:Jerry: wrote:
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Steve Firth wrote:
I didn't say that, but if you want an up dated Minor the Marina
does
fit the bill
Errm wasn't the Marina more of an Austin Cambridge than a Minor?
Not really. The basic one (1300) was more Minor - engine and
suspension,
etc. The larger one (1800) had a B Series engine.

In terms of interior space it was closer to the Farina range. The
estate
especially was pretty spacious.


The silly thing is, with a bit more refinement [1], such as using
either the Midget or MGB front axle, a better gearbox and better
method of securing / suspending the rear axle the Marina could have
been a good car. Both the Maxi and the later Marina are prime examples
of what went wrong with B(L)MC. :~(


Not really. MGB and Midget front axles were high maintenance abortions:
McPherson struts were cheap and OK, and a live rear axle was no worse
than an escort.

The real problem wasn't design per se, but manufacturing quality.

They rusted faster than an escort, and all the switches and knobs broke
(off)

At the time when the Europeans were coming in with galvanized bodies,
full underseal etc etc it simply wasn't acceptable enough (for a private
buy)or cheap enough (for fleet use).


Its amazing that in a world of "me too" cars you juts have to be
slightly cheaper or slightly better to capture a huge slice of the
market. The Ford Escort was slightly cheaper and slightly better IIRC.

So was the Vauxhall Viva. A very decent little McPherson strut live rear
axle thing. Or its bigger brother..the one before the cavalier..


[1] relitive to what was then current.

In article , The Natural
Philosopher writes

So was the Vauxhall Viva. A very decent little McPherson strut live rear
axle thing. Or its bigger brother..the one before the cavalier..

Chevette?

--
(\__/) Bunny says NO to Windows Vista!
(='.'=) http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut00...ista_cost.html
(")_(")

Mike Tomlinson wrote:
In article , The Natural
Philosopher writes

So was the Vauxhall Viva. A very decent little McPherson strut live rear
axle thing. Or its bigger brother..the one before the cavalier..

Chevette?

Na, the shoveit was an Astra sized car. Cresta perhaps.

--
Cheers,

John.

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John Rumm wrote:
Mike Tomlinson wrote:
In article , The Natural
Philosopher writes

So was the Vauxhall Viva. A very decent little McPherson strut live
rear axle thing. Or its bigger brother..the one before the cavalier..

Chevette?

Na, the shoveit was an Astra sized car. Cresta perhaps.

No.. the one that was almost an Opel Manta, but with 4 doors..
Cresta was earlier. I thought it *was* the chevette..

Not the omega, but close...

The last sort of 1.6-2 liter RWD that vauxhall did ...

Lets think. The cresta was yonks old, as was the Victor then there was
the viva and the Chevette and then the Astra in the smaller sizes. The
Chevette was the Opel Kadett IMMSMW..

Ah, Look in Wiki.

The first cavaliers WERE RWD Opel Asconas.
That the one. MkI Cavalier.


Then they went FWD with an alarmingly well selling car The MKII Cavalier.

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

John Rumm wrote:
Mike Tomlinson wrote:
In article , The Natural
Philosopher writes

So was the Vauxhall Viva. A very decent little McPherson strut live rear axle thing. Or its bigger brother..the one before the cavalier..

Chevette?

Na, the shoveit was an Astra sized car. Cresta perhaps.

No.. the one that was almost an Opel Manta, but with 4 doors..
Cresta was earlier. I thought it *was* the chevette..

Yup, you are right, I just realised that by "the one before the
cavalier" he meant in terms of model range, rather than production
dates. Cresta was cav sized but predated it by a few years.


--
Cheers,

John.

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John Rumm wrote:

Yup, you are right, I just realised that by "the one before the
cavalier" he meant in terms of model range, rather than production
dates. Cresta was cav sized but predated it by a few years.

Cresta, the last of the really ugly ones, (though thereafter was not a
great improvement). As a child c1960 I remember a really ugly one across
the road - Velox? - somehow the association of Vauxhall and ugly rust
heap persists in my mind to this day.


--
djc

djc wrote:
John Rumm wrote:

Yup, you are right, I just realised that by "the one before the
cavalier" he meant in terms of model range, rather than production
dates. Cresta was cav sized but predated it by a few years.

Cresta, the last of the really ugly ones, (though thereafter was not a
great improvement). As a child c1960 I remember a really ugly one across
the road - Velox? - somehow the association of Vauxhall and ugly rust
heap persists in my mind to this day.


Vauxhall Victor.

Or its its slightly more useful form. the BEDFORD CA MK2.


Column shift, and sliding doors...

The message
from djc contains these words:

Cresta, the last of the really ugly ones, (though thereafter was not a
great improvement). As a child c1960 I remember a really ugly one across
the road - Velox? - somehow the association of Vauxhall and ugly rust
heap persists in my mind to this day.

In the 50s and early 60s the Cresta was the deluxe edition of the Velox
and would have looked much the same externally. I don't know exactly
when then Velox name was dropped but it was probably somewhere around
1965.

--
Roger Chapman

In article ,
John Rumm wrote:
Yup, you are right, I just realised that by "the one before the
cavalier" he meant in terms of model range, rather than production
dates. Cresta was cav sized but predated it by a few years.

The Cresta was the large Vauxhall model of the day. The Victor would have
been closer to the Cavalier.

--
*Proofread carefully to see if you any words out or mispeld something *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
John Rumm wrote:
Yup, you are right, I just realised that by "the one before the
cavalier" he meant in terms of model range, rather than production
dates. Cresta was cav sized but predated it by a few years.

The Cresta was the large Vauxhall model of the day. The Victor would have
been closer to the Cavalier.

I thought the Viscount was the Carlton class one?

--
Cheers,

John.

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"John Rumm" wrote in message
...
Mike Tomlinson wrote:
In article , The Natural
Philosopher writes

So was the Vauxhall Viva. A very decent little McPherson strut live rear
axle thing. Or its bigger brother..the one before the cavalier..

Chevette?

Na, the shoveit was an Astra sized car. Cresta perhaps.

It was the 'VX' model, they did a 4/90 and a VX1800 IIRC. Looked just like a
large Viva and rusted away before your eyes just like the Viva!

"Julian" wrote in message
...

"John Rumm" wrote in message
...
Mike Tomlinson wrote:
In article , The Natural
Philosopher writes

So was the Vauxhall Viva. A very decent little McPherson strut live
rear axle thing. Or its bigger brother..the one before the cavalier..

Chevette?

Na, the shoveit was an Astra sized car. Cresta perhaps.

It was the 'VX' model, they did a 4/90 and a VX1800 IIRC. Looked just like
a large Viva and rusted away before your eyes just like the Viva!


Here's a link:

http://www.brasiliapress.com/images/ld-32a-vauxhall.jpg

Julian wrote:

It was the 'VX' model, they did a 4/90 and a VX1800 IIRC. Looked just like a
large Viva and rusted away before your eyes just like the Viva!

I would have said the Victor. with the VX4/90 being the bigger brother
again!

:¬)

Pete
--
http://www.gymrATZ.CO.UK
Gym equipment, Fitness Equipment and Loads of stuff!

The message
from "Pete @ www.GymRatZ.co.uk"
contains these words:

It was the 'VX' model, they did a 4/90 and a VX1800 IIRC. Looked
just like a
large Viva and rusted away before your eyes just like the Viva!

I would have said the Victor. with the VX4/90 being the bigger brother
again!

I don't know about the later models but the first VX4/90 was in a Victor
body shell and was I think badged as a Victor.

--
Roger Chapman

In article ,
Pete @ www.GymRatZ.co.uk wrote:
Julian wrote:

It was the 'VX' model, they did a 4/90 and a VX1800 IIRC. Looked just
like a large Viva and rusted away before your eyes just like the
Viva!

I would have said the Victor. with the VX4/90 being the bigger brother
again!

The VX4/90 was simply a slightly more powerful Victor. But basically the
same car.

--
*A journey of a thousand sites begins with a single click *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Mike Tomlinson wrote:
In article , The Natural
Philosopher writes

So was the Vauxhall Viva. A very decent little McPherson strut live rear
axle thing. Or its bigger brother..the one before the cavalier..

Chevette?


Yup. That's the boyki!