Vauxhall, Britain's Oldest Car Maker

[Fred Dukes]

Ian Coomber, one of our Honorary Members,, has published a book - sent this email
I am pleased to be able to announce that my book, Vauxhall, Britain's Oldest Car Maker, is now available. Published by Fonthill Media, details are attached.
The book covers the history of Vauxhall from the foundation of the Vauxhall Iron Works in 1857 up to and including the purchase of General Motors European operations by PSA Groupe in August 2017. Unlike many previous histories, this is not just about the products, but an attempt to trace the DNA of the modern company by including potted histories of General Motors and Opel and by focussing on the social history that the company created around it, including insights and anecdotes contributed by Vauxhall colleagues and from my own observations. Separate chapters feature the Bedford story and motorsport.
The book is available to order now from Fonthill, Amazon and book shops, using the attached ISBN.
Christmas is coming!
I have no discount code but don't let the RRP put you off as its available on Fonthill's own website for under £25
Ian

[fistfullofV5's]

That book may very well end up being an obituary as PSA have announced that 400 will be made redundant from Ellesmere Port by Christmas with more to follow, Plant is to go onto single shift working also.
Regards, Dave.

[Fred Dukes]

Sad news

[vauxhallbitz]

Sadly it was only a matter of time, badge snobbery has a lot to answer for, Vauxhall products were always as good as rivals Ford and British Leyland but they never managed to shake off that inferior tag.

[Colin]

When you search cars sales figures on any website, for example Autotrader, Vauxhall are more or less where they've always been in UK sales; a bit behind Ford, roughly on a par with BMW and ahead of all the others.

The latest news this week is that having years ago closed down Pontiac and Oldsmobile, and having sold off Vauxhall and Opel, GM are now also ceasing production of Holden cars.

The problem with GM is that since the 1980s they've been run solely by 'soulless' accountants answerable only to shareholders and with no real interest in producing an appealing product. The cars are therefore uninspired - being designed to upset the least number of people rather than to please the most. With a few exceptions, In a word, soulless.

The current and last couple of generations of GM directors have failed to grasp the fact that in a saturated market a product must be an inspired design to succeed. It's no use churning out millions of computer programme 'designed' cars, identical to all the others, and for which the only brief fed into the computers was minimum cost and maximum efficiency.

The plastic shopping trolley market is now saturated by the Koreans and the Chinese - who can do it a lot cheaper than anyone else. For this reason GM at the moment are really only interested in their Chinese brands, Wuling, Jeifang and Boajun. We can probably expect Cadillac to be the next historic western brand to be sold off or closed down.

Who knows? Perhaps PSA may breath new life into Britain's oldest car maker?

In any event I'm going to be buying this book. The author is my Dad's old boss. I don't know him personally but I understand he's a thoroughly decent bloke.

[redfirenza]

I think that's the problem a lot of the Vauxhall stuff is re-badged korean/chinese tat! Ians a great bloke and the books on my Christmas list, im sure there will be some great stories & tales to be told!

[jpsmit]

Looks like it is more than Vauxhall

https://justbritish.com/british-car-pro ... september/

and, coming to the original post, sounds like a very interesting book - and a different aspect.