Vauxhall Motors

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Vauxhall Motors

logo
legal form Limited Company
founding 1857
Seat Luton , UK
management Stephen Norman, CEO
Number of employees 4,029 (2011)
sales EUR 4.07 billion (2004)
Branch Automobiles
Website www.vauxhall.co.uk

Vauxhall is a British car brand that has been part of the French car manufacturer PSA since 2017 . The company was founded in London in 1857 as a machine factory, has been producing automobiles since 1903 and is a subsidiary of the German Opel Automobile GmbH. Vauxhall was part of General Motors Company from 1925 to 2017 .

history

In 1857 the Alex Wilson & Company (Steam Engineers) was founded in London, from 1894 it changed its name to Vauxhall Iron Works (after the district in which it was based). The move to Luton in Bedfordshire took place in 1905. The first Vauxhall vehicle was built in 1903, a light runabout with a 5 hp single cylinder engine. A tiller-like device served as control . Forty copies of this vehicle were sold before the car was replaced by the 9, 12 and 14 HP model series. These models were already equipped with the arched bead on the bonnet, characteristic of Vauxhall.

The rise of Vauxhall began with the advanced design of a 3-liter four-cylinder engine by the young designer Laurence H. Pomeroy . With this engine one of the most famous British sports cars of the 1920s, the 30/98 HP, was created. This car received the additional designation "Prinz Heinrich" after its good performance in the great German " Prinz-Heinrich-Fahrt " (30/98 HP Type C) in 1910.

A Vauxhall in Great Britain was the first choice for sporty ambitious and wealthy “gentlemen” drivers. Success in long-distance trials and record drives as well as Grand Prix participation strengthened the brand's sporty image. In the 1920s, Vauxhall advertised The Car Superexcellent . Vauxhall vehicles were on par with those from manufacturers such as Daimler-Benz , Alfa Romeo and Delage . Technical improvements made it possible to increase the output of the 30/98 in the OE version up to 120 hp. The 30/98 HP was produced from 1911 until the outbreak of the First World War . During the war, a 25 HP tourer was built, which was designed according to the requirements of the military. Despite the low sales after the First World War, Vauxhall continued to rely on sports versions of the base models. Vauxhall has never been able to produce high volumes. In the long term, the poor financial situation in 1925 led to a takeover by the American company General Motors . The decline in sales caused the end of production of the “Prince Henry” car in 1927 and thus the most important representative of the original Vauxhall brand.

The large-volume four-cylinder engine, unpopular by American management, was replaced by a six-cylinder engine in 1928. The origin of this engine with the designation R-Type 20/60 HP is easy to see, it is a representative of the American "Big Six" engine construction. In the 1930s, Vauxhall focused on the smaller car segment. 1930 with the 17 HP Cadet and the A-Type 1934. The Type 10 HP from 1938 was the first British mass-produced vehicle with a self-supporting body .

After the Second World War, vehicle construction continued with the types 10, 12 and 14 HP. These were replaced by the Wyvern and Velox models in 1948. Both had the same vehicle structure, the Wyvern had the 12 HP engine and the Velox a new 2.3 liter six-cylinder engine. In 1957, the Victor model replaced the Wyvern with an American-style body.

Vauxhall's production was independent for many decades until the GM parent company restructured production. Vauxhall has not had its own development department since the mid-1970s, but instead essentially took over the Opel model range . With so-called badge engineering , however, the vehicles are sold with their own logo and, in some cases, their own model nomenclature. Vehicles with the name Vauxhall are now only sold in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, while they have not been offered there as Opel since the late 1970s.

Some of the models are produced in England (e.g. Astra and Vectra ). However, numerous Vauxhall models were manufactured in the Opel plants in Antwerp , Bochum , Rüsselsheim and Eisenach . A special case was the Monaro VXR, which was produced by Holden ( Australia , also part of GM) as a European version of the Holden Monaro and was sold as the Vauxhall Monaro in England between 2001 and 2006 - mainly for image reasons . The Vauxhall VXR8 , which also comes from Australia and came onto the market there as the Holden HSV Clubsport R8, has been available since 2007 . This vehicle is derived from the Holden Commodore , but was equipped with a V8 engine that generates 420 hp from 6 liters of displacement.

The commercial vehicle manufacturer Bedford also belonged to Vauxhall . The vans and delivery vans were sold under the Bedford brand. The plant in Luton was closed in 2002, the plant in Ellesmere Port is to take over the Astra production completely after the closure of the Opel plant in Bochum in 2014.

In 2009 Vauxhall wanted to set up an independent European company together with its sister Opel , in which General Motors only holds a minority stake. GM's decision to keep Vauxhall and Opel in their own group and to renovate them instead of selling them or letting them become independent, however, put a stop to this idea. After the dissolution of GM Europe Zurich, Vauxhall was to be managed from Rüsselsheim am Main.

In 2017, GM announced its intention to sell Vauxhall Motors to the French Groupe PSA together with Adam Opel AG, which also belongs to General Motors .

On August 1, 2017, the French PSA-Peugeot signed the purchase agreement with General Motors and took over Opel Automobile GmbH for 2.2 billion euros. With this takeover, the second largest automotive group in Europe was created.

In January 2018, following the departure of Rory Harvey, the PSA group appointed Stephen Norman to manage Vauxhall.

Models

Vauxhall D (1922)
Vauxhall DX 14 HP Saloon, built in 1937, at the Moselschiefer Classic 2011
Vauxhall Ten (1938)
Vauxhall 14/6 ( ca.1947 )
Vauxhall Victor (1958)
Vauxhall Cresta (1962)
Vauxhall Cavalier (1976)
Vauxhall Astra Mk4
Astra Sport, BTCC 2006
2009 Vauxhall Insignia

Passenger cars before the First World War

Type Construction period
Vauxhall 5 hp 1903 + 1904
12/14 1904-1908
12/16 1906-1910
AO9 "20" 1908-1911
BO9 16 1908-1911
B10 "27" 1910
A11 "20" 1910-1912
B11 "30" 1910-1912
C10 "Prince Henry" 1911 + 1912
S. 1912
A12 "20" 1912 + 1913
E "30/98" 1913-1922
C "Prince Henry" 1914 + 1915
A "16/20" 1914 + 1915
B12 "35" 1914-1916
D "25" 1914-1922
Staff Car (army version) 1914-1918

Passenger cars before the Second World War

Type Construction period
M "14/40" 1922-1927
OD "23/60" 1922-1926
OE "30/98" 1922-1926
LM 1924-1927
25/70 1925-1927
R "20/60" 1927-1929
T 1930 + 1931
VX, VY Cadet 1920-1931
Silent 80 1931-1933
ASX, ASY Light Six 1933-1935
BX, BY Big Six 1934-1936
DX "14" , DY "12" 1935-1938
GL, GY 1935-1938
H "10", I. 1937-1940

Passenger car after the Second World War

Type Construction period
Adam 2012-2019
Agila 2000-2014
Albany
Astra since 1979, different series
Belmont 1984–1991, various series
Calibra 1989-1997
Carlton 1978-1994
Cavalier 1976–1994, various series
Chevette 1975-1983
combo
Corsa since 1993, different series
Cresta 1954–1972, various series
Crossland X since 2017
Envoy 1963-1970
Epic 1963-1970
Equus 1978
Firenza 1970-1975
Frontera 1991-2004
Grandland X since 2017
Insignia since 2008
Magnum 1973-1978
manta 1970–1987, various series
Meriva 2002-2017
Monaro 2001-2006
Mocha / Mocha X 2012-2019
Monterey 1994-1999
Monza 1983-1993
nova 1983-1993
omega 1990–2003, various series
Royale
Signum 2004-2008
Silver Aero 1983
Silver Bullet 1976
Sintra 1996-1999
SRV 1970
Tigra 1994-2009
Vectra 1995-2008
Velox 1948-1965
Ventora 1968-1975
Victor 1957–1972, various series
Viceroy
viscount 1966-1972
Viva 1963–1979, 2015–2019, various series
Vivaro Life since 2019
VX 220 & VXR 220 2001-2005
VX4 / 90 1961-1972
VX Lightning
VXR8 since 2007
Wyvern 1948-1957
Zafira 1999-2018

delivery trucks

Bedford CA as 'Dormobile', built around 1959
Bedford TJ 1966
Type Construction period
Bedford Astramax
Bedford Beagle 1964-1973
Bedford CA Van 1952-1969
Bedford CF Van
Bedford Dormobile
Bedford Midi
Bedford Rascal 1986-1993
Vauxhall Brava
Vauxhall Movano since 1999
Vauxhall Vivaro since 2001
Vauxhall Corsavan
Vauxhall Astravan
Vauxhall combo

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ http://media.gm.com/media/de/de/opel/company_opel/ebook.html#/36/zoomed
  2. ↑ SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg Germany: Auto: Opel is now part of the PSA Group - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Economy. Retrieved August 4, 2017 .
  3. ↑ PSA Peugeot pays 1.3 billion euros for Opel and Vauxhall. In: The time . March 6, 2017. Retrieved March 6, 2017 .
  4. ↑ PSA nomme un homme de confiance chez Vauxhall. In: Le Point. January 11, 2018, accessed January 11, 2018 .

Web links

Commons : Vauxhall  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature