Defunct Skoda dealer urbex

[Rod/b]

Seems YouTube knows what I like. Whilst watching the James Last “Doctorin the Tardis” video this was the next suggested vid: An abandoned early VAG era Skoda dealers with loads of old tat rotting away out the back.

But that isn’t all. Spotter’s caps on folk...

Enjoy!

 

[meggersdog]

I posted that in the youtube thread a few months ago. Old Octavias decaying out the back.

[Rod/b]

Didn’t see it first time round. Looks awesome, i hope they don’t scrap everything when the inevitable block of flats goes up

[meggersdog]

Someone on here had driven past a while ago and it was the same as the video

Edit: it was Progrocker

[Tigerfox]

VW wanted all the dealers to move to posh showrooms where there were other dealerships. The owner of the Skoda dealership where I worked circa 2003 told them to F*** off and get out of his showroom  as he was not spending £1.5 million when he owned the site he was on. He resigined the franchise and 20 people got made redundant.

VW is very much do as we say and they lost a lot of small dealerships that had a loyal customer base and would buy what there trusted salesman advised. Ford and BL made the same mistake in 70s & 80s

[artdjones]

.

[big_al_granvia]

the amount of stuff that is just lying there, the amount of parts that are brand new and could be reused, eventually a developer will come along and the lot will get sold at auctions for peanuts or weighed in as scrap, there is probably enough bits to rebuild the skodas lying outside... really sad to see

[Eyersey1234]

Grand Dale Garage in North Ferriby were a Skoda dealer back in the pre VW days and up until they closed earlier this year still had some Skoda branding up, it always surprised me they never got into trouble for it, either nobody at Skoda had realised or they didn't care. 

 

Edited to add it was called Maudsons back then. 

[Jikovron]

It's not changed at all since I ventured in and bought some parts from the then 81year old owner in 2012, he said that when Skoda GB was wound up in 1990 that he bought out the entire stock from their Kings lynn operation for roughly a million quid and had not operated as a dealer since the mid 90s, possibly preferring to just dabble in ad hoc buying and selling.

The chap showed us round the place whilst he left his Astra out front idling for 3hours and indeed the run down hut to the right of the entrance was his home.

We were offered his entire garden equipment stock to sell on but it was all ancient NOS so barely worth thinking about but the rwd skoda parts that we were there for were regarded as rare treasure so it took a fair old bit of negotiation to pick up a gearbox and some minor trim parts

As an aside he had new engines, gearboxes, trims,whole crash damage repair sections, quite possibly enough general parts to create a few new cars.

[Asimo]

6 hours ago, Tigerfox said:

VW wanted all the dealers to move to posh showrooms where there were other dealerships. The owner of the Skoda dealership where I worked circa 2003 told them to F*** off and get out of his showroom  as he was not spending £1.5 million when he owned the site he was on. He resigined the franchise and 20 people got made redundant.

VW is very much do as we say and they lost a lot of small dealerships that had a loyal customer base and would buy what there trusted salesman advised. Ford and BL made the same mistake in 70s & 80s

Uncle John was a BMC then BL dealer in the '60s & '70s; got told to" hold this amount of stock, put that much cash into spares, train this number of people....blahblah blah"

So he knobbed them off, said hello to Honda (in the days of the Mk1 Civic), reduced his staff from 20 odd to sales +1.               And made an absolute mint, effectively retired from that day onwards.

When you look at the size of the pompous gin-palaces that the German brands insist upon - no wonder they charge upwards of £100 an hour for checking the ashtrays and emptying the tyres..........

[jmsguzzi]

https://youtu.be/FoI3cpY_Ipg

Better vid of the place!

[big_al_granvia]

that is just so sad, you could keep so many old skodas on the road for years to come with the spares there, you would need an artic to clear the place out and weeks to catalogue whats there

[brownnova]

It’s fascinating! I watched it a few weeks back. Can’t believe the stuff that was simply left... 

[Eyersey1234]

Where is this old garage? 

[greengartside]

28 minutes ago, Eyersey1234 said:

Where is this old garage? 

Cranes Garage which is/was in a village called Marsham which is about three miles south of Aylsham in North Norfolk.

On a side note, my FIL now lives in South Ferriby near where you mentioned the Skoda dealer earlier on.

[Eyersey1234]

Thanks, I'll have to see if I can get down there soon to get some pictures myself. 

[sutty2006]

Seeing those cars abandoned out back really does bring a tear to the eye. 

 

Poor shite.. 

[twosmoke300]

Slight thread hijack sorry - do any of the NE Scotland members know if the Skoda dealer is still going in Maud . Did my work experience there as a kid . 

[Eyersey1234]

There's a Skoda repairer called Victoria Garages listed in Maud is that the one you mean @twosmoke300? They don't appear to sell Skodas just service and repair them. 

[twosmoke300]

Thats the puppy 

[Eyersey1234]

No idea when they stopped selling new Skodas but it's good they are still trading 

[Rod/b]

42 minutes ago, Eyersey1234 said:

No idea when they stopped selling new Skodas but it's good they are still trading 

Probably when VAG started insisting on dealers building fucking massive glass warehouses to sell Octavias.

[Cavcraft]

Amazing (and great) that the place hasn't been cleared out by the light fingered types. Pretty sure we've passed it a few times on holiday, hope someone can save the cars and remaining stock.

[somewhatfoolish]

Presumably he's gaga in a care home or if he's died there's no immediate family and the probate lawyer has become entrapped in a passing glacier.

 

[brownnova]

Where’s BBC’s heir hunters when you need them... 

[captain_70s]

14 hours ago, Tigerfox said:

VW wanted all the dealers to move to posh showrooms where there were other dealerships.

John Clark acquired a dealership oop North somewhere which had been rebuilt 5 years prior but were informed the whole building needed to be rebuilt as it didn't fit the current company image. Not sure if that's due to them being an official VAG group franchise but I'd not be surprised as I was talking to a marketing chap from Germany a while ago who said that VW had hundred page documents dictating how dealers were to be laid out and the exact ways the cars were to be marketed.

[artdjones]

I can't understand why anyone wants to be a main dealer.The margins on cars after all the expenses don't seem to make it worthwhile.And it can't be much fun having to take the risk of running and investing in a large business when an outsider dictates how the business will be run.Also,the car makers seem to be able to terminate the contract at will,leaving you with a huge building with nothing to put in it.

[5speedracer]

Slight thread hijack sorry - do any of the NE Scotland members know if the Skoda dealer is still going in Maud . Did my work experience there as a kid . 

I live in Mintlaw so know it quite well. As I understand they gave up Skoda around the time John Clark (Specialist Cars) took them on in Aberdeen. I don't know if VAG took the franchise or made it untenable but they've continued to specialise in Skoda since. Most of the used stock is as you'd find at a dealer, nearly new "Skoda management" stuff.
Although there were no signs up the place was for sale for years, don't know if this is still the case?

Sent from my R19 using Tapatalk

[Eyersey1234]

2 hours ago, artdjones said:

I can't understand why anyone wants to be a main dealer.The margins on cars after all the expenses don't seem to make it worthwhile.And it can't be much fun having to take the risk of running and investing in a large business when an outsider dictates how the business will be run.Also,the car makers seem to be able to terminate the contract at will,leaving you with a huge building with nothing to put in it.

I suspect that's probably why quite a few smaller dealers have given up their franchises altogether or binned new car sales to become authorised repairers

[Cavcraft]

The Renault garage in Shrewsbury (William A Lewis, iirc) told me about 20 years ago they made £25 for every new Clio they sold.