Tuesday 17th March 2009

Not Grim Up North

TVR specialist to sell X-BOW in North of England

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A North Yorkshire TVR specialist has become one of just five UK dealerships to sell and maintain the KTM X-BOW, and will represent the car and brand in the north of England.

Drivestyle Horseless Carriages announced the partnership with Austrian firm KTM at Geneva earlier this month.

Drivestyle, formerly Harrogate Horseless Carriages, opened 28 years ago as the UK's first TVR dealer and specialist. Back in 2005 another sports car specialist called Drivestyle, owners of the Spyker franchise, bought HHC, creating Drivestyle Horseless Carriages.

Despite TVR's collapse in December 2006, official ties with Lotus, MG, Spyker, MINI and now KTM have kept this sports car institution alive.

Company owner Steve Williams thinks the change is healthy: 'From being a specialist TVR dealer, we are now a multi franchise Sports and Specialist dealer in the North of England.We are delighted to be appointed to become service partners for the Xbow in the North of England - it fits well with everything else we are doing.

'Since we moved the business on to one site in October things have been going well. Aftersales held up well through the winter and since mid February sales enquiries have been progressively rising back to the levels pre mid last year when the market took a dive.'

Williams said he is optimistic about the market for sports cars despite tough economic circumstances. 'Our customer base is vast and wide, and there is still a huge market in the sale of sports vehicles,' he added.

The company also recently won and launched the new MG franchise for the whole of Yorkshire, as well as announced our appointment as an approved new MINI Service centre.

[[AJ]]

Now they just need to put a proper engine in the thing. Lets hope it gets the new TT-RS 5 pot and the extra 100bhp the X-Bow needs.

[Don1]

Stick an IHI on it - that will wake it up a bit!

[Frimley111R]

Makes me laugh when they use the term 'horseless carriages' in their name, as if it makes them somehow upmarket. It might have 100 years ago!!!

[Caddyshack]

I agree an IHI Turbo or GT28RS would get it closer to 400bhp with all of the relevant mods to go with it and they are not that expensive to do now for the BHP per £ spent.

[J111]

The company also recently won and launched the new MG franchise for the whole of Yorkshire

Ye gawds, why ?

[stephen300o]

It's a real shame it turned out so heavy.

[Kickstart]

I think you will find that this garage is north of the point where the north changes from grim to bracing

[pistolp]

I reckon it's boring, seen it on track a few times at Brands recently. Not only does it not make any noise but it doesn't seem very playful either....

Plus it's way too expensive

Nice looking though

[GPSS]

Nice to hear a franchise outlet with a positive outlook, instead of the usual doom and gloom. Bloody Northerners

[Stevie Mojo]

Excellent news. There you go, not all us Northerners are misserable sods!

[Jasper Gilder]

I thought the TVR Centre ( previously John Britten Garages)at Arkley was the first TVR dealer - blow 28 years ago - they were running Gerry Marshall in racing 40 years ago!

[G4HKS]

I agree - I thought the Barnet boys were selling TVR long before Horseless....

[dandarez]

Chrise, they'll be run off their feet keeping up with selling and maintaining them then?

Whaddya reckon - sell one or two a year?

Or fewer?

[papercup]

J111 said:

The company also recently won and launched the new MG franchise for the whole of Yorkshire

Ye gawds, why ?

Diversification is the key to survival in tough times.

[mollytherocker]

papercup said:

J111 said:

The company also recently won and launched the new MG franchise for the whole of Yorkshire

Ye gawds, why ?

Diversification is the key to survival in tough times.

Agree, but its hardly a volume brand!

MTR

[groomi]

mollytherocker said:

papercup said:

J111 said:

The company also recently won and launched the new MG franchise for the whole of Yorkshire

Ye gawds, why ?

Diversification is the key to survival in tough times.

Agree, but its hardly a volume brand!

MTR

Is anything a volume brand at the moment?

[mollytherocker]

groomi said:

mollytherocker said:

papercup said:

J111 said:

The company also recently won and launched the new MG franchise for the whole of Yorkshire

Ye gawds, why ?

Diversification is the key to survival in tough times.

Agree, but its hardly a volume brand!

MTR

Is anything a volume brand at the moment?

You have a point there!

MTR

[richard90]

A combination of this dealer and this manufacturer. My word.

[MarkoTVR]

'from being'.......and I'll leave it at that.