A Look at the History of Vauxhall Cars

You love your Vauxhall. It’s a sleek, stylish, and reliable car that makes you feel like you're on top of the world. Did you know, though, that while your car may be a beautiful piece of machinery, it also has a rich history behind it?

A Vauxhall History

Vauxhall Motors was established by Alex Wilson over 150 years ago. When the factory first opened, it didn’t manufacture cars. Instead, it had a humble beginning, manufacturing car parts like engines and pumps. It wasn’t until 1903 when the company set aside their sole operation of building car parts and rolled out its first car. During this time, Vauxhall dealers were scarce, and those who wanted to purchase a car from this company had a difficult time finding a dealer to sell them one.

That is, until twenty years later when the American company General Motors, a giant car manufacturing company, bought out Vauxhall motors. 2.5 million American dollars were spent by General Motors to purchase the British company, including all its dealers and factories. For the next sixty years, Vauxhall parts and cars were made with American influence over their design, giving them the look of an American car, rather than a British one.

When the war began, the manufacturing of Vauxhall parts came to an almost complete halt. However, when the war ended, Vauxhall and its dealers spent twenty years working hard to design vehicles to push the company into greatness. And they did, namely with two specific designs called the Victor and Viva. With these cars, as well as other designs, Vauxhall fought against major competitors like Ford and British Leyland during the sixties and seventies in order to win the hearts and minds of their customers.

The mid seventies were an extremely competitive time for any car manufacturer in the British motor market, as dealers were able to sell many different models. During this time, the factory began designing new Vauxhall parts to create the Chevette, a new type of small family care with a three door hatchback, and the Cavalier, a Vauxhall saloon car that was similar to Ford’s Cortina and was able to compete against it in the market. While Ford still had the leading edge in sales through the end of the seventies, Vauxhall wasn’t far behind and the gap was closing quickly.

During the eighties, a complete revolution occurred with new Vauxhall parts and cars. The Mk 2 Cavalier was released as a replacement for the Cortina and competed now against the Ford Sierra. The Viva was retired and a new type of family car, the Astra, was born to replace it.

As the nineties began, Ford was still considered to be Vauxhall Motor’s main rival, (and still is to this day.) However, Vauxhall didn’t let a bit of competition slow them down. They released the Corsa, a super mini car, during this decade and continued to make changes to their existing and popular cars, like the Astra; some changes to car parts were minor, others purely cosmetic, but each was done to update the car for the new generation of buyers.

While you may only see sleek beauty in your Vauxhall car now, there is a rich history behind it, full of competition, hope, and dreams fulfilled!