Even though the General was already selling plenty of their Detroit-made cars (plus Opels) in North America, apparently they felt it necessary to import cars with the Vauxhall nameplate as well. Our friend Peter spotted this mid-to-late-50s Vauxhall Velox in Ontario and had camera at the ready. Make the jump to see more photos and read Peter's description.

Question... Ever see a Vauxhall Velox in North America? Yeah I know they're common in the UK.
But ever see a left hand drive Vauxhall Velox, or any left hand drive Vauxhall... anywhere?
I haven't... until yesterday. The attached pics were taken last night. They were taken in a south-west part of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Up to now, I always thought that Vauxhall was merely just the UK arm of GM since the 1920s.
But if that was so, why would I find a LHD '50s Vauxhall Velox parked at an autobody shop... with a Willowdale (now part of Toronto), Ontario, Canada dealer tag on it?
I did a search on Collector Car Trader and not a single Vauxhall was listed.
I suspect this car is pretty rare.
I'm also aware that GM imported Opels in the 1970s. But I never knew that Vauxhall cars were sold in Canada... or North America. Why would GM go through the expense of changing a Vauxhall from RHD to LHD when GM could have just imported an Opel that was already LHD?

As a postscript, Peter sent in a link to these online North American Vauxhall photo albums, which make it clear that the General was serious about selling the things here.

Send an email to Murilee Martin, the author of this post, at murilee@jalopnik.com.