Bauer Millett closes down..........

[Claudia Skies]

swerni said:

IMHO the market for U.S. imports is in decline.

I guess Ford won't be selling many of those new-fangled Euro Mustangs then.

[miniman]

A shame, as it's rather an iconic name. However, a lot of punters have got used to buying cars in places like this:



which is rather different to this:



As the article says, City Centre car dealerships have been falling by the wayside for years.

[Mattt]

Fidd said:

I had not heard up until now that Chevrolet were to no longer support UK or European markets.

From the Chevrolet UK website ;

" Chevrolet is ceasing its new car business in Europe. Chevrolet UK Limited is expecting to cease the sale of new Chevrolet vehicles on 31 December 2015 "

However they do also state ;

" Chevrolet will continue to offer the Corvette and Camaro sports cars in select European markets, including UK "

Edited by Fidd on Saturday 27th December 19:14

Edited by Fidd on Saturday 27th December 19:17

Don't they mean they'll stop selling the Daewoo ste but keep on proper cars?

[red_slr]

Their old showroom where the Hilton is now used to be fairly cool and in a much better position right on Deansgate.

Also, not sure where they get the service centre has only been open 18 months - because its been there 15 years that I know of.

[Patch1875]

Alfa's 2 model line up has lost a lot of dealers.

[Roo]

The biggest problem, as alluded to by Mitch in that article, is that people aren't prepared to pay for the service offered by a specialist importer/retailer.

90% of enquirers aren't interested in an 'on the road' price like you get from a normal car dealer over here. They want to know how much you're paying for the car and an entire break down of your costs so they can see if they can do it cheaper themselves.

The fact that you can't get this information from a main dealer here escapes them.

They then want to know your contacts for supplying cars, bearing in mind it's against franchise agreements for US dealers to sell untitled cars for export.

Give it a year and the only way you'll be able to buy a 'new' US car in the UK will be from someone trading from home with no aftersales service which will probably end up as having been previously registered in the US.

Got to love the power of the internet.

[Patch1875]

hora said:

Patch1875 said:

Alfa's 2 model line up has lost a lot of dealers.

Three.

Sad news. In the 10yrs that I've been in Manchester I've never actually been in there.

Wouldn't count the 4c, a lack of 159 replacement has ruined dealers.

[Nickyboy]

Roo said:

The biggest problem, as alluded to by Mitch in that article, is that people aren't prepared to pay for the service offered by a specialist importer/retailer.

90% of enquirers aren't interested in an 'on the road' price like you get from a normal car dealer over here. They want to know how much you're paying for the car and an entire break down of your costs so they can see if they can do it cheaper themselves.

This is the key, we all know their £70k+ Corvettes can be bought stateside for a mere £37k or so even by factoring in importing it and paying all the associated fees/taxes etc you're still saving nearly £20k. There's plenty of specialists in the country now who will not only do all the work for you but will take care of the SVA and servicing without the need for huge showroom and dozens of staff. A place near me has a small unit with 3 staff and will happily import whatever car you like.

[Blakewater]

joncon said:

" Chevrolet is ceasing its new car business in Europe. Chevrolet UK Limited is expecting to cease the sale of new Chevrolet vehicles on 31 December 2015 "

no new cars available as far as I know , all new stock sold months ago from main dealers



However they do also state ;

" Chevrolet will continue to offer the Corvette and Camaro sports cars in select European markets, including UK "

wasn't bauer the only uk appointed agent

I recall Paul Horrell writing about a conversation he had with the head of GM in Europe. Apparently GM see Vauxhall as a premium brand in the UK and Chevrolet as the mainstream brand. So you consider a Chevrolet Cruze alongside a Ford Focus and a Volkswagen Golf and a Vauxhall Astra alongside a BMW 1 Series and an Audi A3. In the USA, Chevrolet is the mainstream brand and they badge the Vauxhall Insignia as the Buick Regal and list the Audi A4 as one of its key competitors on the Buick website:

http://www.buick.com/competitive-compare/2014-rega...

They sell the Vauxhall Mokka as the Buick Encore as well.

The problem is, we see Chevrolets as rebadged Daewoos and, while Hyundai and Kia are becoming mainstream like Skoda did, we see Chevrolets as the scrapings at the bottom of the barrel.

[Matt Harper]

fesuvious said:

Reading the article, I feel really sorry for Mitch Millett.

He obviously loves what he does.

That said, I bought an Abarth 500. Outright, over the phone. I trusted them. They gave me the car without the battery properly secured, and with the negative terminal not done up. And the bonnet wasn't properly closed.

This caused a 'check engine' light @1hr later. Abarth in Coventry were somewhat shocked the issue was something that 'was a basic PDI issue'.

I wasn't chuffed. And this was after I'd been left hanging around for half hour because they were 'getting the car ready' despite me having already paid in full and announced what time I was collecting, four days earlier.

Small moments like this stay with you. Today the missus bought a car, the type of car BM may have had in stock, did I look? No.

Yes, I did complain, but the sales bloke didn't really give a toss.

Sorry to see this type of dealer go - yes, very much so. And I'm sorry for those affected, maybe I was a one off, but I'm still rankled by it today.

To be honest, I was somewhat crapped on by Bauer Millet too - a long time ago when they were in Peter Street, I bought a year old 88 IROC Z Camaro and between me agreeing to buy it and taking delivery of it, something happened, which delayed hand-over to me by a week. Only after I'd taken delivery of it, I noticed that some of the striping tape was missing from the front off-side front wing and valance. When I pointed it out, they blew it off and said they'd fix it, but I was deeply suspicious that someone/thing had ttted it, which they flatly denied. Sure enough when I looked closer with the wheel and the fender liner off, it had been repaired. The exhaust tailpipes started coming adrift after a couple of weeks also and I had a hell of a job getting them to agree to repair that too. It really ruined what should have been a great experience for me - and like you, it stayed with me, to the point I never recommended them when asked and never took my Camaro, or the C5 Corvette I later owned to them for service, because I simply did not trust them.
Saddened that their demise has hurt their employees, but my customer experience was horrible.

[DukeDickson]

miniman said:

A shame, as it's rather an iconic name. However, a lot of punters have got used to buying cars in places like this:



which is rather different to this:



As the article says, City Centre car dealerships have been falling by the wayside for years.

As false as it really is, lots of people buy from the former for various reasons. The majority of people buying from Swindon Audi are renting A1/A3 desperate Tdi spec, or take company more or less dictated A4 (or A6 if middle mgmt) there for servicing.

Not many & presumably less than before, want Americana or parts of Fiat group stuff. Probably would get worse still when Ford start offering RHD Mustangs. Whatever some think about the lack of issue, many (me included) hate it in Blightey. That only leaves a certain specialist market, which may or may not pay, but would seem not to.


Sad, but has a certain air of inevitability, IMHO.

[k-ink]

fesuvious said:

That said, I bought an Abarth 500.

Did you get their white example with carbon fibre seats and Brembo brakes? I looked at that one online, but then switched to the exact same spec but on a Mito from a Surrey dealer in the end.

[anonymous-user]

Roo said:

The biggest problem, as alluded to by Mitch in that article, is that people aren't prepared to pay for the service offered by a specialist importer/retailer.

Regrettably their idea of service went along the lines,

Place your deposit in July for a car, with demonstrator expected Dec or shortly after
....hear nothing for 3 months
....phone them; demonstrator expected Dec or new year
....hear nothing for 3 months
....hear nothing for 6 months
....phone them; news expected soon
....hear nothing for 3 months

....sod this for a game of soldiers, I'll have my deposit back. Thankyou.


Amongst many issues on the Corvette/Cadillac side, most potential customers were in London or South East so it was pretty ridiculous having just one dealership 200 miles away up the busiest roads in Britain.

[anonymous-user]

Blakewater said:

The problem is, we see Chevrolets as rebadged Daewoos and, while Hyundai and Kia are becoming mainstream like Skoda did, we see Chevrolets as the scrapings at the bottom of the barrel.

A PHer by the name of Pigeon used to be great on these forums. Amongst his many accurate analyses was a post at the time GM decided to rebadge Daewoos as Chevrolets. He dismissed the cars as "scrofulous little yoghurt pots" compared with the rumbling V8s we expect from Chevrolet.

[Scrofulous - a: having a diseased run-down appearance, b: morally contaminated]

[Blown2CV]

as a franchised dealer you are at the mercy of the manufacturer. They set the standards required to have a franchise, and they can change them whenever they wish. They only get more stringent over time. If you have multiple franchises, you are very exposed. The mfrs are probably even on at them to buy the standard desks, chairs, fixtures and fittings... it's an expensive game to play. If you run an unusual business model involving lots of oddball individual imports then you will find it hard to keep a consistent cashflow, and that's in addition to the franchise business. I think they just tried to do too much, in an age where you can no longer just say "yea i am a fiat dealer now", and that's all you need to do. As far as I know when they lost Alfa, they decided to just stick with the imports business... not sure it was the right move.

[andysgriff]

Seems like a poor business model coupled with a worse location, hardly surprising.

[Viper]

wonder what will happen to the cars they were selling, there was a few in the classifieds yesterday but they are gone now,
although still showing on eBay this morning

[Wacky Racer]

andysgriff said:

Seems like a poor business model coupled with a worse location, hardly surprising.

Bauer Millett have been trading successfully in City centre Manchester for over forty years.....When they were on Peter Street it was always THE place to go, if you wanted to see some proper exotica in the early seventies.....

[Blown2CV]

Wacky Racer said:

andysgriff said:

Seems like a poor business model coupled with a worse location, hardly surprising.

Bauer Millett have been trading successfully in City centre Manchester for over forty years.....When they were on Peter Street it was always THE place to go, if you wanted to see some proper exotica in the early seventies.....

a lot changes in 4 decades, and the car market has changed massively even just in the last 10 years. Also if you want to see exotica in Manchester now, just stand on Deansgate for 5 mins, or wander round some of the neighbouring streets.

[bencollins]

Shyte logo, typeface, graphics cant have helped.