Glasgow car dealers in the 60's -70's

[ChonkyCat]

HendryG said:

I know a bit about Paisleys motor trade.

I believe one of the sons of David Blane went on to work as the commercial vehicle/fleet/business sales specialist at Arnold Clark Vauxhall in Linwood, only recently (2008) retiring, Tony Blane im sure his name was.

For Vauxhall/Opel the dealers in the Paisley area i remember were Lylesland Garage on Espedair Street, County Motor Garage in Johnstone, and Ferguson of Renfrew.

The Lows garage Vauxhall/Opel dealer i know of was at Holmbank Avenue in Glasgow, not Paisley.

Goudies Garage i remember as Peugeot dealers, they lost the franchise in '96 about the same time Johnston the Peugeot dealer in Renfrew started building a new Peugeot showroom at Linwood, Goudies went to Subaru Isuzu and SsangYong franchises before closing down, the site is now flats. Although next door to where the showroom was theres Goudies Funeral Directors, probably the same people.

Lastly Clanfords huge dealership i remember, my dad bought an Orion from there in '94 and a lot of people we know bought cars there, at a time when almost every car on the road was a Ford. Clanford joined forces with the other independent Ford dealers in the area like Wylies, Alexanders, Premier Ford Anniesland, Strathford etc to form First Ford. They started building a new showroom at Linwood because of the impending building of a Safeway/Morrisons supermarket on the site, the bodyshop moved to Wallneuk road where its still used complete with old Ford signage as the valet shop for the AC/ex Reg Vardy Fiat site on Renfrew road, the merger didnt work, group ran into financial problems and AC/Reg Vardy split the group between them. One of the ones AC got was Clanford, ran the site there till 04 when Linwood site was completed. Moved the business and one side got demolished, the old used car centre has housed a few used car dealers since.

Also Overburn (Citroen) and New Sneddon Motors (Skoda), both sites are still trading, although as used car dealerships…

[ChonkyCat]

A832 said:

Back in the early 1980's I used to regularly get the bus from Killearn into Glasgow city centre via Maryhill Road and 2 garages stick in my mind. Taggarts, who at that time always had big ads in the Daily Record - maybe even tv air time - and Tennents, who were located near Firhill Stadium. While Taggarts had the PR, it was the latter who made an impression on me as a car mad 11/12 year old as they had a brick ramp displaying the "deal of the week". Being during the era of Dukes of Hazzard et al any car on ramps like that looked exciting, like it may take off! I was young, okay..

Now, I could be very wrong but I'm led to believe that Tennent's sudden dissapearance around that time was due not to economic reasons but something much more sinister. If you had a car, furniture or carpet business in Glasgow and made a success of it you'd come to the attention of a local shall we say, family. THey'd make the owner an offer they couldn't refuse then use said business as a front for their other activities. Woe betide anyone who didn't want to give up their livelihood, the men in leather jackets didn't grasp the concept of the word "no".

Right from the getgo Tennents set the alarm bells ringing for me; they appeared out of nowhere and opened branches at a ridiculous pace, with bargain prices - all the hallmarks of a long firm fraud, then vanished leaving behind the usual mess such a scam produces.

Funnily enough many moons later their name came up in conversation, and someone asked if I knew who Roberto Calvi was. As it happens I did, they then went on to claim the day before he was found swinging under Blackfriars bridge he had made a visit to those in running Tennents, if, even remotely true then they really were of the “offer you can’t refuse” fraternity 😂

[ChonkyCat]

Bogsye said:

Thanks too for the suggestion. In Shanghai right now so a bit restricted on my research capabilities.

Back on the main theme of the thread, I recall finding a receipt in the back of a friends BMW e9 csa for a company called Bardeene Automotive.
Can’t recall the address but it seemed to look like it was a rep for Lamborghini. This I think would have been the 70’s.

Ring any bells?

Barry Dene (Dean?) who owned Bardene used to live just up the road from me, you could always tell which house was his as there’d be a row of Austin 1100s, Cortinas, Hillman Hunters, and then an Espada or some other mad thing, then back to the mundane 😂

[S2red]

They were under the railway bridge at Broomilaw/jamaicia St in the units under the railwaty Remnents of sign may still be on wall

Edited by S2red on Friday 17th November 19:25

[ChonkyCat]

r.s.logan said:

Anderson of Newton Mearns moved to the Gallowgate ( Across from where Morrisons store is now ) and subsequently Mount Vernon.

Andersons went into voluntary liquidation in 1980, they never traded at any premises outwith what is now East Renfrewshire, having the main place in NM, a smaller one in Giffnock, although don’t personally remember that, and originally a coal yard in Thornliebank.

I recall a car showroom on the corner of Bain St and Gallowgate, opp. where Morrisons is now, which at one point traded as Andersons, however it wasn’t related to the Newton Mearns firm.

[ChonkyCat]

This is a great thread, so many names from the past, here are few more that haven’t been mentioned;

Jesners (Datsun) Tantallon Rd

Westcars (Saab? and then Seat) Tantallon Rd

Kings Autopoint (Citroen) Clarkston Toll

IDG (Peugeot) Mearns Rd, Clarkston

Spiersbridge Garage (BL) Rouken Glen Rd

Haldanes (Austin Rover) Clarkston Rd

Clarkston Motor Company (Mitsubishi) Clarkston Rd

Archers of Langside (Lada)

Hytech (Hyundai) old Archers site

Hampden Cars (Mazda and Lotus) Carmunock Rd

Sterling Cars (Toyota) Cathcart Rd

Sterling Cars (Skoda) Pollokshaws Rd

Park Motors (I think) Cathcart Rd before moving to Drumbeck

Low’s (Opel then Skoda) Holmbank Ave

Queen’s Garage (Vauxhall) Kilmarnock Rd

Marlborough Motor Company (Colt/Mitsubishi) Pollokshaws Rd (2 locations)

Fenwicks (Triumph and Rover) Nithsdale St

Appleyard Gibbon (Jaguar and Land Rover) Netherauldhouse Rd

Eastwood Motors (Skoda) Eastwood Ave

Trefoil Cars (Skoda) Trefoil Ave

Carlaw Cars (BL) Various locations (same family as Wylies?)

Hayston Garage (Morgan) Kilsyth Rd

Armour Motors (Ford) Fenwick Rd

C & A Thomas (Skoda) Great Western Rd?

Temple Autos (Skoda) Temple Rd

Gopal Motors (Skoda) Cambuslang?

New Sneddon Motors (Skoda) New Sneddon St

Overburn Motors (Citroen) Neilston Rd

Elderslie Motors (Skoda) Main Rd

I also have memories of a Fiat showroom and possibly a BMW one as well being in the block of shops between Napiershall St and Maryhill Rd on Great Western Road, does that jog any memories?

Also, as noted above, was there a connection between the BL dealer, Carlaw Cars and Wylies? Just curious as, as everyone knows, Wylies at the time of its demise was headed by Jackson Carlaw (later an MSP), and it was referred to as his family business. Carlaw Cars was founded by a David Carlaw, who would have been of an age to be Jackson’s grandfather, and Jackson’s given name is actually also David, which seems a bit of a coincidence…

[irc]

ChonkyCat said:

I also have memories of a Fiat showroom and possibly a BMW one as well being in the block of shops between Napiershall St and Maryhill Rd on Great Western Road, does that jog any memories?

Don't remember that. I lived there - Woodlands Drive in the 80s. There was the Victor Devine motorcycle dealer n that bit of Great Western Road. The showroom on Gt Western Rd and the workshop round the back. I bought a couple of bikes off him.

[woodysnr]

I bought a new Fiat 124 or a 125 from a Fiat dealer just off Maryhill Rd just up from the old barracks ,that was in the early 70s .was to pick it up on a Friday but would not start so got it on Saturday on Monday going to work broke down ,went in for repair and they managed to drop an acetylene bottle on roof so had to get painted car came back like Jacobs coat. Car was taken to Ritchie's Shields Rd at the time a Fiat dealer for inspection and 20+ faults came up gave up and sold it to Dicksons of Perth for a Saab 96

[StescoG66]

ChonkyCat said:

This is a great thread, so many names from the past, here are few more that haven’t been mentioned;

Jesners (Datsun) Tantallon Rd

Westcars (Saab? and then Seat) Tantallon Rd

Kings Autopoint (Citroen) Clarkston Toll

IDG (Peugeot) Mearns Rd, Clarkston

Spiersbridge Garage (BL) Rouken Glen Rd

Haldanes (Austin Rover) Clarkston Rd

Clarkston Motor Company (Mitsubishi) Clarkston Rd

Archers of Langside (Lada)

Hytech (Hyundai) old Archers site

Hampden Cars (Mazda and Lotus) Carmunock Rd

Sterling Cars (Toyota) Cathcart Rd

Sterling Cars (Skoda) Pollokshaws Rd

Park Motors (I think) Cathcart Rd before moving to Drumbeck

Low’s (Opel then Skoda) Holmbank Ave

Queen’s Garage (Vauxhall) Kilmarnock Rd

Marlborough Motor Company (Colt/Mitsubishi) Pollokshaws Rd (2 locations)

Fenwicks (Triumph and Rover) Nithsdale St

Appleyard Gibbon (Jaguar and Land Rover) Netherauldhouse Rd

Eastwood Motors (Skoda) Eastwood Ave

Trefoil Cars (Skoda) Trefoil Ave

Carlaw Cars (BL) Various locations (same family as Wylies?)

Hayston Garage (Morgan) Kilsyth Rd

Armour Motors (Ford) Fenwick Rd

C & A Thomas (Skoda) Great Western Rd?

Temple Autos (Skoda) Temple Rd

Gopal Motors (Skoda) Cambuslang?

New Sneddon Motors (Skoda) New Sneddon St

Overburn Motors (Citroen) Neilston Rd

Elderslie Motors (Skoda) Main Rd

What was the Seat place on North Street.? Bumpers comes to mind - or was it Drivers?

There was AFG Drivers too, first at Rouken Glen then it moved Pollokshaws Road

Hayston Garage still going in Kirkintilloch

[Bogsye]

Nice to see this thread emerge again.

There was a Citroen dealership at Clarkston Toll which was a Burma petrol station, but I can’t recall the garage name.

Close to home, growing up, there was Eaglesham Park Garage at Waterfoot, which was more just a repair garage by this stage. It eventually was demolished and became flats. I was chuffed as a youngster to have rescued a Pratts pint oil jug from the ruins. I used to drool over an Interceptor that sat outside there.

Giffnock also had Peat Road Motors which I think was Cameron & Campbell. There was a nice period photo of it on a local FB page.

[matchmaker]

ChonkyCat said:

jith said:

Does anyone have memories of Paisley's motor trade?

Let's start with David Blane and sons. Old David started the business before the war selling American cars; Hudsons and Pontiacs. Ended up with the Jaguar dealership and VW agency. I did some warranty work on Jags then. They lost the agency in the Leyland years and went to Datsun. They had a beautiful showroom with an apartment above. It's now a piece of waste ground!

Then there was Gillespies in Love Street and Glasgow Road who were Wolseley, Austin/Morris, MG and in the early days Jowett. They are gone.

Also Pottie's for Vauxhall and Bedford light commercial across from the Sheriff Court. They had the slowest, most incompetent parts department in the whole country. You took your flask and sleeping bag when you went to buy parts! They are gone.

Low's Garage supplied Opel cars including the underrated Manta. They too have disappeared.

Then Goudie's Garage were the main dealers for the Rootes group, which of course were manufactured just down the road in Linwood. No longer there, nor is the factory!

Then McFadyen's Garage in Shuttle Street. Main dealers for Rover and Triumph, ran by my old and great friend David Millar, sadly long departed way before his time. The nicest, most honest man I have ever dealt with in the motor trade.

Also gone and another victim of the Leyland years.

Then Young's Ford depot, who became Clanford, the employer of the most ignorant counter staff encountered in the trade. I think they were on bonuses to see how many customers they could offend in a week!!

The showroom is still there but is an independent.

All of these companies employing hundreds of people and, with one exception, selling British made cars, all gone. Doesn't it make you sick?


J

I’m ex-Paisley trade, remember Blanes well, they ended up as a Hyundai dealer, they used to store their cars over in the car park of Charlie Palmer’s motor factors. I remember one day looking out the window and watching one of their drivers collecting a new Stellar, which they did a roaring trade selling to the taxi boys.

The guy got about 20ft onto the ringroad...

and all four wheels, complete with baldy tyres fell off - the taxi boys were using the unsecured yard as a free part store ??

Funnily enough I bumped into Blane’s son Tony, now in his 80s, a while back and had a great wee natter about the place.

I knew a David Millar, who I think was your David’s son, as I remember his dad being highly respected in the trade locally, and he died quite young.

Blanes sponsored a rally - The Blane Stages. I remember marshalling on it in the mid/late 1970s. If I remember correctly, it took place in Argyll/Kintyre.

[ChonkyCat]

irc said:

Don't remember that. I lived there - Woodlands Drive in the 80s. There was the Victor Devine motorcycle dealer n that bit of Great Western Road. The showroom on Gt Western Rd and the workshop round the back. I bought a couple of bikes off him.

I think it was away by then, I remember going in with my dad and looking at a tiny wee 900T camper, but we’re probably talking 74/75 sort of period.

[ChonkyCat]

StescoG66 said:

What was the Seat place on North Street.? Bumpers comes to mind - or was it Drivers?

There was AFG Drivers too, first at Rouken Glen then it moved Pollokshaws Road

Hayston Garage still going in Kirkintilloch

No, the Westcars garage at the Langside end of Tantallon Rd, I don’t think it got Seat until 1986, when they launched in the UK, but I’m struggling to remember what they sold there previously. I know they had Saab, however I’m not 100% they had it at that branch. From memory they moved over to Clarkston Rd, and built a showroom above the petrol station opposite Haldanes, when the site was sold for flats. They didn’t last long there, Andrew Forrest took the site over and filled it with nearly new Volvos to target Linn’s customers, but failed - Clarkston Rd seems to be a hard place to sell cars.

Bumpers, were they on North St, became West Coast Harley?

I remember the name AFG Drivers, can’t picture where it was though…

[ChonkyCat]

Bogsye said:

Nice to see this thread emerge again.

There was a Citroen dealership at Clarkston Toll which was a Burma petrol station, but I can’t recall the garage name.

Close to home, growing up, there was Eaglesham Park Garage at Waterfoot, which was more just a repair garage by this stage. It eventually was demolished and became flats. I was chuffed as a youngster to have rescued a Pratts pint oil jug from the ruins. I used to drool over an Interceptor that sat outside there.

Giffnock also had Peat Road Motors which I think was Cameron & Campbell. There was a nice period photo of it on a local FB page.

The Citroen place was Kings Autopoint,, which sold Burma petrol.


That site in Giffnock I think started as Wylie & Lochhead, then Cameron and Campbell, then Tennants, and finally PRM, before ending up getting torn down and the Kwik Fit built

You must have grown up near me as I’m from Waterfoot. I remember the Jensen, it was red, failed its MOT, the owner was asking £2k for it. I really wanted it, but Paul (Barton) who owned EG at that time, talked me out of it as it just needed far too much work, and I’d never have got insurance for it anyway! The original owner of EG, Bert (I forget his surname) had the bungalow next door and his brother lived over on what we called the “ private road”.

[Bogsye]

ChonkyCat said:

The Citroen place was Kings Autopoint,, which sold Burma petrol.


That site in Giffnock I think started as Wylie & Lochhead, then Cameron and Campbell, then Tennants, and finally PRM, before ending up getting torn down and the Kwik Fit built

You must have grown up near me as I’m from Waterfoot. I remember the Jensen, it was red, failed its MOT, the owner was asking £2k for it. I really wanted it, but Paul (Barton) who owned EG at that time, talked me out of it as it just needed far too much work, and I’d never have got insurance for it anyway! The original owner of EG, Bert (I forget his surname) had the bungalow next door and his brother lived over on what we called the “ private road”.

Yes, the red Jensen. Likewise a youthful me sole to Paul about it and told me to keep well away. There was a blue Morris Mini mk1 in the driveway of the house across the road - knackered auto box - the chap wanted £100 for it which was too much.

I recall a Datsun 120Y getting joy ridden into the top of the waterfall and torched.

I lived on Waterfoot Rd at the crossroads.

Kings Autopoint - that’s the one!

[ChonkyCat]

Bogsye said:

Yes, the red Jensen. Likewise a youthful me sole to Paul about it and told me to keep well away. There was a blue Morris Mini mk1 in the driveway of the house across the road - knackered auto box - the chap wanted £100 for it which was too much.

I recall a Datsun 120Y getting joy ridden into the top of the waterfall and torched.

I lived on Waterfoot Rd at the crossroads.

Kings Autopoint - that’s the one!

Are you talking about the Mini that lay in the driveway of the house down from the bus stop on the other side of the road, that was there for decades, remember going up to see my folks one day, doesn’t feel like all that long ago but was probably a good 10-12 years, and the house was getting done up and the car gone.

Don’t remember the Datsun story, do you remember the guy who stole the barmaid’s car from the Eg and lost it on the way down, taking out the big metal bus shelter opposite the garage, went right through it, over the banking almost into the garden of the house where the Mini was, lay there all night until old Bert came out next moring to walk his dog and noticed the bus shelter had gone!

I lived up Floors Rd, my folks have only recently just passed so I still have the house, for now…

[47p2]

I went past Waterfoot that morning the car was buried entirely behind the bus stop, it was so well embedded it wasn't obvious it was there unless you were looking. It was Eaglesham Park Garage apprentice Robert Young from Brownmuir Avenue, Eaglesham who discovered the car when he got off the bus to go to work

McConnachies Garage, Eaglesham was a Vauxhall dealership in the 60s, I drooled over a red VX4/90 they had in the showroom

[Bogsye]

ChonkyCat said:

Are you talking about the Mini that lay in the driveway of the house down from the bus stop on the other side of the road, that was there for decades, remember going up to see my folks one day, doesn’t feel like all that long ago but was probably a good 10-12 years, and the house was getting done up and the car gone.

Don’t remember the Datsun story, do you remember the guy who stole the barmaid’s car from the Eg and lost it on the way down, taking out the big metal bus shelter opposite the garage, went right through it, over the banking almost into the garden of the house where the Mini was, lay there all night until old Bert came out next moring to walk his dog and noticed the bus shelter had gone!

I lived up Floors Rd, my folks have only recently just passed so I still have the house, for now…

Yes, that’s the Mini! I think it may have gone 15 or 20 years ago.

Now that you mention the car that took out the bus top, it rings a bell. I didn’t know the backstory though.

[ChonkyCat]

47p2 said:

I went past Waterfoot that morning the car was buried entirely behind the bus stop, it was so well embedded it wasn't obvious it was there unless you were looking. It was Eaglesham Park Garage apprentice Robert Young from Brownmuir Avenue, Eaglesham who discovered the car when he got off the bus to go to work

McConnachies Garage, Eaglesham was a Vauxhall dealership in the 60s, I drooled over a red VX4/90 they had in the showroom

Ahh, that sounds right, I just assumed it was Bert!

Where was McConnachies, Eaglesham Garage?

[ChonkyCat]

Bogsye said:

Yes, that’s the Mini! I think it may have gone 15 or 20 years ago.

Now that you mention the car that took out the bus top, it rings a bell. I didn’t know the backstory though.

See above for the actual story, I was just working from strands of memory, I suspect both you and I were only nippers at the time