Advertising Last completed movie pages 1971 Ranger 2500 CoupéClass: Cars, Coupé — Model origin: 
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◊ 2007-07-16 22:42
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I would say it's a Rekord [C]-based Ranger Coupé. |
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◊ 2007-07-16 23:15
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Roof trim let guess a luxury trim like Commodore Coupé[B],but if a Ranger-badged version don't knew its model name |
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◊ 2007-07-16 23:27
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The painted side trim is typical for the Ranger. In Holland this model was available in 1971 and 1972 (in 1972 Opel had the new model of the Rekord, but still the old Commodore). The coupé version of the Ranger could be a 1900 S Coupé, 2500 S Coupé or 2500 GTS Coupé, I'd opt for this GTS version because of the standard vinyl roof (with the word 'Ranger' on it), but I'm not realy sure about that. There were not many Rangers sold in Holland. |
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◊ 2007-07-17 00:52
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In all my travels through Europe I never saw a single Ranger model. I have seen pictures of them in automobile books (I believe they were built in Belgium) but never saw one. Were they popular? Did they have wide distribution in Europe. When did they stop production? |
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◊ 2007-07-17 01:00
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This model was sold in Holland by Vauxhall dealers in 1971-1972, the newer model in 1973-1977. They were built by GM Belgium in Antwerp. But it was no success at all... |
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◊ 2007-07-17 01:04
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Thanks DynaMike. Doesn't seem to make much sense to sell another marque that directly competed with other GM brands. -- Last edit: 2007-07-17 01:04:19 |
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◊ 2007-07-17 11:27
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I know that the information on the Net gives the European model ( they were also sold in South-Africa ) a Belgian nacionality, but the 1970 Catalogue Number of the "Automobil Revue" lists it as a Swiss make saying it was assembled there. Another detail is that the GTS version had the Commodore [A] GS and GS/E wheels and a GTS badge on the C-pillar. |
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◊ 2007-07-17 12:38
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Maybe they were built in Switzerland for the Swiss market? And yes, it was merely a good guess taht this is the GTS version. I couldn't find a matching picture of the coupé yet. |
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◊ 2007-07-17 16:27
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The 'Ranger' was a General Motors brand from 1968 to 1976. It was used in two markets: 1. As "South Africa's Own Car", built in Port Elizabeth from 1968 to 1973 2. From 1970 to 1976 in Antwerp, Belgium, by General Motors Continental SA. The reason for the European Ranger to be built was A. to win customers who were believed to have resentment towards Germany and thus would never buy an Opel. It was believed that large communities of the target clientele that was supposed to fall for this nonsense lives in Antwerp, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. (What GM Europe didn't know is that the Germans are universally disliked all over BeNeLux) B. to make use of some free capacity of the Norderlaan production site in Antwerp. The Rangers must have sold reasonably well in the BeNeLux region, I remember seeing them quite frequently back then when holidaying there. In South Africa they never really took on, because there they faced severe competition from the well established Chevrolet S.A. line of cars. GM Suisse decided to get a free ride with the project and imported Rangers ckd in order to avoid the hefty import taxation on complete cars, so strictly speaking, the Ranger has been built in Switzerland too. The Rangers were muddled together from various Opel components. The body was the contamporary Opel Rekord shell, thus the Ranger changed with Opel from the C-Rekord to the D-Rekord body in 1972. Initially, there were two models: Ranger 130 and Ranger 153. In 1970, the Ranger 1900 and Ranger 2500 were added. Around 1971, an SS (quality! Remember who the initial target group was?) version of the 153 was added. The Ranger was unceremoniously buried in 1976 after being arguably the biggest flop in GM-Europe's post war history and a perfect example of the ivory-tower way of thinking which seems to habe become a trademark of industry management. I haven't seen a Ranger in decades. Maybe we could ask our contributors from BeNeLux if someone knows where one might be hiding? -- Last edit: 2007-07-17 16:32:16 |
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◊ 2007-07-17 16:43
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I personnally learned the existance of "Ranger" make recently on IMCDB, and I do not think that I ever saw one actually (or I took it for an Opel  ) -- Last edit: 2007-07-17 16:43:58 |
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◊ 2007-07-17 17:10
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In Mechelen, the town were I was living at that time, the Ranger were sold by the Vauxhall & US GM dealer. For a reason, I don't know, the car was not very much promoted. In fact, the Ranger 2500 was not a good deal with the Belgian annual car-tax system. In thoses years, the people were turning to japanese cars and many were buying Toyota Crown cars or Mazda 929. The dollar was also going down and a cheap Chevrolet was a better deal. At that time, the Vauxhall cars were also disseapearing from the streets. |
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◊ 2007-07-19 14:24
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Are there any Rangers left? -- Last edit: 2007-07-19 15:44:51 (antp) |
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◊ 2007-07-19 15:48
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If there are, less than 2300 for sure: that make falls in "others" in this list; too bad that they did not include all the makes  -- Last edit: 2007-07-19 15:49:38 |
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◊ 2008-02-24 20:36
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We had trouble with one of these before, didn't we? vehicle_120140-Ranger-1700-1971.html |
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