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Vauxhall Viva

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The Vauxall Viva was a small family car that we had for a short time. It was made between 1963 and 1979, though we just had a second hand one in the early 1980's (I don't think my dad has bought a new car in his life!).

There was also a Viva van, in fact there were quite a few similar car ranges at the time - the car company Opal had a version of the Viva that was very very similar called the Opal Kadett". The whole world of car manufacturing in the 1970's seems very small.

The car is a classic in a very true sense - it's main competitors in the car market were the Ford Anglia and the Classicman's Classic, The Morris Minor.

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Do You Remember Vauxhall Viva?

Do You Remember Vauxhall Viva?

  • Anonymous user
    on
    Eventually evolved into the Vauxhall Magnum (a Viva with a Victor 2300 cc engine) and the outrageous Droop-Snoot Firenza! (Anybody else remember the late great Gerry Marshall and 'Baby Bertha'? Those were the days!) Whatever happened to Vauxhall's habit of putting the engine from the next model up the range into the one below e.g. Vauxhall Ventora - Victor with a Cresta 3 litre shoe-horned in?
  • Anonymous user
    on
    The picture above shows the HB model, that replaced the HA in '66 and was itself supplanted by the HC in '71. I only remember the HA having a van version, although this remained in production (amazingly) until '83! British Telecom used to use them as service vehicles. The HC estate had huge one-piece back windows like the Austin Allegro estate, although it's curved tail end avoided the Allegro's hearse-like appearance. I had the opportunity of buying one for £50 back in '87, like a fool I didn't.... My sister had a friend in Birmingham whose family owned an HC, it was golden brown- they hardly ever used it, and it ended up being scrapped in the late '80s. A distinctive feature of them was their horizontal, bar-shaped speedo. as oppose to the usual round dial.

Do you remember these?