I assume that’s the local Pontiac dealer? The sign is a wonderful indication of the kind of support the brand was getting. A typical dealer: They didn’t really want the car (small profits on furrin’ cars, plus added complexity for both the parts and service departments), but the didn’t want to lose a sale to the Volkswagen or Renault dealer down the street.
From my understanding GM did not force Pontiac dealers to take on a Vauxhall franchise, it was optional. So the dealer did want these on their lot, and that is the reason they were imported, because enough dealers were asking for smaller cars for fear of loosing customers to those foreign brands.
When I was 6 years old and into identifying all the cars I could, I spotted a rusty old saloon/sedan parked up but couldn’t work out what the name on the badge was or how it was pronounced.
The car was a Vauxhall Victor ‘ F Series’ like in the ad, but the name plate on the rear was split into VAUX HALL with a badge or lock in the centre. Thankfully my father was on hand.
Vauxhall did have a habit of breaking up their own name like that on badging at that time, and I can easily see the sign painter working off the car itself, parked right there, rather than a brochure or press release or whoever arranged such things at this dealership spelling it as two words on the work order.
As an Englishman & a committed American car fan, I’m rather embarrassed that this stodgy frumpy unadventurous sedan was England’s best effort in an awesome year like 1958. It could have at least had double headlamps & a more adventurous grille design. It’s not terrible, it’s just ok.
In that case I think it was a case of typical 1950’s American commercial branding with simplified spelling. They didn’t know about Black vernacular from 50 years later.
I’m trying to imagine the Venn diagram of 1958 Americans who (a) wanted to buy a foreign car and (b) wanted to buy it from an “American” car dealership.
The only overlap my brain is coming up with is tweedy college professors in small college towns that didn’t have a Renault or Volkswagen dealership.
And to tag on to what Syke said above, if I have my history right, Pontiac and Buick dealers were *required* (to what degree I do not know) to carry Vauxhall and Opel respectively, while Ford dealers could choose whether or not they became dealers of what was called “English Ford”.
My home town was a largish college town full of tweedy professors, which had a VW dealer, though I believe Renault was in a neighboring town at the time, only to become local when the R5 and later Alliance/Encore came along at the AMC store. Anyway, as I recall the pre-Cortina English Fords were only sold at an independent import shop. In fact, I thought that the independent also sold Vauxhalls, and only Opel was sold at the corresponding domestic (Buick) dealer. By the way, the splitting of Vaux and Haul isn’t the only error; General Motors should really have an apostrophe.
Carrying Vauxhall and Opel was optional, not mandatory. Franchise agreements are for a specific brand. You can’t force a dealer to take on a different brand.
It was potentially a good additional business. Opel was the #2 import brand in the late 60s.
Those early Victors didnt last well here in a country that doesnt salt roads but has salt air everywhere they simply evaporated, the bigger Velox 6s hung together better and were marketed by the same dealer you bought Chevrolets from in my home town, Vauxhalls sold exceedingly well here despite the rust.
Late Fifties Vauxhalls were notorious rust bucket. By about 1966 you would have been licky to see one of these anywhere in the UK other than rusting immobile heaps.
An edgy family at church had a pea-green one just like this one when I was 8. I wanted to like it, but the ‘Murcan styling didn’t work all that well, compacted down on those little wheels. And, those bumper pods were more Buick than Pontiac. Still, it would be a hoot to drive one around and get pointed at.
In Chinese speaking markets, Box-hall was the term used for the marque, particularly for the HA Viva, which was a very squarish design.
Vauxhall were a popular car in the British colonies – it was Canada’s #2 import, behind VW and sold under two brand names (Envoy being the other). It was also a popular sight on roads of Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand.
They were even marketed in Japan before that country’s motor industry found its footing in the 1970s.
As for their rust record, anything in the 1950s and 1960s fared poorly – Fiats were even worse and high and mighty Ford adorers should note that rusted MacPherson front mounts often spelt the end of many an Anglia, Cortina and Escort. ADO16s were even more corrosion prone, while the original Mini carried the same rust issues all the way into the 1980s.
I have a 1959 version of “A Small Car in Your Family” by Consumer Reports. It is a fun read and they give a fairly positive review to the Victor. They mention the all synchro transmission and the ride, but dislike the noise level at speed. The best line is about the styling:
“A smooth basic design overlaid with a few gaucheries, it is on the whole a pleasant vehicle.”
They also mention the station wagon, but do not appear to have tested it.
Interesting side fact – the common Russian word for railway station is Vokzal, derived from a Russia language spelling of Vauxhall, used on some 18th century pleasure gardens in St Petersburg.
I assume that’s the local Pontiac dealer? The sign is a wonderful indication of the kind of support the brand was getting. A typical dealer: They didn’t really want the car (small profits on furrin’ cars, plus added complexity for both the parts and service departments), but the didn’t want to lose a sale to the Volkswagen or Renault dealer down the street.
From my understanding GM did not force Pontiac dealers to take on a Vauxhall franchise, it was optional. So the dealer did want these on their lot, and that is the reason they were imported, because enough dealers were asking for smaller cars for fear of loosing customers to those foreign brands.
Yes, it was optional.
Maybe it was a promotion that got you a free tin of pipe tobacco with purchase? 🙂
I wonder if it was intended to help people with pronunciation, in the way Subaru and Hyundai had to do in early ads.
If you hadn’t grown up with the brand, the ‘auxh’ was a very strange-looking letter combination.
Fortunately I had; to Aussies it was ‘Voxawl’.
When I was 6 years old and into identifying all the cars I could, I spotted a rusty old saloon/sedan parked up but couldn’t work out what the name on the badge was or how it was pronounced.
The car was a Vauxhall Victor ‘ F Series’ like in the ad, but the name plate on the rear was split into VAUX HALL with a badge or lock in the centre. Thankfully my father was on hand.
The Vauxhall name (on the South Bank of the Thames) derived from Fulk’s Hall, so in a way it’s not entirely wrong.
Vauxhall did have a habit of breaking up their own name like that on badging at that time, and I can easily see the sign painter working off the car itself, parked right there, rather than a brochure or press release or whoever arranged such things at this dealership spelling it as two words on the work order.
Agreed, and anyway, the dealer who wrote the order wasn’t too flash on his grammar, seeing that “Motors” should be “Motor’s”!
It occurs to me that the amusement the newly-done sign created is why there’s this very photo.
It’s a possessive of a plural; it should be Motors’ (or Motors’s, for those who follow a false religion).
Haha! Just so, and serves me right.
The sign on top of the building? It says (obscured name) MOTOR SALES, which is correct and still in widespread use.
No, the sign in the top photo that says “GENERAL MOTORS OWN FOREIGN CAR”.
D’oh, I was blinded by VAUX HALL and went looking for minutiae.
I love how these look like miniature 1956 Chevys, complete with wraparound windshields.
Pontiac did enjoy multiplying words and syllables. The top four-door wagon in ’58 was the Star Chief Custom Transcontinental Safari.
Hah ! It suits the general gaudiness of the upmarket cars from each GM brand, in that particular year ?
One thinks of the Denbeigh Super Chauvinist, or perhaps the Bulgemobile Firewood station wagon . . .
Excellent Bruce McCall reference! His collection Zany Afternoons is a treasure.
As an Englishman & a committed American car fan, I’m rather embarrassed that this stodgy frumpy unadventurous sedan was England’s best effort in an awesome year like 1958. It could have at least had double headlamps & a more adventurous grille design. It’s not terrible, it’s just ok.
Ah, misspellings! How they contribute to the laughter in this world!
Many years ago I saw a sign on a building that said “ Johnson’s Tool Works”. Somebody spray painted underneath it “So does mine!”.
That sign now works, in a not very PC way.
In that case I think it was a case of typical 1950’s American commercial branding with simplified spelling. They didn’t know about Black vernacular from 50 years later.
I’m trying to imagine the Venn diagram of 1958 Americans who (a) wanted to buy a foreign car and (b) wanted to buy it from an “American” car dealership.
The only overlap my brain is coming up with is tweedy college professors in small college towns that didn’t have a Renault or Volkswagen dealership.
And to tag on to what Syke said above, if I have my history right, Pontiac and Buick dealers were *required* (to what degree I do not know) to carry Vauxhall and Opel respectively, while Ford dealers could choose whether or not they became dealers of what was called “English Ford”.
My home town was a largish college town full of tweedy professors, which had a VW dealer, though I believe Renault was in a neighboring town at the time, only to become local when the R5 and later Alliance/Encore came along at the AMC store. Anyway, as I recall the pre-Cortina English Fords were only sold at an independent import shop. In fact, I thought that the independent also sold Vauxhalls, and only Opel was sold at the corresponding domestic (Buick) dealer. By the way, the splitting of Vaux and Haul isn’t the only error; General Motors should really have an apostrophe.
Carrying Vauxhall and Opel was optional, not mandatory. Franchise agreements are for a specific brand. You can’t force a dealer to take on a different brand.
It was potentially a good additional business. Opel was the #2 import brand in the late 60s.
According to this article https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiPwdzdutz1AhVQHzQIHe2tAPEQFnoECAgQAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpontiacoaklandmuseum.org%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fstorypdf%2FVauxhall-Sold-and-Serviced-by-Pontiac-Dealers-All-Across-America.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0miwwPOs_qU5p4kOMp7otU a separate agreement was required for Pontiac dealers to be able to sell Vauxhalls In other words it was optional to sell them.
Those early Victors didnt last well here in a country that doesnt salt roads but has salt air everywhere they simply evaporated, the bigger Velox 6s hung together better and were marketed by the same dealer you bought Chevrolets from in my home town, Vauxhalls sold exceedingly well here despite the rust.
Late Fifties Vauxhalls were notorious rust bucket. By about 1966 you would have been licky to see one of these anywhere in the UK other than rusting immobile heaps.
Ouch!
Guess they’d really rather sell you a Pontaic?
By the same token. did Ed sell? In Canada, did Chev roll, eh?
An edgy family at church had a pea-green one just like this one when I was 8. I wanted to like it, but the ‘Murcan styling didn’t work all that well, compacted down on those little wheels. And, those bumper pods were more Buick than Pontiac. Still, it would be a hoot to drive one around and get pointed at.
In Chinese speaking markets, Box-hall was the term used for the marque, particularly for the HA Viva, which was a very squarish design.
Vauxhall were a popular car in the British colonies – it was Canada’s #2 import, behind VW and sold under two brand names (Envoy being the other). It was also a popular sight on roads of Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand.
They were even marketed in Japan before that country’s motor industry found its footing in the 1970s.
As for their rust record, anything in the 1950s and 1960s fared poorly – Fiats were even worse and high and mighty Ford adorers should note that rusted MacPherson front mounts often spelt the end of many an Anglia, Cortina and Escort. ADO16s were even more corrosion prone, while the original Mini carried the same rust issues all the way into the 1980s.
If that dealer had sold the Bedford commercials, would they have been Vaux Haul? 🙂
I have a 1959 version of “A Small Car in Your Family” by Consumer Reports. It is a fun read and they give a fairly positive review to the Victor. They mention the all synchro transmission and the ride, but dislike the noise level at speed. The best line is about the styling:
“A smooth basic design overlaid with a few gaucheries, it is on the whole a pleasant vehicle.”
They also mention the station wagon, but do not appear to have tested it.
Interesting side fact – the common Russian word for railway station is Vokzal, derived from a Russia language spelling of Vauxhall, used on some 18th century pleasure gardens in St Petersburg.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/yoursay/weird_words/russian/waterloo_and_vauxhall_vauxhall.shtml