Price: £6000
Mileage: 32,656
Condition: Like the first day of company car ownership
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Bear with me here, but your author is beginning to find these 1990s Vauxhalls very comforting for some reason.
The warm embrace of nostalgia obviously has something to do with it; born in the 1980s, my first real memories of the world around me were formed in the 1990s, and the gently rounded lines of the 1988-on third-generation Cavalier could be seen on almost every street corner. Along with the fifth-gen Escort launched in 1990, no car is more firmly embedded in my mind as 1990s street furniture than the Cavalier.
There’s also the BTCC factor, with this Cavalier being one of the most prominent shapes in the first half of the super touring era, with John Cleland finally sealing it a title in 1995, just after it had sprouted splitters and wings.
But the main draw now is probably the third-gen Cav’s simplicity. That it’s a little (maybe even a lot) generic no longer counts against it, since the entire segment that it once dominated has basically vanished from existence. Can it really be generic if it’s now a niche product?
What’s left is a car that, especially in saloon form, has quite tidy proportions and somehow avoids looking under-wheeled even on this Cavalier L we’ve found for sale on eBay, despite rolling on tiny 13-inch steelies shrouded in silver trims.
In fact, basic L spec suits this car down to the ground. Check out the unpainted bumpers that are bumpers and nothing more – no sporty stripes, no fog lights, just devices to shrug off parking knocks. Unlike many Cavaliers of the period, the back of this one isn’t festooned in badges trying to impress the rep in the car behind – there’s every chance this was a private buy, and the presence of dealer plates and a dealer sticker in the rear window lends credence to that.
The interior is simple and unadorned, too. Grey fabric isn’t the most interesting admittedly – Ford was a bit more adventurous with its beige and blue colourways in this period – and we’d want to give the cabin a good scrub as it seems grubby in the photos.
But the three-spoke steering wheel is smart, there’s a five-speed manual gearbox and a cassette deck to play with (who needs infotainment?) and we’re awarding Unexceptional points for the instrument cluster, which in this L spec gives you simply speed, coolant temperature, and fuel gauges. Want to know the revs? You’ll have to identify them by ear.
The overhead-cam 1.6 should go on forever, too, if you look after it; the engine gets you 82bhp, while Autocar returned a 0–60mph time of 12.1 seconds in its 1988 road test, and fuel economy in the mid-30s.
We’ll let you make up your own mind up on the price. There are those who’ll baulk at £6000 for an old Cavalier, but doubtless there’s some wiggle room in there, and you have to factor in the likelihood of finding a similar one in similar condition for less. All we’ll say is, what price can you really put on that comforting feeling of having a simple 1990s repmobile in the garage?
