Vauxhall/Opel Dealerships

[alpinerapier]

Pypers lost their Vauxhall dealership around 2000 and continued selling nearly new Vauxhalls. They are now used cars sales only and sell from Woodside, just along the road from where they originally were.

Reekie Cuper must have sold Opel during the last 70s as I have 78 Ascona Berlina that was supplied by them new.

[greengartside]

I remember going to Great Yarmouth on holiday in 1997 and 1999 and the dealer then was Warwick Shubrook, Hartwell must've been longstanding as I had a 55 plate Corsa in 2007, ex Arnold Clark lease car and the first service in 2006 was done by Hartwell Norwich North Mile Cross Lane, so presumably they had 2 Norwich branches.

 

Isn't the whole Vauxhall franchise for Norfolk and Suffolk now ran by Thurlow Nunn? Who I assume took over most of th dealers you've mentioned.

 

Yes there are two Vauxhall dealerships in Norwich, both now Thurlow Nunn - one at Mile Cross Lane and the oldest one on Hall Road, which used to be Lex Ford back in the day. Pretty much all of them now are Thurlow Nunn. I've got a Vauxhall umbrella with all the dealerships on it!

[RoadworkUK]

Don't think it's been mentioned yet, but it's worth remembering that the big thick range brochure was titled 'Vauxhall Opel Cars' for the better part of the '80s, I think from late '81 to the death of the Manta. I always thought Opel was curiously exotic, being that the name only appeared on range-topping or sporty models in the UK during my lifetime.

 

Our local dealer was the conveniently named Carlton Garage of Clacton-On-Sea. It later moved to the previous home of Bryan's Rover, and is now a combined Vauxhall and Renault dealer under the Underwoods name.

 

In 1984 I was three and we had a health visitor who would visit in a Manta GT/J. It's one of the first cars I really remember - it led to me drawing loads of cars that had little triangular holes cut through the wheels.

[Felly Magic]

Vauxhall Ipswich is Marshalls, and West Suffolk is the Drive group who have 11 locations dotted throughout the country, Underwoods in Clacton briefly also sold Skoda, now they flog em from their Colchester site, so Clacton no longer has a Skoda outlet after decades, so much for looking after customers VW group

[RoadworkUK]

Aye. Hayes Garage of Little Clacton is still a Skoda "authorised centre", but don't have a sales franchise any more. Rather sad.

[Felly Magic]

Exactly, they sort the shit Pauxhall grease monkeys can't fix, I know OldFord told me about Cattermole's often having to sort shit Bristo's Renner couldn't fix on Skodas

[Spottedlaurel]

A couple of things from the dual brand days:

 

West Way Garage (Bournemouth) Ltd Vauxhall Opel dealer sticker by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Finevale Garage Vauxhall/Opel/Bedford ad, 1982 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

[Felly Magic]

The old Vauxhall Opel site for WASS in Leeds became the 'discount' clothes store 'Great Clothes' when Wigan Airways Group moved everything to their old coach yard in Hunslet, and the coach yard was moved to Gelderd Road by the outer Ring Road IIRC, the York Rd site is now a 'Go Outdoors'

[oldford]

 

 

Trimoco in Great Yarmouth

They had an Europcar agency, we had a few good trips up there collecting hire cars, Sierras, Novas & MK1 Renault 5s.

[Hendry]

Vauxhall Ipswich is Marshalls, and West Suffolk is the Drive group who have 11 locations dotted throughout the country, Underwoods in Clacton briefly also sold Skoda, now they flog em from their Colchester site, so Clacton no longer has a Skoda outlet after decades, so much for looking after customers VW group

 

Ah, the Drive group, if i remember rightly they were formed from a management buyout of all the Vauxhall dealerships of the Arriva group when they sold off the motor dealerships division, Arriva as in the bus company. 

 

Although I didnt know they operated that far down, I thought they were all round about the Middlesbrough/Cleveland area. 

[Felly Magic]

That Maestro rescued from the scrappage skip was Drive Vauxhall at Haverhill. Van Monster is also a company that split away from Arriva when they decided to stop selling motors. The old Trimoco Ford garage in Garforth along with the Leeds branches became part of the Hartwell venture, but not long after it became a Vauxhall dealer, the Leeds dealer passed to Benfield group, who moved to the old Torre Road bus depot site, the Vauxhall Garforth branch then closed not long after, I viewed a SEAT Ibiza there on the forecourt and was put off as it was a bit leggy, saw it a couple of weeks later at another Vauxhall dealer in Keighley, and it was minus about 30K, the buggers had given it a Quentin!

[UltraWomble]

The dealers near me that I can remember - Chadwicks in StAnnes which was Vauxhall Bedford, also then sold Opels until the Manta disappeared. The only dedicated Opel dealer I can place, Forts in Preston, also then added Vauxhall but had to compete with the main Vauxhall (and now Opel) place in Preston and closed soon after. So I guess for a time there were a lot of Vauxhall Opel places but they were rationalised fairly quickly

I remember Chadwicks

Did Forts become an A+B dealership for a while before Perrys took over the world for Vauxhall franchises?

 

How the mighty have fallen...

 

Also

This was opposite Loxhams ( later Dutton Forshaw BLMC) a very grand art deco affair

 

[martc]

Kadetts sold here in the 70s were the same car under the skin as the ....... Chevette

 

Almost the opposite was true - the skin looked almost the same but under it they were completely different - the Kadett was front wheel drive, the Chevette was rear wheel drive.

 

But in a strange quirk of fate Chevettes were sold in Germany as Kadetts to appease those Germans who did not want front wheel drive. So again the complete opposite!!

[Felly Magic]

Mart I think you are getting a bit confused there buddy, the Kadett was basically a shark nosed version of the Chevette, but with Opel engines, and a generally more sporty look about it, including a 2 door coupe, they shared the same basic body style in most forms, just the front clip was different, they shared the same gearbox and live rear axle, and even the dashboard was the same, the Opel version of the Chevette seemed to slot in below the Kadett in some markets, but was dropped fairly quickly, as I think it just confused people, I think you are getting a wee bit mixed up with the Astra shaped Kadett, which was the first GM Europe front wheel drive platform

[fiatdaft]

Not quite accurate ^

 

 

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[beko1987]

 

I particularly love the mint green 1990s signage as thats what I remember from growing up, and this was the signage in 2000 when we went to Vauxhall to buy my dads mk3 Astra.

That bottom one is exactly how I remember Vauxhall Peterborough looking, before they became network q! My granny took their J reg Nova luxe saloon there for its mot and service every year! (with its little leather pouch for the code buttons which they religiously removed every time they stopped) (and Grandads Astra B when he had that as a work hack). They went there to chop the nova in for an X reg disastra 1.6 in the early 2000s (astra had a cd player, they were gutted as all they had were tapes) which lasted a year before they gave up on life and started on a succession of Kia shit (although the current one is brown which isn't so bad...)

[fiatdaft]

 

 

 

 

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[Spottedlaurel]

The dealers near me that I can remember - Chadwicks in StAnnes which was Vauxhall Bedford, also then sold Opels until the Manta disappeared. The only dedicated Opel dealer I can place, Forts in Preston, also then added Vauxhall but had to compete with the main Vauxhall (and now Opel) place in Preston and closed soon after. So I guess for a time there were a lot of Vauxhall Opel places but they were rationalised fairly quickly

 

Would this have been the place Forts were competing with? Fairways Garage on Blackpool Road, Preston (where Perrys are now I believe). At the time of these photos in 1980/81 I can't see any Opel signage:

 

1978 Austin Morris Maxi 1750 HL NFV441T c.1980/81 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

1969/70 Morris Minor 1000 Van RFR325H c.1980/81 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

 

Not my photos and I have no personal knowledge!

 

Things moved slowly in Ipswich. This tag with the Opel badge still included was seen on a 1991 Nova:

 

CKN Vauxhall, Ipswich registration plate tag by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

[Hendry]

That Maestro rescued from the scrappage skip was Drive Vauxhall at Haverhill. Van Monster is also a company that split away from Arriva when they decided to stop selling motors. The old Trimoco Ford garage in Garforth along with the Leeds branches became part of the Hartwell venture, but not long after it became a Vauxhall dealer, the Leeds dealer passed to Benfield group, who moved to the old Torre Road bus depot site, the Vauxhall Garforth branch then closed not long after, I viewed a SEAT Ibiza there on the forecourt and was put off as it was a bit leggy, saw it a couple of weeks later at another Vauxhall dealer in Keighley, and it was minus about 30K, the buggers had given it a Quentin!

 

Ah Van Monster, there was a couple of their pitches up here, I thought they were basically a used van sales place owned by Northgate van rental as a way of disposing of their ex rental van fleet, owing largely to the O in the Van Monster logo looking similar to the Northgate logo.

[Felly Magic]

After doing a bit more digging, Van Monster was created when Arriva sold Willhire to Northgate, after the company decided it wanted to concentrate on it's flagging bus side, I wouldn't trust a van from 'Monster' as far as I could throw it, because rental vans are always abused

[5speedracer]

Thinking about it, F was probably the last Manta. I thought I had a G Buth both my GTEs were 88/Es.

When did DTV shut up shop? That must have been a bit earlier, possibily when the rally Mantas were retired.

DTV and presumanly DOT were funded by a tariff on each new car sold, say £5 or whatever. This explains the "Dealer" bit in the team title.

[fiatdaft]

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[martc]

The Chevette and Kadett chat above - my original reasearch, conducted in my head, suggested the Kadett C was front wheel drive and the Chevette rear wheel drive which drew me to the (wrong) conclusion that they may look the same, but underneath they were different. Felly's learned comments + extensive research outside my head shows that both were rear wheel drive and therefore almost identical.

 

Which also explains why the Chevette was badged as a Kadett for those Germans who didn't want a FWD Kadett (D type). Something that should have been obvious to me whilst I was composing my erroneoues comment.

 

I shall take myself outside and do the decent thing.

[Sir Snipes]

Wooo a Manta GTE with 16,000 miles! Bet that would east top £6k now!

[oldcars]

Ah! Yeah I knew Curtis of Cupar had moved to Perth selling cars by appointment and Curtis Dalgety Bay Chevrolet was took over by Peter Vardy who put it back to Vauxhall.

 

Ford dealer is Cupar Ford Centre isnt it? used to be based elsewhere in Cupar? Im fairly sure that as well as Dalkeith Ford Centre were Laidlaw, then Bramall Laidlaw branches before they were took over by Evans Halshaw, and closed down around 2007 when Evans Halshaw rationalised their dealer network after the Vardy takeover and closed a lot of smaller branches. Then someone approached Ford to regain the franchise and re-opened the sites. 

 

I didnt realise Flear & Thomson operated in Leslie, I had assumed their Vauxhall franchise had ran from the Pittencrieff Street premises which were/are now Nissan and Kia franchises. 

 

Yeah I remember SMT well, if i remember rightly they were a really really big group, as in massive in the 80s, much bigger than Arnold Clark, and at some point changed to Lex Service and sold a lot of their dealerships off in the early 90s, and then eventually the rest in the late 90s and most ended up in Arnolds mitts anyway, places like Ritchies Fiat, Ferrari and Lancia in Glasgow, Croall & Croall Fiat Edinburgh, Merrylee Motors VW Glasgow x2, Dundee and Falkirk, and various SMT branded places like SMT Rover, Land Rover & Jaguar Greenock, SMT Vauxhall Stirling (later Ian Grieve and now Arnies) SMT Vauxhall New City Road Cowcaddens Glasgow, SMT Vauxhall Finnieston Street Glasgow, to name a few. 

Bit off topic but i love your posts, your knowledge of old dealers is great to read.

[Felly Magic]

Just spotted this Ascona outside my gaff. Shite caravan too. Bloke owns the yellow Asconsfied estate that is seen about Ipswich.

[Vin]

This popped up in my Facebook feed courtesy of 'British Ideas Corporation'...

 

"Malcom MacDonald, Newcastle United striker, 1971."

 

Thought it apt for this thread, considering what 'Supermac' is sat on...

 

 

[Zantimisfit]

Re Forts, yes I think the larger main dealer was called Fairways. Whatever, it was, and still is as far as I know, at Deepdale

 

Chadwicks became a VW dealer at some point and then a derelict building at a subsequent later point.

 

Ref the Chevette/Kadett debate let me state, and I unanimous in this...

 

The Kadett C (1974 to 1979) was the 'twin' of the Vauxhall Chevette (1975 to 84) plus a load of other 'world' versions such as the Chevrolet Chevette (US) and the Isuzu Gemini (Japan). The Chevrolet Chevette sold alongside the Opel Kadett marketed as the Buick Opel in the US. The Chevrolet was a local US version not a badge enginered Vauxhal Chevette. It had larger engines and cheesier interiors (which is saying something given some of the tartan goings on in the Vauxhall!)

 

To be completist the Kadett had a coupe version which did not have a Chevette equivalent. The three door hatch was initially only a Vauxhall but was then also then launched as the Opel Kadett City (the bodies were pressed in the UK - the rear panel pressing had a place for the license plate under the bumper a la Chevette even though the Opel version had the license plate above the bumper). All were available in the UK

 

The Kadett C was replaced by the front wheel drive D in 1979 and this was sold as the first Vauxhall Astra in the UK

 

So from 1979 to 84 Vauxhall sold their versions of Kadett C and D alongside each other in the form of the Chevette and the Astra....and you could also buy, concurrently, the Kadett D, as an Opel, for a couple of years in the UK

 

Now, and this is where it gets even more exciting, after the Kadett C was discontinued the Chevette was sold rebadged as an Opel in Germany, and maybe a few other markets, priced below the Kadett D as an entry model to the Opel range until the first Corsa A was launched in 1983.

 

The Opel Corsa was badged as the Vauxhall Nova in the UK

 

In my next post I would like to talk about Chester A Arthur, the development of the first modern navy and the lasting impact of the refusal of Congress to ratify his proposed Canal Treaty with Nicaragua.

[Angrydicky]

Does anyone remember the Vauxhall/GM dealer 'Jacksons of Otley'?

[Hendry]

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Id love that B plate Opel Kadett 1600GT, a proper UK spec Opelised version of the mk2 Astra, fucking immense!

 

Bit off topic but i love your posts, your knowledge of old dealers is great to read.

 

Thats because old car dealerships are my other main interest apart from shit old cars.

 

I think you will like the topic im about to post about old dealer logos and the collection of number plates, stickers, tax disc holders and keyrings for old Scottish dealers me and a pal have been collecting, which is another interest, should hopefully ignite some indepth conversation in which other members might be able to enlighten me more about the very little i dont already know about the Scottish motor trade from the early 80s right up to the present day.