Ford v Vauxhall sales wars of the 1970s and 1980s

During the 1970s and 1980s, car market watchers had a fascinating time following the ongoing sales rivalries between two of Britain's biggest-selling car marques, Ford and Vauxhall.

There were parallels between the two, after all – both were British arms of larger American companies (Ford and GM respectively), which meant, for example, that American styling cues crept into a few of the cars particularly in the early 70s (Ford's Mk3 Cortina and Mk1 Escort, Vauxhall's Viva and Mk4 Victor to cite but four).

Come back in time with us as we revisit this fascinating battle for showroom supremacy. And if you are lucky enough to own one of these amazing Sierras, Escorts or Cavaliers from the time, make sure you give it the protection it deserves with classic car insurance from Lancaster.

1970-74

The very early days of this rivalry, the first half of the 1970s saw Ford coming in a consistent second place in the UK sales chart, always behind the still-dominant British Leyland. Vauxhall, meanwhile, generally occupied fourth place behind Chrysler, whose Hillman models – the Hunter and Avenger – were still going strong.

The most absorbing Ford-Vauxhall rivalry of this era was in the small family car segment, where Vauxhall's elegant saloon, the Viva, went up against a name that was to become synonymous with automobile success for nearly two decades: the Ford Escort.

In 1970, the Mk1 Escort managed third place with the Viva in fifth; the Viva overtook the ageing MK1 Escort the following year. For much of the early and mid 1970s, with the Austin 1100 / 1300 'land crab' showing its age, the Escort and Viva were locked, with the Hillman Avenger, in a three-way race for the small family car crown.

With neither marque yet producing a supermini-sized vehicle, the other big Ford v Vauxhall battleground of this era was in the large family car segment. And here the award has to go unequivocally to Ford.

Ford's Mk3 Cortina is, you could argue, the archetypal car of the early 1970s, with its Coke bottle styling, chrome detailing, and those swaggering looks that call to mind flared trousers, space hoppers and glam-era Bowie. Small wonder that it was the car of choice for DCI Gene Hunt in 70s-inspired TV series Life on Mars.

The decade's best-selling car in the UK, across its final three generations the Cortina would top the UK sales charts for an extraordinary nine years, starting with four years in a row from 1972 to 75. The oh-so-70s Mk3 is now a bolted-down classic, and the boxier Mk4 and Mk5 – which are, after all, equally redolent of another, slightly later era – are surely heading in that direction. If you have managed to hang on to a Cortina of any generation, we’d definitely recommend protecting it with some classic car insurance.

Vauxhall's rival, to be fair, wasn't half bad. The elegant Victor adopted some of the same sinuous, US-derived styling as the Cortina, and arguably looked even a little better for it. It had gone upmarket since its previous generation, though, and sold slightly less well as a result.

Favourite ad: Our favourite from the early 1970s might be the ad for the new Mk3 Cortina. It's an advert of two halves: first the Cortina shows off its rugged, hairy-chested side on the race track, before – cue the music change – it dons pipe and slippers to become the perfect family car (we love the so-very-70s kids rampaging around, seatbelt-free, on the back seat).

1975-79

The later 70s saw Ford seize the top UK sales spot from BL, a position it has occupied ever since. We also witnessed Vauxhall, thanks to freshly styled models like the Chevette and Cavalier, clamber ahead of Chrysler. As far as individual models were concerned, Ford's Cortina and Escort models made the number 1 and number 2 spots their own.

Elsewhere, things got interesting in the supermini sector, with both marques launching their offerings into a section that had so far been colonised by the Renault and Ford 127. Vauxhall got in on the act over a year ahead of Ford, in fact, with the nicely styled Chevette. It became the UK's best-selling hatchback from 1975 through to 1978, when Ford's Fiesta – which had only hit showrooms in January 1977 – took over top honours.

The Chevette deserved its run at the top: it was good-looking, with that famous tapering 'droop-snoot' nose first seen on its larger Firenza sibling, and it was blessed with some remarkably adventurous advertising campaigns (see below).

The Fiesta, meanwhile, had plenty of aces up its sleeve: Ford's first front-wheel-drive car, it was affordable (especially in entry-level Popular guise), reasonably well-equipped and, as was becoming a Ford hallmark, good to drive.

Interesting times in the small family car sector, meanwhile, where Ford introduced the second generation of its Escort saloon. Bearing the squarer looks and black matt grille so typical of mid-70s cars, the Escort Mk2 hit the ground running, coming in second behind its Cortina big brother in the 1975 UK car sales charts. Now starting to look like the product of an earlier generation, the Vauxhall Viva was nonetheless still hanging on in there in sixth place: it would eventually see out the decade, before giving way to the Astra.

Up in the big car sector, Vauxhall's Victor finally reached the end of its 19-year run in 1976 – by which time its replacement, the first-generation Cavalier, was going strong. Like the Chevette, the Cavalier benefited from Vauxhall's new design language, with those slanted headlamps fronting a rather tidily styled saloon. For a year, the Cavalier got to go up against the Mk3 Cortina, whose extravagant, flared early 70s looks were by now beginning to date. And, indeed, 1976 was a blip in the Cortina's overall dominance. The Cavalier peaked as Britain's seventh best-selling car in 1978.

The more conventionally styled fourth generation Cortina had launched in September 1976, however, and that was the cue for Ford's big saloon to regain top spot in 1977. The Cortina would get its best year in 1979, managing close to 200,000 sales.

Favourite ad: The one where a Chevette races off a ramp onto a waiting ship at the Dorset resort of West Bay.

1980-84

The early 80s saw Vauxhall close in on BL for the silver medal in the marque-by-marque sales charts: in 1980 Vauxhall lagged some way behind in third, with 109,000 sales to BL's 270,00, but by 1984 that gap had closed (270,000 to 312,000). Ford, meanwhile, continued to dominate: in its best year, 1983, it put over half a million cars on UK roads.

In terms of individual models, for Ford it was pretty much the Cortina-Escort-Fiesta story throughout this time. The final incarnation of the Cortina was Britain's best-selling car in 1980 and 1981: it stopped production in 1982 but still sold very well in 1983, with dealers anxious to get Cortinas off the showroom floors to make way for the new Sierra.

The Mk2 Cavalier put up a decent fight against the Sierra throughout the mid and late 80s: Britain's fifth and fourth best-selling car in 1982 and 1983 respectively, it hit a peak of second place in 1984 and 1985, second only to the Escort and comfortably outselling, for now, its Sierra rival.

Meanwhile, in supermini land, Vauxhall's Chevette finally made way for the Nova in 1983. The Nova was a fairly successful ‘mini’ shifting nearly 500,000 cars over the next decade. It entered a contested marketplace, though, dominated by the second-generation Fiesta – bigger and comfier than its predecessor – and the Austin Metro… not to mention the Peugeot 205, Nissan Micra and Fiat Uno.

The small family car sector was a bit of a free pass for the new, Mk3 Ford Escort pretty much throughout the decade – it gained top spot in 1982 and sat there until 1989. The Vauxhall Astra Mk1 was a thoroughly decent car, however, which sold well and got Vauxhall right back into the sector after the Viva's long, slow decline. If the Mk1 Astra couldn't quite attain the Escort's success, it did at least have the satisfaction of seeing off the Austin Allegro.

This was also the dawn, let's not forget, of the hot hatch with its rear spoiler, flared wheel arches, side skirts and other fancy cosmetic touches (in the age of the plain black plastic wing mirror, we used to get very excited by the sight of body-coloured mirrors on these sporting models).

Vauxhall added the SR (or SRi) moniker to its sporting Novas and Cavaliers (it stands for Sports Refinement, you know), while the Mk2 Astra got its own derivative, the GTE – complete with a two-litre, 124bhp engine.

Ford's hot hatch lines were the Fiesta XR2 / XR2i, Escort XR3 / XR3i and Sierra XR4i. Yes, there was a time when a bright red 1983 Ford Escort XR3i seemed just about the most desirable car on the planet. Probably. We wanted one then, anyway, and we still want one now. We’d keep it immaculate, take it out for a spin at weekends – and safeguard it with some strong classic car insurance.

Favourite ad: No contest. Has to be the advert for the outgoing Mk1 Cavalier, in which two surprisingly hale and hearty-looking castaways suddenly find a pristine Cavalier GLS landing, from nowhere, on their remote desert island. Keep watching for the twist at the end…

1985-89

This was a time of real dominance for Ford, with its Escort, Sierra and Fiesta models claiming the top three spots each year from 1986 to 1989. The latter was, however, the year that Vauxhall finally overtook BL (or Rover as it now was) as second place. Vauxhall's Cavalier started a gradual decline after its heights of 1984 and 1985, but the Escort-rivalling Mk2 Astra – European Car of the Year for 1985 – put up a very decent fight.

Ford again topped half a million sales every year from 1986 to 1989, in the final year breaking the 600,000 barrier – that was also Vauxhall's best year to date, with just a shade under 350,000 sales.

On the supermini battlefield, the Mk2 Fiesta reached peak sales in 1987 (but still couldn't dislodge its Escort sibling from top spot), while the Nova peaked at seventh in 1989. The Mk4 Escort, which came out in 1986, was more of a facelift than a brand new model: but marque and model alike could do no wrong at this time, and the car continued to survey the UK sales market from its lofty position.

One battle that the Mk2 Astra definitely started winning, towards the end of its production life, was out-and-out, down-the-line top speed. The GTE sports version we alluded to above started coming out in progressively faster iterations, culminating in a smoking 150bhp 16-valve version that could climb well above 130mph, putting the Escort XR3i's top speed of 115 mph (or even the 124mph to be had out of the Escort RS) to shame. Not speeds you'd ever be reaching on Britain's crowded roads, we'd hope: this was surely more about the bragging rights down the pub, or the occasional track day.

Then again, if we're talking speed kings, we can't avoid mentioning the street-legal muscle car that was the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth, good for 149mph should the need ever arise. The Cossie’s rarity (just 5,000 were made) makes this a model for which classic car insurance is going to be essential.

Favourite ad: That would be Richard Briers, now looking more the respectable family man than in his raffish Good Life days, taking his daughter and friend to their Girl Guides camping weekend in the 1985 Sierra – and being roped in to put up the tents by the light of the Sierra's headlamps.

Preserve your classic Ford or Vauxhall through Lancaster

Did you drive one of these Ford or Vauxhall classics back then? Perhaps you still drive one to this day? If so, have you thought about protecting your pride and joy with some specialist classic car insurance?

Contact us for a classic car insurance quote today.

Policy benefits, features and discounts offered may very between insurance schemes or cover selected and are subject to underwriting criteria. Information contained within this article is accurate at the time of publishing but may be subject to change.