Start with what the Chevrolet Opala is: a 4-door sedan / 2-door coupé / 3-door station wagon, built from 1968 to 1992, in the decade that gave the world the pony car and the mid-engined supercar. What it meant takes a little longer.
How it came about
The Chevrolet Opala is a Brazilian mid-size car sold under the Chevrolet brand in South America from 1968 to 1992, by General Motors do Brasil. It was derived from the German Opel Rekord Series C and Opel Commodore Series A, but used local design styling and engines derived from North American designs. GM manufactured about one million units including the Opala sedan, Opala Coupé, and the station wagon variant, the Opala Caravan. It was replaced by the Chevrolet Omega in 1992, also an Opel-derived project. It was the first passenger car built by GM in Brazil by the General Motors do Brasil division. A luxury version of the Opala, the Chevrolet Comodoro, was introduced in 1975. This became the intermediate level in 1980, when the even pricier Chevrolet Diplomata was added.
Opalas were used by the Brazilian Federal Police for many years. The military government issued Opalas to its agents through the 1970s. Its reliability and easy maintenance made the Opala the choice of many taxi drivers and was also popular on racetracks. The Opala "Coupé" continued as a pillarless hardtop well into the late 1980s, long after U.S. automakers dropped the body style. The Opala's long-lived 250-cubic-inch (4.1 L) engine was also used in its replacement, the Chevrolet Omega (which featured electronic fuel injection in the GLS and CD trims) from 1995 to 1998. Some of the Opala's components and chassis were used in other Brazilian cars such as the Santa Matilde, Puma GTB, and the Fera XK (a Jaguar XK replica).
Under the skin
The record carries the shape — a 4-door sedan / 2-door coupé / 3-door station wagon — and the layout: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The engine, output and weight have not yet reached the open record, and MotorJury does not guess at them.
Family and rivals
In the Chevrolet line-up the Chevrolet Opala has a clear place: it handed the line to the Chevrolet Omega; the factory was São Caetano do Sul, Brazil. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Range Rover Range Rover, the American Motors Corporation AMC Gremlin, the Peugeot 504. Its Chevrolet stablemates include the Chevrolet Adra and the Chevrolet C-10.
Owning one today
There is no federal ownership record for the Chevrolet Opala — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.