Talk:Vauxhall Viva

Sightings

Well, when I arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1996 I looked out of the aeroplane window and saw a Viva HC!

I see an HA most days on the way to work in Harlow, UKMr Larrington (talk) 14:44, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

I spotted this this Special in the Netherlands. Not sure which model or date. Would be nice to have a table of all the models on the page one day — Preceding unsigned Adrian Mars (talk) 17:16, 15 December 2018 (UTC)comment added by Amars (talk • contribs) 16:31, 15 December 2018 (UTC)

It's a Viva HC ("the third one") Charles01 (talk) 16:36, 15 December 2018 (UTC)

Tables are often a good idea. Different people digest information from different sources, but lots of us have got used to reading and interpreting tables. I've no idea what kind of table you advocate, but if you have time, you should add it. Probably you should find an existing table that comes close to what you have in mind and then improve on it for the Viva. But do what works for you, not what might or might not work for me. Charles01 (talk) 16:40, 15 December 2018 (UTC)

Absolutely, doesn't have to be a table just a complete list of models, the Special I found for example isn't mentioned on the page. If I find one I'll add it. Adrian Mars (talk) 17:16, 15 December 2018 (UTC)

Salt

as with a lot of other British cars of that period, many Vivas failed to survive long term, not so much due to their poor corrosion protection, but more due to local British councils putting salt on the roads to melt ice during the winter.

Er, so does that mean that councils no longer use salt, or that cars are now made from materials that do not require corrosion protection? As someone whose first, very elderly, car was a Viva HA which progressively disintegrated in this way, I'm mightily relieved to hear that it was all the council's fault, and not in any way due to poor design! Pterre (talk) 18:19, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

Local councils in the UK still use rock salt. I'm afraid it was the car, like most of the period rust was their nemesis. See for example, http://www.rochdale.gov.uk/parking-roads-and-transport/gritting-and-winter-service/Pages/salt-myths-facts.aspx Adrian Mars (talk) 17:14, 15 December 2018 (UTC)

British drivers expect major roads to be kept completely free of snow and ice - there's no tradition of driving on snow with winter tyres there. Roads are treated with a mixture of grit and crushed rock salt. This caused awful problems for the cars of the 1960s, which were being driven for much longer distances on salty surfaces than earlier models. The corrosion problems lessened gradually in the 70s as manufacturers improved their rustproofing, but even today structural corrosion is the most common reason for a car to be scrapped in Britain. The Viva HA was no more rust prone than its contemporaries. --Ef80 (talk) 14:41, 4 November 2023 (UTC)

Brabham

I know the Torana HB Brabham was sold in Australia but was it sold anywhere else?  Stepho  talk  14:35, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

I dimly remember a "Brabham" version - I think of the Vauxhall Viva HB - in the UK. It was a bit more than a Viva "special edition". Jack Brabham was a bit of a sporting hero here, too. But I don't have any source to hand to support wiki-stuff. Success Charles01 (talk) 15:25, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Okay, I've learnt something new. I've got a Torana book that has details of the Australian version but it has no details about where it was sold (apart from the obvious one of Australia).  Stepho  talk 

Elvis Costello trivia

Regarding the mention of the Viva in the Elvis Costello song - it is well referenced and accurate but according to WP:TRIVIA it is not relevant. Otherwise it sets a precedence for making a long, boring list of every song, movie, advert or TV show that the Viva ever appeared in. Unless the mention in the song materially affected the car, its sales, its place in the world or the world then it should not be in this article.  Stepho  talk  12:55, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

What did the "90" mean?

It's certainly nothing to do with the horsepower, so is it the torque (maybe in Nm rather than lbft), or just a signifier that it can reach and maintain 90mph, which a 44hp car with 1960s aerodynamics and gearing certainly couldn't? 87.114.14.230 (talk) 22:11, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

The earlier Vauxhall VX4/90 was thusly named in reference to the top speed, maybe the Viva 90's name was a reference to that car? Can't seem to find any good information on this matter.  Mr.choppers | ✎  01:57, 20 February 2014 (UTC)

I was going to guess that it had a 90" wheelbase (actually 91.5" but with a bit of rounding in the name). But http://www.vauxhallviva.com/?page_id=41 says that '90' designated the high compression engine (power went from standard 44 hp to 60 hp). I'm going to guess that it had a 9.0 compression ratio.  Stepho  talk  05:31, 20 February 2014 (UTC)

I think I remember reading that it was because the car could manage 90 mph which would if true have been quite a lot for a small car at the mid 1960s. Back then it was in any case more or less taken for granted in Britain that manufacturers' claims for top speed would include a significant margin of optimism (just as they seem to these days with fuel consumption...). However, my memory of that explanation might result from no more than an off the cuff piece of quick thinking by a press spokesman or Vauxhall director when asked the question. In any case, I don't remember where I read it, but it was a long time ago. No source from me, I'm afraid. Regards Charles01 (talk) 08:43, 20 February 2014 (UTC)

Restore

Bring this page back to Vauxhall Viva. No need to split it just because GM is reviving the name for the Opel Karl. Please see WP:AUTOCONV.  Mr.choppers | ✎  01:11, 7 October 2014 (UTC)

Requested move

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: move the article back to Vauxhall Viva, per the discussion below, although a requested move is not the venue to determine the "correct" contents of the resulting page. The disambiguation page is now at Vauxhall Viva (disambiguation). Dekimasuよ! 18:10, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

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Vauxhall Viva (1963–1979) → Vauxhall Viva – needless unilateral split of article, requesting a simple return to the status quo ante (thanks Charles). A link to Opel Karl will be included. --Relisted. George Ho (talk) 08:45, 19 October 2014 (UTC)  Mr.choppers | ✎  05:24, 10 October 2014 (UTC)

On as point of pedantry, I do not think the "status quo ante" can be passed off as the "status quo" (now).

On the proposal to unsplit aka merge the entries, I am pretty agnostic. Until we know in more detail what GM will do with the Vauxhall Viva name in 2015 it's hard to know whether the new usage of the Viva name will amount to a separate model with a separate identity deserving a separate entry in its own right. If it were a completely new model (rather than a subspecies defined by a stick-on label, the way they had the "Vauxhall Nova Swing" as a run-out version of the "Vauxhall Nova" ) then of course it would be best served by a separate entry as soon as someone has had time to compile the necessary text paras and info box (and whatever else). Regards Charles01 (talk) 05:50, 10 October 2014 (UTC)

• Support — if the new model turns out to be significant we can think about disambiguation as the primary page. However, as it is an unreleased model, the 1960s model trumps it for importance for the moment. OSX (talk • contributions) 06:09, 10 October 2014 (UTC)

And in any case, all of the Vivas (of which the latest will simply be a rebadged Opel) will comfortably fit on one page, with a link to Opel Karl for the new thing. Pedantry accepted.  Mr.choppers | ✎  07:02, 10 October 2014 (UTC)

If the two Vivas are not related, they should exist at different articles. Instead, instead, each particular model lineage should be a separate article, and Vauxhall Viva should be an article about the model name. (In other words, split this article into 3 articles, based on each version, and turn the disambiguation page into a real article, overviewing the 4 Viva articles we would then have, and having general information.) -- 67.70.35.44 (talk) 11:50, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

I think the way that we handled the 2005 Viva (a re-badged Opel Astra G) is the way to go. But I would give each of the re-badged models it's own section (chronologically after the HC) with a single paragraph, a main link to the corresponding donor model and maybe a thumbnail image. I would also mention them very briefly as re-badged vehicles in the intro (one line each). I think it is counter productive to have mutiple pages that are either very short (being just a single paragraph pointing to another article) or duplicating another article.  Stepho  talk  12:41, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

FYI, the 2005 Viva is the Holden Viva and is a rebadged Daewoo Lacetti, it is not related to the Astra G. OSX (talk • contributions) 01:55, 15 October 2014 (UTC)

That is exactly what I am trying to have happen here - if the article gets uncomfortably long then we can naturally subdivide it along generational lines.  Mr.choppers | ✎  00:43, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Viva HC in Canada

The article describes dreadful reliability and reputational issues for the HC 'Firenza' in the Canadian market. This is odd, because the same car from the same factories was popular in the UK and it wasn't known for reliability or quality problems there. It would be useful if the article examined the reasons for these different perceptions and whether they were fair. Ef80 (talk) 14:21, 4 November 2023 (UTC)