Nissan Dealers Closing?

[paul450]

HendryG said:

Arnold's current Stirling Nissan site is small because its solely a showroom, it doesn't have a workshop/service dept or parts store because that's all contained within the neighbouring Renault site.

Fife must be due a dealership because there isn't one in the whole of Fife now, first with Parks in Kirkcaldy closing about 6 years ago then Flear and Thomson in Dunfermline lost/gave up the franchise about a year ago.

It seems an odd move for Western to open a Nissan site at their so called "luxury car village" in New bridge as they currently operate another 3 sites in Edinburgh for Nissan, new car showroom at Corstorphine Road, Aftersales Centre at Stenhousemill Lane and a Used Car Showroom at Cultins Road, Sighthill (former Western Toyota before it moved to New bridge) unless they plan to close all those sites and group all operations together at Newbridge, I'd have thought the sensible plan would be to move all Nissan operations into the existing Sighthill dealership. Also I wasn't sure there would be room at New bridge site as they built and opened their new Honda dealership a couple of years ago at Fort Kinnaird when I'd have thought if they had space at New bridge for unity they'd have put it there alongside their other showrooms.

western did not build the honda site,honda built and own it.

[cas20]

Perhaps Western want to cover the West Lothian/Falkirk market and consolidate one of their existing used/service sites whilst they are at it.

The Stirling site has a large space behind and one roller shutter door. I assume this will accommodate service and will be a used car area as well. The existing AC Nissan site has a very small used car area and I think the Western site looks much the same.

[HendryG]

paul450 said:

western did not build the honda site,honda built and own it.

Really? I thought it was a Western Honda dealership

[cas20]

HendryG said:

Really? I thought it was a Western Honda dealership

Not unusual for Honda to build/own sites. They still owned the Kyle Street Henry's Skoda dealership until 2011 when the Henry family purchased the site from them.

[HendryG]

cas20 said:

Not unusual for Honda to build/own sites. They still owned the Kyle Street Henry's Skoda dealership until 2011 when the Henry family purchased the site from them.

Learn something new every day, I thought all dealerships were owned/leased and ran by a dealer group even those such as Merc, Audi, Lexus, Porsche, which don't have a dealer name to them, thry are just called Lexus Glasgow (Western), Glasgow Audi (Lookers/Taggarts), Mercedes-Benz of Giffnock (Pendragon Stratstone) Porsche Centre Glasgow (Sytner) etc

The obvious exceptions being the obvious importer ran dealer groups like Citroen Retail Group/Citroen Glasgow, Robins & Day Peugeot, Renault Retail Group and West way Nissan, but those are owned and ran by the manufacturer, not owned by them but ran by another dealer like it seems Western Honda is.

[cas20]

HendryG said:

Learn something new every day, I thought all dealerships were owned/leased and ran by a dealer group even those such as Merc, Audi, Lexus, Porsche, which don't have a dealer name to them, thry are just called Lexus Glasgow (Western), Glasgow Audi (Lookers/Taggarts), Mercedes-Benz of Giffnock (Pendragon Stratstone) Porsche Centre Glasgow (Sytner) etc

The obvious exceptions being the obvious importer ran dealer groups like Citroen Retail Group/Citroen Glasgow, Robins & Day Peugeot, Renault Retail Group and West way Nissan, but those are owned and ran by the manufacturer, not owned by them but ran by another dealer like it seems Western Honda is.

Some manufacturers work with dealers regarding especially when there may not be large dealer groups looking to invest in premises. I doubt Hyndland Honda could have afforded the premises on Kyle St when it was first built

[HendryG]

cas20 said:

Some manufacturers work with dealers regarding especially when there may not be large dealer groups looking to invest in premises. I doubt Hyndland Honda could have afforded the premises on Kyle St when it was first built

But Kyle Street was aleady built a good few years before Hyndland Honda first opened there in 2004, It was originally an Appleyard Audi dealership before Hugh McMahon bought it in 1998 and renamed it Lomond Audi before the 2003 move to the current Audi premises at Braehead, I don't disagree with what you're saying especially with a "niche" franchise like Honda that doesn't enjoy the volume of Toyota/Ford/Vauxhall nor the prestige of Audi/Merc/BMW with sales figures that don't come close to any of those brands,just pointing out the site wasn't first built for a Honda dealership so when they moved in they wouldn't have had to consider the build/development costs of it in any case.

[cas20]

HendryG said:

But Kyle Street was aleady built a good few years before Hyndland Honda first opened there in 2004, It was originally an Appleyard Audi dealership before Hugh McMahon bought it in 1998 and renamed it Lomond Audi before the 2003 move to the current Audi premises at Braehead, I don't disagree with what you're saying especially with a "niche" franchise like Honda that doesn't enjoy the volume of Toyota/Ford/Vauxhall nor the prestige of Audi/Merc/BMW with sales figures that don't come close to any of those brands,just pointing out the site wasn't first built for a Honda dealership so when they moved in they wouldn't have had to consider the build/development costs of it in any case.

My point was more had they had to build/acquire such a site. They needed Honda to support such a move. I think Honda lost a couple of hundred thousand on the sale, granted they will have had many years of rent payments.

[HendryG]

cas20 said:

My point was more had they had to build/acquire such a site. They needed Honda to support such a move. I think Honda lost a couple of hundred thousand on the sale, granted they will have had many years of rent payments.

That's still a superb looking site as well IMO, this is one of the few garages left in Glasgow Arnold Clark don't own that I can see them sniffing around.

[cas20]

I can see them picking up the central Scotland Skoda franchise first.... the current Newmarket site looks poor and Skoda have a new corporate image on the way. AC Skoda Grangemouth anyone? Return of VW to the Grangemouth site?
The Henrys business has a couple of million in the bank and decent sales of Skoda with Honda set to pick up this year I would imagine. They will sell at a time of their choosing I guess.

[HendryG]

cas20 said:

I can see them picking up the central Scotland Skoda franchise first.... the current Newmarket site looks poor and Skoda have a new corporate image on the way. AC Skoda Grangemouth anyone? Return of VW to the Grangemouth site?
The Henrys business has a couple of million in the bank and decent sales of Skoda with Honda set to pick up this year I would imagine. They will sell at a time of their choosing I guess.

That could be a shout, maybe with their Hyundai franchise moving to Kerse Road, leaving just Citroen at the Craigleith Road site they could put a Skoda franchise there alongside Citroen.

Maybe the long term plan for the Glensburgh Road Grangemouth ex Phoenix Honda site is a Fiat/Motorstore and used Prestige site, they've already binned Citroen from their existing Falkirk site when they took over Citroen Stirling, or maybe its for a move for either the Renault or Merc sites in Grangemouth. I don't see them getting the VW franchise there, as that's surely got to breach competition rules being that they already run VW through most of the West as it is, such that if you want to buy a VW from someone other than him and live in Glasgow and surrounding areas you've got to travel to Ingram's in Ayr, Inch in Bathgate or Stirling or Western in Edinburgh. So a good 30 miles at least.

[cas20]

HendryG said:

That could be a shout, maybe with their Hyundai franchise moving to Kerse Road, leaving just Citroen at the Craigleith Road site they could put a Skoda franchise there alongside Citroen.

Maybe the long term plan for the Glensburgh Road Grangemouth ex Phoenix Honda site is a Fiat/Motorstore and used Prestige site, they've already binned Citroen from their existing Falkirk site when they took over Citroen Stirling, or maybe its for a move for either the Renault or Merc sites in Grangemouth. I don't see them getting the VW franchise there, as that's surely got to breach competition rules being that they already run VW through most of the West as it is, such that if you want to buy a VW from someone other than him and live in Glasgow and surrounding areas you've got to travel to Ingram's in Ayr, Inch in Bathgate or Stirling or Western in Edinburgh. So a good 30 miles at least.

Hmmm you have to travel much further to buy an Audi from other than Lookers! I dont think competition in the motor sales sector would be judged by the individual marque. AC losing Nissan will allow others to increase their market share given the strong sales of Nissan at the moment- it may be a good thing for competition. I think a new Skoda franchise would have to have a seperate site given recent comments from Skoda about the future of their network/more big dealer groups.

[HendryG]

cas20 said:

Hmmm you have to travel much further to buy an Audi from other than Lookers! I dont think competition in the motor sales sector would be judged by the individual marque. AC losing Nissan will allow others to increase their market share given the strong sales of Nissan at the moment- it may be a good thing for competition. I think a new Skoda franchise would have to have a seperate site given recent comments from Skoda about the future of their network/more big dealer groups.

Yeah my point is more that I can't see VW giving Arnold a franchise in another territory which is already operated in by someone else because he'll just swallow up the competition in that area, if that keeps happening eventually there will only be him, John Clark and Western running VW in Scotland. (the only 2 I cant see selling up)

Also, Arnold's current Skoda sites are all dual/multi franchise, Linwood with Skoda, Inverness with Volvo and Edinburgh with Renault although Linwood and Edinburgh are separate showrooms for each brand.

I know what you mean about standards in the Skoda franchise etc though as ive heard Parks in Hamilton are doing a major refurb comprising demolishing the used car showroom attached to the Skoda showroom and the canopy covering the used car display which was formerly the petrol forecourt when the site doubled as a petrol station/shop before a bus crashed into it a few years ago, and totally renovating the Skoda showroom. Long overdue there anyway as the site at present is a cramped mess.

[cas20]

HendryG said:

Yeah my point is more that I can't see VW giving Arnold a franchise in another territory which is already operated in by someone else because he'll just swallow up the competition in that area, if that keeps happening eventually there will only be him, John Clark and Western running VW in Scotland. (the only 2 I cant see selling up)

Also, Arnold's current Skoda sites are all dual/multi franchise, Linwood with Skoda, Inverness with Volvo and Edinburgh with Renault although Linwood and Edinburgh are separate showrooms for each brand.

I know what you mean about standards in the Skoda franchise etc though as ive heard Parks in Hamilton are doing a major refurb comprising demolishing the used car showroom attached to the Skoda showroom and the canopy covering the used car display which was formerly the petrol forecourt when the site doubled as a petrol station/shop before a bus crashed into it a few years ago, and totally renovating the Skoda showroom. Long overdue there anyway as the site at present is a cramped mess.

Park's would have risked losing the franchise had they not invested money in Skoda- it looks as bad as the Stirling site.

[HendryG]

cas20 said:

Park's would have risked losing the franchise had they not invested money in Skoda- it looks as bad as the Stirling site.

I'm more surprised they still persist with the pokey wee town centre Skoda site, I'd have thought they would have incorporated it into the east Kilbride site or something like most of the rest of their franchises which were at one time or another Hamilton based, or even got rid of the petrol station and Honda covered used car display multi storey car park thing on Bothwell Road between Honda and BMW and built a Skoda place there. I think at one point Skoda was based at their Whifflet dealership alongside Citroen when the current Skoda site was their Bentley and Rolls Royce dealership, not sure why they thought the Hamilton site was a better sites than Whifflet.

I haven't seen the Stirling Skoda site, its Newmarket Garage in Bannockburn isn't it, I'll go and look it up on Google, doubting if its much worse than West End Skoda Broxburn (which now longer does new cars, just used and after sales)

[cas20]

HendryG said:

I'm more surprised they still persist with the pokey wee town centre Skoda site, I'd have thought they would have incorporated it into the east Kilbride site or something like most of the rest of their franchises which were at one time or another Hamilton based, or even got rid of the petrol station and Honda covered used car display multi storey car park thing on Bothwell Road between Honda and BMW and built a Skoda place there. I think at one point Skoda was based at their Whifflet dealership alongside Citroen when the current Skoda site was their Bentley and Rolls Royce dealership, not sure why they thought the Hamilton site was a better sites than Whifflet.

I haven't seen the Stirling Skoda site, its Newmarket Garage in Bannockburn isn't it, I'll go and look it up on Google, doubting if its much worse than West End Skoda Broxburn (which now longer does new cars, just used and after sales)

Trust me, it is worse

[cas20]

HendryG said:

That's still a superb looking site as well IMO, this is one of the few garages left in Glasgow Arnold Clark don't own that I can see them sniffing around.

The Kyle Street site is about to get a major refit.

[HendryG]

cas20 said:

The Kyle Street site is about to get a major refit.

I was at Parks in EK today collecting a car and they were in the middle of building a bit on at the Renault dealership end of the showroom so I wonder if thry are taking on another franchise there.

I'll need to see if I can get a hold of their guy I used to work with (the guy I mentioned before who worked at Queensborough) who is now a tech at Royston Road Arnold Clark Nissan and see what he knows about this whole franchise debacle.

[RRLover]

Nissan are having a growth spurt at the moment.
Macklins new site in Glasgow will be next to Mercedes in Milton Street, this will be the largest in Europe when it opens, a temp site is being set up & due to open on the 1st April
JC Group are opening one in Perth
Western are putting one in the Motor Village at Newbridge.

Arnolds & SDM lost there franchises

[S2red]

Milton Street ?

No space down there is there?

Near the Mercedes commercials site near Borron st has benn mentioned