Vauxhall Belmont
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The Vauxhall Belmont was a saloon car sold in the United Kingdom by Vauxhall, the British subsidiary of General Motors between 1984 and 1991.
With hatchbacks now firmly established as the preferred bodystyle in small European family cars, there was less demand for saloons. So during the 1980s, many European manufacturers sold saloon versions of their big selling hatchbacks with different nameplates. Ford's saloon version of the Escort hatchback was badged the Orion and Volkswagen's Golf-based saloon was sold as the Jetta, so it seemed inevitable that Vauxhall/Opel would launch a saloon version of the award winning Astra/Kadett which went on sale across Europe in the autumn of 1984.
Vauxhall/Opel's answer to the Ford Orion and Volkswagen Jetta was the Belmont, which wore the Belmont badge in the UK. In the rest of Europe, Opel did not differentiate between the saloon and other models in the Kadett range. (In South Africa, it was called the Monza, not to be confused with the larger model sold in Europe.) Apart from the name it was very much a saloon version of the Astra. The only other major differences were extra rear legroom and a less gloomy interior, but the Belmont was almost as big as a Vauxhall Cavalier. It was mechanically identical to the Astra hatchback, using the same engines, chassis and suspension.
When Vauxhall/Opel introduced an all-new Astra in the summer of 1991, the Belmont nameplate was shelved, having never being able to match its hatchback twin for sales success.
In late 2004, it was revealed that the Belmont was the most stolen car in the United Kingdom in terms of ratio stolen, with 1978 vehicles stolen in 2003, which is around 99 out of every 1000 Belmonts registered.
GMH Australia sold an unrelated model named Belmont during the 1970s, being a base Kingswood.
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