The Opel Kadett is a small family car produced by the German automobile

Automobile

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

 manufacturer Opel between 1937 and 1940, and then again from 1962 until 1991 (Cabrio 1993), when it was replaced by the Opel Astra

Opel Astra

The Opel Astra is a small family car engineered and manufactured by the German automaker Opel since 1991.It is branded as Vauxhall Astra in the United Kingdom, the Buick Excelle XT in China and the Chevrolet Astra/Vectra in Latin America...

.
The first Opel car to carry the Kadett name was presented to the public in December 1936 by Opel's Commercial-Technical director, Heinrich Nordhoff

Heinrich Nordhoff

Heinz Heinrich Nordhoff was a German engineer famous for his leadership of the Volkswagen company as it was rebuilt after World War II....

, who would in later decades become known for his leadership role in building up the Volkswagen

Volkswagen

Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...

 company.

The new Kadett followed the innovative Opel Olympia

Opel Olympia

The Opel Olympia is a small family car produced by the German automaker Opel from 1935 to 1940, from 1947 to 1953 and again from 1967 to 1970.The 1935 Olympia was Germany's first mass-produced car with an all-steel unitized body . This revolutionary technology reduced the weight of the car by 180...

 in adopting a chassis-less monocoque

Monocoque

Monocoque is a construction technique that supports structural load by using an object's external skin, as opposed to using an internal frame or truss that is then covered with a non-load-bearing skin or coachwork...

 construction, suggesting that like the Vauxhall 10

Vauxhall 10-4

The Vauxhall 10 is a small British built four door saloon first shown in public in October 1937. A striking structural innovation, following the pattern set in 1935 by GM's German subsidiary, was the Ten's integral construction which suggests that it was designed by Vauxhall to enjoy a long life...

 introduced in 1937 by Opel's English sister-company, the Opel Kadett was designed for high volume low cost production.