FAO Scottish Shiters

[UmBongo]

Alexanders now long gone.

 

 

 

They sponsored Hearts kit for a while in the 80's.

[UmBongo]

Belmont had a Datsun/Nissan place opposite Meadowbank stadium in Edinburgh.

 

When the disastrous commonwealth games were being held in 1986, they released a 'limited edition' Sunny or Cherry with a games sticker on the rear.

[chancer]

AFG Bob Rae Nissan, Shettleston Road Glasgow. Remember as a 10 year old constantly pestering the salesmen for posters, brochures and the occasional sit inside the cars

 

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[Barry Cade]

Morrison BMW Kirkcaldy. Snobby basta.... Never did get my 635csi brochure I was promised. My mum used to get calls from he lancia dealer in Kirkcaldy asking for me to come for a test drive of the HPE.. I was 10 . Forgotten their name though, were in Nicol St which is now D&G. Taggarts Jaguar Kirkcaldy and Forrester's Rover Coaltown of Balgonie.

[Split_Pin]

My Dad had a 1986 Cavalier from Tomkins Bros.

 

I've just checked my stash of plates from previous cars and my old Vectra was sold by Gillespie of Lenzie.

 

I've also got an ERF Strathclyde plate and one from Phoenix Honda whom sold me my first Corsa in 2001.

 

I remember my Mums first A Reg Metro had Macharg, Rennie and Lindsay plates, as noted by Spiny N.

 

No visit to the capital is complete without spotting a GR Grandison yellow mudflap or two either!

[Fatchance]

Gillanders Volvo at Bridge of Don, Aberdeen - I had a test drive of a basic 340 1.4 in about 1984; incredibly slow thing but at least it had very comfy tweedy/cloth seats as the rate it went they knew you'd be spending a lot of time in it.

 

Aberdeen Motors - BL/Austin Rover, in Justice Mill Lane - free carriage clock for taking a test drive of the MG Maestro with a talking dashboard! Strange arrangement as the carriage clock only ticked and never spoke.

 

Alan Laing (?) Subaru in Midstocket Road - "free winter car check" came up with an amazing list of issues which hadn't bothered the MOT tester not long before....

[Felly Magic]

Didn't Trust Motors have a gaff in Scotlandshire at one point? 

[JeeExEll]

On another topic , 1988 , bridge of don , Aberdeen

 

 

 

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I used to live about 5mins from there.

 

Think that garage maybe became Adrian Smith the SAAB dealer with loads of late 80s turbo models, or they were on the same road, something like that anyway.

[georgeinabz]

Pre 1988 it was gray watt a furniture wholesalers,Saab was round the corner behind boc gas , think it is auto spray now

 

 

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[aldo135]

UmBongo Alexander's at Fountainbridge is the first one that came to my mind! Appleyards Austin Rover at Westfield road (now a furniture showroom) and SMT Vauxhall at Roseburn (now flats) are others. Couldn't find any photos so cheated with this SMT from Dundee, an Appleyard bus and Appleyard reg plate from our own CMS206 on Flickr!

[brickwall]

Appleyard used to supply all my Dads company cars at Weirs Group

[brickwall]

Are the Guthrie family still papping out cars up in Montrose?

[aldo135]

They are, don't know if Eric is on here but he works for them, he posts on the Facebook pages

[aldo135]

David Harrison Ford is still going in Peebles, they have a great heritage page on their website

 

http://www.harrisonsford.co.uk/about-us/heritage/

[Alusilber]

Some of my hazy 70s memories of Edinburgh dealerships - seem to remember a McAndrew Citroen place on Lothian Road, and a Renault dealership (name escapes me) on Gorgie Road near Chesser Avenue who sent my dad an invitation to a promotional event where I got a chunky yellow ballpoint pen with a built in letter-opener on the end (and probably some brochures). Then there was the Reliant place on Dundee St (now a Ferrari/Porsche independent specialist), Belmont Datsun on Calder Road and Croall Fiat on St John's Road where I witnessed the funkiness of the Fiat Strada in the flesh for the first time.

 

By the way, I don't suppose anyone else remembers a motorshow-type event held at the long-gone Haymarket ice rink next to the station, maybe late 1976 or early '77? Never been able to find any trace of it on Google. Quite a pivotal moment in my childhood and where my fascination for car brochures started!

[BavarianRetro]

Lothian Sports Cars always worth a look too. Remember seeing a couple of 501 Elites there.

[aldo135]

The Renault dealer was Bass Rock, It was last a fiat/Alfa dealer.

[320touring]

Nobles in Penicuik still about?

[Hendry]

I forgot about Lothian Sports Cars, they were Lotus and then Subaru dealers IIRC and owned by former rally driver Willie Crawford, amazing I actually work with Willie Crawford, he works at the Edinburgh depot of the company I work for.

 

Regarding Verve, the proper story is Ian Skelly VW branches at Rutherglen and Wishaw were sold to Appleyard by Ian Skelly in 1989 but the name was never changed, in 1998 they sold them to Charlie Adair who renamed them Verve, in 2005 Verve took over Gael Motor Group in Crookedholm just outside Kilmarnock who were Hyundai and Suzuki dealers (former Calex Car Sales premises for anyone who remembers) and were owned by a guy called Alf Henighen (who himself was the Sales director of Peat Road Motors before they went belly up) Verve then took over Motorway Cars Citroen in Lanark, Peugeot/Citroen/Kia in Coatbridge and Peugeot/Kia in Bathgate in 2007, he also bought the VW dealers in Dumfries and Carlisle (Bradfords and Harper & Hebson, later sold them to Benfield who themselves are now Lookers) and in early 2008 they took over Bickets at Campbell Street Kilmarnock, Fiat, Seat, Mazda, Chrysler Jeep and Volvo authorised repairers) he then closed Crookedholm dealership and moved Hyundai and Suzuki to Campbell Street. He also opened a couple of SsangYong franchises. In 2009 the Lanark Citroen dealerships were closed and they lost Peugeot sales in Coatbridge.

 

In 2012 they ran into financial difficulties and dropped/lost Fiat, Hyundai, Suzuki, Chrysler Jeep, and Volvo after sales and oddly reopened their Crookedholm branches but now selling the Seat and Mazda franchises they had retained, their Mazda branch at Campbell Street became Ssang Yong, the rest of the Campbell Street dealerships lay empty to let. They then sold the Rutherglen and Wishaw VW branches to Arnie Clark, and in late 2013 they went bust with millions of pounds of debts, so much so that Charlie Adair was banned from running a company or being a director for so many years, can't remember how long, their VW Commercials branch in Baillieston was bought by Lookers from the receivers, Parks took over their Coatbridge Citroen/Kia and Bathgate Peugeot/Kia dealerships and the Crookedholm branch lay empty for a few years until recently when it became MCS Motorcycles who moved from Renfrew.

 

The Kilmarnock Campbell Street premises was eventually snapped up by Bridgend Group (who started out as Mitsubishi dealers in Kilwinning and Irvine and now run "Autoplexs" in Ayr and Kilwinning)

 

Robert Wyper wasn't acquired by Verve as said earlier, they were acquired by Parks Motor Group in 1998. As far as I know Robert Wyper ended up as the general manager of Ingram VW in Ayr, he then left to start up his own garage in 1989 at Wellington Street Kilmarnock, gained a Seat franchise, then opened a Renault dealership on a former AFG Nissan premises in Irvine, he then took over the Peugeot dealership at West Langlands Street in Kilmarnock when Peat Road Motors who owned it went out of business, when Bass Rock Renault in Ayr lost the Renault franchise in 1994 Wyper took that over and opened a branch at 100 Heathfield Road Ayr, added Toyota and Seat franchises there, and then opened a Peugeot dealership in Ayr. They were quite successful winning Motortraders Used Car Dealer of the year in 1995, and had increased their turnover fivefold between 1989 and 1994, Parks wanted to expand and swallowed them up, Robert Wyper was a sales director with Parks from June 98 until late April 1999 when he left to start his own business again, he started selling used cars from 1-19 Campbell Street in Kilmarnock (former Maconochies Ford dealership) and then opened another at Dean Street in Kilmarnock (former AFG/Caledonia/Reg Vardy Vauxhall dealership which had moved to Queens Drive Retail Park by then) in 2001 they got a Proton franchise and did ok for a few years, Campbell Street closed due to an increase in rent, in 2006 he got a franchise to become a Renault franchise for everything except new cars, I'm sure there were a few scandals including stolen cars and not paying off the outstanding HP on cars people were trading in to him and then selling them on, he ended up going into liquidation and ran companies under a few different aliases from the same premises, Lansdowne Motors, Hendry Cars and Dean St Cars, had several trading standards complains about faulty cars and even ended up on that program about rogue traders with Dominic Littlewood and Melinda Messenger, "Don't Get Done Get Dom" or something like that.

 

As for Archers, they had branches in Leith, Edinburgh, Carntyne, Airdrie, Falkirk and Langside selling Yugo and Lada, however the Langside one originally started off selling Peugeot Talbot. Not sure what happened to Leith branch but the Calder Road Edinburgh one moved on to Proton and Perodua and eventually Hyundai and then sold out to Macklin Motors about 3 years ago. Carntyne branch closed. Airdrie was a Kia dealer but then became Suzuki and changed name to Arch rather than Archers, in 2012 they lost the Suzuki franchise as Parks in Coatbridge replaced Nissan with Suzuki at their Renault/Nissan dealership, they sold their premises to their neighbours TOM Vehicle Rental and relocated to the Whirlies Roundabout in East Kilbride a stones throw from

The massive Parks dealership and renamed to Arch @ The Whirlies, not long after that Parks bought them out and built a BMW Motorrad dealership on the site. Langside eventually became Hyundai too but for whatever reason closed in 2011 and the franchise went to JM Group at their Murray Chrysler Jeep dealership at Shields Road, Kinning Park, sometime in 2013 JM sold that site and another in Kemnay to Arnold Clark. Finally their Falkirk branch after Lada became a Seat dealer, this lasted until 2002 when they changed to Suzuki which they remained until 2013 when they changed to Chevrolet, not long after Chevy pulled out of the UK and left them without a franchise, so they became a Ssang Yong and MG dealer which they still are to this day. So yeah Archers under all their aliases are the ultimate purveyors of shite cars.

[Hendry]

Oh I forgot to say Parks after acquiring Robert Wyper had within 4 years pulled it to bits, Wellington Street Seat closed down and doesn't exist, West Langlands Street Peugeot remained until 2002 when the Peugeot franchise in Kilmarnock went to Arnold Clark. They briefly changed to Renault but then sold the site to Morrisons/Safeway to build a supermarket on the site.

 

Ayr Peugeot was quickly closed down, and the Renault/Peugeot/Seat site at Heathfield Road was turned into Jag/Land Rover/Volvo when they got the Ayrshire Volvo franchise from Bickets, Arnold Clark had acquired Inglis Jaguar in Ayr as part of taking over Strathford Ford in Kilmarnock. Parks took the Jag franchise from them as the existing Jag site was small and all the Jag service, repairs, warranty work was being carried out from Arnold's also newly acquired Dalblair of Ayr Ford dealership, Ford wanted "premier automotive group" showrooms of Jag/Land Rover and Volvo when they owned all those brands and Parks had recently acquired Appleyard Land Rover at Holmston Road in Ayr and closed it down, so Volvo and JLR went there, Toyota and Seat franchises binned for them, Renault was built a new showroom on High Road in Ayr at the top of Heathfield at the Whitletts Roundabout next to Ayr Audi and Mercedes of Ayr, the only Wypers branch to escape was the Renault Irvine dealership which lasted until recently (2012) before Parks acquired more land beside it and tried to replicate what they'd done in East Kilbride with a multi franchise site of Renault, Dacia, Fiat. Nissan, Suzuki and Honda.

[Hendry]

https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/58816232@N05/29195574413/

[Hendry]

Ps I've got some photos on my Flickr which are relevant here but how on earth do I integrate them into my post? They aren't working the way Photobucket ones do using the insert URL between these tags type thing

[Eddie Honda]

Then there was the Reliant place on Dundee St (now a Ferrari/Porsche independent specialist)

Later Suzuki. It was Midas Motors.

 

The buildings on street view appear to be divided amongst three different businesses now.

[Arragonis]

Nobles in Penicuik still about?

 

Yep opposite Tescos, sells Subarus. They have a Nissan place up the road in Loanhead too, used to sell Rovers until '05. Nearly had a ZT TD from them.

[Tayne]

Ps I've got some photos on my Flickr which are relevant here but how on earth do I integrate them into my post? They aren't working the way Photobucket ones do using the insert URL between these tags type thing

 

 

 

Click the arrow at the bottom right of the black bit and copy and paste the "BB code".

 

[Richard]

I have found loads of pics on Flickr but they are not mine. Can I still post them?

 

Yes. If you use Tayne's instructions above it gives credit to the owner and is completely acceptable. If there isn't a BBCode link it means the owner doesn't want their pictures to be shared in that way, but it can still be done by viewing all sizes and getting the image url- that's a bit naughty though.

[DodgyBastard]

Belmont had a Datsun/Nissan place opposite Meadowbank stadium in Edinburgh.

 

When the disastrous commonwealth games were being held in 1986, they released a 'limited edition' Sunny or Cherry with a games sticker on the rear.

 

 

Spotted this Stanza the other day which has Belmont mud flaps fitted.

 

Nissan Stanza by srblythe, on Flickr

[stuzo]

We used to have bulls garage here in bridge of weir I remember them being austin/rover dealer then daihatsu/Isuzu before they closed few years ago had a really good bodyshop got my first job there loved it

[Hendry]

I can't get bloody Flickr to work with this BBcode thing because my phone isn't having it.

 

This should be a link to my photo stream if anyone wants to have a look or even put the photos on here for others to see.

 

https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/58816232@N05/

[5speedracer]

I used to live about 5mins from there.

 

Think that garage maybe became Adrian Smith the SAAB dealer with loads of late 80s turbo models, or they were on the same road, something like that anyway.

This is now an empty site awaiting the oil industry upturn for an office block.

Adrian Smith was round the corner, now John Clark Nissan.

 

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