Chevrolet Opala abandoned for 20 years is the subject of a rollercoaster of a story

This is a Chevrolet Opala from the 1970s and it has a unique story.

If this were a person and not a car, the story would be worthy of a Hollywood production.

And also no, we didn’t misspell ‘Impala’, the Opala actually existed, but there’s a very good reason why most people have never heard of it.

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The Opala was launched in Brazil in 1968 and never really sold anywhere else.

This particular model has a unique story.

Like a Hollywood antihero

This car was stolen in the 2000s before being impounded by the police once the thieves got caught.

The police then left it in a junkyard for decades, before somebody saw potential in it and saved it from the crusher.

After being thoroughly washed throughout and repaired, the owner is now trying to sell it in the US for a cool $30,000.

That’s not exactly cheap for a car that was never available in the US.

A brief history of the Chevrolet Opala

Despite the similarities between the names, the Opala has very little in common with the other Chevy hero from the 1950s and 1960s, the Impala.

It used the same engine you’d find under the hood of a 1960s Impala, but there the similarities end.

Everything else came from Opel, which was – at the time – part of General Motors.

Initially codenamed ‘Project 626’, the Opala entered production in 1968, and was quite successful in Brazil.

It remained in production until 1992, and the police even used it as their official patrol vehicle.

At some point, Chevrolet also made a three-door station wagon version and a two-door coupe.

In 1992, it was replaced with the Chevrolet Omega, which was exactly the same as the Open Omega in Europe, but sold under Chevrolet in the Americas.