Opel is the oldest German car brand still in existence. Founded as early as 1868 as a sewing machine factory, bicycles followed from 1886 and finally the first car in 1899. In March 1929, the Opel brothers sold the majority of the family business to General Motors. From 1931, Opel was a 100 per cent GM subsidiary and was already the largest German car manufacturer at that time. After the war, Opel maintained second place in the registration statistics behind VW for a long time until quality problems damaged its reputation in the 1990s. In August 2017, Opel was taken over by the French PSA Group and as a result has been part of Stellantis since 2021.