There were a considerable number of Irish people working at the Vauxhall plant in Luton (including a cousin of mine). I always assumed that if you saw a Vauxhall with Rep. of Ireland plates, it was owned by one of them who had come home.
Chevy, meet Pontiac, meet Buick, meet Oldsmobile (R.I.P.), meet Cadillac.
Because in a plummy English accent, “Hello, Vauxhall,” just sounds so much better than “Hi, Opel!”
How does one pronounce “Vauxhall” in proper British English?
Making allowances for my US background, I’m imagining something like “VAWX 'All” with almost but not quite equal emphsis on the two syllables.
Hell, it might be pronounced like the word “vowel”, e.g. “vow’l”.
Depends on your location but Like Vaux and Hall, run into one another, or Vox’all if you live anywhere near me. The proposed “W” wouldn’t come up anywhere AFAIK.
The name derives from the area where the original factory was located.
That, and “Opel and I” just doesn’t have much (so to speak) curb appeal for music fans.
VOCKSawl, or VOCKS-hawl.
Here’s a genuine British motoring show host pronouncing the name: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJUNI9lk0PA
Thanks all for the pronounciation help. For once it seems I got it about right on my own.
Something occurred to me today that might be another reason: Vauxhall has a big share of the market for supplying police cars, probably due in part to being perceived as a British brand. Remove the Britishness, and you remove a reason for using Astras as a standard squad car.
But Opel does.
By the same reasoning (company ownership) why aren’t Harley Davidsons called Hondas?
I think I’ve seen a few early-70s Mantas here in the US, but the only Opel that I’m familiar with is the old GT. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Vauxhall in person.
Do Honda retail the exact same Harley Davidsons in some other market with Honda branding?
Maybe because Honda doesn’t own Harley? There were rumors about a year ago that Honda was going to buy Harley, but Honda denied it, and Harley’s website makes no mention of being purchased by Honda (though Harley does own Buell, it seems).
Now that I recall, that sounds about right, from what I remember of the many classic car magazines I’ve read on the loo.
I dimly remember that my parents had a Vauxhall in the late sixties or early seventies in Canada. Evidently GM sold them here. There was a lot more British stuff in Canada before Britain entered the European Community (in the seventies?) and abandoned Commonwealth trading preferences.
And the Saturn Astra.
Harley has owned controlling interest in Buell for quite a while. I don’t understand why Honda would have considered buying Harley; it’s a brand with no future.
That’s basically it; Vauxhall’s bread and butter is fleet sales, and fleet buyers want to buy British. Better tax break, much better PR. Frankly, I think they underestimate just how much better their non-fleet appeal would be if they dropped the Vauxhall name. (UK) People know Opel = Vauxhall, but I doubt they conflate Opel with the Bedford Rascal or the Astramax and other such abominations the way they do Vauxhall.
When it comes to cars, it’s generally better not to sell British anywhere you go, even Britain. High-end British cars have a reputation for being superb for about six minutes, then breaking down. Low-end British cars* just have a reputation for breaking down.
*Nowadays, Ford of Europe and Vauxhall, basically, since Rover has finally snuffed it.
The Saturn Astra is a rebadged Opel/Vauxhall; I think the Holden has different engine and transmission options and some changes to the metalwork.
I’m sure I remember there being separate Opel and Vauxhall model lines on sale in Britain in the 70’s, although the Opel models were already very similar to Vauxhalls. In addition to the Manta, there were the Kadett and the Rekord, slightly different shapes to Vauxhall’s Chevette and Carlton, respectively.