Hendry Posted January 23, 2017 Author Share Posted January 23, 2017 When I was there (91-93) in theory both upper and lower showrooms were for new cars, but in practice they used to go through phases of having 'interesting' cars in the upper one. The rationale was that it was behind the Network Q stuff out front, and the intended front of house was actually the lower showroom. The 'interesting' stuff that I can recall, were all used, and included a then newish Nissan 300ZX, a Supra Turbo and Jack Halley's old Merc 420SE. The car park was where the non Network Q stuff went so the traders (and anyone else who asked) could see it.The garage layout then, was upper and lower showrooms, workshop to the left (if you were looking at it from Homebase) with the parts department behind that; the yard, and the remaining old shed against the wall of the sawmill yard, was valeting. The petrol station shop was built onto the retaining wall when all that was excavated (in the 50s I believe), such that it was perched on top of a building you couldn't see from the road, which was offices at one point, but was storage when I was there.We still had a septic tank there then, believe it or not! My how we laughed when one of the lads from Kelvin Timber dreeped over the wall to get their ball back, and went straight through the decrepit concrete lid. In summer, when the pit was long overdue a clean out.The DIY shop started out as WH Smith Do-It-All, was Texas Homecare when I was there: the land belonged to the garage, because that's where the bodyshop and the parts dept used to be. The field over the back of West Of Scotland RFC where the caravans are/were was theirs too, as I think (and I could be wrong here) was part of Murray Park. They've made a bob or ten out of land over the years, safe to say. Probably still are.Incidentally, if you look up stuff on George Bennie's Railplane, it ran from the sawmill, and some of the aerial shots give you a proper idea of how big that plot of land was: the sawmill and the burn were essentially the boundaries of it. I'd agree that VX shot themselves in the foot losing a dealer like that: the short term gain of increased numbers (I was at Dickson's Honda in Aberdeen, when they lost that franchise to Anderson Cars in similar circumstances, so I get how that happens) doesn't compensate in the long run for customer loyalty, which they had in buckets. You just can't buy that, you can only earn it.I'll need to go and have a look next time I'm over by: my mental map is probably well out by now!The current layout is lower showroom is the Ford showroom now, if you are standing in front of the Ford showroom, to the left of that is workshops I think, on the upper level the showroom there is all pre reg Vauxhalls, because as I said Arnie are trying to pass it off as a proper Vauxhall and Ford dealer but in reality it's a proper Ford dealer and a Vauxhall approved service and parts dealer, pretty much all the used stock for sale is on the upper level, in some of the Homebase's car park it's used like a compound for new cars, used cars awaiting prep and customer parking. This will give you some idea: https://www.arnoldclark.com/find-a-dealer/milngavie-vauxhall-ford/ref/arnfs CreepingJesus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendry Posted January 23, 2017 Author Share Posted January 23, 2017 Anyone know much about Fairfield Garage in Dundee? My grandfather got my Kia there, its still on dealer plates. Think its a Arnie Shark now?Don't know a lot about them other than that Fairfield Garage were a Kia dealer at 34 Bellfield Street in Dundee, in around 2004 I think Arnie acquired the Kia franchise and started taking it on at a lot of his dealerships robbing the franchise from small independent longstanding Kia dealers who had held the franchise since the early days of the whitewall tyres Kia Pride, those dealers couldn't manage without a franchise and ended up closing. Arnie took on the Kia franchise at Balfield Road in Dundee which meant the closure of Fairfield but Arnie didn't actually take them over, they were quite an Interesting garage as well, I remember a pic on their website of a yellow TVR Griffith 500 in their showroom. oldcars 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tul66 Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Does anyone remember the BL dealer at the top of Robertson Avenue/Slateford Road Edinburgh in the 1970s? They were called Leggetts I think. There was a huge painting in the showroom behind the cars. Cannot find any information or pictures and no one I've spoken to can remember it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delux Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Nissan and Arnie fell out over the Nissan Tiida. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Tiida Arnie knew he could import them for beer money and flog them off to pensioners. Nissan were not happy and told him it would affect Micra and Dacia sales. Arnie (MD Eddie Hawthorn) told Nissan he knew what he was doing and to 'do one'. Nissans lawyers are better than Arnies and Nissan withdrew their dealerships. Arnie had no problem filling the showrooms with other moderns (the Livingston one is Vauxhall now). I have heard this account of things from seperate sources who I would think would be likely to know so I have to assume its true, LOL! THEN... Honda got wind of all this and withdrew too! The Japanese makes dont seem to like Arnie as Mitsubishi and Suzuki wont deal with them either. Jim Bergerac 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiatdaft Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Not quite accurate. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendry Posted January 23, 2017 Author Share Posted January 23, 2017 If that's the case why was it 5 years after Arnie was selling Tiidas that they were no longer Nissan dealers. Story I heard was something to do with Nissan upping new car sales units per dealership and they and Arnie didn't see eye to eye over it. Honda I suspect AC pulled the plug on them as they in late 2010 dropped the Honda franchise at their Altrincham site for Kia and offloaded their Manchester and Stockport Honda sites to Swansway Group as they were lossmaking. Less than 3 years later the franchise was gone from their 3 Scottish sites at Ayr, Kilmarnock and Kirkcaldy, someone told me a tale that Honda and Arnie fell out as the Ayr branch couldn't do MOTs and were sending any car that came into Ayr Honda for an MOT to their Ford branch across the road, doubt that's what happened either. It will be to do with sales targets or how little or how much money Arnie could make out of the franchise, another story was Honda were quite happy to discount new cars but wouldn't let dealers advertise them at anything but RRP and the punter had to ask for a discount, while other manufacturers would happily let them advertise new cars at discounted prices. The other reason may have been they could fill the Honda branches with other more profitable manufacturers (Altrincham and Kirkcaldy - Kia, Ayr - Vauxhall) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendry Posted March 19, 2017 Author Share Posted March 19, 2017 IMG_1175 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1173 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1174 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendry Posted March 19, 2017 Author Share Posted March 19, 2017 IMG_1179 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1180 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Jim Bergerac 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendry Posted March 19, 2017 Author Share Posted March 19, 2017 IMG_1237 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1230 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1229 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1228 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1227 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1226 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1225 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1224 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1223 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1222 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendry Posted March 19, 2017 Author Share Posted March 19, 2017 IMG_1218 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1217 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1215 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1216 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1212 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Premier Ford Anniesland by Greg Hendry, on Flickr 1989 Vauxhall Dealers by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1206 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1202 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr AFG Nissan by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1200 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1199 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1198 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1197 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1195 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1194 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1190 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Clanford of Paisley by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Armour Motors Ford by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Colin & Austin Thomas by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Jim Bergerac and oldcars 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendry Posted March 19, 2017 Author Share Posted March 19, 2017 Hamilton Bros Fiat by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Queens Vauxhall by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1343 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1342 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1341 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1246 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1247 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1248 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1253 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1256 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Glen Henderson Ferrari by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Bass Rock Renault Greenock by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1279 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Archers Group by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1285 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1286 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1288 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1294 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1297 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1299 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1300 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Arnold Clark Branches by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Arnold Clark Branches by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1310 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1316 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1317 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1319 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1323 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1336 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1337 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1338 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1339 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1359 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1360 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Jim Bergerac and oldcars 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendry Posted March 19, 2017 Author Share Posted March 19, 2017 IMG_1361 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Verve by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Phoenix Kia by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Lindsays of Dumbarton by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Verve VW by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Parkhall Garage Toyota by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Low's Garage by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Bickets Mazda Kilmarnock by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Lindsay's of Dumbarton by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Watson of Airdrie Vauxhall by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Wylies Keyring by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Wylies Ford Darnley by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Fiat Fiorino 1.4 Base Cube Van by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Clanford of Paisley Keyring by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Dalry Motor Company Citroen by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Blair & Gray (Kilmarnock) Ltd KA3 1RL by Greg Hendry, on Flickr oldcars 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Split_Pin Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 Blimey GH that was a trip back in time. Tomkins, Wylies, SMT, Murray Volvo all bring back memories. I've got various plates from past cars in the garage, kept because they had the dealer name on them. I had a set of foam filled plastic stickers from a Vauxhall dealer back in the mid 1980s, each with a picture of the car and a catchy name like 'Captain Cavalier', 'Mean Manta', 'Senator Starship' and 'classy Carlton'. I haven't seen them in well over 5 years but I must find them again as they're ace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CreepingJesus Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 It's come to something when I'm looking through all those ads going 'what happened to them?' and the answer is Arnie...Not universally though. Laidlaw's were one that went to Quick's in the late 90s. Also, who the hell are Macklin Motors? They seem to have come out of nowhere. First came across them when they bought out Dunfermline Autocentre, now they're growing like weeds too. I can only speculate how precarious the leveraging must be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendry Posted March 19, 2017 Author Share Posted March 19, 2017 It's come to something when I'm looking through all those ads going 'what happened to them?' and the answer is Arnie...Not universally though. Laidlaw's were one that went to Quick's in the late 90s. Also, who the hell are Macklin Motors? They seem to have come out of nowhere. First came across them when they bought out Dunfermline Autocentre, now they're growing like weeds too. I can only speculate how precarious the leveraging must be.Yep most were taken over by Arnie or closed and were replaced by Arnie or were put out of business by Arnie. What I don't get is that at one point Arnie must've had bigger rivals in Scotland, why was he the one to survive and grow massive, why didn't the rest of them have the same idea? Macklin Motors is the Scottish trading name of a company called Vertu Motors, who in 2006 took over the entire Bristol Street Motors group down south. They now trade under Vertu (Honda, VW, Toyota franchises) Farnell (Land Rover and Jaguar franchises) South Hereford Garages (Audi and VW franchises) Versa (Wheelchair accessible/adapted vehicles) and every other franchise of theirs down south is Bristol Street Motors, and Macklin Motors up here, they also took over "The Taxi Centre" at Glasgow Airport. Their main man Robert Forrester was very high up in Reg Vardy before it was sold to Pendragon and his father reportedly owned Andrew Forrester the Nissan dealer in Fife back in the day, they first took over Dunfermline Autocentre in 2009 as you say, I think their next move was to buy Johnston Peugeot at Phoenix Retail Park Linwood in April 2010 which is when the Macklin Motors name appeared, they then took over Shields Ford and Mazda dealerships in Darnley and Blantyre in July 2010, I think they then took over Hardie Peugeot Dunfermline (closed last year and now Western Nissan), Then they built a Nissan dealership in Darnley just along from Ford and Mazda in 2011. They took over Phoenix Hyundai at Seafield Edinburgh and Archers Hyundai Calder Road Sighthill Edinburgh in late 2013, and have just recently completed the build of a Nissan dealership in Glasgow City Centre with a car tower in it, after Arnie Clark lost the Nissan franchise and they took over the franchise in Glasgow. They are actually fairly decent, old man bought a car from Darnley Ford in August last year, and they were the best service we've ever had from a big group, much better than Arnie, the only big group we would consider buying from again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Springer Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 Oh, and bill and ben the yugo men, aberdeen, there used to be still a yugo sign on george steet must look again see if its still there.... Fountain garage skoda, near to tayne of this place. Now great northern motorsThat was in Fraser Place and the sign's long gone! Whoops, late to this thread and see Tayne respsonded. Even the Dacia sign is no longer there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CreepingJesus Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 I see! It was the glass tower Nissan place that got me wondering really, because that's much more of a commitment than just buying up independents. Then I clocked the Blantyre ones next to the EK Expressway...There are many stories about how Arnie has lead a charmed life in the Scottish car trade: there's probably truth in all of them. My grandad knew of him, back at the start (they were demobbed and returned to Glasgow at the same time), and he's always put it down to Arnie being charming, utterly ruthless and a workaholic. I guess his problems are mostly the vast army of people he's pissed off along the way, and the fact of his company being a big fish in a little pond. Big English groups (like Pendragon, Lex, Quicks etc) were always ultimately able to muscle him out on their own turfs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendry Posted March 20, 2017 Author Share Posted March 20, 2017 I see! It was the glass tower Nissan place that got me wondering really, because that's much more of a commitment than just buying up independents. Then I clocked the Blantyre ones next to the EK Expressway...There are many stories about how Arnie has lead a charmed life in the Scottish car trade: there's probably truth in all of them. My grandad knew of him, back at the start (they were demobbed and returned to Glasgow at the same time), and he's always put it down to Arnie being charming, utterly ruthless and a workaholic. I guess his problems are mostly the vast army of people he's pissed off along the way, and the fact of his company being a big fish in a little pond. Big English groups (like Pendragon, Lex, Quicks etc) were always ultimately able to muscle him out on their own turfs.They seem reasonably big down south now though. A fair few Fiat (Pendragon don't deal with Fiat at all and Lookers has 1 Fiat place) Renault, Ford, Kia, Vauxhall sites down south with some odd others like Jeep, Seat, Alfa, Abarth, Mazda. They took over a fair few of Pendragons Scottish dealerships and same with Lex when they sold off their sites in the late 90s. Arnie is crackers now, owing to his age now and Eddie Hawthorne runs the show, Arnie just goes round touring his showrooms now, he spoke to me once thinking I was a cleaner because I was working late and came out of the workshops toilets, about how dirty a bucket of water was, and then he wanted dirt cleaned off of the metal strip at the showroom entrance doors and the glass cabinets with accessories from the parts department cleaned and polished. Rumour has it that he walked into a Reg Vardy and asked why no salesman had AC ties on and why none of the forecourt stock had the yellow stickers on, only to be told it's because he wasn't in an AC branch. However I suspect that story is cobblers because he's had a driver for years who takes him around the branches, he would've said something to Arnie to point out it wasn't one of his places surely. CreepingJesus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CreepingJesus Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 Probably nonsense, if nothing else, Arnie is as sharp as you like. The old man is probably still not to be messed with. And like you say, has had a driver for decades now. Still got a blue Roller with AC1 on?I got away with it, back chatting him one time, cos I didn't recognise him! His driver was waiting in a Peugeot 405 Exec...he liked to try povvy cars out once in a while! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendry Posted March 20, 2017 Author Share Posted March 20, 2017 Probably nonsense, if nothing else, Arnie is as sharp as you like. The old man is probably still not to be messed with. And like you say, has had a driver for decades now. Still got a blue Roller with AC1 on?I got away with it, back chatting him one time, cos I didn't recognise him! His driver was waiting in a Peugeot 405 Exec...he liked to try povvy cars out once in a while!Back then (2008) he had the Lexus dealership at St George's Road Charing Cross and the car he was been driven around in was an 08 plate Lexus RX 4x4. He doesn't have a load of classic cars in his collection though, I think they were originally bought to try and sell on as I remember adverts in the auto trader for "Arnold's Classic Collection" and then when you went to certain branches they had the classics in the showroom for sale, for example we had a 1927 Citroen Cloverleaf in the showroom at Linwood Citroen for £8k but I think they abandoned selling them and most are displayed at the hire drive branch in Inverness, with a couple of others dotted around, they had a car owned by Elton John I think, possibly a Bentley, some rare 60s Ferrari and Winston Churchills Morris Oxford. Plus random other stuff like a 1953 Triumph Mayflower at Pollokshaws Vauxhall for £1288. A big Merc previously owned by Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos. The directors and so on all liked their Lexus, quite a few driving the RX 4x4s but now they've lost Lexus they are all probably jumping around in BMs and Mercs. Russell Borrie who was at the time franchise manager for Fiat, Abarth, Kia, and Harry Fairbairn BMW/Mini was tooling around usually in a 325i Coupe, and Lim Burns the Citroen franchise manager was using a 6months old ex Citroen UK C6, which was heavy on fuel, he was based at Armadale and left the car at our branch one day owing to a puncture so me and another driver had to take it back to Armadale for him, 20quid in it when we left Paisley and the other driver had to stop in Airdrie to fire another score in. What Branches did you work in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinkersaab Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 As far as i had heard old Arnie himself has some demtia or something. I heard from a trader guy that he came marching into a main agent in the central belt and ordered a valeter,to do something only to be told it wasnt his garage..... Probably a Nissan one. . Another mate of mine wored for him at a mazda franchise in aberedeen and he was know to drive a modest mondeo in which he sat and ate his sandwhiches. That was a few years ago mind. I have to say i have never heard anytging nice said about him....nir for that matter his company. Its a shame as im sure he has some decent staff working for him, just their efforts will be hidden behind a much hated brand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendry Posted March 20, 2017 Author Share Posted March 20, 2017 Does anyone actually have the inside story on why they and Nissan parted because I've heard that many rumours. Suppose it was on the cards for ages as they went from about 15 Nissan branches down to about 6 in the space of about 3/4 years. Always interested to find out why manufacturers part from dealers especially when the dealer concerned could make their franchise lots of money. Like Honda, Lexus etc who have parted with Arnie too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CreepingJesus Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 The Renault garage in Bearsden. Started out valeting when I was at school, and stayed on a while as other, better jobs fell through. Stayed until the post at Halley's came up, stayed there a couple of years, then jobbed it round various places after I got paid off. Lex Vauxhall, Shields Toyota and the Merc garage in the West End (I want to say it was Western then, but I'm not sure) I can recall, there were probably others. I kept no records at the time...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendry Posted March 20, 2017 Author Share Posted March 20, 2017 The Renault garage in Bearsden. Started out valeting when I was at school, and stayed on a while as other, better jobs fell through. Stayed until the post at Halley's came up, stayed there a couple of years, then jobbed it round various places after I got paid off. Lex Vauxhall, Shields Toyota and the Merc garage in the West End (I want to say it was Western then, but I'm not sure) I can recall, there were probably others. I kept no records at the time...!Merc in the West End, I'll take a stab in the dark it was Callanders of Kirklee Road? Taken over by Reg Vardy under the Vardy Continental banner, and then moved to where it is now on Milton Street. Early 90s I think. Did Lex Vauxhall have 2 sites in Glasgow? I remember neither but I have heard mention of Lex Vauxhall at both New City Road Cowcaddens and also Finnieston Street. Bearsden Renault is still there and hasn't changed much over the years, its tiny if I remember correctly with only a 2 car showroom? There was chat a few years ago of it being closed along with the Nissan branch at Mosspark Boulevard, it did close but Bearsden didn't, Unlike other Arnie Branches it's somehow remained and not moved or been built into a massive glass and chrome palace, and I think is one of the longest standing Branches in the group having been there since the 60s I think. It doesn't even do new Renaults anymore, I'm mean yeah Arnie still advertises it as such and says new cars can be bought there but Renault dealer lists and their website list it as a service centre only now, so they must register the new cars at Bishopbriggs or some other Arnie Renault branch on the side. What did you get paid off for at Halleys if you don't mind me asking? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CreepingJesus Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 Bearsden Renault has the curious advantage of being on its lonesome in a leafy suburb, it's the empire's equivalent of Craggy Island I think. The building I think, is older than that: it was about the same age as the workshops on the other side of the bridge. Coincidentally, the son of the guy who ran the Jag/auto gearbox specialist was a mechanic in Arnie's. Lex had two sites in Glasgow, but it was Finnieston St (Vauxhall, and Bedford, then Leyland Daf trucks at the Broomielaw end) and Govan (LD trucks), now Imperial Commercials. They had one in Edinburgh at Seafield Rd, one on Victoria Rd in Kirkcaldy and one in Aberdeen. They all became SVL, Kirkcaldy shut (it's still derelict), Edinburgh became Belmont, think Aberdeen went to Arnie's. It's a long and involved tale around Halley's, but in the end I got paid off because their insurance bill had soared because somebody crashed the van twice in three months...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendry Posted March 20, 2017 Author Share Posted March 20, 2017 Bearsden Renault has the curious advantage of being on its lonesome in a leafy suburb, it's the empire's equivalent of Craggy Island I think. The building I think, is older than that: it was about the same age as the workshops on the other side of the bridge. Coincidentally, the son of the guy who ran the Jag/auto gearbox specialist was a mechanic in Arnie's. Lex had two sites in Glasgow, but it was Finnieston St (Vauxhall, and Bedford, then Leyland Daf trucks at the Broomielaw end) and Govan (LD trucks), now Imperial Commercials. They had one in Edinburgh at Seafield Rd, one on Victoria Rd in Kirkcaldy and one in Aberdeen. They all became SVL, Kirkcaldy shut (it's still derelict), Edinburgh became Belmont, think Aberdeen went to Arnie's. It's a long and involved tale around Halley's, but in the end I got paid off because their insurance bill had soared because somebody crashed the van twice in three months...!I thought Vauxhall at Seafield Road in Edinburgh was always Belmont even as far back as the mid 80s. Victoria Road Kirkcaldy one became Gordon Curtis Motors who ran Vauxhall already in Cupar, Dalgety Bay and Carnock Road Dunfermline, in 2006 they lost Vauxhall sales and Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline closed, Cupar remained Vauxhall after sales and Dalgety Bay became Vauxhall after sales as well but also Chevrolet franchise. I think Peter Vardy built a new Kirkcaldy Vauxhall showroom at Mitchelston Estate where Asda and all the other car showrooms are in 2007. Vardy took over Curtis Motors Dalgety Bay about 3 years back and made it Vauxhall dealer again too. The Aberdeen SVL I believe was taken over by the long running Lawrence of Kemnay who originally started out at Acquithie Road Kemnay, and they also had a Vauxhall dealership in Fraserburgh, they built a satellite dealership in Bridge of Don and Vauxhall offered them to take over SVLs Vauxhall dealership at Lang Stracht, they made a mess of running it and ended up selling the lot to John Martin Group aka Belmont as well, they relocated to Inverurie and started again as a Ford dealer. I believe there may also have been an SVL Vauxhall in Inverness, which I believe was taken over by a collaboration of Mackays of Dingwall and Regency Car Sales Buckie and Elgin, neither group could afford the Inverness dealership on their own so joined forces to keep another dealership in their territory out of the hands of the big groups. In the end after Belmont selling off the Edinburgh and Aberdeen sites to Peter Vardy and closing the Fraserburgh site, Peter Vardy now run all of the Vauxhall territories previously ran by SVL except Inverness. John Martin Group held on to the Kemnay site a bit longer by which time it was only Vauxhall aftersales but had franchises for Peugeot, Suzuki, Chevrolet and Chrysler Jeep but sold that to Arnold in 2012 along with the Shields Road Kinning Park Chrysler Jeep and Hyundai dealership in Glasgow (which was formerly Centre Cars Renault and Weir Nissan before this, both John Martin Group companies as well) Arnold has since closed Kemnay and it's now just a vehicle storage compound and the only franchise to survive - Jeep moved to their Aberdeen Fiat dealership. The Glasgow Chrysler Jeep and Hyundai dealership is now an Arnies prestige & performance used site after Jeep moved to the former Chevrolet showroom at Linwood Vauxhall to make a joint Jeep/Alfa Romeo franchise, one of only 2 Alfa sales dealers in the whole of Scotland (other being Donald Mackenzie Inverness) since Western closed their Perth and Edinburgh Alfa dealerships and changed the Glasgow former Saab and Alfa one to Lexus. Hyundai was dropped as Arnold had just totally redeveloped their own existing Hyundai branch at Alexandra Parade. Something's telling me however that the Falkirk Vauxhall dealership was SVL as well? Grahams Road I think, was taken over by Reg Vardy late 90s and moved to Laurieston Road Grangemouth where it still is as Evans Halshaw. And I think Lex also had the Vauxhall dealership in Stirling too, originally SMT which Lex took over or amalgamated with, I think Ian Grieve bought it in 1991 in a dealership management buyout and sold it to Arnie in 2007. I'm certain Shields Toyota was originally Lex as well, pretty sure the guy Joe O'Donnell who started Shields Rover and Toyota bought them from Lex in another MBO at the time Lex were selling off all their Scottish branches. I certainly remember Shields Rover and Toyota as Lex Toyota, Lex Citroen and Ritchie's Fiat in the 80s. Another which has just sprang to mind is Lex had another Vauxhall dealership in Airdrie, my uncle had a used L reg mk3 Astra Merit from there, I think it was originally Watson of Airdrie, then became part of the Swan National Motors Group, then Lex, then was sold off to Pendragon in the days before they acquired Reg Vardy and ran Evans Halshaw dealerships up here, and they changed the name back to Watson of Airdrie again. I think it's fair to say Lex were huge, they took over Merrylee Motors VW Kilmarnock Road Shawlands, Crow Road Jordanhill Glasgow and ones in Stirling and Dundee, obviously both Glasgow Ones are now Arnie, and they had Lex Rover Broxburn which Arnie also took over and changed to Macharg Rennie and Lindsay like the Glasgow Rover dealerships they owned, before changing to Fiat as well, than changing the name To Arnold Clark and now it's Fiat and Seat. I remember the Vauxhall dealership at Finnieston Street being known as "Clyde Vauxhall 149 Finnieston Street in the late 90s too" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendry Posted September 13, 2017 Author Share Posted September 13, 2017 Holy thread resurrection! Didn't feel the need to start a new topic but a good few of you seem to know a bit about the Scottish motor trade and I wondered if anyone had heard any rumours about Phoenix in Stirling? They operate Honda, Kia, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Suzuki from sites in Kerse Road which were built by Abercromby originally and were sold to Glenvarigill when Abercromby hit trouble and then when Glenvarigill themselves hit trouble Phoenix bought them as sole Honda dealer and gradually added the other franchises, seemingly Phoenix hit financial difficulties about 2013 and sold a lot of their premises to Arnold Clark in a sale and leaseback deal. There's now a rumour that Phoenix are pulling out of Stirling at the end of the month, Honda is going to Eastern Western who have acquired a plot of land at Broadleys which they have planning in for a Nissan dealership tand replace their existing temp dealership at Springkerse and another dealership for an unnamed other franchise so Honda would make sense. Flear & Thomson the Dunfermline Kia dealer are taking on Kia from the existing site temporarily until they build a new dealership elsewhere (didn't realise they had the finances for that being a small company) Not sure what's happening with Mitsubishi and Suzuki but someone I know was told this by a Phoenix employee, but it wouldn't be the first time Phoenix or their employees told stories which weren't exactly accurate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendry Posted January 15, 2018 Author Share Posted January 15, 2018 Another thread resurrection, I now have some pics I thought may be of interest to some of you and may evoke some more memories of Scotlands motor trade in days gone by: IMG_2724 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2716 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2715 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2739 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2735 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2736 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2734 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2732 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr 22901577_10209369722233886_1945003975_n by Greg Hendry, on Flickr scan0008_zpsef4a8eb9 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Peat Road Motors by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Parks of Hamilton by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2332 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2328 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2327 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr hennabm 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendry Posted January 15, 2018 Author Share Posted January 15, 2018 IMG_2326 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2322 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2321 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2315 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2187 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2180 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2179 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2175 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2167 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2165 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2192 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2190 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2188 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2155 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2068 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1539 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_2119 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr hennabm and oldcars 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendry Posted January 15, 2018 Author Share Posted January 15, 2018 IMG_2114 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1902 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1897 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1833 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1832 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1793 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1787 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr Goudies of Paisley Peugeot Talbot by Greg Hendry, on Flickr St Andrews Skoda by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1549 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1548 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr IMG_1547 by Greg Hendry, on Flickr hennabm, delux and oldcars 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now