Evolution
During its first year the 1.8 Liter Series 18B enjoyed fantastic success in the market place, with 15,739 cars produced in a single year. In 1931 and 1932 the German automobile market was badly depressed as the economy suffered from the aftershocks of the 1929 stock market crashes. Opel was already Germany’s leading auto producer, but the number of customers that the 1.8 Liter found is particularly impressive given the total German passenger car sales figure of just 56,039 in 1931. [4]
Towards the end of 1931 Opel introduced the 1.8 litre Series 18C, for the 1932 model year. This was little changed from the Series 18B, though the range of bodies was further broadened. On the outside the two piece bumper was replaced by a simpler single piece bumper, although cars lower down the range still came without any bumper. [1] The manufacturer's prices for the Series 18C cars were for most bodied versions several a few hundred marks lower than for their 1931 equivalents, reflecting several years of price deflation in the German economy during the early 1930s.
July 1932 saw the introduction of a new Regent all-steel bodied "Limousine." The Regent-bodied cars had nothing in common with the ill fated Opel Regent of 1929 apart from the name. In place of the conventional vertical rear end of the earlier 1.8 Liter, the Regent body came with a sloping rear that followed the fashion for streamlining and incorporated a luggage locker. A spare wheel was mounted on the rear panel and access to the fuel filler was through a fuel cap positioned through the hole in the middle of the spare wheel. The first Regent-bodied 1.8 Liter was a two-door saloon, but over the next few months fashionable new Regent-body equivalents were offered of the more conservative original-bodied versions. The only exception was the torpedo-bodied Touring version which retained the more perpendicular profile of the original Opel 1.8 Liters. In addition to the Regent bodies, 1933 also saw the introduction of a four-door Series 18N six-light limousine. [5]
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