Every car is an argument about what matters, and the Vauxhall D-Type makes its case with 3969 cc I4 and 50 @ 2,000 rpm. Vauxhall built from 1912 to 1921 — as the assembly line was turning motoring into an industry.
The story
The Vauxhall 25 h.p. chassis code D type is a car manufactured by Vauxhall from 1912 to 1922. More than 1,500 were supplied to the British Army in World War I for use as staff cars. Each Vauxhall chassis was sold with a three-year guarantee including regular inspections.
The 25hp car appeared for the first time at the Olympia Motor Show in November 1912 alongside two of its three stablemates: the 6-cylinder 5-litre 30hp car and the lighter weight 25hp Prince Henry. All cars had a new tapered bonnet which "runs flush into the body". The smallest Vauxhall 16-20 was not displayed. Vauxhall's 23-60 replaced the 25 in July 1922.
What is underneath
Power comes from 3969 cc I4; 50 @ 2,000 rpm is the published figure. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 132 in / track 54 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Vauxhall 27; its successor was the Vauxhall 23-60; assembly was at Luton. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Alfa Romeo A.L.F.A. 40/60 GP — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Vauxhall catalogue sit the Vauxhall 10-4 and the Vauxhall 30/98.
What it costs now
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Vauxhall D-Type has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.