Lawrie,
it's good to hear you had such a good time in England, fortunately there's a
feeling for heritage
and style there that makes for a great atmosphere in cars, houses, lifestyle
etc. You wrote:
> I just returned from two weeks in England. I put 930 miles on a Vauxhall
> Vectra (1.8 liter engine, fwd, 5-speed four dour) which - made by GM -
> should be equivalent to the Pontiac Sunfire and Oldsmobile Achieva
<snip>
> Seriously, it was interesting for me to see just how well a modern British
> car goes
Actually, the Vectra is a German Opel, another GM subsidiary and I think the
largest
manufacturer in Europe. Only in England the thing is called a Vauxhall, the car
is built
(assembled?) there and the only british design are the grille and the badges. A
sporty but ugly
coupe called Calibra is based on the same car.
If you'd be interested in this kind of car in the States: the bottom and the
mechanicals of the
current Saab 900 are the same as the Vectra's. Saab even had to swallow the
GM/Opel V6,
even though Saab has always promoted 4 cylinder engines. This engine (and the
2L-4cyl.) is
also used a lot by people building their own Lotus 7 derivative.
Peter
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