Vauxhall Cars History

Vauxhall cars (the company is known as VauxhallAfter the war, car production resumed but models
Motors) was born in UK and it became a very wellwere designed as a more mass-market product
known car company. Vauxhall Motors is a companyleading to expansion of the company. In the 60's
subsidiary of General Motors- the world's largestVauxhall acquired a reputation for making rust-prone
automaker.models and that was very bad for it. Although the
The company was founded by Wilson Alexander incorrosion protection built into models the reputation
1856 in a beautiful London city that gives thedogged the company until the 80's.
company name- Vauxhall. Initially, the company nameFrom the 70's, many of company models were
was Alex Wilson and Company, then Vauxhall Irondesigned and built in partnership with Opel in Germany
Works and it was specialize in building pumps and(Adam Opel GmbH- known as Opel is an automobile
marine engines.manufacturer based in Germany). Models like
First Vauxhall car was built in 1903. It was a 5 hpChevette, Cavalier and Carlton were basically restyled
model, using a tiller, 2 forward gears and no reverseversions of the Kadett, Ascona and Rekord. The
gear. Interesting, don't you think? Beginning with thisViceroy was a simply new version of Opel
model, the car was designed in many other versionsCommodore imported from Germany.
and then were available for sale.And that was the beginning for the "Opelisation" of
When things start working, the company decided toVauxhall. General Motors policy was that Vauxhall to
increase its production and moved almost entirebe rebadged Opels, designed and developed in
production to Luton in 1905. The company was sellingRusselsheim with much less help from Luton.
cars under Vauxhall Iron Works brand. This stoppedIn 70's and 80's General Motors sold duplicate cars:
in 1907, when they've decided to call the companyOpel and Vauxhall alongside each other. General
"Vauxhall Motors", a name kept over the years, tillMotors Europe then began to standardize model
our days. The company was characterized by itsnames across both brands in early 90's. Almost all
sport models until the 1st World War and thenVaxhall's models now have the same names as those
designed only austere models.of Opel (the exception is VX220 sold by Opel as
Vauxhall Motors was bought by General Motors inSpeedstar).
1925 for 2.5 million $. And from that year VauxhallThe Luton plant closed in 2000, but production still
was influenced by American cars and with Ford (thatcontinues at the plant in Ellesmere Port. Despite
was Vauxhall's main competitor) influenced the stylealready meeting efficiency targets, Vauxhall has been
of European car manufacturers.told to further improve its productivity.
During the 2nd World War car production wasNowadays Vauxhall and Opel still reside together
suspended because Vauxhall was needed to work onmaking the same cars but selling them to different
the Churchill tanks which was designed andmarkets.
assembled at Luton in almost 1 year. There were builtSo remember if you buy an Opel it's a Vauxhall and
over 5,600 Churchill tanks.vice versa.