Vauxhall history

Vauxhall Motors has been a subsidiary of General Motors Corporation (GM) since 1925. In the rest of Europe Vauxhall cars are branded as Opel.

The original company was founded by Alexander Wilson in Vauxhall, in London, back in 1857. Rather than being able to look for used Vauxhall cars in 1857, you'd be more likely to find marine engines and pumps. It wasn't until 1903 that Vauxhall produced its first car. The car wasn't quite the smooth running vehicle they are known for today; instead it was steered with a tiller and had just five horsepower. It also only had two gears, forwards and reverse.

At the time the company traded under the name Vauxhall Iron Works, and it wasn't until two years after their move to Luton in 1905 before Vauxhall rebranded to Vauxhall Motors in 1907.

One of Vauxhall's early cars was the Y-Type Y1, which was built to compete in the RAC & Scottish 2000 Mile Reliability Trials in 1908. The car was a huge success, beating all other cars in its class by an average of 37 seconds.

Today Vauxhall is better known for mass produced cars at affordable prices, such as the Vauxhall Zafira, which became the first MPV to feature in a list of the top 10 selling cars in the UK.

Written by Arnold Clark: Find out more about
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