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Re: Lost Car Dealerships

PostPosted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 11:08 am
by Mori
Was there any previous dealers in the city on the high end Sports or luxury cars, i remeber Ritchies on shields road had the Ferrari Franchise during the 70s/ early 80s and Glen henderson in Bearsden with the Porsche franchise, was there anyone with the likes of lamborghini, Aston Martin, Rolls Royce etc ?

Re: Lost Car Dealerships

PostPosted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 1:04 pm
by RapidAssistant
Mori wrote:Was there any previous dealers in the city on the high end Sports or luxury cars, i remeber Ritchies on shields road had the Ferrari Franchise during the 70s/ early 80s and Glen henderson in Bearsden with the Porsche franchise, was there anyone with the likes of lamborghini, Aston Martin, Rolls Royce etc ?


Gaulds of Glasgow used to do Rolls-Royce/Bentley if I remember correctly, although in later years they only did Volvo.

Re: Lost Car Dealerships

PostPosted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 3:42 pm
by Hendry
RapidAssistant wrote:
Mori wrote:Was there any previous dealers in the city on the high end Sports or luxury cars, i remeber Ritchies on shields road had the Ferrari Franchise during the 70s/ early 80s and Glen henderson in Bearsden with the Porsche franchise, was there anyone with the likes of lamborghini, Aston Martin, Rolls Royce etc ?


Gaulds of Glasgow used to do Rolls-Royce/Bentley if I remember correctly, although in later years they only did Volvo.


Good old Arnie Clark had showrooms in the City for Jaguar and Daimler at some point in the 60s

Did SMT not have a Lotus franchise at their Vauxhall dealership at new city road Cowcaddens then later at Finnieston street.

Shields had a Lexus franchise at their Shields road premises before moving to Darnley.

And yes Gaulds were Rolls Royce dealers at Mosspark Boulevard then Garscube road but not Bentley I don't think. They were also a Range Rover dealer (oddly not Land Rover at first though) then they lost Rolls, became Land Rover. Range Rover and Volvo then as you say latterly just Volvo before it became Arnies Vauxhall. Stanley Gauld also owned in later years Dalblair of Ayr Ford, Strathford in Kilmarnock, Inglis Jaguar in Ayr before he sold the lot to Arnie.

Re: Lost Car Dealerships

PostPosted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 5:41 pm
by The Egg Man
Rossleigh had a Jaguar dealership on Bothwell Street in the 60s.

Re: Lost Car Dealerships

PostPosted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 5:44 pm
by The Egg Man
Not Glasgow but Victor Wilson, down a lane nr Haymarket Station, was an Aston Martin dealer in the 70s.

Re: Lost Car Dealerships

PostPosted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 9:49 pm
by moonbeam
Parker of Stepps? I think had a Morgan franchise or did they not go to Kirkintilloch opposite Rob Roy football ground? Haystone Garage?

Re: Lost Car Dealerships

PostPosted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 11:42 am
by RapidAssistant
Hendry wrote:
RapidAssistant wrote:
Mori wrote:.


Good old Arnie Clark had showrooms in the City for Jaguar and Daimler at some point in the 60s

.


Isn't it telling though, why Arnie doesn't have a single 'prestige' franchise (i.e. BMW, Audi, Merc, Jaguar, Lexus etc) anywhere - not that I know of anyway, I know they have prestige and performance used car dealerships dotted around, but friend in the motor trade says that the prestige makes won't touch AC with a bargepole.....

Re: Lost Car Dealerships

PostPosted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 4:50 pm
by Mori
RapidAssistant wrote:
Isn't it telling though, why Arnie doesn't have a single 'prestige' franchise (i.e. BMW, Audi, Merc, Jaguar, Lexus etc) anywhere - not that I know of anyway, I know they have prestige and performance used car dealerships dotted around, but friend in the motor trade says that the prestige makes won't touch AC with a bargepole.....


Arnie has had a BMW franchise, he took over Harry Fairbains over @ Giffnock in 06. Audi's and Mercs i think he does through some of his other branches new and 2nd hand, i got a good deal of a 3 year old last of the e39 runout BMW model 5 series from one of his branches in 08, its been a great car for me. :D

Arnold Clark Opens Record Breaking Dealerships


The Arnold Clark Group take over Harry Fairbairn - Scotland's leading BMW and MINI dealer group. Two record breaking dealerships also open: the Ultimate BMW Aftersales Facility in Giffnock, and Machargs - Europe's largest car showroom - on Glasgow's Clydeside.

Image

Re: Lost Car Dealerships

PostPosted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 8:03 pm
by Hendry
As of September last year they also have a Mercedes franchise, they took over John R Weir and now run 5 Merc garages, although I believe they are still retaining the JR Weir name or at the very least simply being called Mercedes Benz of Perth for example.

Much like the way BMW branches are called Harry Fairbairn probably because as said the prestige companies don't want the bad AC rep associated with them, although the story we got told when I worked for Arnie was that they couldn't rename Fairbairns to AC because part of the deal to buy the company was an agreement that it would remain called Harry Fairbairns until his widow also died.

Not sure why it took them so long to acquire prestige brands and just name them with aliases of AC, likewise with Skoda, most dealers cottoned on to the Octavias taxi success and got a Skoda franchise 13 years ago while he only took it on 3 years ago.

Re: Lost Car Dealerships

PostPosted: Sat Jun 15, 2013 7:24 pm
by Giblets On Croute
Trefoil Motors in Shawlands. Seem to remember the owner trying to talk me into buying a Ford Escort Mexico in the 80's. ::):

Re: Lost Car Dealerships

PostPosted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 9:43 am
by BTJustice
Giblets On Croute wrote:Trefoil Motors in Shawlands. Seem to remember the owner trying to talk me into buying a Ford Escort Mexico in the 80's. ::):


A Mk1 Mexico? If only you had a time machine.

Re: Lost Car Dealerships

PostPosted: Sun Jun 16, 2013 3:33 pm
by Mori
My cousin had the Xpack mark 3 Rs 2000 in the early 80s ... what a car ! i used borow it off him some weekends, i nearly bought a mexico myself must have been mark 2 i think, it had a lotus engine installed by the chap who was an enthusiast, fast cars i must say. 8)


Re: Lost Car Dealerships

PostPosted: Mon Jul 15, 2013 11:36 pm
by Doug
RapidAssistant wrote:
Hendry wrote:
RapidAssistant wrote:
Mori wrote:.


Good old Arnie Clark had showrooms in the City for Jaguar and Daimler at some point in the 60s

.


Isn't it telling though, why Arnie doesn't have a single 'prestige' franchise (i.e. BMW, Audi, Merc, Jaguar, Lexus etc) anywhere - not that I know of anyway, I know they have prestige and performance used car dealerships dotted around, but friend in the motor trade says that the prestige makes won't touch AC with a bargepole.....


Last year Arnold Clark bought over the John Weir Group (Mercedes dealerships) in Inverness and I believe in other locations where Weir traded. However your post i not incorrect as the Weir group retained their same trading name thus the Arnold Clark name does not show on the Weir premises.

Re: Lost Car Dealerships

PostPosted: Tue Jul 16, 2013 9:58 pm
by mercury
RapidAssistant wrote:
Hendry wrote:
RapidAssistant wrote:
Mori wrote:.


Good old Arnie Clark had showrooms in the City for Jaguar and Daimler at some point in the 60s

.


Isn't it telling though, why Arnie doesn't have a single 'prestige' franchise (i.e. BMW, Audi, Merc, Jaguar, Lexus etc) anywhere - not that I know of anyway, I know they have prestige and performance used car dealerships dotted around, but friend in the motor trade says that the prestige makes won't touch AC with a bargepole.....


Merc in Dundee is part of Arnold Clark group.

Re: Lost Car Dealerships

PostPosted: Sun Dec 29, 2013 12:12 am
by bmwspecialist
I worked as a mechanic for Trefoil Cars for nearly four years at the end of the 1970's
At that time it was “The Genuine Father and Son” business. Old Pop, the father, had made his money as an illegal bookie and probably a moneylender in the Gorbals, before and during the war. Gerry made a packet as John Bloom's right hand man in the Rolls Razor Washing machine scam.

They were a pair of rogues ! But rogues more like Arthur Daley than any of the real rogues going about Glasgow at the time. The youngest brother, Vincent had a good seam going by going round all the branches of the big national car hire firms like Avis and Hertz and bunging, handsomely, the managers so that when it was time for them to renew their fleets, Trefoil Cars got the first offer. The cars, mostly Cortinas, Marinas and Avengers would turn up by the trailerload.
Pop stayed in the wee house at the front of the garage, but Gerry had a big place up the road called Braidholm House where he had the bodyshop in his grounds. Jings, you'd never get away with it nowadays !
All the cars were whipped up to the bodyshop to have a quick” Mileage Correction “ and then brought back down to Trefoil avenue and put out on hire for the next couple of years.
Four months before their first MOT, they were put into the showroom and sold off with a three month guarantee. And woe betide anyone who came back complaining that their car had failed its MOT, if they hadn't paid for the extra warranty.

The first day I was there, old Pop asked me to check out a Fiat 127 for an MOT.
“Just make sure the lights and horn are still working while I sweep up some dust off the floor for you to cover up the underseal “
“ Sorry, Pop, I don't get you ?” I said.
“ Well, the chassis rotten through with rust so just you fill it in with some cataloy and cover it with underseal and then throw some dust over it and the MOT guy'll never notice it, Christ, I thought you were a mechanic !”
So I packed up my tools and was just humphing them back to my car when Gerry comes running after me. “What's happening, is something wrong ?”
When I told him he wasn't on, he said, with salesman's sincerity, “Are we not supposed to do that ? The last mechanic always did it, he was quite good at it “
The last guy had been with them for about seven years but he refused to have anything to do with those fancy OHC engines, so there was never a Hillman Imp in the place. But when Ford brought out their OHC unit that was it, things were too technical for him and we left to take up full time pub singing. I heard he was as good at singing as he was at mechanicking.
“ So what on earth are we going to do with it ?” Gerry asked.
“How about welding it, a couple of hours max will have that properly patched and it'll get a genuine MOT” I said.
“ But who could do a job like that, will it not need to go to a real garage ? “

Honestly they didn't have a clue about the technical side of cars. So I welded the thing up and that was the end of the dodgy MOTs ….while I was there! Apart from the odd one that Old pop tried to slip past me. I usually found out when I took a car round for an MOT myself, the guy's would say “ You're slipping, old Pop tried it on again with us yesterday”

And some of you will remember those “Miracles in a Tin” that you could get from Motor Factors. You know, the stuff that you poured into the engine that cured worn big ends, eliminated piston slap, restored compressions and brought back oil pressure. They were absolutely convinced that this stuff worked. It never did of course. When I eventually demonstrated to them that it was a better idea in the long run to fix the damn thing rather than falling out with the customer, they were amazed.
Gerry eventually confessed to me that the only reason they had a workshop was to make it look as is they knew what they were doing. Does any one remember the workshop ? It was actually right at the front of the showroom as you went down the ramp.

But Pop was always a gambler, he always tried it on. A customer came back once complaining that the Escort he'd bought a few weeks ago seemed to be lower at one side than the other. It was a broken front coil spring, but he didn't know that. I told Pop what it needed, but he told me to leave it, the guy at the bodyshop would fix it. It was a mystery to me how he was going to do it up there, they had no tools to speak of. What Pop did was to take a spare from a later Escort with 13inch wheels and replace the 12inch wheel on the front of the other Escort, making it look as if it was sitting level.
I only found out about it months later when the customer brought the car back doing his dinger !

Aye, rogues, but not by any means the worst. Some of the big garages were pulling stunts in those days that should have had then locked up !