► Ford vs Vauxhall
► Why Vauxhall is winning
► What Ford needs to do

The European mainstream car industry has never faced so much peril. Its continued existence is put into doubt by the push into Europe of Chinese car makers – and the buying public’s ready acceptance of their value-led products. The likes of Omoda, BYD and Jaecoo have all grown rapidly, and are far from finished.

Those European manufacturers most at risk, at least according to some analysts, are not BMW and other premium manufacturers, nor the cheap Dacias in this world, but the long-established mainstream brands, such as Ford and Vauxhall (that’s in the UK; Vauxhalls are Opels in other European markets). Some of their cars are very good, but many are pretty ordinary and sell on factors including habit and loyalty to a local dealer.

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Ford in Europe massively took its eye off the ball by discontinuing the Focus and Fiesta – two cars that were both good value and good to drive. Coming back from that is going to take some almighty magic wand waving. There was a logic to the decision – they were both getting old and the market was moving towards SUVs and EVs, so switching the focus to the Puma, Kuga, Explorer and Capri made a kind of sense. But killing two of its best-selling and best-loved models was utterly tone-deaf to the views of its customers. And then the momentum went out of the transition to electric. Ford seemed to be saying: ‘You’ll buy the cars we think you should have and not the ones you want.’

Vauxhall has stuck with its Fiesta and Focus equivalents, the Corsa and Astra, and has made them available with a choice of powertrains including electric. That wasn’t an easy or cheap decision to make, but I think it was the right one. It showed that Vauxhall wasn’t taking the loyalty of its customers for granted. To Vauxhall’s absolute credit, it hasn’t been complacent and has thought about how it can remain relevant. And it’s succeeding, with a clear message that so many car firms have forgotten: it’s on the side of its customers. 

I had a 2008 Corsa as my first car, my brother also had a Corsa and the majority of my mates also got Corsas when they were 17. They were everywhere. That familiarity made me pigeonhole Vauxhall as the maker of cars for new drivers, or families on a budget – ‘oh, that Astra at the local dealer will do’ – but not the maker of cars you aspired to. You had a Vauxhall for a while, it served a purpose, and then you moved on to better and brighter things.

But I now understand Vauxhall’s purpose more than I’ve ever done. At a recent Vauxhall event, where it was launching the slightly updated latest Astra, I asked a straight question, not really expecting a straight answer: ‘Who actually buys a Vauxhall these days?’

A similar question at an Omoda event was met with a rather meaningless response: ‘Modern, trend-savvy, eco-minded drivers.’ Useful, thanks. 

But Vauxhall’s head of product, Emma Robinson, didn’t beat about the bush: ‘We appeal to normal people. Just a normal working-class person. Our bread-and-butter customers who want value for money but they don’t want to compromise on quality, and that’s what we’re good at.’

If your idea of Vauxhall is based on its cars of a generation ago, you might be pleasantly surprised by what currently wears the griffin badge. Some seismic and meaningful changes have been made in recent years. Practically all Vauxhall’s cars have had significant price cuts and its leasing deals are consistently among the lowest around. A new Frontera for £120 per month? If you want a new car and price is the decider, it’s hard not to be drawn in. Even the booming Chinese competitors aren’t giving their cars away at that kind of figure. 

A year ago when Vauxhall introduced the Frontera (an old name for a new car), that was the first model to achieve price parity between combustion and electric versions. The EV in fact now costs less than the petrol Frontera thanks to the government’s electric car grant. 

Vauxhall has now gone a step further on its updated Astra. Regardless of whether you choose it as an EV, a plug-in hybrid or a petrol mild-hybrid, it costs the same. And whether you opt for the hatchback or estate version, there’s no price difference. It means that base cars have risen by a few hundred pounds, but electric and plug-in hybrid models are now around £5000 cheaper. 

‘It’s about simplification. There’s so much choice, you’ve got to make it easy for customers. It’s down to the sales executive and customer to work out what body style and what powertrain suits those needs,’ says Robson. 

‘It makes it a lot easier. If you make it simple you get more consideration from customers because they’ve maybe seen the buying journey as a bit confusing. Stripping it back makes it easy, and hopefully that makes it easier for customers to put us on their shopping list.’

Vauxhall says it’s also benefitted from Ford’s decision to stop selling the Fiesta. 

‘We’ve certainly seen our Corsa sales increase since the Fiesta was taken out of the market, so the fact that some of the competition have lost their focus makes it a bit easier.’

Corsa sales climbed from 27,118 registrations in 2024 to 35,497 in 2025, not only re-entering the top 10 but taking the position of Britain’s fifth most popular car last year. 

Vauxhall is also confronting the uphill challenge of slowly converting motorists to EVs with a more head-on solution than most. With a campaign called Electric Streets, it’s aiming to support the 40 per cent of drivers who don’t have off-street parking. It invites motorists to say what charging infrastructure they would like on their street, and in those areas that are lacking it will help lobby the local authority to install chargers. 

When anyone buys an electric Vauxhall they’ll also get £500 off a wallbox, or if home charging isn’t an option then they’ll instead get £500 of public-charging credit. In addition owners get 50,000 Tesco Clubcard points (worth £500 to spend with Tesco) and eight years of roadside assistance. 

It’s worth noting that Ford also has a similarly generous offer on its EVs, though its prices are generally higher.

None of this transforms a Frontera into a highly desirable car, but making it easier to choose, buy and own one helps it stand more of a chance against the ever increasing competition.