Lost Car Dealerships

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Re: Lost Car Dealerships

Postby BTJustice » Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:48 pm

Yup, commers had sliding doors.
Image
Dodge Spacevan Royal Mail by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

The Sherpa's were the last to have sliding doors after a post office driver had a heart attack coming over the Kingston bridge, clipped the barrier and went over the side 8O .

The early commers always reminded me of the zeroids from Terrahawks;

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Overgrown ball bearing by The Taybor, on Flickr

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Re: Lost Car Dealerships

Postby RDR » Thu Mar 21, 2013 7:32 am

BTJustice wrote:Yup, commers had sliding doors.
Image
Dodge Spacevan Royal Mail by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

The Sherpa's were the last to have sliding doors after a post office driver had a heart attack coming over the Kingston bridge, clipped the barrier and went over the side 8O .

The early commers always reminded me of the zeroids from Terrahawks;

Image
Image
Overgrown ball bearing by The Taybor, on Flickr

Dave


Excellent BT!
The old Bedford ambulances also had sliding doors (theres an example in the transport museum) but had the unfortunate habit of the wheels falling off now and again. :)
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Re: Lost Car Dealerships

Postby RapidAssistant » Fri Mar 22, 2013 9:22 am

Wow yeah some great memories there - has anyone got a pic of a yellow BT/GPO Dodge Spacevan (with Buzby on the side of course!) in a Glasgow setting??

Whilst on the subject of Commer, who were the big Rootes/Simca/Chrysler dealers in the Glasgow area - I know a few of them probably changed to Talbot after Chrysler Europe was taken over by Peugeot in the late 70s?
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Re: Lost Car Dealerships

Postby Scotty100 » Fri Mar 22, 2013 3:57 pm

RapidAssistant wrote:
Whilst on the subject of Commer, who were the big Rootes/Simca/Chrysler dealers in the Glasgow area - I know a few of them probably changed to Talbot after Chrysler Europe was taken over by Peugeot in the late 70s?



Perhaps Melvin Motors?
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Re: Lost Car Dealerships

Postby RDR » Fri Mar 22, 2013 4:10 pm

Scotty100 wrote:
RapidAssistant wrote:
Whilst on the subject of Commer, who were the big Rootes/Simca/Chrysler dealers in the Glasgow area - I know a few of them probably changed to Talbot after Chrysler Europe was taken over by Peugeot in the late 70s?



Perhaps Melvin Motors?


I thought it was Melvin's.
Andersons in Newton Mearns did Rootes/Chrysler at one time.
I also thought the wee garage on Alison Street, which became an Arnold Clark's did Rootes years ago as well.
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Re: Lost Car Dealerships

Postby moonbeam » Fri Mar 22, 2013 5:05 pm

Andersons at Newton Mearns was where my uncle traded in an Armstrong Siddley for a Humber. So in 1958 they must have sold Armstrong Siddleys' That uncle traded in the Humber and bought an Alvis from Skellys at Motherwell around 1962 I went to collect it with him. Sort of metallic silver blue with two headlamps on each wing. He was into cars in a big way as I recall him getting an Austin Atlantic A99 convertible new from somewhere in Paisley around 1951/2. Would it be Pottie's (?) It was a garage near Gilmour St railway station but on the opposite side of the tracks from Paisley High StreetA dreadfull car. Everything worked off an under powered battery. It always seemed to have a flat battery. He ordered it and it took months to turn up and then it was a big disappointment.I seem to remember going to collect it a few times as it was getting more repairs-we had to take the train to Paisley and the garage owner gave my uncle free tickets for a game at Love Street. That happened a few times as I recall seeing St Mirren on a Saturday then going back to see if the car was fixed-it wasnt- we had to go back a week later. There was an A & D Fraser Austin dealers Kelvin Drive(?) as my pal bought a Morris Minor for £95 from them and found the inner wheel arches repaired with black tarry paper!!! Maybe we should have an entry for "Dud Cars" I/We/Our friends have bought.That would include a Moskovitch my neighbour bought which at 3 months old went on fire!!
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Re: Lost Car Dealerships

Postby RapidAssistant » Mon Mar 25, 2013 1:19 pm

moonbeam wrote:Maybe we should have an entry for "Dud Cars" I/We/Our friends have bought.That would include a Moskovitch my neighbour bought which at 3 months old went on fire!!


What a brilliant idea!! - I've started a thread called Dud Cars in Hidden Distractions - so lets blog about some of the heaps we've owned......
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Re: Lost Car Dealerships

Postby Doug » Tue Apr 23, 2013 6:49 pm

RapidAssistant wrote:
moonbeam wrote:Maybe we should have an entry for "Dud Cars" I/We/Our friends have bought.That would include a Moskovitch my neighbour bought which at 3 months old went on fire!!


What a brilliant idea!! - I've started a thread called Dud Cars in Hidden Distractions - so lets blog about some of the heaps we've owned......


Cant help laughing at this. I worked as a salesman for Hampden Cars, the main Mazda dealer in the 70's and we sold Moskovitches and Wartburgs as well as Polski Fiats and many's the laugh we has with these cars especially the Polski which must have been the worst car ever made. I was given one as my company car and me wife darn near divorced me it was so horrid ::):
Ahm entitled to my opinion as well
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Re: Lost Car Dealerships

Postby RapidAssistant » Fri Apr 26, 2013 10:40 am

Doug wrote:
RapidAssistant wrote:
moonbeam wrote:Maybe we should have an entry for "Dud Cars" I/We/Our friends have bought.That would include a Moskovitch my neighbour bought which at 3 months old went on fire!!


What a brilliant idea!! - I've started a thread called Dud Cars in Hidden Distractions - so lets blog about some of the heaps we've owned......


Cant help laughing at this. I worked as a salesman for Hampden Cars, the main Mazda dealer in the 70's and we sold Moskovitches and Wartburgs as well as Polski Fiats and many's the laugh we has with these cars especially the Polski which must have been the worst car ever made. I was given one as my company car and me wife darn near divorced me it was so horrid ::):


Ahh yes - the FSO Polski Fiat, I remember once going down to the car auction in Giffnock (the old Scottish Motor Auctions on Burnfield Road), there was this 3 year old Polonez going through, and the driver was joking to the punters that they'd probably just doubled its value by putting a gallon of petrol in it.
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Re: Lost Car Dealerships

Postby Doug » Mon Apr 29, 2013 7:58 pm

RapidAssistant wrote:
Doug wrote:
RapidAssistant wrote:
moonbeam wrote:Maybe we should have an entry for "Dud Cars" I/We/Our friends have bought.That would include a Moskovitch my neighbour bought which at 3 months old went on fire!!


What a brilliant idea!! - I've started a thread called Dud Cars in Hidden Distractions - so lets blog about some of the heaps we've owned......


Cant help laughing at this. I worked as a salesman for Hampden Cars, the main Mazda dealer in the 70's and we sold Moskovitches and Wartburgs as well as Polski Fiats and many's the laugh we has with these cars especially the Polski which must have been the worst car ever made. I was given one as my company car and me wife darn near divorced me it was so horrid ::):


Ahh yes - the FSO Polski Fiat, I remember once going down to the car auction in Giffnock (the old Scottish Motor Auctions on Burnfield Road), there was this 3 year old Polonez going through, and the driver was joking to the punters that they'd probably just doubled its value by putting a gallon of petrol in it.


When we got a dud like a Polski traded in we always found out 2 things, is the tank full and is there any unexpired tax due. If the answers were no then it was a simple 2 balloons choice of colour !!
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Re: Lost Car Dealerships

Postby Scotty100 » Tue Apr 30, 2013 2:26 pm

Doug.
I have sent you a P.M. Have a wee look. (I know the mods dont approve of inane personal banter on their forum. I dont want to get banished to "Glasgow Guide")
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Re: Lost Car Dealerships

Postby Mungoman » Mon May 27, 2013 1:48 pm

Another one bites the dust:

Shields Automotive founder in £8.75m sale to Lookers



By KRISTY DORSEY
Published on 16/05/2013 09:02



SHIELDS Automotive founder Joe O’Donnell is retiring after 27 years in the industry, having sold his Glasgow-based Land Rover franchise to Lookers in a £8.75 million cash deal.



The 58-year-old owned 94 per cent of the business, so he will pocket the lion’s share of the proceeds. Minority shareholders included Shields finance director Elspeth Macnaughton and Stewart MacLaren, the group’s former director of operations.

The deal comes three years after O’Donnell’s retreat from the multi-franchise car sites that led to Shields racking up losses of £1.2m in 2009. The firm sold its Toyota operations to Arnold Clark in 2011, a year after Aim-quoted Vertu Motors bought its dual-franchised Ford and Mazda sites in Glasgow and Hamilton for £2.5m. As a result, profits at Shields more than doubled last year to £351,000 on turnover of £20.5m.

Speaking yesterday from the Kennishead Road Land Rover showroom, O’Donnell said he would now look at property and other strategic personal investments, while also indulging his passion for fly fishing. With none of his children set to join the business, it seemed the appropriate time to sell up.

He said he also valued the “family business” ethos at Manchester-based Lookers despite it being one of the UK’s largest retail motor groups. Shields currently employs 35 people.

Lookers already has a strong presence in Scotland with its Lomond Audi and Taggarts businesses. Chief executive Peter Jones said the Shields acquisition was “an important development in the group’s representation of the Land Rover brand”.
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Re: Lost Car Dealerships

Postby RapidAssistant » Tue Jun 04, 2013 10:41 am

robertpool wrote:
Fireman wrote:
Giblets On Croute wrote:What abour Weirs the Datsun people. Did they not have a showroom on Dumbarton Road near Byres Road/Church street?
Seem to remember being in there late 80's when it became Nissan.


I remember that showroom if you mean the one at the corner of Thurso St & Dumbarton Rd when it was Peter Holmes, a BL dealer - but that's going back a while.


Image


The Datsun story is an interesting one - those of us may remember that there used to be a whole pile of Nissan/Datsun garages in Glasgow which were all little independents - Bob Rae, Drivers, Weir's, Peter Holmes etc. - they all sourced their cars from a rather infamous eastern European businessman called Octav Botnar, who had built up the whole Nissan import business since the late 60s. Not content with this, in the late '80s he decided to buy out all the little dealers as well, with a promise they'd get a bigger slice of the action. So this new super-dealer was called AFG (which you also may remember), but in truth what happened is that a lot of these little dealers saw their businesses closed and destroyed completely.

Needless to say, Nissan in Japan was none too happy of the situation as their good name was being drawn into the whole mess, and given they now had a factory in Sunderland and an R&D operation in this country, they decided to do a no-brainer and cut both Botnar and AFG loose by bringing the import business in-house and set up their own distribution network as well - primarily by giving new franchises to your Arnold Clarks, your Reg Vardys and so on. They therefore starved AFG of stock, put them out of business and is primarily why all of the original AFG-branded Nissan dealers all seemingly disappeared overnight.
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Re: Lost Car Dealerships

Postby Hendry » Wed Jun 05, 2013 11:10 pm

RapidAssistant wrote:
robertpool wrote:
Fireman wrote:
Giblets On Croute wrote:What abour Weirs the Datsun people. Did they not have a showroom on Dumbarton Road near Byres Road/Church street?
Seem to remember being in there late 80's when it became Nissan.


I remember that showroom if you mean the one at the corner of Thurso St & Dumbarton Rd when it was Peter Holmes, a BL dealer - but that's going back a while.


Image


The Datsun story is an interesting one - those of us may remember that there used to be a whole pile of Nissan/Datsun garages in Glasgow which were all little independents - Bob Rae, Drivers, Weir's, Peter Holmes etc. - they all sourced their cars from a rather infamous eastern European businessman called Octav Botnar, who had built up the whole Nissan import business since the late 60s. Not content with this, in the late '80s he decided to buy out all the little dealers as well, with a promise they'd get a bigger slice of the action. So this new super-dealer was called AFG (which you also may remember), but in truth what happened is that a lot of these little dealers saw their businesses closed and destroyed completely.

Needless to say, Nissan in Japan was none too happy of the situation as their good name was being drawn into the whole mess, and given they now had a factory in Sunderland and an R&D operation in this country, they decided to do a no-brainer and cut both Botnar and AFG loose by bringing the import business in-house and set up their own distribution network as well - primarily by giving new franchises to your Arnold Clarks, your Reg Vardys and so on. They therefore starved AFG of stock, put them out of business and is primarily why all of the original AFG-branded Nissan dealers all seemingly disappeared overnight.


Did AFG not diversify into other franchises when Nissan pulled the plug, primarily Renault and Fiat?

I'm pretty certain that for example Drivers on Pollokshaws Road became Renault, Leaders on Springburn Road became Fiat Etc then the name changed to Caledonia. Caledonias Scottish branches were taken over by Reg Vardy and gradually some were sold off to Arnie Clarks.

On another slightly different note, did Peat Road Motors run a showroom in Kilmarnock at some point?
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Re: Lost Car Dealerships

Postby RapidAssistant » Thu Jun 06, 2013 7:47 am

Hendry wrote:
RapidAssistant wrote:
robertpool wrote:
Fireman wrote:
Giblets On Croute wrote:What abour Weirs the Datsun people. Did they not have a showroom on Dumbarton Road near Byres Road/Church street?
Seem to remember being in there late 80's when it became Nissan.


I remember that showroom if you mean the one at the corner of Thurso St & Dumbarton Rd when it was Peter Holmes, a BL dealer - but that's going back a while.


Image


The Datsun story is an interesting one - those of us may remember that there used to be a whole pile of Nissan/Datsun garages in Glasgow which were all little independents - Bob Rae, Drivers, Weir's, Peter Holmes etc. - they all sourced their cars from a rather infamous eastern European businessman called Octav Botnar, who had built up the whole Nissan import business since the late 60s. Not content with this, in the late '80s he decided to buy out all the little dealers as well, with a promise they'd get a bigger slice of the action. So this new super-dealer was called AFG (which you also may remember), but in truth what happened is that a lot of these little dealers saw their businesses closed and destroyed completely.

Needless to say, Nissan in Japan was none too happy of the situation as their good name was being drawn into the whole mess, and given they now had a factory in Sunderland and an R&D operation in this country, they decided to do a no-brainer and cut both Botnar and AFG loose by bringing the import business in-house and set up their own distribution network as well - primarily by giving new franchises to your Arnold Clarks, your Reg Vardys and so on. They therefore starved AFG of stock, put them out of business and is primarily why all of the original AFG-branded Nissan dealers all seemingly disappeared overnight.


Did AFG not diversify into other franchises when Nissan pulled the plug, primarily Renault and Fiat?

I'm pretty certain that for example Drivers on Pollokshaws Road became Renault, Leaders on Springburn Road became Fiat Etc then the name changed to Caledonia. Caledonias Scottish branches were taken over by Reg Vardy and gradually some were sold off to Arnie Clarks.

On another slightly different note, did Peat Road Motors run a showroom in Kilmarnock at some point?


Yes - you are right, some AFG branches hung on, but the company was discredited after the huge tax swindle that Octav Botnar was involved in they went out of business. The Reg Vardy connection comes because they got many of the new Nissan franchises (Reg Vardy is based in Sunderland - next door to Nissan's factory...a no-brainer therefore) after AFG folded, so they took on a lot of the old AFG garages.

Not sure about PRM - my gut instinct says I do remember there being a Kilmarnock dealership. Over to everyone else.
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