Our video this week features the history of a car that most Americans don’t think about and most probably have never even heard of. The Vauxhall brand though has consistently been one of the best-selling automotive brands in Britain.
Let’s turn to Wikipedia for a bit of info …
Vauxhall Motors is the trading name used by General Motors UK Limited) is a British automotive manufacturing and distribution company headquartered in Luton (Bedfordshire) and an affiliated company of the German Adam Opel AG, both being wholly owned subsidiaries of General Motors (GM) in the United States. The company sells passenger cars and light commercial vehicles under the Vauxhall marque; in the past it has also sold buses and trucks under the Bedford brand. Vauxhall has been the second-largest-selling car brand in the UK for more than two decades.
Vauxhall was founded by Alexander Wilson in 1857 as a pump and marine engine manufacturer. It was bought in 1863 by Andrew Betts Brown who began producing traveling cranes. It was he who named it Vauxhall Iron Works. It began manufacturing cars in 1903. It was acquired by GM in 1925. Bedford Vehicles was established as a subsidiary of Vauxhall in 1930 to manufacture commercial vehicles. Having previously been a luxury car brand, after the Second World War Vauxhall became increasingly mass-market. Since 1980, Vauxhall products have been largely identical to those of Opel, GM’s German subsidiary, and most models are principally engineered in Rüsselsheim, Germany. During the 1980s the Vauxhall brand was withdrawn from sale in all countries apart from the UK, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man. At various times during its history, Vauxhall has been active in motorsports, including rallying and the British Touring Car Championship.
Michael Carnell is the editor and founder of the Just British Online Motoring Magazine. As a lifelong British car enthusiast, he has owned or driven British cars of all ages from Austins and MGs to Jaguars and Triumphs. He currently owns a 1966 Vanden Plas Princess 1100 and a 1977 MGB. But there is always room for more - no matter what his wife says.
