A very pretty Opel Vectra CD 2.0 16V sedan, seen in the south of the Chinese capital Beijing in 2015. The good Vectra was painted in an incredible cool shade of red, which was a factory color when the Vectra was new. The five-spoke alloy wheels are original too and give the otherwise not overly exciting sedan a decidedly sporty look.
Friendly old lady with a bag completely ignored the pretty red car.
The Vectra B was the second generation Opel Vectra. It was manufactured from 1995 until 2002 with a facelift in 1999, our red car is a pre-facelift example. The Vectra came as a sedan, a hatchback-notchback, and a wagon. The Vectra B was based on the GM2900 platform, which also underpinned other great cars like the Saturn L-Series and the Saab 9-3.
The was most famous for its mirror-integrated-in-bonnet design. I have always likes this design a lot. Must have been quite a lot of work to engineer it for production. The mirror really starts in the bonnet, moves to the A-pillar, and then morphs into the mirror itself.
Opel said at the time that they designed it in this way for better aerodynamics and thus a lower fuel consumption. True for sure, but I bet the main reason was coolness! Sadly, this unique design feature never returned on any other Opel, or any other car for that matter.
The CD version was a top-luxury trim level. The only higher level was the GSi, but that was more of a sporty car. The CD came with black trim, a standard sun roof, and door handles in body color. The darkened windows are an after-market addition. There is a small CD badge on the black trim on the front door.
Black trim on bumpers was standard on all the pre-facelift Vectra’s.
I really like the mud-flaps with the Opel logo. Mud flaps were a very common feature of cars in the 1980’s and 1990’s, almost every car had flaps back then, mostly standard. Nowadays it is rare to find mud flaps even as an option. I know for sure Volvo still sells mud flaps an option on some models but I don’t know if any other brands are into flaps nowadays.
The Opel Vectra B was available with a dozen of different engines, ranging from a 1.6 to a 2.6 liter V6. Our red car has the 2.0 16V under the bonnet, a 16-valve 2.0 liter four-cylinder petrol engine with an output of 136 hp and 185 Nm. The engine was mated to a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed automatic.
The Vectra B was not officially sold in China and they are therefore very rare down here. Especially in red!