Opel · 1978–1993
Opel Senator
The Opel Senator is a full-size executive car (E-segment) produced by the German automaker Opel, two generations of which were sold in Europe from 1978 until 1993. A saloon, its first incarnation was also available with a fastback coupé body as the Opel Monza and Vauxhall Royale Coupé. The Senator was, for its entire existence, the flagship saloon model for both Opel and Vauxhall. Through the international divisions of General Motors, it was also known in various markets as the Chevrolet Senator, Daewoo Imperial (in South Korea), Vauxhall Royale (until 1983) and Vauxhall Senator (which took the place of the Royale on Vauxhall models when the Opel brand was phased out from 1983). It was also sold as the Opel Kikinda in Yugoslavia, where it was produced under licence by IDA-Opel in Kikinda, Serbia, after which it was named. The original Senator was a de facto replacement for Opel's KAD cars (the Opel Kapitän, Admiral and Diplomat), which competed in the F-segment (full-size luxury) in which the KAD cars had sold poorly. Sister company Vauxhall had already abandoned the segment with the demise of its Cresta/Viscount models some years earlier, leaving the Ventora model (a luxury derivative of the FE Victor/VX4) as its flagship offering but this was axed in 1976 with no direct replacement. The Senator shared its platform with the smaller Opel Rekord, the latter being lengthened to make the Senator. The second generation of that car, from 1987, shared its base with the Rekord's Opel Omega successor, which was again lengthened to produce the Senator.
Text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Generations & variants
Photos
UK vehicles on the road
8 licensed and 29 SORN (37 total) at 2025 Q4.
| Year (latest quarter) | Vehicles |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 36 |
| 2015 | 35 |
| 2016 | 35 |
| 2017 | 38 |
| 2018 | 37 |
| 2019 | 35 |
| 2020 | 35 |
| 2021 | 33 |
| 2022 | 34 |
| 2023 | 35 |
| 2024 | 34 |
| 2025 | 37 |
DfT/DVLA VEH0120 vehicle licensing statistics, source ↗, Open Government Licence v3.0. Small counts are rounded or suppressed at source.
Sources
- Wikidata / Wikipedia profiles — https://models.autoculturesociety.com/cars/Q964775CC0 / CC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_SenatorCC BY-SA 4.0 · Intro text © Wikipedia contributors; revision 1364616463 · retrieved 2026-10-03
- DfT/DVLA VEH0120 licensing statistics — https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/vehicle-licensing-statistics-data-tablesOpen Government Licence v3.0
- Car Model Index — https://models.autoculturesociety.com/Compiled record. Sources that do not permit reuse are not copied; this index is credited instead.