An unrelated vehicle, Holden Belmont, was manufactured by Holden, GM's Australian subsidiary in the 1970s.

The Vauxhall Belmont was a saloon car sold in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 by Vauxhall

Vauxhall Motors

Vauxhall Motors is a British automotive company owned by General Motors and headquartered in Luton. It was founded in 1857 as a pump and marine engine manufacturer, began manufacturing cars in 1903 and was acquired by GM in 1925. It has been the second-largest selling car brand in the UK for...

, the British division of General Motors

General Motors

General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...

 between January 1986 and July 1991. It was equivalent to a saloon version of the award-winning Opel Kadett E, launched in the autumn of 1984, whose other body styles were marketed in the United Kingdom as Vauxhall Astra

Vauxhall Astra

Astra is a model name which has been used by Vauxhall, the British subsidiary of General Motors , on their small family car ranges since 1979. Astras are technically essentially identical with similar vehicles offered by GM's German subsidiary Opel in most other European countries...

. The Belmont won praise for its huge boot

Trunk

Trunk may refer to:In biology:*Trunk, an elephant's proboscis or nose*Trunk, torso*Trunk , a tree's central superstructureIn containers:*Trunk , a large storage compartment*Trunk...

 compared to other rivals of the time.

With hatchbacks becoming firmly established as the preferred bodystyle in small European family cars, fewer saloons were on offer. During the 1980s, in order to enable them to position saloons as a slight cut above their hatchback counterparts, many manufacturers marketed them with different nameplates. Ford

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

's saloon version of the Escort hatchback was badged the Orion

Ford Orion

The Ford Orion is a saloon car built by the automaker Ford for the European market from 22 July 1983 until 19 September 1993. A total of 3,534,239 Orions were sold throughout the car's 10-year life....

 and Volkswagen

Volkswagen

Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...

's Golf

Volkswagen Golf

The Volkswagen Golf is a small family car manufactured by Volkswagen since 1974 and marketed worldwide across six generations, in various body configurations and under various nameplates – as the Volkswagen Rabbit in the United States and Canada , and as the Volkswagen Caribe in Mexico .The...

-based saloon was sold as the Jetta

Volkswagen Jetta

Although the Golf had reached considerable success, in the North American markets, Volkswagen observed that the hatchback body style lacked some of the appeal to those who preferred the traditional three-box configuration...

. However, when GM launched a saloon version of the Astra

Vauxhall Astra

Astra is a model name which has been used by Vauxhall, the British subsidiary of General Motors , on their small family car ranges since 1979. Astras are technically essentially identical with similar vehicles offered by GM's German subsidiary Opel in most other European countries...

/Kadett

Opel Kadett

The Opel Kadett is a small family car produced by the German automobile manufacturer Opel between 1937 and 1940, and then again from 1962 until 1991 , when it was replaced by the Opel Astra.-Original model :...

, only British customers received it with a different badge.

The Belmont went on sale in January 1986. While sold as a Kadett in the rest of Europe, in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 it was called the Opel Monza (not to be confused with the large Senator

Opel Senator

The Opel Senator was a large automobile, two generations of which were sold in Europe by Opel, from 1978 until 1993. A saloon, its first incarnation was also available with a fastback coupé body as the Opel Monza and Vauxhall Royale Coupe....

-based coupé sold in Europe).

Besides the trunk, the only other differences were extra rear legroom and a less gloomy interior. The Belmont was almost as big inside as a Vauxhall Cavalier

Vauxhall Cavalier

The Vauxhall Cavalier is a large family car sold primarily in the UK by Vauxhall Motors, the British division of General Motors , from 1975 to 1995...

, with luggage space particularly impressive.

When the Astra was replaced in the summer of 1991, the Belmont nameplate was shelved, the car never having never lived up to Vauxhall's claim that it was "not just a booted Astra".

In late 2004, it was revealed that the Belmont was the most stolen car in the United Kingdom in terms of ratio stolen, with 1,978 vehicles stolen in 2003, which amounted to around 1 out of every 10 Belmonts registered. At this time, an estimated 20,000 Belmonts remained on the road. The car also topped a similar list for 2005, this list being published in December 2006.

End of the Belmont

The Belmont was the Astra with the boot, up until 1991.

For more details about the Belmont, see Vauxhall Astra

Vauxhall Astra

Astra is a model name which has been used by Vauxhall, the British subsidiary of General Motors , on their small family car ranges since 1979. Astras are technically essentially identical with similar vehicles offered by GM's German subsidiary Opel in most other European countries...

 or Opel Astra

Opel Astra

The Opel Astra is a small family car engineered and manufactured by the German automaker Opel since 1991.It is branded as Vauxhall Astra in the United Kingdom, the Buick Excelle XT in China and the Chevrolet Astra/Vectra in Latin America...

/Opel Kadett

Opel Kadett

The Opel Kadett is a small family car produced by the German automobile manufacturer Opel between 1937 and 1940, and then again from 1962 until 1991 , when it was replaced by the Opel Astra.-Original model :...

.

Sales of the Astra-badged saloon were not as strong as those achieved by the Belmont, as saloons of this size continued to fall in popularity throughout the 1990s.

Later Astra saloons (see pictures on the right) were also sold as an Opel, unlike the Belmont, which was only sold as a Vauxhall.