Bedford Vehicles

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Bedford was the first to use the Griffin logo

Bedford Six WLG 2.5-ton Truck 1932

Bedford WLG Bus 1932

Bedford WLB Truck 1933

1933 Bedford two-ton Luton van.

1959 Bedford SB

Rare Bedford JJL early midibus

Bedford with chassis by Ruston-Bucyrus

1967 Bedford TJ

1974 Bedford KM recovery truck.

Bedford Blitz: this one is registered in Germany,where customers were familiar with the Opel Blitz (light vans) through Opel outlets, but the van was manufactured in the UK where it is known (if at all) as the Bedford CF

Bedford Blitz (German market name) / Bedford CF (UK designation)

Bedford was a subsidiary of Vauxhall Motors, itself the British subsidiary of General Motors (GM), established in 1930 and constructing commercial vehicles.

1 History
2 Products
3 Notes
4 External links

Bedford was a leading international truck manufacturer with substantial export sales of light medium and heavy trucks throughout the world. It was GM Europe's most profitable venture for several years.

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A number of Bedford OXD 1.5 ton chassis were converted to make the Bedford OXA armoured vehicle.

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The Bedford TK range was produced in large numbers and served as the basis for a variety of derivatives including fire engines, military vehicles, horse-boxes, tippers, flatbed trucks and other specialist utility vehicles. A British Post Office (later British Telecom) version used for installing telegraph poles became known as the "Pole King". The British armed forces still use four-wheel drive Bedford MKs — a variant of the TK.

The smaller Bedford CF was also successful, competing directly with the Ford Transit and being used by many of Britain's major utility companies including British Telecom and British Gas.

Beford's smallest products were the Bedford HA van, which substantially outlived the Vauxhall Viva on which it was based, and the Chevanne, a short-lived variant of the Vauxhall Chevette.

The company also made a number of bus chassis.

The TK range was joined and eventually largely replaced by a number of models: the TL range most directly replaced the TK, beginning in the early 1980s. It was never as popular as the model range it succeeded. The Bedford TM was the largest of all the modern Bedfords with payloads available up to 42 tonnes GTW permissible. However, by the middle of the decade, cheaper and more technologically advanced competition from other truck manufacturers overseas proved too much and Bedford withdrew from the heavy vehicle market.

From there on in Bedford concentrated on smaller light commercials only with the CF model and finally the Bedford Midi — later to be called the Vauxhall Midi.

In 1986 the Bedford van factory in Luton was reorganised as a joint venture with Isuzu. The resulting company, IBC Vehicles, produced a European version of the Isuzu MU Wizard called the Frontera and a range of Renault-designed vans sold under GM's Vauxhall and Opel brand names. The Bedford name was dropped completely as were all of its preceding range apart from the Midi.

In 1998 GM bought Isuzu out of the IBC partnership. ^[1] The plant now operates as GMM Luton, and produces the Vauxhall / Opel Vivaro, Renault Trafic and Nissan Primastar.^[2]

The Bedford trucks site was sold to David Brown in 1987 and the new trucks business was named AWD Trucks.

AWD continued with the TL range. The AWD TK (a rebadged and modernised version of the Bedford TK / MK range) was also produced and supplied to the British Army. Due to cheaper competition, AWD Trucks went bankrupt in 1992 and was bought by dealer network Marshall of Cambridge.

List of products produced at Bedford / IBC Vehicles Luton

Very approximately in size order