Conceptually and technically it closely resembled the Opel 1.8 Liter which had been launched six months earlier, with the two models even sharing identical cylinder dimensions.

The wheelbase would be considered a little short for this class of car, but there would be no arguing with the aggressive pricing strategy that Opel were able to pursue with the 1,2 Liter.

Claimed maximum power for this version of the car was 18 PS (13.2 kW; 17.8 hp) and top speed was down to 78 km/h (48 mph).

[citation needed] However, by the time production ended after just one year in November 1933, 5600 of the reduced specification cars had been produced.

N.V. General Motors Java's sales territory included Indochina, Malaysia, all of modern-day Indonesia, as well as Thailand.

Due to the economic downturn following the Depression, GM Java switched its production from Chevrolets to an Opel 1.2-powered 7-seater taxibus in 1932; an ambulance version was added in 1933.

This took the two-door Limousine (saloon) body of the larger Opel 1.8 and persuaded it onto a slightly extended version of the smaller platform of the 1,2 Liter.

These were a Limousine, a Special-Limousine and a Cabrio-Limousine with a roll-back soft top and fixed frames around the doors and side windows.

The claimed maximum power output and top speed were unchanged at 23 PS (17 kW; 23 hp) and 85 km/h (53 mph) respectively.

[12] Despite the unchanged performance, in the marketplace the reduced engine size would have distanced the car from the more modern Opel 1,3 Liter introduced in 1934, and from the manufacturer's important new Olympia and Kadett models which entered production in 1935 and late 1936 respectively.

The value for money that the Opel P4 offered will have been a cause for concern to supporters of the government sponsored Volkswagen programme, which was already well advanced and which was a pet project of Adolf Hitler.