I think they've done similar before but Vx are displaying their classics. Tickets are free.
I will roll up in my Ampera as I bet there won't be one on display!!
www.culturetrust.com/vauxhall
Last edited by: smokie on Sat 5 Sep 20 at 16:10
|
Good news...they’re selling off part of the heritage collection, I sure as the Luton site has been sold? Anyway, feast your eyes on this...
www.brightwellslive.com/lot/details/488832
Obviously they’re not going to sell off the good stuff, like a Lotus Carlton, Astra GTE, Cavalier SR or a Firenza HP... ;)
|
A Chevette L? That was a pile of crap in its day, never mind now.
I understand it's relevance to the manufacturer, but does anybody else care about it?
|
Even the manufacturer doesn’t see the relevance...they’re selling it! Wonder why they kept one in what must be the worst colour..? There’s only one on eBay though, similar age but much higher mileage (though still low) for its age and in arguably a better colour that’s at £2,899 but hasn’t reached its reserve. If you did want one (why...?) then you won’t get better provenance than an ex Vauxhall heritage collection one!
Or maybe you’d prefer a corsa van... ;)
www.brightwellslive.com/lot/details/488835
|
I had a Chevette L back in the 70's. For something so basic it was a surprisingly enjoyable drive.
It looked alright(-ish) in metallic gold as well (I had a friend who had the saloon - in baby-s*** brown - that was an entirely different kettle of fish).
It was surprisingly agile; it made it up to Watendlath in the Lake District (a road that can be mildly challenging in decent weather) on Boxing Day in deep, uncleared snow. Not bad for rear-wheel drive, though the full-sized keg of beer in the back over the driven wheels probably helped. ;-)
As one might expect, it was succumbing to the Luton tin-worm by the time it was moved on.
|
My ex FiL had a Chevette in Mars bar colours, two tone brown and gold. Looked quite nice and not a bad little car for what it was.
He replaced it with a 950 Fiesta Popular which I thought was a bit of a dog.
|
>> Looked quite nice and not a bad little car for what it was.
Looks are clearly a matter of personal taste but I thought it was an awful car. Though to be fair mine was the van. Was it called a Chevanne or am I confused?
|
|
I had a red Chevette. As you say it was a nice car. One of the first hatchbacks.. it was six years old when I got rid and already it was riddled with rust. I remember getting a makeover to hide the worst of it at a local garage. When I explained I wanted to sell it he said “Ah you want a cheap bodge job then”. Made me feel rather guilty I remember but needs must.
|
Apart from the beer escapade (one of a few similar over the years) my abiding memory is of finally getting round to replacing a recalcitrant starter motor. (after it let me down one time too many in torrential rain in the valley above Capel Curig, and I had to climb under with a hammer and spanner to free it).
Armed with the Haynes manual the next week, I disbelieved the instructions to use a hoist and remove an engine mount to get the starter motor off. "Who on earth would design that in?". Of course, the fundamental bodywork came from the Opel Kadett, which was habitually fitted with an entirely different 1200 engine, not the 1256 (Viva-sourced) engine in the Chevette. The latter had been shoe-horned in with no bodywork changes, and, sure enough, there was around 1/2" too little clearance for removal of the starter motor.
I eventually jacked it up, dropped the engine onto bricks, and removed the offending part. Off on the bus to the local motor factor to exchange it and on remounting it, it was only the matter of a few minutes to jack again, line up and put the engine mount back. (I lie, it was a pig of a job getting everything just so and lined-up, made worse by the job being done single-handed, but with time, and an awful lot of profanity, I got there).
|
|
Its time the ridiculous concept of "Vauxhall" was killed off. It hasn't been a british marque for as many years as I have been motoring.
|
Vauxhall used to have a heritage centre (may still have) in Luton. Decades ago, I had a neighbour who worked there and got a look round - very interesting.
gb-media.vauxhall.co.uk/en-gb/vauxhall-heritage-centre-open-day-all-set-june-9
|
|
A little bit of digging reveals Vauxhall may be selling all, or parts of their heritage collection. They've been offered to motor museums.
|
|
As the HQ and site in Luton has been sold I guess they have to relocate, and presumably that’s a good opportunity to thin out the collection. If they had a Mk 2 Cavalier 1.6 L hatch in parchment I could be tempted - my Mum had one, and I learned to drive in it :) Though, I suspect while good in its day it’d be an eye opener nowadays...
|
Vauxhall got the styling bang on with a couple of models. The Mk1 Cavalier was one of my all time favourite designs (I did own one too) and the Mk2 Viva was a very pleasing looking car with great lines, particularly the Brabham variant. I lusted after one of those, but sadly never owned one.
They were the exceptions though, I thought most Vauxhalls were uninspiringly bland and the later Cavaliers looked awful.
Last edited by: Robin O'Reliant on Sat 5 Sep 20 at 20:36
|
I had several Vauxhalls over the years, having done a lot of my early driving in my dad's Viva.
I had an Astra,2 mk3 Cavaliers, and finally a Vectra.
All could probably have been described as bland, but all did the job, reliable, comfortable for 30k miles a year, roomy enough for my growing family. I remember them all fondly.
Company cars so no rust or depreciation to worry about .
|
I had a Vauxhall Viva as a company car in the 60s.
What a pile of excrement.
|
|
I had a Mk1 Astra estate, 1600cc, metallic gold, and seem to remember it went like the wind with 90 bhp. Possibly Y Reg. Think I changed it for a larger estate as required at the time...a Volvo 240 perhaps..on a D Reg, 2.4 engine methinks.
|
|
I had the misfortune to drive one of BT's, canary yellow, HA Viva vans. Reputedly governed down to 30BHP. At least with the Moggie Minor vans, you could remove the restrictor plate between the carb and manifold.
|
>> I had the misfortune to drive one of BT's, canary yellow, HA Viva vans.
Mu uncle was a carpet fitter. He bought one of those BT vans secondhand after BT had finished with it. It was awful. In every conceivable way. They peeled the signwriting off somehow, but because of the non-faded paint underneath you could still read them perfectly easily.
www.flickr.com/photos/wyliefox/40246456074
|
|
I think it was 90bhp...if it was the same engine as the mk 2 Cavalier (A reg, so similar age). The mk 2 Golf 1.6 that replaced it was dreadfully slow by comparison; my mum hated it. It was replaced fairly soon after by a 1.6 Mk 3 cavalier. That had an appetite for cambelts, but it was a non interference engine so no serious damage done. The car that followed, a mk 3 Golf 1.8 GL, is still her favourite car. I think it only had 90bhp too, but a decent wodge of torque for its time. Kept for 6 years and replaced by a 1.6 mk 4 Golf, which had a less torquey but revvier engine. She didn’t like that much either...
|
>> The Mk1 Cavalier was one of my all time favourite designs (I did own one too)
I didn't think it was a very good looking car, but it was seriously easy to work on the engine. Most oversized engine bay ever I should think. Though I had the 1600, perhaps it was different for larger engines.
I also had several MkII Cavaliers, and I really liked them. The best one being a black CDi.
I had a MKIII also, my first company car. I think it was a 2.0GL, might have been a L. I loved that car. My first new car and the first car I ever had paid for by someone else. I smiled solidly for about a week. I also had the GSi for a little while.
I always liked Cavaliers, start to finish. I don't think I ever had a Vectra.
|
>> >> The Mk1 Cavalier was one of my all time favourite designs (I did own
>> one too)
>>
>> I didn't think it was a very good looking car..........
>>
My Chevette was followed by a red 1600 mk1 Cavalier. I thought it was a good looking car, and, having just perused some of my pictures, I still do.
It was the 2-door saloon though (not the coupé that I think was only available later), and that certainly improved the lines from the side. It did me several trips to the Austrian/German alps best part of 40 years ago, and generally elicited some interest, and comments like "It's an Ascona with a body kit" (which, of course......).
That was one of the cars I owned of which I still have fond memories, but it was disposed of when it was hit twice in the space of a week (neither of them my fault), and the subsequent repairs were less than top-notch.
The second incident was someone changing lanes into the side in his own work's van - and he immediately held his hand up.
The first was the type of engagement with the police the like of which you rarely get nowadays, and resulted in the other driver being jailed!. I was clipped quite hard by a car-trailer being pulled by an old and anonymous BMC van which pulled out of a side street and across me whilst I was in a queue of traffic (I'd left space). He knew he'd done it, and absolutely floored it in the other direction. Luckily, I had captured the number as it disappeared. The ensuing engagement with the police would fill a book, but someone was tenacious enough to trace the 'van through several unrecorded changes of ownership to a back-street repair shop, which was using it to ferry cars around. I was eventually contacted some good few weeks later by the "case-officer" late one evening (he waltzed his way in to watch the football highlights for about half an hour before heading off-duty), informed they had identified the driver, who was "known" to them (for GBH). The garage owner (naturally) denied all knowledge that the miscreant was driving, so he was done for TWOC, careless (or dangerous) driving, failing to stop, no licence, no insurance, etc. (and as it would appear he was out on licence, or the then equivalent, for GBH was returned to jail!). He must have 'fessed up, though, as I was informed of this quite a bit later, but was never a part of any proceedings.
|
Like some others on here, Vauxhall WAS the company car list.
The Mk1 Cavalier was a very good looking car for its time, looking back at it, its aged well - a sure sign the design was right. Foolishly I avoided it and went for a 1.6l fiat 131 supermirifiori panorama, mostly because it had a long flash sounding name. (this stuff matters to a 25 year old) It arrived rusty, ate pads and disks every 10k miles and left even more rusty.
I had two Mk3's a Saloon then a Facelift/runout Mk3 1.7td, which was a good car - not bad looking, capable, reliable, comfortable, frugal, quite fast on the motorway. The Vectra was a huge step backwards.
|
Our company car list went through a fairly long phase of just Vauxhall and Ford. Ford were a major customer and you weren't allowed to park anything other than a Ford in their HQ car park (Warley), and others I suspect, so anyone involved with the Ford account usually had a Ford.
Which suited me as my memory is that as a young man (not youth!) I recall you were pretty much either a Vx or Ford person, and I was a fordy, being an Essex boy. After the Leyland lumps of iron which were my first couple of cars, I was Ford from a MkII Cortina, a handful of Escorts and a Sierra, after which I branched out to Vauxhall - 2.6 Senator then 3.0 Omega with the ill-fated (creosoted) 3.2 Vectra there somewhere too. Then another Ford (Mondeo 2.5) then Focus then the Vauxhall Ampera which I now drive.
Somewhere in the earlier days I had a Hillman Avenger in lime green, which I thought was a really cool looking car.
Last edited by: smokie on Sun 6 Sep 20 at 16:49
|
My cousin had a gold coloured Chevette hatchback that was "pumped up" at the back, suspension wise. As a mid teenager, I thought it was super cool. Another cousin had a Chevette saloon, that wasn't as cool!
Both suffered from the issue whereby the headlight could fly off at any time and, in the case of the saloon, could come through the windsscreen! I believe there was some sort of modification with clips introduced!
When I wss looking for my first car (ended up with a Mk2 Escort) I looked at a white Chevette hatchback that had black sills. The sales guy thought it was a selling point that the previous owner had left some spare paint for the sills in the boot of the car - a big tub of black gloss paint!!
I never bought it....
|
A friend of mine had a silver Chevette HS ( there was a rally bred HSR) followed by a white Opel Manta GTE ( there was a Manta 400). He was very keen on motorsport...I lost touch with him when he moved away but I do remember regularly going in his new shape Escort RS 1600i with the tightest bucket seats I’ve ever sat in.
More than likely highly collectible now.
Last edited by: legacylad on Sun 6 Sep 20 at 07:13
|
I had a Viva in the 1970's (10 years old at the time) and a Cavalier in about 1980 was my first company car - both OK but not exceptional.
What I do take exception to is their current advertising - a British brand for over 100 years. For the last 95 it has been owned by General Motors until 2017, and latterly PSA.
It was a luxury brand before GM who transformed it into a manufacturer of generally fairly average cars now using the brand in the UK only (AFAIK). Not a brand to be nationally proud of, but more evidence of a failed motor industry in the UK.
|
>>What I do take exception to is their current advertising - a British brand for over 100 years
Yep, that one gets me going too!!
>>It was a luxury brand before GM who transformed it into a manufacturer of generally fairly average cars
Indeed. My brother had one of these en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall_Velox#/media/File:Vauxhall_Velox_4-Door_Saloon_1955.jpg back in the day. He had it sprayed British Relay blue ... he worked for them ;-)
|
In the mid - late 70s I had a £25 Viva van which I ran as a tip-mobile and second vehicle. Really rough hand painted looking but mechanically spot on. It served us well - leave it anywhere in Hertfordshire and nobody was interested. A friend borrowed for about 6 months (living in South London), and it was stolen and recovered twice. On the second recovery the police pointed out that the engine no was incorrect and belong to something else - but were not further interested. The convenient feature was that 1 year old daughter in a proper pram with hood down would neatly roll into the back. I also favored Vx with a Chevette Estate at some point which was a good practical small car. That was replaced with a BL Austin Maxi 1750 which had no rust and was remarkably reliable. In xxx the opportunity to buy a new Volvo 245 Estate for less than the price of a Vx Cavalier Estate could not be refused and I kept that until spectacularly written off by my wife with me asleep in the passenger seat
The only other Vx was a (company) Carlton CDX Estate which was certainly a toy filled car cf the previous poverty spec (company) Granada.
|
"A Chevette L? That was a pile of crap in its day, never mind now. I understand it's relevance to the manufacturer, but does anybody else care about it?"
Me!
That was my next door neighbour's (best mate's hot mother) car for a few years. And while she was out working I was ticking off the boxes.
Must have been '86. First time taking without permission. First drive on the road without a licence or insurance. First drive on the road with a licence but no insurance. First 180 exiting a roundabout - bald tyres and damp road. Still no insurance. First time in a crash (I wasn't driving).
And it was bright yellow. Emotional times.
|
I've never owned a Vauxhall, despite living in Luton for the first twenty-odd years of my life.
I tried to buy a 2.3 Transcontinental, but when I looked around it and stuck my hand up inside a front wheel arch, what remained of the inner wing fell out.
I was interested in the Chevette when it first came out, but the dealer wouldn't even consider negotiating. That's when I went to look at a new Beetle, unfortunately I couldn't get it into 3rd with my foot on the clutch - my knee was in the way, jammed up against the steering wheel.
Bought a Vitesse.
|
|
Every Vauxhall that I have owned (including company cars) either broke down on me or deposited a sump of oil on a new block drive!
|
|
How many new block drives have you had? :-)
|
>> How many new block drives have you had? :-)
Every time a Vauxhall has ruined the last one. Obvs.
|
>> >> How many new block drives have you had? :-)
>>
>> Every time a Vauxhall has ruined the last one. Obvs.
At the price you paid, hopefully not that many.
:)
|
>> Every Vauxhall that I have owned (including company cars) either broke down on me or
>> deposited a sump of oil on a new block drive!
You've not been buying ex-police cars, have you?
|
1978 was my first Vx - Cavalier - ran it 3 years and no issues other than a van pushing me off the M8 into a wall near Shotts. I had several Cavaliers after that and apart from the odd niggle they were OK i.e. they never left me on the hard shoulder waiting for a breakdown truck.
Most went back with 70-90K on the clock.
1995 bought an ex Hertz Astra for my twins to get to Uni - 20 mins by car, 60-90 mins by train, bus & a fair walk. Bought with 8K and sold with 90+K - only the odd niggle - cost £8K amd got £3k T/I - good car.
|
Vauxhall - made in Luton exhibition - PeterS
