Bedford Vehicles

Bedford Vehicles, usually shortened to just Bedford, was a brand of vehicle manufactured by Vauxhall Motors, then a subsidiary of multinational corporation General Motors. Established in April 1931, Bedford Vehicles was set up to build commercial vehicles. The company was a leading international lorry brand, with substantial export sales of light, medium, and heavy lorries throughout the world. Bedford's core heavy trucks business was divested by General Motors (GM) as AWD Trucks in 1987, whilst the Bedford brand continued to be used on light commercial vehicles and car-derived vans based on Vauxhall/Opel, Isuzu and Suzuki designs. The brand was retired in 1991. The van manufacturing plant of Bedford, now called GM Manufacturing Luton, is now owned and operated by Stellantis, following Vauxhall's acquisition by PSA Group in 2017. Until 1925, General Motors assembled trucks in Britain from parts manufactured at its Canadian works. This enabled them to import vehicles into Britain under Imperial Preference, which favoured products from the British Empire as far as import duties were concerned. Such trucks were marketed as "British Chevrolet". In November 1925, GM purchased Vauxhall Motors with production transferred from Hendon to Luton, Vauxhall's headquarters, production commencing there in 1929. The AC and LQ models were produced at Luton from 1929 to 1931, and styled as the "Chevrolet Bedford", taking the name from the county town of Bedfordshire, in which Luton is located. The AC was bodied as a light van (12 cwt), and the LQ in a wide variety of roles, including a lorry, ambulance, van and bus versions. The name "Chevrolet" was dropped, and the first Bedford was produced in April 1931. This vehicle, a 2-ton lorry, was virtually indistinguishable from its LQ Chevrolet predecessor, apart from detail styling of the radiator, and was available as the WHG with a wheelbase, or as the WLG with a longer wheelbase of . However, the Chevrolet LQ and AC continued in production alongside the new product for a further year.