CarBrandLogos archive · Vauxhall · 1963

VauxhallViva

The small car that filled Ellesmere Port and sold a million and a half.

Photo: SG2012 · CC BY 2.0

The story

A defining chapter in Vauxhall history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Vauxhall Viva, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Bedford HA light van 1256cc first registered January 1981

Origins

Vauxhall had not built a small car since before the war, and by the early 1960s that was becoming a problem: BMC had the Mini and the 1100, Ford had the Anglia, and Luton had nothing below the Victor. The Viva of 1963 fixed it, and it needed a new factory to do so — production went to a new plant at Ellesmere Port on Merseyside, built with government encouragement to bring work to an area that needed it.

Bedford HA light van 1256cc first registered January 1981 · Charles01 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

The HA was closely related to the Opel Kadett A, sharing much of its engineering with the German car, and was deliberately conventional: front engine, rear drive, a light body, simple suspension and a 1.0-litre engine. It was cheap to buy, cheap to insure and easy to work on, which was the whole specification.

Opel Kadett A, Bj. 1964 · Lothar Spurzem · CC BY-SA 2.0 de

In production

The HB of 1966 brought coke-bottle styling and better suspension, and the HC of 1970 ran until 1979, spinning off the Firenza coupe, the Magnum and a range of estates and vans. Over 1.5 million were built across the three generations, making it the most successful Vauxhall of its era and the model that established Ellesmere Port as a volume plant — it went on to build Astras for another forty years.

Indiana 1974 · JasonVogel · CC BY-SA 3.0