The Vauxhall name has been around for about 160 years and people will tell you it is one of Britain’s oldest car manufacturers.

Actually it hasn’t been British since 1925 because that was the year the brand was taken over by the American giant General Motors.

Then last year then Vauxhall was sold by GM to the French Groupe PSA who build Peugeot, Citroen and DS. Which begs the question how long will the Vauxhall name be around?

Vauxhall's vehicle line-up is identical to that of the continental Opel one, and then there is the similar Vaxuhall Combo, Citroen Berlingo and the Peugeot Rifter which happen to be a cross between car and a van. Ideal for the family with children, animals and bags of stuff to ferry about and pretty cool.

But what’s the point of three variations coming from the same manufacturer. One at least must surely go. And that would have be the Vauxhall.

You can’t see the French saying: “Oh yes scrap one of our models at the expense of keeping the one which might sound British, which we actually own.”

Despite the fact that Vauxhall has been the second largest-selling car brand in the UK for more than 20 years there is bags of production space in Europe.

Vauxhall has major manufacturing facilities in Luton and Liverpool, and currently employs around 3,000 people. The Vauxhall Astra is built in Liverpool and is probably the best car Vauxhall build. But does it have a UK future?

So the latest model to join the range is the Combo which is arriving at the showrooms this month.

And while it is good it is not as good as the Peugeot Rifter which has a got of touch of class about it.

Both of them and the Berlingo as well are practical and versatile aimed at active families and empty nesters and prices start from around £20,000 on-the-road.

They are spacious and are equipped with two rear sliding doors and can be ordered as a five or seven-seater.

They are ideal for the bird watcher or river bank person because the car can take bags of kit.

There is a large tailgate with a low loading boot height which is just ideal.

You takes your pick with either model. Do you want a short model or a long model? Is it petrol or diesel you’re looking for? Five speed or six box and there’s an auto version coming next year.

The choices are endless including 35/30/35 split-folding second-row seats with fold-flat facility, two removable third-row seats and foldable tables with cup-holders making it not only a spacious and highly comfortable family vehicle, but also as a small transporter.

Depending on the version of either Combo or Rifter you can have a panoramic roof there is overhead storage running down the centre of the vehicle with LED lighting as standard.

Vauxhall claim more than 20 cubby holes in their vehicle. I didn’t stop to count them in either, just took their word for it.

The Combo and the Rifter are great on the economy front with low CO2 emissions and miles per gallon around the 60 mark irrespective of the petrol or diesel engines.

As you would expect there is massive amounts of kit to make your vehicle safer and to encourage you to buy the product as well.

There is Advanced Park Assist and a panoramic rear-view camera; head-up display; forward collision alert with pedestrian detection and automatic emergency braking that issues an alarm and a visual warning, and will brake automatically if the driver does not react to the alerts.

You can have a front camera system, which gathers and processes data for additional driver assistance systems such as Speed Sign Recognition and Lane Keep Assist; Automatic Cruise Control, which adapts to the speed of the vehicle in front. This works in conjunction with Intelligent Speed Adaptation, which informs the driver when a new speed limit is detected and prompts the driver to adjust the speed accordingly.

And both Rifter and Combo have a sort of a special grip control which is like poor man’s 4x4, most effective.

Whether you choose Vauxhall, Peugeot or Citroen for one of these models there will be a lot of loyal buyers who will go with the name. But I guess Peugeot will finish on top.