GM has celebrated the delivery of the 999th vehicle from its UK Special Vehicles division, less than a year after the operation was created.

The 2.8-litre V6 turbo-engined Vauxhall Vectra was presented to the Chiltern Transport Consortium – GM UK Special Vehicles’ largest customer – at its headquarters at Millbrook Proving Ground, Bedfordshire.

The dedicated production line at Millbrook opened in June last year, and works solely on preparing GM vehicles for the UK emergency services.

The vehicles are prepared to clients’ exact specifications, and all the work done is covered by GM’s three-year/60,000-mile warranty.

The landmark vehicle coincides with an expansion of the facilities at Millbrook, which included building new car parking areas and facilities to allow production to be ramped up.

Dick Ellam, manager of the Special Vehicles division, said: “It’s been a lot of hard work since we brought the business in-house, and it’s worth celebrating this milestone.

"It’s all been dependant on keeping our customers happy. Our unique selling point is that we can now offer a fully developed and engineered product to the same standards as the base vehicle."

“It’s a single invoice for the customer, fully warranted.”

Chiltern Transport Consortium oversees transport operations for police forces in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Berkshire.

Ian Godolphin, the consortium’s head of transport, said he was very pleased with the relationship.

“As well as delivering specialised high-speed pursuit vehicles such as this Vectra, GM also provides us with the Vauxhall Astra 1.3 CDTi – the cornerstone vehicle of our police forces,” he said.

“We rely on the Astra because of its high standard of reliability and the comprehensive support package offered by GM UK which means that we have peace of mind regarding the ongoing maintenance of our fleet of vehicles.”