Vauxhall RAS - Rascal

Bedford was the commercial vehicle side to the Vauxhall car operation and began making trucks in 1931, basically to a Chevrolet design from the late 1920’s. The operation was very successful and grew and grew until by the early 1980s the range went from the HA, Chevanne and CF vans to the export only TJ, the TK, new TL and heavy duty TM as well as the M Type all-wheel drive military trucks and coach chassis. In 1983 Bedford was split from Vauxhall Motors Ltd and was amalgamated into the General Motors Overseas Commercial Vehicle Corporation and reported to the GM Truck & Bus Group in the US. The Midi was launched at the Motor Show in October 1984 to be built and sold alongside the CF2. In 1985 the truck and LCV van production units were separated and all medium van production was centred at a separate plant next to the main Vauxhall plant in Luton.

Unfortunately, because of a lack of significant product investment over the years, sales of Bedford truck built at Dunstable were sliding fast and after a lot of negotiations a merger was almost agreed with the also flagging Leyland trucks that would have saved both companies, unfortunately the Thatcher government got involved and screwed it all up, just like everything else it got involved with. Having totally pissed off GM the inevitable result was the announcement that the Dunstable plant would cease production of Bedford trucks in July 1986. The plant, and truck operation, was eventually sold to AWD early in 1987 (which then went on to go bust in 1992). The Luton van plant continued with production of the CF2 and Midi but with CF2 sales declining an additional product was added through a joint venture with Suzuki which GM had a small stake in at the time, the result was the Suzuki Carry micro van began production in April 1986 along with the almost identical Bedford version which was called Rascal (just who was it thought of that name?)

The van plant was still losing money and the CF2 was about to finish production, the loss of which would undoubtedly add to the losses. A new way forward was needed and it came in the form of a radical joint venture with Isuzu and a new separate company was formed in 1987 called IBC Vehicles (Isuzu Bedford Company). At the time Isuzu were seeking a production base in Europe and General Motors were looking for a commercial vehicle presence in Europe not solely in the UK. The deal meant radical changes in working practices and was nearly voted down by the unions but it scraped through and the deal was signed by Jack Smith of General Motors and Mizusawa-San in October 1987.

The micro-van market was one of the few growth sectors in commercial vehicles both in the UK and in Europe and the new Bedford Rascal was the first to be offered by a British manufacturer and got off to a successful start, Suzuki sales of the Super Carry also increased but in the UK the Rascal outsold it by a large margin, in Europe the reverse was true where the Rascal was sold as a Bedford or a GME Rascal (General Motors Europe) depending on the market. Sold from 1986 to 1993, the Rascal / Supercarry was a small and economical van and pick up, intended for many purposes. The vehicle's strengths were its diminutive size, lively 1.0 engine and maximum payload weight; 550 kg for the van and 575 kg for the pickup.

All vehicles were fitted with a 4 cylinder water cooled 970cc Suzuki F10A SOHC engine mounted longitudinally and inclined to the left, with the transmission mounted at the rear of the engine. All models were rear wheel drive, and have either a four or five speed manual transmission. Throughout the range, the suspension layout was coil-over-damper struts at the front, and leaf springs with dampers at the rear. In addition, van derivatives were fitted with a front anti-roll bar. On all models braking was servo assisted, utilising drums at the rear and discs at the front.

The Rascal / Carry has been marketed under several different badges around the world: Bedford Rascal (UK &some of Europe), GME Rascal (Germany, France, Belgium), Daewoo Damas (Worldwide), Chevrolet Super Carry (Colombia and Venezuela), Chevrolet CMV/CMP (Central America), Holden Scurry (Australia), Maruti Omni, Maruti Versa (India) Ford Pronto, Mazda Scrum, and Mitsubishi Colt T120SS (Japan). Although production ceased in the UK in 1993 to make room for increased Vauxhall Frontera production it carried on in production in Japan until 1999. As an aside in 1998 GM purchased the Isuzu share of the IBC partnership and renamed the plant to GMM Luton (General Motors Manufacturing)