Vauxhall joins in with it's parent companies half a billion car sales celebrations.

• GM celebrates 500 million vehicles produced
• Vauxhall has made ‘a significant contribution’ after 90 years of GM ownership
• GM & Vauxhall continue to innovate after more than a century in business

General Motors today became the first car manufacturer in the world to produce 500 million vehicles, as Vauxhall in the UK – GM’s fourth largest market – celebrated 90 years of ownership by the US company.

‘During 2015, we expect to sell more than 1,000 new vehicles per hour, 24 hours per day,’ said Mary Barra, GM’s CEO. 

‘This adds up to nearly ten million vehicles, the most in our history. I look at this extraordinary volume as ten million opportunities to prove what kind of company we are and to say thank you.’

The landmark figure came 90 years after General Motors purchased Vauxhall in 1925 in what was the American company’s first overseas acquisition. Luton-based Vauxhall, which is Britain’s oldest surviving car manufacturer, very quickly repaid GM’s investment and to date has sold nearly 14.5 million vehicles in its own right.

Like its parent company, which pioneered the automatic transmission, the V-8 engine and the first airbags in a production vehicle, Vauxhall has a long history of innovation too. Just 10 years into GM ownership it produced the DY and DX models, the first British cars with independent front suspension. Two years later the H-type was launched, the first British car to have an integral body and chassis.

But perhaps the most significant achievement for Vauxhall is its 112 years of continuous vehicle production, even during both World Wars when it manufactured the D-type Army Staff Car and Churchill Tank respectively from its Kimpton Road plant in Luton. Today, Vauxhall’s Vivaro van is still built on Kimpton Road, with a further five million vehicles produced by the company’s Ellesmere Port plant since it opened in 1964.

‘Vauxhall has made a significant contribution to GM’s success, and we are very proud to be part of its global family,’ said Tim Tozer, Vauxhall’s Chairman and Managing Director.

World War I Vauxhall, to be part of Centenary Commemorations.

• Legendary D-Type Staff Car to appear at UK events through summer
• Mainstay of military vehicle production: more than 1500 built during WW1
• Vauxhall Heritage’s rare surviving car makes return trip to Ypres

With just three weeks to go before centenary commemorations take place to mark the start of World War One, Vauxhall – Britain’s oldest surviving car manufacturer – is preparing its D-Type Staff Car for events and shows through the summer.

Its first outing will be as part of Brooklands Museum’s display stand at the Farnborough International Airshow, which runs between July 14-20 (public days: July 19-20). From there it will reside at Brooklands Museum (http://www.brooklandsmuseum.com/) during the school holidays, before taking part in Brooklands Great War 100 event on August 3 – a prelude to the Great War Centenary Parade in London on August 4.

Vauxhall was one of a handful of manufacturers who supplied vehicles to the war effort during the 1914-18 conflict. The Luton company produced more than 1500 D-Type Staff Cars for military use, which saw action in theatres as diverse as the Western Front, East Africa, Russia and Palestine.

Derived from the A-type model and built from 1915, the D-Type Staff Car played a vital role during the conflict. With its sturdy chassis and durable four-cylinder, sidevalve 3969cc engine, the D-Type could achieve over 60mph and deal with appalling road surfaces that would tax today’s most high-tech off-roaders.

Regarded by many historians as the ‘First Automobile War’, the ’14-18 conflict saw for the first time companies like Vauxhall, Rolls-Royce and Sunbeam work closely with the British Army to mobilise key personnel. King George V was transported to Vimy Bridge in northern France in a Vauxhall, and the Staff Car was also the first vehicle to cross the Rhine following the Armistice in 1918.

The Morning Post summed up the importance of Vauxhall’s D-Type soon after hostilities had finished: ‘The four-cylinder Vauxhall cars have proved to be the most generally satisfactory of any British make for Staff service.’

The car in the accompanying shots is one of just two D-Type Staff Cars known to survive. ‘IC-0721’ (its military number) appeared in the Steven Spielberg film War Horse, along with Vauxhall Heritage Collection’s ‘Prince Henry’ model. Saved from a London scrapyard in 1946, the car was restored to its original condition and has resided at Vauxhall HQ ever since. Earlier this year, the car returned to Ypres, where it was photographed for a feature in the current issue of Classic & Sports Car magazine.