Arnold gets another one

[S2red]

Or maybe I am mistaken saw it elsewhere :-)

http://www.heraldscotland.com/business/13847815.Ve...

Edited by S2red on Monday 16th May 17:33

[HendryG]

alangla said:

Couple of things I noticed over the weekend, first Arnold's Hyundai place at the Parade have swapped the signs facing the motorway from "Coming soon" to "Now open", they've also got a lineup of cars in the first floor window, looking over the motorway fence.

Also, there's a big site at the corner of Dobbies Loan/Port Dundas Road/Milton Street that's being progressively cleared from the Dobbies Loan end & a new building put up - the hoardings now say "Macklin Motors Nissan coming soon" or something similar around the new building at the Dobbies Loan end - looks like a big showroom that's going to face towards the motorway.

I was down in Pollokshaws at Arnolds Vauxhall place last week and on my way from there to work I passed the Hyundai/Jeep Arnolds showroom which was completely empty so looks like it's closed down now that Hyundai at the Parade has reopened.

[ituned]

Volkswagen dealerships at Inch Stirling and Bathgate are now part of Arnold's empire. The deal took place at the end of last week.

[pureguilt]

ituned said:

Volkswagen dealerships at Inch Stirling and Bathgate are now part of Arnold's empire. The deal took place at the end of last week.

Really sad to hear this. Have a good relationship with Inch Bathgate, no doubt this will change as they get re-trained in AC business ways. .

[tvrolet]

Sales manager (or at least the two-faced grinning slime-ball introduced as the sales manager) at Arnold Clark Vauxhall in Glenrothes. No wonder folks in the car sales business get a bad reputation.

What an absolute complete and utter ahole.

That is all.

[cas20]

Taggarts appears to no longer represent Peugeot in Motherwell

[cas20]

Taggarts Motherwell now being advertised as Lookers on Clyde 1

[Corpulent Tosser]

Mrs T bought a new car from AC recently and apart from a minor glitch in delivery she was very happy with the service received and with her new car, so it is not all bad.

The delivery problem was it wasn't ready when she went for it and she didn't have time to wait so they gave her a courtesy car and delivered the new car to her the next day.

[HendryG]

cas20 said:

Taggarts Motherwell now being advertised as Lookers on Clyde 1

Was long overdue I think, particularly with Lomond Audi being renamed Lookers Audi and after the Benfield takeover down south which gave them the VW dealership in Dumfries which is Lookers as well now so probably unified to give them a greater presence up here.

EDIT: upon looking at their website it would appear only Taggarts Nissan and Hyundai have changed to Lookers while Volvo/Land Rover/Jaguar are still Taggarts which just confuses things even more!

I am still surprised that Parks don't appear to be rebranding Macrae & Dick anytime soon, other than changing Menzies BMW to Douglas Park. They aren't his first the fact they own Macrae and Dick as its all over their website and any newspaper ads list their dealerships but with either (Macrae & Dick) or (part of Parks Motor Group)

I'm also interested to see what Arnold is doing with the Shields Road Kinning Park site, it closed down totally when Alexandra Parade Hyundai reopened and both Hyundai franchises were merged there, Jeep has now transferred to Linwood Vauxhall but I drove past the other day and it appears to have reopened as an I franchised used car sales (not been refurbished or turned to a Motorstore either, vinyl "Arnold Clark" sign crudely stuck on)

Edited by HendryG on Monday 8th August 14:42

[HendryG]

Also thought this might be of interest: I've seen plans for an Arnold Clark Citroen dealership at Seafield in Edinburgh (they've only recently opened another at Sighthill) next to their Renault dealership and Peter Vardy Vauxhall (former Tile Giant site) which was their Skoda dealership before moving further along Seafield Road beside Seat and Peugeot.

As there's already a Citroen dealership on that same stretch of road beside Peter Vardy BMW I presume it will close but not sure what the future of that site is. Bit odd really as the current Citroen dealership is manufacturer owned.

[alangla]

Speaking of manufacturer owned PSA dealerships... Robins & Day in Minerva Street looks like its in the process of being demolished. Workshop roof was removed a couple of weeks ago and the showroom has been gutted with all the fixtures heaped up on the floors. Can't be long till the whole thing is flattened. No idea what's meant to be going on the site.

[tvrolet]

tvrolet said:

Sales manager (or at least the two-faced grinning slime-ball introduced as the sales manager) at Arnold Clark Vauxhall in Glenrothes. No wonder folks in the car sales business get a bad reputation.

What an absolute complete and utter ahole.

That is all.

Well, credit where credit's due. My son spotted another car he fancied at AC, this time at Seafield, Edinburgh. So it was against my better judgement and with the lowest of expectations we took the trip across, only to be very pleasantly surprised by the treatment...to the extent he bought the car. Picked it up today and I have to say the customer service/handover was exemplary. So for sure there isn't a uniformity of service across the AC network. So bouquets to Seafield, and brickbats to Glenrothes.

[HendryG]

alangla said:

Speaking of manufacturer owned PSA dealerships... Robins & Day in Minerva Street looks like its in the process of being demolished. Workshop roof was removed a couple of weeks ago and the showroom has been gutted with all the fixtures heaped up on the floors. Can't be long till the whole thing is flattened. No idea what's meant to be going on the site.

It's moved into a new building next to Citroen Glasgow I think, where their used car display canopy used to be.

[HendryG]

Looks like Parks at the Whifflet in Coatbridge is being demolished and rebuilt with a new workshop and everything to include the Mitsubishi franchise into the main showroom building that's Renault/Dacia and Suzuki currently there as the Mitsi dealership is operating from a temp showroom at the moment.

[cas20]

should build a new multi site for the Citroen and Kia site as well as it looks pretty poor.

[HendryG]

cas20 said:

should build a new multi site for the Citroen and Kia site as well as it looks pretty poor.

I would've thought they would've grouped the Renault/Dacia franchise together and Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Kia together then that's all the French brands at one site and all the Jap/Korean franchises together.

I can't see anything happening with the Dundyvan Road Citroen/Kia site as its already had a slight makeover where Citroen has moved into the old Peugeot showroom and Kia now occupies the Citroen part of the shared former Citroen/Kia showroom.

Never understood why under Verve it was Peugeot that got dropped and not Citroen as I'd imagine Peugeots sell better than Citroen

[HendryG]

Speaking of Citroen dealerships i forgot to add that TOM Motors has closed down the former Alistair Fleming Citroen dealership in Ayr.

[cas20]

HendryG said:

I would've thought they would've grouped the Renault/Dacia franchise together and Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Kia together then that's all the French brands at one site and all the Jap/Korean franchises together.

I can't see anything happening with the Dundyvan Road Citroen/Kia site as its already had a slight makeover where Citroen has moved into the old Peugeot showroom and Kia now occupies the Citroen part of the shared former Citroen/Kia showroom.

Never understood why under Verve it was Peugeot that got dropped and not Citroen as I'd imagine Peugeots sell better than Citroen

To put it simple, Arnie has a Peugeot franchise just along the road in Mount Vernon. Even Lookers has had no luck with Peugeot in Motherwell.

[Craigie]

Before Lookers it was McDonald Motors if I remember correctly?
RJ Cross had the Peugeot franchise in Airdrie.

[HendryG]

Parks must think they've got a chance with Peugeot after not only taking on the franchise in East Kilbride but going to the trouble of building a new showroom for it as well.

Be interesting to see what Lookers end up replacing Peugeot with in Motherwell. Odd that the volume franchises have changed to Lookers but the premium stuff like Volvo, Land Rover and Jaguar is still Taggarts. So what you now have is a Taggarts Volvo showroom sandwiched between Lookers Hyundai and Lookers Nissan on the same site, looks odd!

I think RJ Cross Peugeot in Airdrie later moved to Bank Street in Coatbridge. I think RJ Cross might still be trading, there's a BP garage, or was until recently anyway with a small selection of used cars under the RJ Cross name on the forecourt.

Did Central Garage the body shop at Heritage Way in Coatbridge used to be a Renault dealer years ago. Still has ancient Renault signage up and looks like it was once a Renault dealer a long time ago.