Vauxhall Cavalier Details, Photos and Videos

The Vauxhall Cavalier was a large family car sold primarily in the UK by Vauxhall from 1975 to 1995. It was based on a succession of Opel designs throughout its production life, during which it was built in three incarnations. The first generation of Cavalier, launched in 1975 and produced until 1981, was based on the existing Opel Ascona and Opel Manta with a few minor visual differences.

The second generation of Cavalier, launched in 1981 and produced until 1988, was launched simultaneously with the identical new generation of Opel Ascona, which was sold across the world in various guises on the General Motors "J-car". The third and final generation of Cavalier, launched in 1988 and produced until 1995, was based on the first generation of Opel Vectra with the same production span.

Launched with a 1,896 cc engine as a 1976 model in November 1975, the Cavalier was a restyled version of the second generation German Opel Ascona which had debuted three months earlier in West Germany. The Ascona/Cavalier was built on what GM called the U-car platform, and the Cavalier was originally intended to have its own bodywork. It ended up with the front of an Opel Manta B model and the rearend of an Opel Ascona B model. In the end to keep costs down a different nose, designed by Wayne Cherry, was the only obvious styling feature to set the Vauxhall apart.The new models bore a strong visual resemblance to the 1973 OSV (Opel Safety Vehicle) project which had been seen in West Germany two years before.

Van, pick-up and estate versions were also on the drawing board, but in the event customers wishing to choose an estate version of the Vauxhall Cavalier would have to await the arrival in 1983 of a Cavalier estate based on the Cavalier Mark II. In the meantime, estate versions of the smaller Chevette and Astra, as well as the larger Carlton, would be launched.

The Mark I Cavalier was produced principally alongside the Ascona at the newly refurbished Opel plant in Antwerp, Belgium.

Shortly after its launch, the Cavalier was tested by What Car? magazine and received a much higher rating than the Ford Cortina MK3 and Morris Marina against which it was tested. However, the Cortina was less than a year away from replacement, and the new year of 1976 saw the arrival of the Chrysler Alpine (the British version of the Simca 1307, which had been voted European Car of the Year). In Britain, demand for the Cavalier initially outstripped supply, one of the factors in General Motors making a decision soon afterwards to add the Cavalier to its British as well as continental production lines.

The first Vauxhall Cavalier to be assembled at Vauxhall's Luton plant was driven off the production line by Eric Fountain, Vauxhall's manufacturing director, on 26 August 1977, after which the 1256 cc version, assembled at Luton and using engine and transmission already familiar to Viva 1300 owners, broadened the range. At that stage the 1584 cc Cavalier and the 1897 cc which had joined it were still being imported from Belgium, but in due course these, too, started to emerge from the Luton production plant.The commencement of Cavalier production in the UK also helped ensure that supply for the car met demand, and consequently its sales figures increased so it was now a constant presence in the top 10 best selling cars in Britain.

In Vauxhall's line-up, the Cavalier initially complemented, and then replaced the Victor, which by this time was falling a long way behind the hugely successful Ford Cortina in the British car sales charts, and was even lagging a considerable distance behind the Morris Marina and Austin Maxi. However, the top-of-the-range versions of the Victor remained in production until 1978, as the VX1800/VX2000, when the remaining models were replaced by the Carlton.

The timing of the Cavalier's United Kingdom launch was well judged. The United Kingdom tax system meant that sales to company car fleets comprised a larger proportion of the overall market - especially for middle-weight saloons - than elsewhere in Europe: the Ford Cortina Mk II had been replaced by the Ford Cortina Mk III in 1970, but in the eyes of the all important company car fleet managers the newer Cortina never quite matched the earlier car for reliability, notably in respect of problems with its cable clutch and with camshaft wear in the 1.6 and 2.0 litre ohc units. The traditionally very conservative fleet market was therefore particularly receptive to Vauxhall's new Cortina challenger. At the time, British Leyland was facing criticism for the lacklustre design and doubts about build quality and reliability surrounding its cars, especially the Morris Marina and the smaller Austin Allegro. The Cavalier was launched around the same time as Chrysler's Alpine, which featured a more modern front-wheel drive hatchback layout and was voted European Car of the Year for 1976, but it would ultimately fail to meet sales expectations on the British market and was not reputedly a reliable or well-built car.

The original Cavaliers were available as two and four-door saloons, and with a two-door booted (three-box) coupé body as used for the Opel Manta. The cars came with a choice of 1.6 and 1.9 L inline four cylinder Opel CIH engines in the saloon: only the 1.9 L engine was available in the coupé. Vauxhall engineers built Cavalier prototypes using the 2.3 L Vauxhall Slant-4 engine, for use in a future high performance variant, but the proposals did not get past GM Europe management, and as a result the larger engined Cavaliers were exclusively powered by the Opel CIH engine.

It was revised in 1978, as the 1.9 L became a 2.0 L engine and the 1.3 L OHV engine from the Vauxhall Viva and Vauxhall Chevette was used to create the entry level Cavalier 1.3 variant. At the same time, a three-door hatchback known as the Sports hatch (also seen on the Manta) was added to the range.

There were plans for a five-door hatchback version to be launched, but this bodystyle was never produced on the first generation Cavalier, although at this time hatchbacks still only accounted for a small percentage of sales on larger family cars. That would change during the 1980s, however.

All Cavalier saloons shared most of their bodywork with the Opel Ascona but had the slanted nose of the Manta to give them the distinct "droop snoot" front end. The coupé also had a front air dam.

Despite being the same car mechanically, the Opel Ascona was sold alongside the Cavalier in the United Kingdom until 24 July 1981, when GM decided to phase out duplicated models with the Opel brand in the United Kingdom, and merge remaining dealerships with those of Vauxhall. The Opel Manta (and Monza) remained available, giving the Opel brand a "sports" position in Britain until the Manta was finally discontinued in 1988.

That the Manta was sold alongside the MK2 Cavalier in the 1980s gave rise to the curiosity that the previous generation Ascona/Cavalier was effectively being sold concurrently with its successor, since a coupe/sports hatch version of the Ascona C/Cavalier Mark 2 was never engineered. However, the early to mid 1980s saw the decline of coupe models on the British market, with British Leyland not replacing the MG B when it closed the famous MG factory at Abingdon in 1980, and even the Ford Capri (a top 10 seller in Britain as late as 1980) had no immediate successor after the end of production in 1986, as Ford felt that there was not sufficient demand in Europe for a new sporting coupe to be launched. This was largely due to the rising popularity of "hot hatchbacks" and sports saloons including the Volkswagen Golf GTI.

Vauxhall, from 1978 until 1979, offered the Cavalier coupé in convertible format called the Centaur. Only 118 of these were made and fewer than 30 were believed to have survived by 2007. The cars were developed by Magraw Engineering and sold through Vauxhall dealerships on behalf of Crayford. The Centaur is basically a Cavalier GLS coupé 2-litre with the hard roof replaced with a soft top leaving a T-bar for strength. The floor pan was also strengthened.

The ultimate Cavalier Mark I is the design concept by Wayne Cherry called Silver Aero. “Silver Aero” was a one off Prototype build in 1980 based on the Cavalier MK1 Sportshatch. The car was displayed at the International Car Show at the NEC in October 1980. The plan was to offer existing Sportshatch owners and buyers to upgrade their car to the Silver Aero spec. The car has a 2.4 litre turbocharged engine which produces 150 bhp (112 kW; 152 PS). Orders were taken but not enough to warrant production, and the car remains a one off.

The original Cavalier was a relatively strong seller in Britain, even though it never quite matched the runaway sales success of the Ford Cortina, or even the sales figures attained by British Leyland's Morris Marina (which sold well throughout the 1970s despite being widely condemned in the motoring press) but it at least managed to help Vauxhall regain lost ground in a market sector where it had declined during the first half of the 1970s as Victor sales slumped. It also helped repair Vauxhall's image, which had been hit hard in the early 1970s by build quality and reliability issues surrounding cars like the Victor. Nearly 250,000 were sold, though by December 2009 just 373 remained.

The Vauxhall Cavalier MK1 was also sold in LHD in some European countries, including Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Poland, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland. The Coupe was available with the 1.3 engine and in Scandinavia the car came with Manta-style headlight wipers. Vauxhalls were at one time sold alongside Opels in Europe but Vauxhall announced they were pulling out of the 11 other countries where they sold cars on 6 December 1979 and sales stopped in 1981, allowing General Motors to concentrate on the Opel brand in these markets.

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