How Many Automatic GT's?

[hotrodder1969]

can anyone tell me how many autoamict 70 gts were made i got one and im tring to restore it

[GTJIM]

Probably less than 10% of GTs were automatic - maybe less than 5% - and most of those sold in the US market.

Seen as excellent "Lady's Sports Cars" - they make great 'around town' drivers.

I have a 1972 automatic GT.

Fortunately, the auto trans is a stock GM TH180 model as used in Holdens and Suzukis plus several other GM cars of the day - so parts are stil available, including Master Rebuild Kits. Just never mention the word "Opel" when trying to source parts - call it a 'Tri-matic' or 'TH180' auto trans. Quite a number of hits show up on a web search for those terms.

[Anonymous D]

"Probably less than 10% of GTs were automatic - maybe less than 5%"

Based on what data?

There may be less surviving automatic GT's, but that doesn't mean that 90%+ GT's sold had manual transmissions (particularly since about 70% were exports).

[kwilford]

If I recall correctly, without the benefit of actual at-hand data, almost 80,000 GT's made their way to North America, out of +/-103,000 built. So much for factual data

I am sure that actual automatic build data is available somewhere, but in lieu of facts, let's speculate that for the following reasons:

1) GT's were a popular "chick" car, and women prefer autos
2) Americans prefer autos to manuals
3) flat-assed guessing (and personal observation)

probably 15% to 25% of all GT's were equipped with automatic transmissions.

All conjecture, in case it isn't obvious

[opelgtmaster3]

i remember reading somewhere on the internet that they made 102,040 manual gt and 2040 were the auto. im not to sure if im remembering that right. i read that a long time ago.

[Skyline GTR]

i have an automatic, why you ask? do you need an automatic transmission? i think its still good, I'l let you know once i start working on the car

[Anonymous D]

"i remember reading somewhere on the internet that they made 102,040 manual gt and 2040 were the auto"

Just because it's "on the Internet," doesn't mean it's true!

As evidence, there are far more surviving automatic GTs than surviving 1.1 GTs (of which, about 3500 were produced). Automatics had a greater breakdown ratio back in the 80's, likely due to operational issues (they were slower but ran hotter, and were expensive to repair once they started continual fluid leaks)

Back in the day, automatic GT's were sold as a convenience upgrade, particularly for urban commuters (who didn't want to shift up and down, every day, for the entire length of their commute to work).

[RallyBob]

Back in the early 1990's I sent out a survey to all my customers asking about their Opels. Of the ones who bothered to reply, almost 15% of the GT's had automatics, FWIW. Far less than the other models (Manta, Ascona, wagon) which was almost 30% with automatics (again, of those who replied).

I do remember that back in the day I sold a LOT of auto trans seals and filters. I suspect a lot of the auto GT's remain today because they were probably more leisurely driven than the 4-speed cars.

Bob