When was the last Vauxhall Belmont you saw?

[bent8rover]

Running that is, not in a hedge.

The youngest will be pushing 27 years old soon enough.

In late 2004, it was revealed that the Belmont was the most stolen car in the United Kingdom in terms of ratio stolen, with 1,978 vehicles stolen in 2003, which amounted to around 1 out of every 10 Belmonts registered. At this time, an estimated 20,000 Belmonts remained on the road. [Source: en.wikipedia.org]

For last quarter 2016, listed with DVLA as 'Vauxhall Belmont' or 'Vauxhall Astra Belmont'  there were 

28 on the road, 69 off the road
From known registrations in 1994 of 50,148 !
That's a total of 97 survivors (or almost surviving).  0.19% survival.  Brilliant.

Cameras at the ready 
(Better than that buy the next one you see, it won't be expensive anyhow)

Unfortunately the extinct Belmont editions are as follows:

CDI A (there was only the one!)
LX A
MERIT DIES
MERIT I
SX A
GLD DIESEL
GLS AUTO
JUBILEE AUTO
L I
L I AUTO (just two)
SWING AUTO

The one to find and win the best prize would be the sole-surviving BELMONT SRI (stuck on a SORN).  1,500 were on the road in 1994
Next would be one of the three later ASTRA BELMONT SRI (1,900 in 1994)

Lush

 (this one is dead)

[genegenie]

 Interesting stuff. A friends dad had a red H reg Belmont (not sure of spec possibly GL), a workmate had a near identical one, also H reg, (replaced a W reg Chevette GL saloon, then the Belmont was replaced in 1998 by a new S reg MK4 Astra hatchback LS). Another friend had a china blue LX, H reg which I nearly bought as an everyday smoker years ago.

I remember a secondhand car dealer in Luton in 1993, having an E reg GLS with the earlier grille for sale, which had only done 20,000 warranted miles, low for a 5 year old car I thought then.

[zeebra]

Here's one

www.copart.co.uk/lot/49309027

[bent8rover]

The Copart one ended up on eBay as a charity auction


This one popped up. Glad to see folks spending time and effort on Belmonts

[llovegrace]

Got a feeling that I blogged this before (maybe it was on the old site)...Way back in the day my late father purchased a brand new blue Belmont from Weston Motor Works, Perry Street, Chislehurst, Kent. The car was only 1 week old when Dad opened the boot and it snatched out of his hand and flew up, twisted and smashed through the rear windscreen. The shock of which could have caused him to have a heart attack...It didn't but shook him quite a bit...Dad was quite frail and a very unwell man...A shadow of his former self as a Commando in N0.4 Commando F troop under Lord Lovat. Dad was the second commando to cross Pegasus Bridge (after the bag-pipe player). How times change with age.

[llovegrace]

Sorry chaps ... decided to remove picture as not really suitable for a car forum.

[robleaver]

Just looked up No4 Commando on t'web and found a few pics of your father and the whole platoon. Busy war they had and as you say 11ovegrace, brave men/man all of them.
Shame that this country and inhabitants have lost the way and gone to pot, literally I didn't know that the Commandos won more VC's than all the other sections of our armed forces put together including the Navy. I also found out that Hitler was so scared of the British Commandos that he gave orders that any Commando being captured must not be taken alive but shot. Wow! some fierce band of Brothers. They would have made my son and his mates shake with fright and proberbly shit themselves, whimps! 11ovegrace, you come from good stock.

[llovegrace]

Sorrry again chaps ... removed text as not fitting for a car forum.

[scottyboy]

Me faither told me aboot Achnacarry and what yon Commandos went through. I was taken to Spean Bridge as a wee bairn but i remember the statue of the Commandos. Powerful memory. You didnae want to cross a Commando in those days or I suspect even in much later life. Yon 'dad' looks a stern man 11ovegrace & hes got ma respect.

[llovegrace]

Last delete on this subject as totally wrong for a forum dedicated to cars ... Sorry!

[robleaver]

Don't cut yourself up about it llovegrace. They were different men from a much different time. I've got to say that times were hard for them mentally and physically. I wish that I had been closer to my dad but hindsight is only a way of guilt effecting our memories and most times unfairly I should say. You wrote ''in memory of dad, a brave man' and that tells it all. You don't have to tell people that you love them as they just know. An unwritten, spoken or feeling. It works for me as I'm sure it worked for your dad.