FAO Scottish Shiters

[Hendry]

After some recent discussion with a Flickr contact about old car dealerships, an area I've always been interested in, I'm wondering if those older than me (I'm 29) have any recollections of car dealers in Scotland before the seemingly unstoppable rise of Arnie Shark and to a lesser extent Parks Motor Group, Evans Hellshaw and Macklin, and if so where they were based and what franchises they held. It relates to older cars in a big way so I'm hoping it's relevant here.

 

I know quite a bit about dealers in South West Scotland so I'm mainly interested in the rest of the country.

 

I'm already familiar with older bigger groups like John Martin Group (trading under the Centre Cars, Belmont, Murray Motor Co, Weir and Dunedin names) and the likes of Peat Road Motors, Robert Wyper, Archers, Lex, SMT, Rossleigh, Macrae & Dick, Ian Skelly, AFG and its subsidiaries, and most of the Glasgow and surrounding areas independents like Wylies Ford, Taggarts, Shields, Harry Fairbairn, etc but any recollections of any Scottish dealers would be most welcome.

[Barry Cade]

Wilson and garden ford glenrothes, reekie motors Vauxhall,Subaru Isuzu Jeep and AMC cupar,Norman Rollo, Volvo kirkcaldy . StClair motor co Kirkcaldy saab. Flear and thomson Vauxhall Leslie are some older ones from Fife.

 

Glenvarigill was another, as was John Grubb. More will come to me.

[Lacquer Peel]

Macrae and Dick = DEAD NOW.

[Barry Cade]

Macrae and Dick = DEAD NOW.

Are they? I worked for them in dingwall which closed but thought they at still had Inverness and Stirling?

 

Edit... Ah Part of Parks of Hamilton...

[Kiltox]

Looks like they're owned by Parks now with a quick Google. Fuck sake.

[Lacquer Peel]

They're awful, my mum bought a new Civic from them. The rear number plate is mounted squint, my mum's been waiting months for a V5, they told her it could take 3 months (WTF?!), the winter tyres they fitted are slowly deflating, triggering the tyre pressure sensors regularly.

[Kiltox]

If the V5 is going to take months I'd be very cautious that they're not registering it to themselves as a demonstrator to get a discount and then transferring it to her!

[Lacquer Peel]

That's the thing, it was a demonstrator/pre-reg and advertised as such.

[Kiltox]

Ah - they need to own it for a few months in order for it to count as a demo I think

 

Parks really are fucking diabolical though. Bought a car from them a few years ago and never would again.

[Lacquer Peel]

I didn't realise that, thanks.

[Kiltox]

By rights they shouldn't have sold it to her yet though, bit of an underhand practise

[drum]

Stout Brothers.

[Dirk Diggler]

Without pics this thread is pish; I'm doing ex dealerships of South Dublin at the moment and won't post it until I have something to show

 

If you know wharImean

[Hendry]

Yeah Parks Motor Group own Macrae & Dick, although I've no idea why they haven't changed the name of Macrae & Dick to Parks yet, the only one of their garages which have had a name change is Menzies of Stirling BMW to Douglas Park.

 

Parks have been acquiring a lot lately, they've got McLaren and Maserati dealerships in Hamilton, acquired ex Verve showrooms in Coatbridge and Bathgate (Citroen, Peugeot and Kia) they built a Peugeot dealership onto their East Kilbride branch, Mitsubishi franchise in Coatbridge, and are redeveloping loads of their own showrooms, Hamilton Skoda was demolished and rebuilt, Irvine Renault was demolished and land acquired and rebuilt as a Renault, Dacia, Fiat, Suzuki, Nissan and Honda dealership, Coatbridge Renault, Dacia, Suzuki and Mitsubishi is currently being demolished and rebuilt after extra land acquired, they are Scotland's only Overfinch franchise, Ayr Motorworld used cars was closed and they are building a new Jaguar Land Rover dealership on the site, next door to their existing Jag, Land Rover and Volvo dealership, presumably more franchises are going to occupy where JLR used to be, they acquired the franchise in Ayrshire for Honda from Arnie in 2013. And with the acquisition of Macrae and Dick they now represent Ford, Mazda and Toyota again who they held franchises for years ago and lost/gave them up.

 

I forgot about other big groups like John Clark (opened a rake of Nissan franchises after Arnie lost the Nissan franchise, opened up Renault, Peugeot and Dacia in Aberdeen, Seat dealership in Dundee, acquired a load of Stratstone JLR dealerships plus the Elgin Land Rover dealer, Skoda in Perth)

 

Eastern Western who seem to be moving all their Edinburgh dealerships to Fort Kinnaird or Newbridge to their "Luxury Car Village" (yeah like VW and Toyota are luxury brands) and growing in Fife. And operate a few used car dealerships under the Car Deal Warehouse banner.

 

Arnie is now (other than Donald Mackenzie in Inverness) the sole Alfa Romeo sales franchise in Scotland at Linwood, after losing or dropping Alfa sales 9/10years ago and now has it back, and yes Alfa expect to sell cars with only 2 sales dealers in the whole country.

 

PS Kiltox, the car you bought from Parks wasn't a Laguna II which you traded in an Astra H for was it, I've been wondering for a while if the username was just a coincidence of being the same as that of another user on another forum, but can't be many people Using that as a forum name who've bought a car from Parks and had bother with them.

[Lacquer Peel]

 

Aird Motors in Beauly, old school Subaru dealership that still sells agricultural equipment alongside ugly flat-4 cars.

[Hendry]

Btw, has anyone heard of the Aron Hutcheson Group in the North East which was acquired by Arnold in the late 80s and which franchises they actually held and where?

[Kiltox]

@Hendry - yep, that's me

[Jim Bergerac]

Weren't Glenvargill (or whatever they were called) part of JM Group? Recall them being Chrysler/Jeep dealers in the late nineties. Also remember growing up seeing a lot of cars (Volkswagen, Toyota, maybe even Rover?) wearing Abercrombie stickers which I assume became part of Eastern Western?

[rml2345]

In addition to Arnold Clark Citroën, Armadale had Nelson's Rover which I'm not sure made the millenium. Inch Engineering Bathgate has had a VW franchise for yonks but they too have succumbed to Arnold.

[Hendry]

Glenvarigill weren't part of JM Group, they were owned by Drambuie the liquer company, they sold off a lot of sites to other groups after a management buyout in 2002. Their remaining sites for Honda in Perth and Aberdeen and Peugeot in Dundee and Aberdeen renamed as Manor Oak and then went bust.

 

Renault Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline went to Parks. Peugeot Dundee was where Specialist Cars Skoda, Seat and Nissan is on Myrekirk Road, Perth Honda went to the Honda dealer West End Garage, Aberdeen Honda went to Town & County who later sold to Macrae & Dick so that's Parks now too, Lomond Audi bought their Edinburgh and Stirling Audi branches so their now Lookers owned, Stirling Honda was sold to Phoenix. And all their prestige sites like Ferrari and Porsche were sold to the Sytner Group.

 

Abercrombie went bust and a lot of their sites went to Arnold Clark (Seafield branches) Dunfermline went to a mix of garages and still trades as Halbeath Motor Park incorporating Western Toyota & Honda, Parks Renault, Western Nissan, West End Skoda and Specialist Cars VW.

 

Kiltox: your old Astra, it's still going strong, I live in East Kilbride now and it overtook me on a dual carriageway a few weeks back, reg ST56SZL or SZP?

[Hendry]

Oh on the subject of Inch Engineering VW - Abercromby had a VW branch in Stirling, when they folded it changed to Advantage VW Stirling, a couple of years back Inch acquired that too so as rml2345 says, Arnie acquired Inch recently so the Stirling VW is now Arnies too.

 

It's shocking, I have a VW and if I in the unlikely event wanted to put it into a non AC VW dealer I'd have to travel to Ingram in Ayr or Western in Edinburgh as they had their own VW branch in Greenock and Helensburgh, took over the aforementioned Inch in Bathgate and Stirling, Ingram in Paisley, Ian Skelly/Verve in Wishaw and Rutherglen and Lex VW Jordanhill and Merrylee (started out as Merrylee Motors, remember them?)

 

Most of the garages in Stirling are AC now, I remember SMT Vauxhall which when SMT disbanded became Ian Grieves when he bought the site from them and Arnie acquired that and Devonvale Vauxhall in Alloa too.

[Barry Cade]

Barnetts still have vw in st Andrews and Volvo/vw/mazda in Dundee.decent firm.

[Split_Pin]

I used to go to Crail every year for my summer holidays from 1980 to 1989 and I remember Peter Hastie Motors the Ford Dealer very well.

 

They always had a new Escort in their showroom with the new registration on it prior to 1st August and as a wee boy I always used to love seeing this.

 

There were always a fair few Fords around Crail with the dealer name in the number plate for many years after we stopped going on holiday there and instead would go for a day trip.

 

There was a small opening beside the showroom which led to a small petrol station at the back but it was never in use even in my lifetime.

 

I think they closed some time in the mid 1990s. There's now a big gap in the terrace where the showroom used to be as it's now an access road to the flats which were built on the land at the back which contained the petrol station.

 

I also recall Regent Motors in Linlithgow which followed a similar story to above; plenty of neighbours had Base model MK3 Fiestas converted in to dubious dealer special editions with a pinstripe and fancy wheelcovers and named 'regency' or such like.

 

Again, flattened in about 1992 to become a Kwik Save which was again demolished to make way for the dreaded Retail Park.

[0ldCh0d]

Remember Verve?.......They went tits up about 4 years ago now?....Some interesting/eye opening/dodgy stories about them before they went bust.

 

They were into quite alot of vehicle franchises, VW Cars & Vans, Peugeot cars & vans, Citroen Cars & Vans, Ssangyong, Kia & probably others. 

 

I cant remember where all their showrooms were, but i do know Bathgate, Coatbridge & Wishaw were locations.

[BavarianRetro]

Skelly's Rutherglen became Verve.

 

There were two Skellys. Skellys which was a Ford dealer in which Ian Skelly was originally a partner, I think, and left to form Ian Skelly. (Robert?)Skelly continued as Ford dealers I think.

 

In Lanarkshire in the 70s, you had County Garage, Ford in Lanark, Carluke and Carlisle(!); Reid Brothers/Loch Garage and Cox's both BMC/BL; Daniel Ross, Vauxhall, and, Mansefield Motors who chopped and changed between Rootes/Chrysler/PSA and ended up as Citroen, all in Lanark - a town with a population of about 8000 at the time.

 

The original Parks of Hamilton was probably Hamilton's only franchised dealer at the time. Cannon of Coatbridge were Ford I think and were huge, then went bust when Frank Cannon offered mental HP deals on Mkiv Cortinas and couldn't match the promises made by his sales staff.

 

Archers of Aidrie sold Lada and Yugo in the later seventies, but I am sure that a predecessor sold Moskvich. There were quite a few Moskvich around - for a wee while - in the 70s.

[Eddie Honda]

Cannon of Coatbridge were Ford I think and were huge, then went bust when Frank Cannon offered mental HP deals on Mkiv Cortinas and couldn't match the promises made by his sales staff.

 

Frank was certainly huge, but I'm not sure where he found the time for being a P.I.

 

[cms206]

 

Aird Motors in Beauly, old school Subaru dealership that still sells agricultural equipment alongside ugly flat-4 cars.

Eaglesham Motor Company is the same, tractors, Subaru and Isuzu.

 

Others smaller brand dealers more local to Hendry and I... Clanford Paisley (then part of the Scottish Ford Dealers; ended up as Arnold Shark via a spell as First Ford), Johnson Peugeot in Renfrew, Lylesland Vauxhall/GM/Opel in Paisley, Westfield Volvo in Greenock, New Sneddon Motors Skoda in Paisley, Williams Rover on the same street (previously Peat Road Motors Paisley, latterly Patons Taxiworld), Ferguson of Renfrew Vauxhall, Goudies Peugeot-Talbot and later Subaru in Paisley, Thorn Kia (previously Thorn FSO) in Johnstone... sure there's more but I can't remember at the minute.

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[cort16]

Ds dalgliesh in the borders are still going as independant

Dickson of Inverness have Nissan , Kia and Suzuki and is who I bought my juke off.

 

Ness motors was another big Indy group who got snapped up by ac.

[BavarianRetro]

Frank was certainly huge, but I'm not sure where he found the time for being a P.I.

 

 

I think his real name was Peter? Universally known as "Frank". I'll try to find an old photo, but it'll be difficult to tell whether yours is Frank or Peter?

[kinkersaab]

A few smaller ones

 

Kenneth melville subaru. At errol

 

Jack wilson renault aberdeen in the 80s

 

Anderson cars renault nissan and honda in aberdeen

 

Thomsons of cults Audi aberdeen

 

Tower garage suzuki Aberdeen

 

Cordiners ford aberdeen

 

Harpers ford aberdeen

 

Corner garage mazda lewis emslie aberdeen

 

Airport mazda aberdeen

 

Would love to see some old pics of aberdeen dealers, google doesnt bring up much