I too was in Phoenix in 1971 ALSO driving an Opel. Mine was a Kadett. Was a great vehicle, though with no air conditioning. Would take me anywhere in the Superstition Mtns. as it was so light.
I traveled all across Texas with it with my horse shoeing rig in it. Worked my way across Texas and NM shoeing and trimming horses at all the small ranches who would generally put me up and feed me too.
Almost forgot about that car till you mentioned the Opels. Not a great car but incredible memories. So I vote for Opel as BEST CAR.
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Glad to hear the Opel worked out for you. They weren't bad looking little cars and the gas mileage wasn't bad, but mine was always having some kind of issue. I was on my way to the coast of California to do some scuba diving one weekend when I broke down somewhere in the desert around Quartsite, AZ. All the lights on the dash lit up and the engine stopped running. I coasted to the side of the road and thought I couldn't have picked a more desolate spot for this to happen. No one on the road to lend a hand.
I opened the hood and started to search for some obvious fault that I would be able to correct without needing a new part. I pulled the distributor cap off
and found a contact on the points set fell off
. Digging around in my tool bag I found an old set of points that I was able to use to get back up and running. I gaped them with a piece of cardboard and was on my way. I don't have many good memories about the Opel, but I do about Phoenix.