In today's paper it says that Macrae & Dick (Inverness, Moray, Perth, Stirling......) with multiple franchises - Ford, BMW, Honda, jaguar...... a total of 12 outlets.
M&D have sold out to Park's of Hamilton (23 outlets).............in Scotland the choice is getting narrower every year that passes Arnold Clark are everywhere, Eastern-Western cover Central Scotland, Stratstone & Evans Halshaw (same owner) cover Scotland.............
Worst case is if you want to buy a Lexus within 100 miles of Stirling - it's Eastern-Western in Glasgow, Edinburgh & Carlisle......
Surely manufacturers want competition between differently owned outlets NOT all their eggs in a handful of baskets.
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Unless the manufacturers own the dealerships themselves (as I believe Mercedes do in many cases), they don't have a lot of choice.
Mr Macrae and Mr Dick may want to retire, with no little Macraes or.... (let's leave it at Macraes) who want to take over; or they may have been made an offer that they can't refuse.
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>> Mr Macrae and Mr Dick may want to retire, with no little Macraes or.... (let'sleave it at Macraes) who want to take over; or they may have been made an offer that they can't refuse.
>>
I had to think about it, but you can be very witty, Avant!
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Economies of scale, and in some cases its not bad for the punters either as a larger dealerships can flex their buying power.
When I last bought a VW from a dealership owned by Inchcape the sales guy told me that they often got offered "bulk" deals from VW because of their size such as cancelled fleet orders which wouldn't get offered out to the smaller dealerships simply because they wouldn't be in a position take 100+ units speculatively
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>> Surely manufacturers want competition between differently owned outlets NOT all their eggs in a handful
>> of baskets.
Of course they don't, they want control of the basket. Most Ford outlets down south are Ford owned.
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>> Of course they don't, they want control of the basket. Most Ford outlets down south
>> are Ford owned.
>>
Ours is Ford owned (Trust) but their hand was forced when Brunel folded leaving them with no representation in a large market
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>> Of course they don't, they want control of the basket. Most Ford outlets down south
>> are Ford owned.
>>
Not true.My local Ford dealer(in the South East) is a large one and the firm is also a dealer for a number of other makes and,I believe,it is also then owned by Evans Halshaw.Trust Ford is made up of Dagenham Motors,Bristol St. Motors,Polar Ford and a number of others.Most Ford dealers are privately owned or parts of larger(not Ford owned)groups.
Ford would be very happy to own all their dealers-it would give them much more control over them.
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>> Not true.My local Ford dealer(in the South East) is a large one and the firm
>> is also a dealer for a number of other makes and,I believe,it is also then
>> owned by Evans Halshaw.Trust Ford is made up of Dagenham Motors,Bristol St. Motors,Polar Ford and
>> a number of others.Most Ford dealers are privately owned or parts of larger(not Ford owned)groups.
>>
>> Ford would be very happy to own all their dealers-it would give them much more
>> control over them.
>>
Bristol Street is owned by Vertu motors - nothing to do with the others you mention who are all owned by Ford Motor Company :-
TrustFord is the world's largest dedicated Ford dealership, wholly owned by Ford Motor Company. Our 65 UK-wide dealerships all became TrustFord in June 2014. You might have visited us when we had a different name, such as Dagenham Motors, Polar Ford, Brunel Ford, Heartlands Ford or Lindsay Ford.
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>> a number of others.Most Ford dealers are privately owned or parts of larger(not Ford owned)groups.
You think? I'd dig a lititle deeper if i were you.
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>> Worst case is if you want to buy a Lexus within 100 miles of Stirling
>> - it's Eastern-Western in Glasgow, Edinburgh & Carlisle......
>>
It seems quote common for clusters of particular marques' dealers to be owned by the same group. They sometimes share senior management and back office functions.
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Just this week our local, two branch, family owner Vauxhall dealer has been taken over by a bigger (still Vauxhall) group. I await with interest out next MOT and service on our 99 Astra. Its been serviced and MoTd for more than 10 years on a "special deal" for about £150 with only minimal additional work -tyres, exhaust, brakes. Now the men in suits are in charge I wonder if this will price will rise and the advisories will now move to fail points? If so time for a Ford perhaps as there is a local-ish family owned main dealer with good local reputation.
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Aren't you a member of Vauxhall's Masterfit Service Club?
my.vauxhall.co.uk/serviceClubDiscount
Your car will qualify for 25% discount on servicing and repairs, along with ½ price MOTs.
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>> Your car will qualify for 25% discount on servicing and repairs, along with ½ price
>> MOTs.
My local indie is 50% cheaper than my Vauxhall dealer.
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That's because there is a 50% mark up for riff raff Lancer drivers at Vauxhall.
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We are members of the discount club but previously the dealer was cheaper than this. Also outside the warranty period the dealer did their own enhanced service rather than a Vauxhall service e.g. tested the brake fluid and coolant on even a minor service. We only had a major service every 5 years or so due to its second car/low mileage status. Annual oil change of course as part of the minor. I guess they behaved like an indie in that respect. Car has had this service regime for 17 years now with no service related problems so they were doing something right. Next mot/service due in a few weeks so I will soon know what the new cost will be and we can decide then. Maybe it'll be time to go independent . A 1999 car doesn't usually warrant main dealer service and we'd have gone indie years ago but for the very attractive cost , location and service available from the dealer. Wherever we get the next MoT done, a 1999 car is on borrowed time anyway!
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Creamer of Kensington, long established Jaguar dealership have thrown in the towel - I think Jaguar wanted Creamer to invest more in the dealership than Creamer wanted or were able to.
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And talking of Jaguar dealerships, does anyone know what is happening with the brand new Glass Palace that Jaguar Land Rover have built on the A40, just before Hangar Lane heading out of London? It has all the signs etc. fitted, but no cars or other activity. Looks like a Marie Celeste dealership.
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The Celeste is a Mitsubishi model. Maybe they can't decide which marque to sell ;-)
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Lookers sells off 3 x Honda outlets to Vertu
tinyurl.com/gnm6ey3
Less choice for Honda buyers upnorth!
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Aren't Lookers owned by Dutton Forshaw?
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Another small chain taken over - Avant
