Vauxhall was not always a car manufacture it all started as a steam/marine engineering company called Alex Wilson & Company in London in 1857. The company then pushed on to be Vauxhall Iron Works in 1894.
Vauxhall first built a car in 1903. Only around 40 cars were built and cost £136. The car was a single-cylinder 5hp car, with an improved 6hp model appearing the following year. The company then moved out of London to Luton in 1905. Two of the cars have survived to this day, and one is part of the Heritage collection at Vauxhall's headquarters in Luton.
In the earlier years Vauxhall cars were exotic offerings, rather than the cars average cars then produce today. Most famous was the 30/98 Prince Henry, the car was made from 1913 to 1928.
Since 1903 to present Vauxhall has been one of the longest lived British marques of all, although for most of that time it has been under American ownership. In 1926 General Motors bought the company after there weak position due to poor sales. This then forced Vauxhall to sell average smaller cars.
Since then Vauxhall celebrated its centenary in 2003 with the presentation of the VX Lightning concept car and the attendance of General Motors chairman Rick Wagoner, who announced that the 2004 Astra will be built at Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.
