FAO Scottish Shiters

[fiatdaft]

 

 

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[fiatdaft]

 

 

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[fiatdaft]

 

 

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[fiatdaft]

 

 

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[fiatdaft]

 

 

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[fiatdaft]

 

 

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[fiatdaft]

 

 

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[fiatdaft]

Saved the best till the end.

 

 

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[Split_Pin]

That's what we were all waiting for!! Ace! I didn't know there were so many dealers in Falkirk. The only former one I recall was Philps Volvo which is now a Police Station.

[JeeExEll]

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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Thanks for correction re SAAB dealer, Georgeinabz picked up on it too. Long time since I lived there, early 90s, they were just doing the stop start traffic lights on the roundabouts last time I drove on Ellon Road.

Handy place to live at the time for visiting the autoshite car auctions at AEC on Tuesdays.

[Hendry]

Going through those in the order posted:

 

- Appleyard Western Road Kilmarnock became Arnold Clark Rover in the mid 80s and is now Arnold Clark Peugeot/Toyota

- Appleyard Holmston Road Ayr was taken over by Parks Motor Group in the late 90s and moved to 100 Heathfield Road Ayr.

 

- Overburn Citroen lost the franchise when Arnie replaced Austin Rover with Citroen at 92 Glasgow Road in Paisley, Overburn remained in business as an FSO dealer in the 90s then a used car dealer, their showroom is now a hairdressers and a Morrisons petrol station but they still run a garage from the site.

 

- Murray field Volvo was JM Group owned even then and is now based at Bankhead Drive Sighthill.

 

- Andrew Brown Toyota Hamilton was taken over by Parks Motor Group and became a Daihatsu and Mazda dealer before moving to Parks place at East Kilbride in 1998, both franchises now dropped. Keith Street closed down at that point.

 

- David W Reid Saab Falkirk was taken over by Taggarts in the late 80s and closed in 1991 when the recession hit and Taggarts slimmed down.

 

- J K Millar Renault Greenock became Bass Rock Renault and then closed down, sill sells used cars as a company called Maurice McMillan Motors.

 

- Newlands Renault Grangemouth became Priory and then Arnold Clark, still a Renault dealer today.

 

- Dalblair Hyundai and Subaru were better known for their Ford dealership in Ayr and were owned by Stan Gauls who ran Gaulds the Rolls Royce/Bentley/Volvo/Range Rover and Land Rover dealerships in Mosspark and then Garscube Road in Glasgow, taken over by Arnie in 2000, Subaru/Hyundai showroom long since closed and became a Jap import dealer called Great Western Motor Co.

 

- Hayston Garage still exist as a used car dealer, they were for a time a Morgan franchise in the late 90s.

 

- J & W Scott Vauxhall Kilmarnock closed early 90s after AFG lost Nissan franchise and took on Vauxhall in Kilmarnock, part of their building including signs was still there a couple of years ago.

 

- Halleys of Milngavie lost Vauxhall sales in 2003 but kept the rest of the Vauxhall franchise, went on to sell Subaru, Isuzu, Suzuki and Daihatsu and then in 2009 got a Ford franchise, took over by Arnie in 2012.

 

- Lylesland Vauxhall Paisley is now flats as Arnie opening a Vauxhall dealership at the old Hillman Imp factory in Linwood in 1992 killed them off.

 

- Woods West Calder were stripped of the Vauxhall franchise in 2015 when Arnie had a fallout with Nissan and put the Vauxhall franchise in their Carmondean Livingston showroom, they ended up taking over Woods anyway and ended up keeping a Vauxhall after Sales franchise and new cars sourced from Livingston.

 

- David Morrison Falkirk went to Rover, Subaru, Isuzu, Seat and Nissan and then went bust, Ian Grieve took over the site in 2005 and kept Subaru and Isuzu, added Suzuki and Jeep.

 

- Church Peugeot Greenock moved to 21 Eldon Street Greenock and ceased trading in late 2002 as they couldn't compete any longer.

 

- RJ Cross were still selling used cars at the side of the petrol station as you enter Coatbridge from Bargeddie a few years ago.

 

- James Dodds Ford Troon were later selling used cars in the mid 90s under the name "Jas & Wm Dodds Car Sales" now gone I think.

 

- Strathford Dumbarton became an Arnold Clark Renault dealership in the late 90s.

 

- Walter D Watt was a Proton, Daihatsu and then Suzuki dealer until a couple of years ago when taken over by the Dundee Honda dealer (West End Garage I think) and recently moved to the old Autoecosse premises at Monifieth Road.

 

- Thomson of Beith lasted until early 2008 when taken over by Sri Lankan's who closed the Ford business and kept open the on site petrol station, a car valet Place set up in the forecourt, now gone, someone uses their workshops as a garage now.

 

- Jones & McComb Honda I could be wrong but I think it later became Arnold Clark Fiat who then moved to Mitchelston Estate and Arnie out a Seat franchise there which lasted till around 2000 then closed.

 

- Crawford Fiat Falkirk I think became Arnold Clark Fiat at Falkirk Road, Earlsgate which it still is.

 

- Peter Holmes disappeared when AFG started up I think.

 

- J & A Browning Fiat still there but no franchise now.

 

- Alex Hardie Austin Rover Larbert I think changed to Peugeot and still there but called Hardie of Larbert now.

 

- Wallyford Datsun is now a JM Group/Belmont Jeep, Mitsubishi and Suzuki dealership.

 

- SMT Citroen Stirling was also a Vauxhall dealer, SMT/Lex sold off a lot of their dealerships in 1991 and Ian Grieve bought it and then sold it to Arnold Clark in 2007

 

- Graham & Morton Renault Stirling still there but taken over by Arnold Clark.

 

- W Livingstone Ltd Uddingston still exists but change to Seat in 1991 which it still is now.

 

- Edina Garage Mazda changed to Proton and then closed.

 

- Linn Volvo was eventually taken over by Abercromby who closed the Carluke branch, Abercromby then sold their West of Scotland Volvo sites to JM Group/Murray who then sold to Taggarts/Lookers who moved the Hamilton dealership to their existing Motherwell branch and closed the Hamilton branch, it's now just spare ground.

 

- Watsons of Cumbernauld became (I think) McCashins of Cumbernauld and then closed and Arnie opened it up selling Nissan and later Kia which is still there to this day.

 

- Catney Nissan Hamilton became AFG then later Parks Motor Group Toyota and Hyundai, then Renault and Kia, and is now Parks Maserati and Douglas Park Mini.

 

-

[fiatdaft]

Crawford fiat definitely wasn't on the Arnold clark site , it was here .

 

 

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[doug]

Appleyard were big too. I think Appleyard were in the original Ian Skelly site at Bogside.

 

Just bought a sticker for brother in laws christmas from DMB Graphics. Its to fit on his mini pick-up project.

 

[Largactil]

Late to the party (as ever), but didn't see the following mentioned yet? (Although I might have missed them in the many lists).

 

Norman Rollo - I think they had a Volvo franchise, but could be wrong - My old man bought a Citroen Visa Club from their Dunfermline branch in the mid-80's.

 

Used to be here:

 

 

Mogil Motors in Stirling - They originally had a showroom on the corner of Union Street (It had an underground carpark, or did I imagine that?) - Now student flats.

 

 

They moved to Drip Road in the Raploch (they may have also had these premises at the same time as Union Street?) - Been gone a while now. I remember they had an immaculate RS1800 Mk2 'Scort sat in the showroom at one point. 

 

I think Appleyard had a branch in Causewayhead? (Became Lex Leasing?)

 

Finally, HM Stevenson in Tullibody / Glenochil - Lancia Dealer / Fiat parts supplier - Like Lancia, long gone now:

 

 

Anyone got any pictures of the above when they were operating?

[fiatdaft]

Mogils had the garage in drip road at the same time for sure , they were formally millers, my old mum worked for them , I remember the recovery car was a mk1 Granada estate, this is what the drip road garage did before becoming mogils.

 

The causewayhead road garage ultimately became Hamilton brothers fiat.

 

There was also Robert miller lada in Wallace street across from rossleigh .

 

Kenny Cooper skoda in bannockburn road.

 

Fraser Anderson Subaru on drip road.

 

My mum also worked for Graham and Morton Mazda and then yugo at kildean .

 

Hm Stevenson also had Suzuki for years, when fiat wouldn't play ball and give them fiat sales when the Suzuki franchise was ending he got SAO and Kia , I think that lasted a fortnight before a bunch of new pandas and uno's arrived on a transporter.

 

 

 

 

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[Largactil]

Found the pic I was looking for of Mogils Union Street branch in the 1980's (I think...!)

 

 

A lot has changed since then!

[Hendry]

Fraser Anderson was a sales director or a consultant or something at the Ian Grieve Subaru in Falkirk last I heard.

 

Hamilton Bros used to be quite big didn't they? Think they slimmed down and hit the buffers in the late 90s, I remember them latterly as Nissan, Fiat, Proton and Perodua dealers on Paisley Road West in Glasgow, and in Coatbridge.

 

I think Mogil went out of the game around 97/98 when Macrae & Dick got the Ford franchise in Stirling and built their place on Kerse Road.

 

http://minutes.stirling.gov.uk/pdfs/planning/Reports/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20PP037ID.pdf

 

If I'm right, Mogil Motors also at one point ran a Ford dealership in Dumfries in the 80s, weirdly I think there were 2 Ford dealers in Dumfries at that time, the other called Reid & Adams. Later became CG Ford, then GK Group and now Arnie.

 

The seemingly unstoppable march of Arnie continues, the Robins & Day/Citroen Edinburgh dealership at Seafield next to Peter Vardy BMW has closed and Arnold has turned the former Topps Tiles Place between their Renault dealership and Peter Vardy Vauxhall into a Citroen dealership so it's moved a few hundred yards along Seafield Road and became Arnold's, not sure what will become of the old Citroen Edinburgh site as it's in prime car retail location.

[Hendry]

Ps Re: the ex Arnold Clark Volvo dealership at Kirkcaldy on Abbotshall Road, which I believe was closed due to the council placing a compulsory purchase order on it to use the land for additional council offices, who owned it before them?

 

Also on the subject of Fife, were Flear & Thomson the Kia dealer in Dunfermline and until recently also Nissan dealers, ever franchised for Fiat and Vauxhall and if so what period?

 

Anyone from Fife know anything about Curtis Motors Vauxhall? From what I can find out the guy who owned it was called Gordon Curtis and at one point had a dealership in Bathgate? He also had showrooms at 2 Carnock Road in Dunfermline, Dalgety Bay and Cupar and in 1997 acquired SVL Vauxhall in Kirkcaldy on possibly Victoria Road, then I think they must've had a weird fall out with Vauxhall where they seemed to lose the new Vauxhall cars Sales franchise but kept the Network Q used cars part, Vauxhall Masterfit service centres, warranty work, service, repairs and parts department, so basically kept everything Vauxhall except new cars, last new Vauxhalls they sold were 56 plates. They changed names from Gordon Curtis Motors to Curtis Motors Cupar and Steve Curtis Cars, the Kirkcaldy branch closed down and Peter Vardy built a new Vauxhall franchise in the Mitchelston Ind Estate in 2007, the Dunfermline branch was raised to the ground, the Cupar branch lost Vauxhall sales but kept everything else Vauxhall, and the Dalgety Bay branch was the one that changed name to Steve Curtis Cars and lost Vauxhall sales but kept everything else Vauxhall plus a Chevrolet new car sales franchise, then in 2014 Peter Vardy took over Dalgety Bay and changed it back to New Vauxhall sales again, and the Cupar branch changed to Cupar Ford Centre who moved there from elsewhere in Cupar and now Curtis seem to sell used cars by appointment somewhere in Perth. Seems a bit mysterious how they suddenly lost all Vauxhall sales franchises at all 4 sites but kept everything else so not a complete fall out with Vauxhall, closed 2 of their 4 sites, and changed their name slightly.

[kinkersaab]

saw this and thought it belonged here

 

EAST DOCK STREET DUNDEE - circa 1968 now the site of Arnold Clark Vauxhall

 

 

​And this is from when I entered the motor trade at 18 in 1995.  I am still here.

 

[Hendry]

I miss old ads like that, newspapers used to be full of the ones with a list of used cars but I suppose since you can now view them all on the internet the car ads in papers are all for pre reg/scoop purchase nearly new stuff with a generic photo and description, not a physical list of all the cars they have for sale.

[Hendry]

Ps why was it such a thing about private ownership of a car back then that almost all the cars in that ad say "1 private owner"??

 

And also Banchory car centre must've been heavily overpricing their cars if they could knock a grand off some of them and still make a decent profit on them.

[kinkersaab]

It was 22 years ago. No internet, you only had to compete in a local area. Very different times and a very different approach. There wont have neccesarily been profit at discounted prices, if they had been in stock too long , they just needed to cover costs to allow reinvestment of the money, hopefully into something that will sell.....

 

In the olden days, a margin on the screen would be added for haggling with. Now if you add the hagggle room, you aren't aways able to be competitive so you get no interest. hence why you hear people moaning that dealers wont discount for no trade in etc. Cant have it all ways.....

 

With regard to "private owner", thats to show it wansnt an avis or hertz, etc. Which would be 1 owner and 100s of drivers that couldnt give a shit.

[fiatdaft]

I'll share some of the other adds in the the 2 old motor market weekly's that I took the main dealer adverts from if anyone interested?

 

 

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[kinkersaab]

Aye, stick em up.

[delux]

RE Curtis motors.

From what I remember, Gordon Curtis was the dad who built up a network of Vauxhall Dealers across the east of Scotland. Their Bathgate branch used to be Tennants Vauxhall, they took it over after Tennants failed, probably helped by Vauxhall. (One of Tennants directors ended up working for AC as a service manager) The network Q only thing was something Vauxhall offered to several smaller Vauxhall dealers who couldnt manage main deler sales targets. Pretty sure Fiskens of Forfar and Pypers in Coupar Angus had similar agreements.

 

Not sure if Gordon retired or died but his family took over the business and promptly fell out. Steven, who had been aftersales director, opened up in Dalgety bay and had some sort of interest in Premier Vauxhall, Edinburgh (Sighthill). Steven is the guy trading under the Curtis name in Perth.

 

The rest of the family sold off the lossmaking stuff and built a new place in Cupar. They couldnt make that work so they left the motor trade and sold the place to Cupar Ford centre. Cupar Ford centre and Dalkeith Ford centre are the result of an employee buyout after Quicks bought out the original owners. They had the big Ford garage in Dunfermline but sold it to Macklin motors, I think.

Curtis motors, Cupar seemed like a safe gamble after Reekie Vauxhall had closed to concentrate on tractors. Reekie used to sell Vauxhall and Subaru in Cupar and had a few other delaerships dotted about Fife. By coincidence they have recently been saved from closure after being bought over by Hamilton bros agriculture, the remains of the once famous Hamilton Bros. FIAT dealers (who sold out to Vardy, I think)

[cms206]

Mogil Motors Ford Palmerston and Locharbriggs.

 

 

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[cms206]

Or a Wylies Ford Leyland Fleetline.

 

 

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[delux]

I have loads of old ads saved in my flickr account but I'm a board newbie/technophobe so couldnt get them to work. By then something good had started on telly etc.

 

Please post more! Love the buses and printed ads. Brings back memories of walking to the pertol station on a Friday for the latest motor market weekly! Do they still do that?

[cms206]

 

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[cms206]

 

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