In September 1963, the announcement was made that Vauxhall was to return to the 1-litre economy market with an entirely new two-door saloon called the Viva. This car had been rumoured for some time, and was initially available in standard and de luxe forms. It was not too long before Vauxhall was enjoying another sales success.

The Viva design was simplicity itself. The Vauxhall styling shop had started with a clean sheet of paper. This time there was to be no American style influences. The American styling refers to the conventional three box design, as most American cars at the time were produced under. The Viva did however look very much like the Opel Kadett (Did someone mention badged engineering?) However a new 1057cc cast-iron engine, that shared the stroke as the Kadett would be fitted, but it would have a larger bore.

The models were as follows, I have included models up to 1973:

BMC thought that with Vauxhall announcing new models it would loose out, mainly because Vauxhall were offering a model for all classes of people. Prices of these models produced also made BMC sit up and think that Vauxhall were producing a car that people could afford. Prices for a Viva HA were £528 (Basic model) and £566 (De Luxe).

17 selling features of the 1100 over the Vauxhall Viva:

Did the 1100 outsell the Viva? Well from figures gathered adding production of all Viva models together the total is some 1,615,005 and the 1100 was approx. 2,078,384 (that's only in 1971!)

Information gathered from "The Viva - The baby that grew up" and various other sources. Thanks must go to Declan Berridge for supplying the aforementioned article.

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