Intro: Now Vauxhall is reduced to producing badge-engineered Opel models but the company has an illustrious past. First car was completed in 19003 in Vauxhall, London, prior to relocating the Vauxhall factory to its present home in Luton, Bedfordshire. Up to the 1920s Vauxhall built a succesful line of models. Then General Motors, from North America, acquired both Vauxhall and Opel, so they became sister operations. However, both ranges developed separately, with Opel concentrating on smaller cars during the post-War depression period. It was not until the early-1980s that any true rationalisation took place and from that time, engines, as well as bodies were shared and Opel took over the design responsibility for Europe. |
