Faults:

Other than routine maintenance, nothing except...

Water pump gave out and stranded me in Cheyenne, WY in 1978 at around 85000 miles. Had to rent a tow bar and enlist a friend with a hitch to get it back to Denver. Repaired it myself at minimal cost in one afternoon in a parking lot.

General Comments:

My very first car of my own and a truly great one! Sporty-looking, quick, and great handling! Raced a BMW 2002 all the way uphill from Denver to the Eisenhower Tunnel and kicked it's butt...I'd let him catch up and then pull away from him once he did... over and over again. Drove it (carefully) on Jeep trails and Forest Service roads in the mountains. Abused it like hell and it just came back for more and still ran like a champ. Truly an excellent example of German engineering at its best. Finally sold it in 1980 and flew back to New Orleans only because the transmission was starting to make a funny "whiney-crunchy" noise and I didn't want to risk possibly getting stranded somewhere in the Texas panhandle with no funds.

I used the proceeds from the sale to help finance my next car... an Audi 100 LS, a major disappointment that I ended up nicknaming "Hitler's Revenge".

Faults:

Starter.

Flywheel.

Rear end, (twice)

Fuel Pump,

General Comments:

The vehicle was the Opel Manta Luxus,

Blue Max Edition.

The Blue Max was a special model with a beautiful metallic blue exterior with a dark blue vinyl top. It had styled wheels (which looked very nice. The interior was a beautiful blue velour.

The Blue Max also came equipped with a sunroof, and automatic transmission.

This was very very nice looking automobile.

But it was very unreliable.

It rode and drove very nice, when it was drivable.

In the first year of ownership the following went on the car:

The starter, the flywheel, the fuel pump, and the rear end. When the dealer replaced the rear end and was test driving it, the new rear end went on the car and they had to replace that.

This was a car that was well taken car of. It wasn't abused. It was just a lemon I guess.

It really is too bad, as it was such a cute little car.

When all of these things went wrong in the first year, as soon as the warranty ran out I traded it in for another Chevy.

I really like the German engineering and styling of the Opel. I liked the way the car handled. I really liked the size of the vehicle. I just wish it had been more reliable.

My sister also had a '73 Manta. Hers was more reliable, until at 16,000 miles the camshaft went.

I hope over the years Opel has been building more reliable vehicles than the cute, but flawed Manta series.

Back in the same era, Opel also built a vehicle called the Opel GT. It looked like a miniature Corvette. I almost bought one of those when I bought my Manta, but it was priced $300. more. ($4,100. vs. $3,800.)

I don't think it would have been any more reliable though, since it was based on the same mechanicals.