Opel GmbH (commonly known as Opel) is an automobile manufacturer based in Rüsselsheim in the GroÃ-Gerau district in the Rhein-Main region of Germany.
The company headquarters are located in Rüsselsheim, and it has plants in Bochum and Eisenach and Kaiserslautern as well as in Belgium, Spain, Poland and Hungary. Opel cars are also made in Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port plant in the United Kingdom.
The company was founded on 21 January 1863, and began making automobiles in 1899. Opel was acquired by General Motors Corporation in 1929and continues as a subsidiary. Opel is part of GM Europe, and is GM's largest European brand, and with Vauxhall Motors in the UK, forms GM's core European business
Many cars sold by General Motors worldwide are Opel designs, including such models as the Corsa, Astra, Vectra and Omega. Opel models are also sold under other GM brand names, such as Vauxhall in the UK, Holden in Australasia, Saturn in North America, and Chevrolet in Latin America. Its' Zafira people carrier was sold in Japan badged as a Subaru Traviq, while the Omega was briefly sold in the US as the Cadillac Catera. Other models sold in the US, but slightly modified, include the Saturn L-Series, Chevrolet Malibu and Cobalt. The majority of future Saturn models are expected to be either identical, like the Saturn Astra and Sky, or closely based, like the Aura and 2008 Saturn Vue, to European Opels. The Pontiac LeMans (1989-1994), which was the first car produced by Daewoo in South Korea for export to North America, were based on the Opel Kadett E (now Astra).
