Vauxhall Brochure Suppliment 1980

[Richard_FM]

In 1980 Vauxhall printed this supplement to their main brochure to introduce the Chevette ES and the Mk1 Astra.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/richard16378/albums/72157713789992242

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Ah, the little known non-hatchback Astra, a stupid person could buy one from an auction and not even realise until the next day when cleaning it up for sale to the woman who’d asked you to find a nice little hatchback. Her only specifics were a hatchback Escort, Maestro, Astra in fact anything as long as it was silver or blue.

Oh, well the yellow Astra saloon sold easily enough in the Midland Autotrader, once the Trader lady had been round and taken the picture.

[adw1977]

Here's the Astra saloon showing off its boot:

Reminds me of this:

The original idea was that Vauxhall would develop a proper saloon version of the basic Opel Kadett design to be used for both Vauxhall and Opel versions.

Vauxhall were also to design a different front end for the Vauxhall version, in similar fashion to their efforts turning the previous generation Kadett into the Chevette. 

Vauxpedia have various pictures of that aborted project:

Vauxpedia link

[Richard_FM]

It’s interesting they didn’t extend the rear like the VW small saloons though a notchback was considered by the look of the pictures on the link.

[Snipes]

Shove it must have been pretty dated by the time the Astra was on the scene? This is interesting;

I can't recall the specifics but I think DTV were rallying Chevettes until the very early 80s when the Manta took over? Would a MR Astra have replaced the Manta if GpB  hadn't been shut down? The Manta was a decent machine but it was thoroughly outgunned as GpB evolved. 

[martc]

^^^ Touch of the Volvo 340 about that.

[Richard_FM]

While Opel replaced the 1973-9 kadett with the fwd one, Vauxhall kept making the chevette in production until 1984. In some ways the replaced the voice viva with the Astra & chevette with the nova.

[Daviemck2006]

I still remember fondly my mk1 Astras. I had 2. The first was a 1300s gl 5 door registered late 81 X plate new to my father, and me buying it in late 84 when he bought a new 1300s celebrity ltd edition. I kept it about a year, by this time I was on good money and traded it in for a 1.6sr on a A plate. My dad bought a cavalier mk3 and my sister bought his celebrity. I only kept the sr about 19 months and traded it for cavalier mk2 1.6sr cos I became a dad and wanted back doors. That was back when vauxhall made brilliant cars. My dream was a royale saloon or better coupe, but I've never even been in one, and I expect it will probably remain a dream, unless anyone has one and want to swap it for a e39 540i

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[adw1977]

11 hours ago, Richard_FM said:

While Opel replaced the 1973-9 kadett with the fwd one, Vauxhall kept making the chevette in production until 1984. In some ways the replaced the voice viva with the Astra & chevette with the nova.

And Vauxhall exported Chevettes to Germany during the 1979-84 period.  They were sold through Opel dealers without Vauxhall or Opel badges.  Again, Vauxpedia has details. 

[Cavcraft]

The 2 door saloons ones are even more ace than the hatchbacks. One of the best cars I had was a reed green 5 door hatch, gave sterling service and was sold to a mate who had a few years out of it.

[Richard_FM]

14 minutes ago, adw1977 said:

And Vauxhall exported Chevettes to Germany during the 1979-84 period.  They were sold through Opel dealers without Vauxhall or Opel badges.  Again, Vauxpedia has details. 

I heard about this, supposedly Opel dealers didn’t like doing engine repairs because they needed to have imperial spanners & other tools to undo the fittings.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

35 minutes ago, The Mighty Quinn said:

The Man from Belmonte arrived in '84. He say yes.

A couple of years later actually, I even had one as a company car for a few months, a 1.8 CDi  on an F, was faster than the 1.6i Orion I had before it and the PAS was a novelty . But it never felt” right” a nothing car that I forgot about every time I parked it, which is why I swapped it for a BX when someone left.

In mk1 Astra news, my Mrs had a black GTE for a while that I swapped the factory alloys for some 13” crosspokes off a Celebration (?) I’d bought to sell, mainly because the centres were missing on the 14”s and they were hard to find even then( 1994ish), must be the only person ever to put smaller wheels on a GTE.

Anyway seems it lasted to 2000, I just Googled the number, like you do, and a reference to it came up on a Hi-fi site in a thread Amusing Numberplates, last year someone posted they’d owned a black Astra 30 years ago with the number A69 OKE. I know, cool story bro and all that , but it made me smile

[Snipes]

2 hours ago, Richard_FM said:

I heard about this, supposedly Opel dealers didn’t like doing engine repairs because they needed to have imperial spanners & other tools to undo the fittings.

Who can blame them? What a PITA that must have been.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Just checked on Vauxpedia to see what the special edition Astra was and it was the Celebrity , but it didn’t come with alloys so the ones on the one I had must have been Cavalier CD wheels fitted by a previous owner.

As usual when looking at Vauxpedia I discovered something I’d never heard of before, namely th Avon Ogle Astra.  This was in the exhaustive MK1 Astra brochure section,going  back there now to find out more.

 

 

[Snipes]

That's interesting. Arches have a hint of HSR about them. Get rid of that awful grill and I like it. Some interesting options;

Additional fuel tank, Vertical Mount spare wheel, Oil Cooler. Almost sounds like rally preparation?

I wonder how many they actually built?