From The Classifieds: 1939 Vauxhall 14/6

Well before the 48-215 Holden was introduced in 1948, General Motors in Australia was assembling a diverse range of cars – none of which wore the Holden badge.

But Holden as a vehicle assembler and coachbuilder was well established. It had been snapped up by General Motors in 1931 and from that point exclusively assembled The General’s products for Australian delivery.

Among the foreign brands General Motors-Holden’s (GMH) assembled in Australia right up until the late 1960s was Vauxhall, the British subsidiary owned by GM.

Once an honoured name, Vauxhall was known for building quick cars in the early years of the 20th Century; cars that would comfortably win hillclimbs and reach 100MPH (160km/h) with a 3.0-litre engine. In their home country they were apparently the choice of robbers for their turn of speed; able to outrun police in anything less than the Flying Squad’s 4.5-litre Invictas.

Then, in 1925, General Motors acquired Vauxhall. Instead of continuing with prestige and high-performance models for the well-heeled, Vauxhall was directed to build volume sellers. It was, in fairness, a strategy that helped the brand weather the Great Depression, when many of its peers did not.

It wasn’t until the 1970s that Vauxhall got back into the business of building high-performance cars – and by then they were rebadged Opels anyway.

In 2002 the company introduced the Lotus-built VX220 Roadster, which breathed some new life into the brand, as did the later Holden Monaro-based VXR and the VXR8 -- an HSV ClubSport R8 by a different name.

When GM owned Vauxhall between 1925 and the 1970s – after Opel became GM’s ascendant subsidiary in Europe and in other parts of the world – its products were pedestrian and the brand was a shadow of its former self.

Enter this as-advertised Vauxhall 14/6 from 1939: utterly conventional, rear-wheel drive and powered by a six-cylinder engine, albeit displacing just 1.8 litres. The owner hasn’t given away much about it in the blurb, but the body looks straight, albeit in need of a coat of paint. The current owner also reckons the interior could do with some work, but the engine runs, and there’s a brief video of the engine doing exactly that.

At $7500, it’s not exactly a bargain buy, despite its age. Nor is it obscenely expensive though, when you consider the car’s history. It was built by Holden – presumably in the factory at Fishermans Bend just a couple of years before the company turned over its production to artillery and Bristol Beaufort parts for the war effort.

To bring this particular Vauxhall up to tip-top condition is going to require some money spent. The car is based in Victoria, so interstate buyers will need to factor in shipping and registration in their home state.

What’s more, this is no HT GTS 350 Monaro. Don’t expect its value to escalate in leaps and bounds, but nor is it likely to go backwards.

The worth of this car – to a speculator or enthusiast – rests with its curiosity value. It’s a pre-war car, built at a time when the Holden brand didn’t exist as a distinct entity from General Motors, so it actually pre-dates the whole ‘Australia’s own’ mythos.

And as a Holden-built Vauxhall that’s rarer than the once ubiquitous Velox and Wyvern models from the 1950s, this model can justifiably claim to offer the buyer some exclusivity. After all, you’re not going to see a Vauxhall 14/6 from the 1930s on the road every day.

See previous carsales From the Classifieds