Two - The American Takeover of Vauxhall

Summary

Vauxhall's continued existence beyond the niid-1920s could only be assured if production and model policies changed and if it attracted sufficient capital. The acquisition of Vauxhall by General Motors in 1925 was the fertile seed of an overseas manufacturing division which was to make Vauxhall one of the six largest motor vehicle producers in Britain in the late 1930s.

The history of the purchase was not without controversy and this was to hinder greatly policy-making and development in the company until the end of the decade. Within the British motor industry resentment focussed on the acquisition of a respected marque by an American mass producer. The Vauxhall Board clearly did not want the reputation of Vauxhall diminished under its new owners; and the members of the GM Board wrangled amongst themselves about what to do with this unpromising, relatively small company and whether a large injection of capital would be worthwhile. Ford did not arouse the same hostility because he had established a British base well before the War when the car industry was in its infancy; but of more importance Ford did not purchase any established British car companies. GM's acquisition of Vauxhall was seen by many as cynical commercialism in order to avoid tariff duties, and thence to turn the company into a ‘dismal’ mass producer of ‘unworthy successor (s) to the immortal 30/98/’

Conscious of these criticisms particularly in the climate of British economic nationalism fostered by William Morris, among others, GM developed a managerial policy whereby Vauxhall was seen to be run by British management, employing a British workforce and making a British product. This also had the effect of allowing Vauxhall to have considerable autonomy in running its own affairs within the GM structure.

The motivation behind the General Motor's purchase was to secure an industrial base behind British tariff barriers which had been increasingly difficult to breach after the slump in car prices in 1921. In the post-war boom American car exports had sold well in Britain; and 420,000 GM cars and trucks had been sold abroad, mainly in Britain, France and Germany in 1920.

In that year General Motors Overseas Operations (GMOO) felt sufficient optimism about the British market to open an assembly plant at Hendon Aerodrome in the London suburbs.”