Arnold gets another one

[HendryG]

Well not only has Arnold Clark became a Vauxhall franchise at its Livingston former Nissan franchise taking the franchise from Woods West Calder from 1 January its also now taken over Woods themselves from today as well:


http://www.arnoldclark.com/find-a-dealer-search/we...

[alandc]

Hi all

I have just joined this Forum, my very first in fact, not sure where to start or how far it reaches but just wish to introduce myself and what I can offer. I am not in the true sense a car enthusiast however for the past 40 years I have here in Central Scotland been building up a database of franchised car dealers for the whole of the UK including Northern Ireland and also extending to the Channel Islands.

This covers over 100 years to the present day, dealer names and addresses and their years in existence. I can also advise on registration numbers since their inception in 1903, and assist on where and when vehicles were registered. Over 600 makes of cars included,, going back to 1897 - that's makes, not models e.g Ford counts as just 1 make!

I have over 100,000 dealer entries (not a typo!). Never complete though as this is an ongoing project and has involved thousands of hours of research : libraries, old newspapers, car magazines, manufactures dealer lists, brochures, internet, etc etc

As I mentioned above I have spent much of my life on this massive project and feel now it is time to share with car / enthusiast clubs etc.

I have no idea how this will pan out and I have a fairly busy life completely away from this interest (am no anorak!) but I will always be pleased to try and assist as and when I have time.

Kind regards

Alan

[S2red]

HendryG said:

Well not only has Arnold Clark became a Vauxhall franchise at its Livingston former Nissan franchise taking the franchise from Woods West Calder from 1 January its also now taken over Woods themselves from today as well:


http://www.arnoldclark.com/find-a-dealer-search/we...

Yes heard that

Good in some ways I hope the guys at Woods continue the good work they do

[750turbo]

alandc said:

Hi all

I have just joined this Forum, my very first in fact, not sure where to start or how far it reaches but just wish to introduce myself and what I can offer. I am not in the true sense a car enthusiast however for the past 40 years I have here in Central Scotland been building up a database of franchised car dealers for the whole of the UK including Northern Ireland and also extending to the Channel Islands.

This covers over 100 years to the present day, dealer names and addresses and their years in existence. I can also advise on registration numbers since their inception in 1903, and assist on where and when vehicles were registered. Over 600 makes of cars included,, going back to 1897 - that's makes, not models e.g Ford counts as just 1 make!

I have over 100,000 dealer entries (not a typo!). Never complete though as this is an ongoing project and has involved thousands of hours of research : libraries, old newspapers, car magazines, manufactures dealer lists, brochures, internet, etc etc

As I mentioned above I have spent much of my life on this massive project and feel now it is time to share with car / enthusiast clubs etc.

I have no idea how this will pan out and I have a fairly busy life completely away from this interest (am no anorak!) but I will always be pleased to try and assist as and when I have time.

Kind regards

Alan

Interesting first post - I am not sure if it is relevant here though.

Maybe stick this in General Gassing when you are allowed to post in there.

Do you have any on-line links to this information?

[andym1603]

Arnold Clark is reported by the Inverness Courier to be in talks with Ness Motors, the Renault dealer in Inverness about a possible buy out.

[xrv]

andym1603 said:

Arnold Clark is reported by the Inverness Courier to be in talks with Ness Motors, the Renault dealer in Inverness about a possible buy out.

Inverness courier up to date as usual. Deal is done apparently.
Macrae & Dick and Hawco basically all that is standing between them and complete monopoly of the Inverness market.

[StescoG66]

Oh well. My next car will prob be from down south again..........

At what point will Monopolies and Mergers get called in? Do we have one in Scotland?

[HendryG]

The news that Woods has become Arnies was a bit of a shock because we all already knew that they were losing the Vauxhall franchise to Arnies Livingston dealership but as you can all see for yourselves Dave Dempsey who was involved heavily at Woods has commented on this very topic himself has said Woods were intending to remain independent and possibly take on a different franchise. Seems a bit weird for Woods to then lose the Vauxhall franchise, Arnie Clark acquire it at Livingston then take over Woods and reinstall a franchise to the site which was lost the month prior to this.

I wonder if the Ness Motors deal will include their other Renault dealerships in - I think - Perth and Elgin as well as the Inverness branch and if it will include trit Inverness Citroen dealership considering Arnie previously had the Citroen dealership for Inverness and gave it to refranchise to Hyundai which is the only reason Ness have Citroen.

We also had a customer into work yesterday returning a hire vehicle and he was saying he's bought an Audi A1 from Arnold's Seat/Hyundai garage at Alexandra Parade in Glasgow but that the salesman had mentioned they would be moving soon to next to Evans Halshaw Ford, which is on Cumbernauld Road, not sure what space there is over that end for a new site nor have I seen anything resembling a car dealership being converted or built in that area, but the guy seemed genuine enough.

[imagineifyeswill]

I had just come onto this discussion to say that Id heard about the Ness Motors deal just last night but its obviously not a secret any longer. All the Hawco family must be approaching retirement age so maybe open to an approach, MacRae and Dick are apparently majority financed by Bank of Scotland so that could be a possible only leaving Autovision. Mackays Dingwall and Regency collaberated there when SVL was sold in order to keep Arnie out and while they might be willing to hold out, with the clout Arnie has with Vauxhall they could go the same way as Woods. Would the Monopolies Commision have any say in this kind of domination of the motor trade in one town. Forgetting about Seafield Motors but Mitsubishi are apparently such a controlling franchise that no one wants it anyway.

[HendryG]

imagineifyeswill said:

I had just come onto this discussion to say that Id heard about the Ness Motors deal just last night but its obviously not a secret any longer. All the Hawco family must be approaching retirement age so maybe open to an approach, MacRae and Dick are apparently majority financed by Bank of Scotland so that could be a possible only leaving Autovision. Mackays Dingwall and Regency collaberated there when SVL was sold in order to keep Arnie out and while they might be willing to hold out, with the clout Arnie has with Vauxhall they could go the same way as Woods. Would the Monopolies Commision have any say in this kind of domination of the motor trade in one town. Forgetting about Seafield Motors but Mitsubishi are apparently such a controlling franchise that no one wants it anyway.

If Arnie ever did take over Hawco or Macrae and Dick I can't see it being the whole group or if so someone else would have to come in as there would be a need for someone to run the Jag, Land Rover and Audi franchises that between Hawco and Macrae and Dick are ran in Inverness as Arnie doesn't have those franchises at all and I can't see him taking them on (or the manufacturers giving them it) also Macrae and Dick run a Honda dealership in both Inverness and Aberdeen which Arnie will have no interest in as they've just binned off their Honda franchises in Ayr, Kilmarnock and Kirkcaldy in the past year. There's also Donald Mackenzie Fiat/Alfa which is one I can see Arnold trying to acquire as barring a few Parks Fiat dealerships in Irvine, Motherwell and East Kilbride and a couple of independents like Clyne Autos in Peterhead and W B Cowan in Tranent Arnie runs the Fiat franchise in pretty much all of Scotland from Ayr in the south to Elgin in the North. Then there's Dickson's who have Nissan/Kia, I can't see them wanting Nissan as they've gradually been closing all their Nissan franchises from at one point 8/9 years ago 15 down to 6 now and rumour has it they are giving up or losing the Nissan franchise, but they seem to be rapidly opening up loads of Kia franchises through Glasgow, Cumbernauld, Edinburgh, Perth, Aberdeen, Dundee, and Kirkcaldy.

I agree about Autovision Vauxhall as well, I'm sure Mackay's and Regency did a similar Autovision collaboration in Perth when the MacLeods of Perth Vauxhall was up for grabs, they then later sold it to Peter Vardy, this was the first garage he acquired after setting up on his own after the takeover of Reg Vardy by Pendragon.

Edited by HendryG on Sunday 1st February 19:56

[imagineifyeswill]

I agree Arnie has no experience with JLR not sure about the VAG line although hes now certainly getting into the premier marques wth Merc and BMW. Thats a funny thing they dont seem to get on with the Japanese franchises, Id forgotten about Donald MacKenzies but Fiat/Alfa as you say must be on his radar, the Fiat parts dept in Elgin has certainly been phoning around the independent garages in Inverness offering big discounts on parts. I said when he first took over Wyvis Citroen that if he got a foothold in Inverness it would be a bad thing for the trade eventually.

Edited by imagineifyeswill on Sunday 1st February 21:01

[HendryG]

imagineifyeswill said:

I agree Arnie has no experience with JLR not sure about the VAG line although hes now certainly getting into the premier marques wth Merc and BMW. Thats a funny thing they dont seem to get on with the Japanese franchises, Id forgotten about Donald MacKenzies but Fiat/Alfa as you say must be on his radar, the Fiat parts dept in Elgin has certainly been phoning around the independent garages in Inverness offering big discounts on parts. I said when he first took over Wyvis Citroen that if he got a foothold in Inverness it would be a bad thing for the trade eventually.

Edited by imagineifyeswill on Sunday 1st February 21:01

As I said in a previous post I wonder what will happen with Citroen in Inverness if Arnold does take over Ness Motors as the only reason Ness have a Citroen franchise is because Arnold dropped it in Inverness about 6 years ago.

They get on fairly well with VAG as they own the 7 closest VW dealerships to me, if you stay in Glasgow and surrounding areas and want a VW not from Arnie you need to go to Ayr, Bathgate or Stirling for your closest one. They've started to expand with Skoda since taking over Delmore Cars in 2010 and now have 3 dealerships. And they own 4 Seat dealerships as well.

They get on fairly well with some of the Jap brands as well, they have 5 Mazda dealerships and 8 Toyota ones, as with VW if you stay in Glasgow and surrounding areas and want a Toyota not from Arnie you need to go to Falkirk or Edinburgh. I am not sure the reason they may be parting with Nissan as the Juke and Qashqai are selling like hotcakes. Dropping Honda was more to do with poor sales of their cars than any fall out, on a related note, something else I also heard last week was that Phoenix Honda in Grangemouth has closed and that Arnie has acquired the site and will be installing a new franchise there, this seems at least partly true as Grangemouth no longer lists as a branch on either Honda or Phoenix's own websites.

Edited by HendryG on Sunday 1st February 22:35

[S2red]

Funny thing about VAG is No Audi franchises for Arnold

Really does annoy that in West and beginning to be rest of Scotland very hard not to buy from Arnold if you can persuade him to sell you new a new car to your spec rather than one of his pre regs that they push you towards

He must have a faily high % of the volumne market in Scotland

[jith]

alandc said:

Hi all

I have just joined this Forum, my very first in fact, not sure where to start or how far it reaches but just wish to introduce myself and what I can offer. I am not in the true sense a car enthusiast however for the past 40 years I have here in Central Scotland been building up a database of franchised car dealers for the whole of the UK including Northern Ireland and also extending to the Channel Islands.

This covers over 100 years to the present day, dealer names and addresses and their years in existence. I can also advise on registration numbers since their inception in 1903, and assist on where and when vehicles were registered. Over 600 makes of cars included,, going back to 1897 - that's makes, not models e.g Ford counts as just 1 make!

I have over 100,000 dealer entries (not a typo!). Never complete though as this is an ongoing project and has involved thousands of hours of research : libraries, old newspapers, car magazines, manufactures dealer lists, brochures, internet, etc etc

As I mentioned above I have spent much of my life on this massive project and feel now it is time to share with car / enthusiast clubs etc.

I have no idea how this will pan out and I have a fairly busy life completely away from this interest (am no anorak!) but I will always be pleased to try and assist as and when I have time.

Kind regards

Alan

Hi Alan,

your post is very interesting. I have been in the trade for over 40 years. I started as a Jaguar specialist in Paisley and used to deal with David Blane and Son. Would you have any information about them and any photos of the premises?

J

[HendryG]

Has anyone heard anymore about the Ness Motors takeover by Arnies, has it fallen through?

Its a bit of a strange one, usually without any prior hint Armies will just announce out of the blue they've taken someone over or if it does become public knowledge then the deal Is usually confused very quickly so its weird for it to be all over the motoring press and be rumoured by people and then nothing happens.

[750turbo]

HendryG said:

Has anyone heard anymore about the Ness Motors takeover by Arnies, has it fallen through?

Its a bit of a strange one, usually without any prior hint Armies will just announce out of the blue they've taken someone over or if it does become public knowledge then the deal Is usually confused very quickly so its weird for it to be all over the motoring press and be rumoured by people and then nothing happens.

Yes - But I do not want to post on a public forum HendryG

Drop me an email if you want.

Edited by 750turbo on Friday 6th February 20:46

[HendryG]

750turbo said:

Yes - But I do not want to post on a public forum HendryG

Drop me an email if you want.

Edited by 750turbo on Friday 6th February 20:46

a PM you mean?

[militantmandy]

A VAST number of AC Hire cars become used stock. I believe they are legally bound to tell you if you ask but they don't exactly shout about it. I worked for them in Hire Drive for many years.

[DUMBO100]

I thought the fact that they traded under different names Fairbairn etc. was to avoid problems with the monopolies and mergers comission. I've dealt with them for business purposes,they're not pleasant and they have crap salesmen. Like most others I'll buy my cars from the Internet, thanks

[imagineifyeswill]

Havent heard anything more about it this week but the person who told me last week seemed to think it was a done deal.