History: 1965 Bedford CD Concept Van

"BEDFORD CD FORWARD CONTROL VAN SCALE MODEL 13.09.65 D-65589 © GM ARCHIVE"

The Vauxhall Vauxpedia site has dug up some interesting new historical details and archive photos from GM concerning the history of the Bedford CF.

The 1952 Bedford CA was the best-selling light van in the UK up until 1965 when Ford launched the Transit MK1. The Transit instantly became leader in the market while the CA sales plunged. Bedford took 4 years to finally respond with the launch the CF and recall the title.
Bedford had been working on a replacement for the CA since 1957. In a previous magazine article from 2004, we learned about the prototype Bedford "CB".

Now we learn about the Bedford CD, which was the replacement van that was being designed in 1965 right when Ford launched the Transit. Here is the story and archive photos:

"In 1965 Bedford had two distinct van ranges, the relatively small light weight semi forward control CA and the heavy weight normal control TJ introduced in 1958, but was basically an updated version of the post war TD range, was by this time a slow seller in the UK but popular in export territories such as Africa, it was however quite successful for ambulance conversions in the UK. The new replacement van would need to cover both the CA & TJ van ranges, but it didn’t stop there – in Europe Opel had launched the Opel Blitz B in 1965 and proved underwhelming sales wise, Opel had been the number one seller of commercial vans in Germany in the early 1960s but had been on a downward spiral ever since and so the planned Bedford replacement would also encompass a Blitz replacement as well. As if this wasn’t enough in the US Chevrolet had launched the unusual rear engine “CorVan” in 1961 based around the Chevrolet Corvair car mechanicals (not a wise choice) and then in 1965 launched the much larger G Series Van and phased out the CorVan in 1966 which left a gap for a smaller van to sit below the G Series so in the very early design stages Chevrolet were included in the plan.

Even before the launch of the Transit, Vauxhall had started preliminary work on a fully forward control van coded CD in August 1965, however this never got beyond the scale model mock-up stage, completed on 13 September 1965, before a complete re-think of the parameters for a CA replacement were put forward following the Ford Transit hit the market in October 1965."

"13.09.65 D-65591 © GM ARCHIVE"

"13.09.65 D-65590 © GM ARCHIVE"

"13.09.65 D-65591 © GM ARCHIVE"

"13.09.65 D-65591 © GM ARCHIVE"