A Vauxhall Puzzle

Browse pages
Current page

1

Current page

2

Current page

3

Current page

4

Current page

5

Current page

6

Current page

7

Current page

8

Current page

9

Current page

10

Current page

11

Current page

12

Current page

13

Current page

14

Current page

15

Current page

16

Current page

17

Current page

18

Current page

19

Current page

20

Current page

21

Current page

22

Current page

23

Current page

24

Current page

25

Current page

26

Current page

27

Current page

28

Current page

29

Current page

30

Current page

31

Current page

32

Current page

33

Current page

34

Current page

35

Current page

36

Current page

37

Current page

38

Current page

39

Current page

40

Current page

41

Current page

42

Current page

43

Current page

44

Current page

45

Current page

46

Current page

47

Current page

48

Current page

49

Current page

50

Current page

51

Current page

52

Current page

53

Current page

54

Current page

55

Current page

56

Current page

57

Current page

58

Current page

59

Current page

60

Current page

61

Current page

62

Current page

63

Current page

64

Current page

65

Current page

66

Current page

67

Current page

68

Current page

69

Current page

70

Current page

71

Current page

72

Current page

73

Current page

74

Current page

75

Current page

76

Current page

77

Current page

78

Current page

79

Current page

80

Current page

81

Current page

82

Current page

83

Current page

84

Current page

85

Current page

86

Current page

87

Current page

88

Current page

89

Current page

90

Current page

91

Current page

92

Current page

93

Current page

94

Current page

95

Current page

96

Current page

97

Current page

98

Current page

99

Current page

100

Current page

101

Current page

102

Current page

103

Current page

104

Current page

105

Current page

106

Current page

107

Current page

108

Current page

109

Current page

110

Current page

111

Current page

112

Current page

113

Current page

114

Current page

115

Current page

116

It seems that surprises can occur when you drive a Vauxhall. While I was stationary in the road test Astra GTE in an abnormal Christmas traffic jam in Hereford, someone jumped out of a car behind, tapped on the window, and gave my wife a potted plant, with a cry of “Good luck to Motor Sport“. A few days later, driving home to Wales on Boxing Day in a Cavalier SRi, I stopped for a snack lunch at a well-known roadside cafe and was recognised by a motorcycle enthusiast who asked me if I would care to join him. Warmed by those unexpected happenings, I had a surprise of a different kind while watching the TV version of Agatha Christie’s detective story, “The Body in the Library”, when the burnt-out car essential to the mystery was described, more than once, as a Vauxhall “Coaster”. To my knowledge there was no such Vauxhall model.

So the mystery within a mystery is, did the producer make a mistake, intending the car to be called a Vauxhall Cresta, the well-known model that was in production front 1955 to 1971 in various forms, or was the name “Coaster” used as an alibi, or as a libel-fender (surely not?), or for what? As the play abounded in pre-war cars, like the Derby-Bentley of the country Squire, the SS 90 or 100 of the playboy-actor and many others, a Cresta would have been incorrect, anyway, and my guess is that a Vauxhall Cadet may have been intended, in keeping with the 1931-33 period. Whether this anomaly is peculiar to the TV play or was perpetrated by the book’s famous author I do not know, because this title is not among my wife’s Agatha collection and, being an avid Sherlockian, I lay no claim to knowing intimately the Christie saga! Over to the Vauxhall OC? — W.B.