While the detailing is a touch on the Mid-Atlantic side, the proportions are spot on.
I like the distance from the front wheel arch to the leading edge of the front door. The way the car is positioned in what looks like a public park is endearing. These days only a sterile concrete architect-designed pit would do and it would be Photoshopped to a level of unbelievable unreality. Where would we be without the lens flare function.
Design criticism is a funny business. Objectively this is a much ‘better’ design than the contemporary and more flashy Ford Zodiac Mk 3. Yet the Ford was more popular then and it’s more popular now.
Looking at the previous models, the Cresta went the other way – it paid the price for being too flashy, too American, whilst the still befinned Zodiac Mk 2 trod a careful path, a bit of bling, but not enough to frighten the Brits.
By 1982 the Cresta was two decades old. Its successor was the Cavalier. In 2002 the car in this class was a Vectra. A dozen years later we have Insignias. Which 20 year span seems to have seen the most change?
To be pedantic, and because of the clumsy way that Vauxhall rejigged their ranges, with the bloating of cars as models replace models, the linear ancestor of the Vectra is oddly more correctly the Viva. The Royale/Senator was the last big Vauxhall. But your point remains true – maybe even more so.
That’s correct – though the Monza died with the first Senator. The Senator “b” had no coupe relative. And the Calibra was Vectra-based. It had a super roof line. There’s one down the road from where I am presently located.