*1954 MY BROTHER UPGRADES - VESTIGIAL CHROMED FLUTES

1954 VAUXHALL SEDAN - THERE WAS A SECOND OPTION WITH A SILLY LOOKING ABBREVIATED BOOT

In 1954 my older brother Pat bit the bullet and bought a brand new car. A Vauxhall of course, maintaining the link with his earler Tourer. He chose an Olive Green Vauxhall Wyvern which was the 4 Cylinder version of the car . I have very pleasant memories of the car. Which seemed to me at age 14 to be very pleasant and neat and quiet in operation.

It was an interesting offering from General Motors'U.K. operation. If you follow the design outline, it was a shrunken version of the Chevrolet "Fleetmaster"of 1948.

The shrinking process had its costs. It made the car look slightly "Dinky", especiially when there were still plenty of Chev. Fleetmasters on the street, since U.S. Dollar imports had been eased under the Liberal Government elected in 1949. The Vauxhall also looked small when compared to G.M.'s new Australian Car the Holden which had commenced production in 1948. It was yet another shrunken version of the Chev Fleetmaster - but not reduced as far as the Vauxhall.

 Even though it featured still a divided windscreen, the Holden result was far happier in appearance than the Vauxhall which  by comparison looked relatively feeble . My brother had I think, been led astray from sensible choice by brand loyalty!

The saddest aspect of the Vauxhall design was the reduction of the traditional and iconic Chromed Flutes on the edge of the bonnet, to mere vestigial traces - the times were a'changin 'even then!

How different the world of automotive manufacturing is to-day! So many of the Brands of those days are gone, the companies that made them are gone and car designs have become truly international with only modest tweaking for vastly different markets.The high cost of developing and manufacturing a new model is nw so high that economies of scale have had to be achieved even at the cost of mergers and acquisitions and co-operative deals that in the past would have been unthinkable are now routine. In recent years Ford has owned Jaguar, SAAB and VOLVO. VW has owned AUDI etc etc.

My brother's auto adventures continued so stay tuned. Then there have been my own....be prepared!