small enough to produce cars of different brands all together on the same assembly line. At the Opel facilities of Rüsselsheim, they built the Omega B alongside it´s brothers Vauxhall Carlton, Holden Commodore and Cadillac Catera. During a facility visit in 1997, I´ve seen loads of each model being completed in coincidental order. (Well, at least I got that impression.)

They did the same with the Opel Vectra and the Vauxhall Cavalier.

nice Vauxhall Magnum, it looks cool!