This series shines a spotlight on cars which are frequently forgotten, misremembered, misunderstood or maligned, many of which were unique to the UK market.

My former colleague, Ian Betteridge, may well wince at my flagrant transgression of his headline law, but I won’t show a flicker of remorse as I’m dragged off to the cells, guilty as charged.

Why so? Because while it’s relatively rare that many automotive brands previously sold a model that few people in the industry were even aware was ‘a thing’, following on from the lesser-spotted Albany, this is the second 1990s Vauxhall you’ve probably missed without realising.

It all centres around the car illustrated above, which UK residents will know as the Vauxhall Omega. Except, not all Omegas are Omegas.

I know this! It was also the Cadillac Catera

It was indeed sold in North America, albeit with some mild styling differences, as the Cadillac Catera. A gussied-up German import pitched as Caddy’s take on the [checks notes] German imports.

As was General Motors’ tradition at the time, it was further manufactured and marketed globally under different brands: in Europe as an Opel, South America as a Chevrolet and Oceania, with further bodywork differentiation, as the Holden Commodore.

But more intriguing, because you’re unlikely to find this in a contemporary motoring publication or list of technical specs, it was, for a brief spell, sold here in the UK with two different names: Vauxhall Omega and Vauxhall Elite.

No… wait, what? How did the Vauxhall Elite come about?

One thing about people with ADHD is we love a backstory, so here goes:

On sale from April 1994, the Omega was GM Europe’s latest large saloon and estate line-up, replacing both the second-iteration Vauxhall Carlton (that’s the first-generation Opel Omega in Europe) and the more exclusive, differently bodied Senator.

That Vauxhall sold both the Carlton and Senator was part of Ford UK’s reasoning for marketing the Granada and plusher Scorpio as different line-ups, albeit with the same bodywork. With the advent of the bug-eyed Scorpio-Scorpio and decline of the Granada name less than a year after the Omega’s launch, the Vauxhall being sold under a one-name policy made sense.

As the range was fleshed-out during 1994, Vauxhall’s Omega trim level hierarchy, according to contemporary brochures, progressed from cheapest to priciest order like so:

• Edition S
• Select
• GLS
• CD
• CDX
• Elite

So, from Day 1, Elite was merely the flagship Omega specification. Except, that message appears to have only half-reached the price list copywriters.

While the full run-down of Vauxhalls in price order clearly refers to it as Omega Elite, the Omega-specific page makes a point of separating the Elite versions off, hinting that they weren’t just Omegas after all.

Fast-forward to September 1994 and this confusion is amplified as Vauxhall started issuing Elite-specific brochures, but without definitive clarity.

Although the cover references the Omega, the O-word barely appears at all on the internal pages – it’s mostly referred to as the Elite, as a short form of the clunkier ‘Elite from Vauxhall’.

It’s still the Vauxhall Omega Elite at this point, then?

That’s the safest assumption, given that’s how it was referred to in price lists. If anything, the mixed messaging seems to be preparing the market to think upon Elite versions more than Omegas, but without fully committing to it.

Given by this point it was clear Ford was only continuing with the Scorpio name in Britain, other factors must have been at play for the ‘shall we, shan’t we?’ stance on the Elite badge.

At least one of those was confirmed during a conversation I had years ago with a senior Vauxhall figure who’d been involved with promoting the Omega at the time: ‘it was an attempt, too half-hearted looking back, to appease Senator owners who were disillusioned it hadn’t been directly replaced.’.

When did Vauxhall go fully Elitest?

It’s a good question, because herein lies further suggestion that not everyone involved was as invested in – or aware of – the plan to the same degree.

From October 1995, the Elite-specific brochure no longer made any reference to the Omega name, but that doesn’t correlate with the messaging in the Vauxhall whole range brochures. The one dated October 1995 still refers to it as Omega Elite, only switching to Elite-only from April 1996.

For consistency in such instances, I tend to be governed by what’s stated in price lists and use the brochures in an advisory capacity.

When did the price lists switch to referring to it only as the Vauxhall Elite? January 1997. Some 15 months after the model brochure made the swap and nine beyond the point it was changed in the Vauxhall line-up versions.

After all of that effort, Vauxhall must have really driven home the message

You would have thought so, wouldn’t you? But, erm, no… And that’s why the Vauxhall Elite has passed you by.

Coinciding with the introduction of the 1998 model year, unison between brochure and price list was achieved when October 1997 issues of both silently signalled a further change.

Yes, you’re getting the hang of this now, the Vauxhall Elite was no more. Instead, Elite had demoted back to trim level status, albeit still at the top of the Omega tree.

From 2002, even while the Omega still had a couple of years to run, the Elite name gradually started to find itself on the plushest versions of almost every subsequent model range, from the Corsa through to the van-based Vivaro Life MPV.

If I’m going to stick to my price list rule, which I will unless presented with a more definitive alternative in this instance, Vauxhall’s catalogue raisonné should include an entry for the 01/1997 to 10/1997 Elite.

The luxury Vauxhall you didn’t know you didn’t know about is the Liz Truss of the automotive world, but don’t allow that to put you off.

SPOILER ALERT: Just when you thought you’d heard of all the mysterious 1990s Vauxhalls hiding in plain sight, a future blog will cover a third griffin-badged unknown-unknown from the same decade.