Original Irish regd Opels and US cars?

G Luxel

Usually looking at old newspapers, postcards and magazines printed in this country, there appeared to be a large abundance of American cars and very old Opels.
Cars like Chevrolets/Chryslers and Opel Kadett/Rekords from the 60s.
Lately I notice that any vintage cars now bear either ZV or a year number.
Are there any surviving opels or american cars that were sold here new?
Also why was the country awash with american cars, I would have assumed that they were extremely expensive to purchase. Anyone would appear to have had either a mini or a beetle.

junkyard

A lot of people who emigrated to the US to Ireland in the 60's and early 70's and brought their cars home with them. I remember large American cars being unloaded form the liners in Cobh where I live. A local garage used to check the cars over after they would land and fill them with petrol etc., as they couldn't travel with fuel on the liners. I remember seeing all sorts of cars and a lot of them were sold cheaply to locals who used them as taxi's and built hearses out of them. A local undertaker had a field full of old American cars for parts to keep the good ones going.

MercMad

Some American cars were assembled in Ireland in Right hand drive. I believe Reg Armstrong was the importer and had an assembley plant in Ringsend. He was also the Opel & NSU importer. Some of these were assembled here too !

The kits came in in CKD form (Completely Knocked Down) and were literally bolted together here !

I'm sure some of the other experts here have more info on this !

G Luxel

were the cars brought home by the returning people brand new? What type of cars were bought? were they all small cars, or maybe unknowns from the oldsmobile or Buick range? Or were they Cadillac fleetwoods or Lincoln Continentals? It would be nice to know if these cars are still on the road?

junkyard

Most of the cars were run of the mill Dodges, Buick's, Cadillac and a few Rolls Royce's too but mostly medium sized saloon cars. As I mentioned in my earlier post a lot of the cars were sold to local taxi drivers and undertakers who drove them as taxis or converted them into hearses. I haven't seen too many left but a lot of the hearses ended up in banger races or were bought by English hearse enthusiasts for restoration but as usual with our heritage they end up in another country as only a tiny minority of people here appreciate antique cars and machinery and are willing to spend time and money on them. The majority of people will admire a restored piece of machinery or vehicle here but the interest fades away after about five minutes which is a real pity when you see the pleasure restoring something really brings as well as using it after. When you can see how well things are restored in the U.S and the U.K., from cars to furniture, its a pity people don't spend as much time on them here. People here are only interested in new stuff.