(Update: this is actually a Bedford-Blitz, with some added Vauxhall badging)
We’ll do something a bit different today, combining shots from two different Cohort posters because of the subject matter. I’ve long noticed how very similar the Bedford/Bedford-Blitz CF vans (posted by Corey Behrens) are in appearance to the Chevy/GMC vans (posted by William Rubano). I just naturally assumed the American versions came first. Was I right or wrong?
Wrong. The Bedford CF arrived in the UK for 1969, and the Chevy/GMC vans for 1971. And no, they’re not related otherwise except for their styling.
That’s probably because the CF’s predecessor, the Bedford CA, was getting mighty old. It first arrived in 1952, and became quite a legend in its own right. But curiously enough, it has the same basic configuration as the CF, with a short hood and the engine tucked mostly under it, just like the CF.
Quite unlike the Chevy van’s predecessor, which had the engine between the front seats. But both needed to be redone for a changed world. It’s a bit hard to see the Bedford still being sold in 1968.
I shouldn’t really bring the Opel Blitz into this post, as it’s long overdue its own day in the CC sun. Its history goes way back to 1930, but it was a bit bigger, one step up class-wise, from the more compact Bedford. And it always had its engine out front. I bring it up here because this ’68 Blitz double-cab truck also shares some very obvious styling cues with the Chevy/GMC trucks from the 1960-1967 era.
I will show one more Blitz, another Bedford-Blitz from 1980, actually, just because this angle really makes it look like the American GMC/Chevy vans. These were sold for some years in certain markets including Germany, and is of course just a rebadged Bedford.
But I will make one more comment on the Blitz: GM made a big mistake killing the Blitz and getting out of the van market. That has become the most profitable sector in Europe, with 10+% profit margins. It is absolutely the key reason why Ford has not sold its European ops, even though most of the lines except the vans are not making any real money. Opel started selling rebadged Renault Master vans in 1998, called the Movano. But selling someone else’s’ van (or car or truck) means there’s no real profit in it. It’s done purely as a defensive hedge. If GM had kept the Blitz line, Opel might well still be a GM division.
Before I forget, the Bedford CF came in three wheelbase lengths: 106, 126, and 140″. That corresponds quite closely to the Chevy/GMC’s 110, 125, and 146″ wheelbases. But there’s nothing shared anywhere: the Bedford/Vauxhall is narrower, uses a beefed up Vauxhall Victor front suspension, and of course much smaller four cylinder engines. The gas engine was the Vauxhall “slant four” in 1.6, 1.8, 2.0, 2.25 and 2.3 L forms. Diesels were from Perkins, either a 1.8 or a 2.5 for the bigger vans/trucks. After 1980, the Opel 2.0 and 2.3 L diesels were used.
Vauxhall pulled the plug on the CF in 1988. it was replaced by the Midi, which of course was a re-badged Isuzu Fargo. Yes, Fargo, How they ended up using that name is a good question, but it was not used by Vauxhall, as I suspect in Europe the Fargo name was still very much taken. The irony is that the Midi/Fargo was of course retrograde, with its engine between the front seats, just like the original Chevy van. But this was a first for Vauxhall, as their vans had always had their engines out front.
After 1994, Vauxhall sold versions of the Renault Traffic under various names. Given that Opel/Vauxhall are now owned by PSA, that’s changed over to rebadged vans made by Peugeot.
I was not familiar with the Bedford van – there is a lot of similarity with the one I am used to here in the US. But knowing GM North America’s strong “not invented here” antibodies, I’ll wager that there is almost nothing that directly moved from the English version to the American one. Except maybe the way the wipers park way, way far up from the base of the windshield.
Bedford was ‘retired’ as a brand in 1991. After that the vans were branded Vauxhall or Opel.
The Vauxhall plant at Luton was the assembly plant and switched to assembling the Renault Trafic.
They now assemble the Peugeot Expert which is sold as Vauxhall, Citroën, Toyota and Opel.
Given how Peugeot has closed UK plants in the past, can’t help but wonder how long the Vauxhall plants at Luton and Ellesmere Port will stay open.
I think the CF was also sold in Australia as a Holden but with bigger engines, but could be wrong.
It was, with the local 3.3 straight six.
And either a three on the floor or Trimatic automatic. A PITA to work on too.
Huge blunder by GMH fitting the 2850 low compression engine it was not the 3.0 the vans were chronically slow on the highway Holden 6s dont rev out very well and GMH kept the four cylinder rear axle ratio,
NZ hot rodders did it better with the 3.3 Cresta engine up front it bolts straight onto the indestructable CF Bedford 4 speed and a PC Cresta diff centre give nice gearing for highway driving
The European market Bedford-Blitz was formally known as the Opel Bedford-Blitz, taking over from the earlier all-German Opel Blitz, though still built in the UK. Possibly, some markets either got both versions, used the Vauxhall rather than the Bedford name and/or added some badges, as maybe is happening here.
The Vivaro has now moved to become a Citroen Jumpy/Peugeot Boxer/Toyota Proace clone, built in the UK, and with an Opel doppelganger of course.
I’m just amazed a German manufacturer tried to sell a vehicle called the “Blitz” in the UK…
You’re mixing up lightning (Opel-logo!) with lightning-war.
No, they were built in the UK and sold as ‘Bedford’. The ‘Bedford Blitz’ badged ones were exported from the UK and badged that way for the German market.
Later 1980s models used Opel engines though.
Very interesting! When we have traveled to Europe, I have been fascinated by the various vans we don’t get here. Have we had a GM Van / G-Series write up? I can’t imagine there is a living soul in the USA that has not ridden in a 1970-1996 third generation one multiple times in their lifetime.
I’m sure it’s made some appearances in Outtakes and such, but not a proper historical review.
” I can’t imagine there is a living soul in the USA that has not ridden in a 1970-1996 third generation one multiple times in their lifetime.”
You know, I’m not sure that I have. I can say with certainty that I rode in multiple Dodge Ram Vans and Ford Econolines in my lifetime, but I can’t recall any Chevy/GMC van I would have ridden in.
I wonder if that might be because GM didn’t seem to be a big player in the 15 passenger van market back then in the way Ford and Dodge were. I rode in 15 passenger church vans on Boy Scout trips many times, and those always were Ford or Dodge.
GM not only wasn’t “a big player” in 15 passenger vans; they weren’t a player at all until 1990, a whopping 19 years after Dodge first made them. To GM’s credit, they gifted their extended-body vans with a longer wheelbase, whereas Ford and Dodge simply stuck on extra-long rear caps on their standard-wheelbase vans, leading to precarious handling.
The old Bedford CA (nice piece by DougD) was indeed legendary, not least for Beat Boom bands travelling the length and breadth of Britain’s trunk road system before the Transit was introduced. Corgi even created a model of one well-known combo’s wheels.
Yes, I found out by accident early last year (I had assumed the Chevy van was around ’68). Early in its development there had been a Chevrolet version planned, but that was dropped. There was also going to be a fully bonneted version to replace the old Bedford TJ series (think ‘Advanced-Design ‘ clone), but that also fell by the wayside. Ford actually did make a similar chassis based on the Transit in 1973, the A series, but that never really caught on and was discontinued in 1983.
Leo Pruneau and Wayne Cherry (both at Vauxhall at the time) were involved with this project, so there was considerable American input into the way it looked.
Incidentally, that style of ‘Vauxhall’ lettering dates from the early 1960s, possibly off an HA Viva. LHD suggets it was a Bedford-Blitz.
Yes, I missed the Opel badge initially. So yes, this is a Bedford-Blitz, and I’ve updated the post accordingly. Thanks.
Thanks for the information. When I sold trucks in New York City, the GMC Vandura was a major part of light duty sales. They were enclosed, which meant less theft. Buyers added padlocks to the front and rear doors. Typically, the cans lasted five years because the chauffeurs (classy word for driver’s of these trucks), were hardly gentle with them and the City’s potholes supplied the balance of the destruction.
The Bedford CA was a common sight in coastal BC when I was a child in the sixties,
but Thames 400E’s were even more plentiful.
I want ice-cream.
The Bedford was sold here by Holden, with the six cylinder crammed under the bonnet (though mainly in a bulgy doghouse thing inside). SWB, LWB, dualies, cab-chassis and the odd psychedelic shaggin wagon, they did many tasks and probably generated a few kids in that last form, but the permanent association to me is ice-cream, because to this very day, you can see the odd SWB high-roof one in summer selling ice-cream round the streets or at the beach. Mr Whippy, he was called, though in truth, he should have been called Mr Grumpy Bastard of Questionable Hygiene Practices (but then, you wouldn’t exactly rush to send your kids off unaccompanied to a man in a van called Mr Whippy today anyway). Boy, did the sound of tinny xylophone loop-playing Fur Elise over a megaphone get me excited as a kid, and I can recall the frantic search and dread of not finding enough coins under the couch before that recording began to fade in the distance.
Anyway, to return from reverie, these are much nicer-looking devices than the Enduras, which are awfully dull: the Bedford has curves and whiff of styling about it by comparison.
Yes, Bedford and Ice Cream Van go together like Fish and Chips or Strawberries and Cream. They were also a very popular chassis for Camper Vans (Dormobile in particular) and Ambulances.
Here’s Top Gear’s electric version …
And the Midi/Isuzu Fargo was sold for a few years in Australia as the Holden Shuttle.
Thanks for the write up. From a distance it certainly looked like a Chevy or GMC as there are plenty of those in NL, but no. Interesting how this Vauxhall, er Bedford, sports a Opel logo. Is it just me or does that pic of the yellow Bedford-Blitz look like a Dodge at first glance, especially in the grill?
In the 80’s, I was, together with a friend, pretty heavily involved in modding Bedford CF vans. My personal van was all white, had a 10 inch lift, extra fuel tank, weld shut backdoors with rear lights from a Toyota Crown, no rear windows, portholes in the side and of course a ladder on the back. Inside with shag carpet, and dashboard made from wood. The biggest mod was a aircosystem that was donated by a Pontiac Grand Prix. Those Bedfords where great vans, but the biggest problem was rust. Mechanical they were bulletproof, depending on the engine. Mine had a indestructible Perkins engine, with a 60 mph topspeed, and yet it brought me from the Netherlands all over Europe, and even to Egypt, Syria and Israel. Good times.
Even the Ford V6 engine could be easily fitted in those vans, making them even fast.
Vauxhall vans swapped from Renault based to Peugeot very very quickly. Probably a couple of years ago now.
The first design of Renault Trafic was built at Luton and sold as the Vauxhall/Opel Arena from 1997 to the end of 2000, then the new Renault Trafic became the Vivaro A, built from 2001 to 2014, was heavily revamped as the Vivaro B from late 2014 to the end of 2018 and then replaced by the Peugeot based Vivaro (C?) from the start of 2019, still made in Luton.
The Movano C (from 2019) is currently still a version of the Renault Master (made in France), but I assume that won’t stay that way much longer.
The first pictures of the PSA-based Vivaro were published on the web in January 2019. Available here at the dealerships in the summer of that year.
PSA acted quite energetically, after the GM-Opel/Vauxhall deal, car- and van-wise.
My buddy and I rented a Bedford CF camper van in New Zealand in 1983. Put about 2000 miles on it in 3.5 weeks. The owner ran a service station in Christchurch where we picked it up…him and his family met us at Auckland airport to pick it up from us before we flew out. It had the 2.3 L 4cyl gas engine backed up by an automatic trans. It was painfully slow on the very steep hills on the South Island and sucked gas like you wouldn’t believe. Gas was expensive there too compared to our native Canada.
For some reason they put us on the lower deck of the inter island ferry with the train cars and the van just barely started on reaching Wellington. They were going to pull us out with a locomotive if we couldn’t start it soon. Turned out it was a bad spark plug…driving uphill in the city with a 3 cyl van was no fun!
Memories!
“Vauxhall pulled the plug on the CF in 1988. it was replaced by the Midi, which of course was a re-badged Isuzu Fargo. Yes, Fargo…”
Fargo?
Ya, sure, you betcha. Nice van, don’tchaknow? I don’t know about ice cream, but they could sure sell Jell-O and bars out the side, forreal.
The Bedford CF was supposed to replace the CA and a larger model at the same time. In addition, in the Opel markets, the Opel Blitz and Opel give a competitive product to the VW Transporter. In all markets, GM Europe needed a product to compete with the new Ford Transit. The alignment of the CF has also been directed towards this. The Bedford CF and Opel Bedford Blitz failed on several points. He could not replace the larger models because the engines were missing. The engines were also the main problem outside of the UK. Too weak and too thirsty. As a child I was able to experience the difference and / or have been told about the disadvantages. The British processing was not on the Ford or VW level. I still know exactly that it was louder inside than in transit. All the equipment just looked cheaper than the transit I took to school. The Opel Bedford CF had only been held for 2 years and was replaced by a Toyota Liteace. There were a lot of VW buses in the area, Transit anyway and also quite a few Fiat cars. But I haven’t seen the Opel Bedford Blitz twice because we had it. GM probably didn’t want to spend any money on development and took over the Isuzu, which was then built at the Bedford plant in Luton. It wasn’t until the 1990s that GM realized the mistake. Certainly because Isuzu did not develop a successor and took the Nissan Urvan as a replacement for the Fargo using badge engineering. Therefore the alliance with Renault, which initially brought the Opel / Vauxhall Arena, is based on the outdated Renault Trafic. The new model was jointly developed by Renault and GM and built in Luton until 2019, while the Movano – the size of the original Opel Blitz – was initially just a renamed Renault Master 2. The following generations were again developed jointly by Renault and GM. There was and still is a model from Nissan, now called NV 300 and NV 400. Opel and PSA brought about the turning point. While Fiat withdrew from the cooperation with PSA (Fiat Scudo, Peugeot Expert), the new PSA model also started as an Opel and is being built again in Luton. But Fiat has its Talento which is actually a Renault Traffic. The next Renault Master will be developed together with Mercedes Benz (Sprinter). Opel is no longer there. The Fiat Chrysler / PSA Opel Group has been listed on the stock exchange since today. There will probably be an Opel model of the Fiat Ducato / RAM Promaster Peugeot Boxer and Citroën Jumper jointly developed by Fiat and PSA in the future. In addition, the Peugeot Expert series is also offered by Toyota as the successor to the Hiace as ProAce. Since Fiat had originally terminated the contract with PSA, PSA and Toyota were supposed to develop a joint model the size of the Boxer / Ducato. Now the cards should be completely reshuffled everywhere here.
“The next Renault Master will be developed together with Mercedes Benz (Sprinter).”
Source of information?
In addition to the Chevy van resemblance, I’m getting some Dodge vibes from the slanted rear edge of the front door window and the rear side door that is set far back from the front passenger door.
The Bedford CF was a great looking van in 1970 in the UK and Europe. It should have knocked the poor V4 of the Ford Transit into the weeds with decent modern ohc power. GM lost faith with Vauxhall Bedford in this period. Mediocre build quality and niggling reliability issues along with dismal financial results with poor sales and labour issues led to the slow death of Vauxhall Bedford as an independent business. So sad when you see the great style and inspiration of David Jones and his successors Wayne Cherry and Leo Pruneau. So near yet so far…..
Hah! about 42 minutes into a fluff plot film starring Paul McCartney- Give My Regards To Broad Street- right after a space themed Silly Love Songs concert music video – our hero steps into a Bedford CA. A beast would never have recognized if I had not read this article a few days earlier.
It is very unfortunate that the Bedford CF was discontinued in 1988, with the Bedford Midi taking its place. Originally GM wanted to buy British Leyland and Land Rover and merge them with the Bedford brand to create a “world van” that would compete with the Transit, but they failed so decided to just offer a re-badged Isuzu Fargo as the Bedford Midi, as the replacement for the CF vans.
The Midi itself stopped being produced in 1995, with the Vauxhall Arena and Vauxhall Movano taking it’s place. It’s really sad that the Bedford disappeared, although, truth be told the plant that produced the CF is still active and is still producing Re-badged Renault Trafics. With better management just imagine what would happen if the Bedford name was still active.