VAUXHALL CAVALIER Mk2 (1981-1988)
With the UK’s company car market dramatically expanding by the mid-1960s, aided by the resounding success of Ford’s Mk1 Cortina, it’s perhaps surprising that it took another decade for Vauxhall to fully embrace this important sector. It had, of course, been able to offer the compact Viva saloon since 1963, but it took until 1975 for Vauxhall to properly compete against the mighty Cortina (by then in Mk3 guise) with the first-generation Cavalier.
That traditionally engineered original Cavalier did much to expand Vauxhall’s market share in the second half of the ’70s. It didn’t threaten the Cortina’s dominance at the top of the sales charts, but its role as Vauxhall’s first real rival to Ford’s biggest seller saw it eating into its market share. In 1978, for example, the Cavalier attracted 55,373 buyers, making it Britain’s seventh bestselling car of the
