60 years of local car sales | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

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Sun 19 Dec 2021 16:51

60 years of local car sales - thunderbird

Whilst out walking (try to do 5 miles a day) got to thinking about the new car dealers in town back in the 60’s compared to now and its rather surprised me considering how many more cars are bought now compared to 60 years ago.

Back in 1960 the town had a population of about 40,000, now its close on 49,000. Looking at the number and size of new developments that surprised me but its still a 22% increase against a UK increase of 29% over the same period.

In the 1960’s we had new car dealerships for Peugeot, Vauxhall, Renault, 2 x BMC, Ford and Roots Group.

By the 1970’s nothing had changed really except by the end of the decade one of the BMC dealers had changed to Toyota, Lada and FSO had appeared and for a very short time in the mid 70’s Fiat had a showroom in the local Fine Fare.

The 80’s saw quite a lot of change, in no particular order. The BMC dealer became a Honda dealer who then lost the franchise and closed when he was fined a huge sum for clocking cars. The Renault dealer lost the franchise when he was caught taking parts off new cars and selling them. He then took on a Datsun franchise which soon ended in bankruptcy. The Vauxhall dealer was taken over by a large group and the business transferred to the next towns dealership. They then reopened selling Renaults after the closure of the other Renault dealer. The Roots dealer (by then Talbot) built new premises and changed to selling Lancias. Did not last long, he was jailed for killing someone near the showroom whilst driving under the influence. FSO disappeared early in the 80’s, Lada hung on, nothing changed at Ford and Peugeot (other than the buildings slowly decaying).

90’s came and more change. Peugeot dealer changed to Honda and moved to newer premises. Renault closed and they sold Japanese imports for a while. Lada closed but Seat took over the former Lancia showroom and then quickly closed. Nothing changed at Ford (building still slowly decaying).

2000 came and really going downhill. Honda closed and Ford closed before the building collapsed. But Kia took over the former Japanese import site and for a time sold Daewoo and Hyundai as well. Too good to be true, Daewoo and Hyundai soon closed.

2010 onwards we only have Kia if you want a new car locally.

So a higher population, far more new cars bought but if you want choice now its a trip to nearby cities.

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Sun 19 Dec 2021 17:38

60 years of local car sales - badbusdriver

I live in the largest town in Aberdenshire population wise (circa 20k). We have Ford, VW, Kia, Suzuki and MG in town. About 10 miles north there is a Renault/Dacia dealer and Aberdeen is 32 miles south with pretty much all popular makes with the exception (last time I looked) of Citroen(?). So we are pretty well served by comparison.

When I moved here coming on 22 years ago, there was a Vauxhall dealer and there was also a Fiat dealer in a village a few miles north, both no longer operating (though no Kia or MG back then, so it balances out). Not surprised about Fiat, but I thought a Vauxhall presence would have been viable, hey ho.

Actually the independent garage I currently use occupies what was the Vauxhall dealership. I'm surprised he can make it work as it is a very large property, way larger than he needs, with a showroom big enough to comfortably display 20+ cars.

Edited by badbusdriver on 19/12/2021 at 17:38

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Sun 19 Dec 2021 18:13

60 years of local car sales - Xileno

We used to have Skoda, Renault and Rover (town of about 10,000), now we have none.

I think this trend will continue, for a lot of people (not so much us motoring enthusiasts) a car is a white good. Research and buy on line in the same way as a washing machine.

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Sun 19 Dec 2021 18:50

60 years of local car sales - John F

On recent travel in the USA we passed a curious looking multistory carpark. I asked my son what it was. It was a car vending machine, a bit like a large canned drinks vending machine. (Carvana). Such is 'progress'.

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Sun 19 Dec 2021 19:38

60 years of local car sales - Terry W

Over 60 years it is unsurprising some manufacturers have disappeared, and some new have arrived (mainly from the Far East).

In 1960 UK car sales were about 0.8m compared to over 2.0m pre-covid. Motorways didn't exist making journey times longer. Cars needed servicing typically every 3000 miles. On-line did not exist. Hire purchase was an option but nowhere near the level of PCP and leasing.

Making money from selling new cars has become difficult. Showrooms and staff are expensive. Prices largely transparent due to the internet. Cars now visit the dealer once or twice in two years. For many cars are nothing more than expensive "white goods".

It is surprising that so many survive. Manufacturers must be looking very carefully at new business models possibly including:

a handful of large showrooms in major cities only. Online ordering and delivery
on line presence only
multi brand showrooms with shared costs

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Sun 19 Dec 2021 23:21

60 years of local car sales - Andrew-T

We lived in Runcorn for almost 40 years. We left 15 years back and I'm rather out of touch now, but since becoming a New Town in the 60s Runcorn merged with Widnes in the borough of Halton, with a population of about 100K. AFAIK just about all the few remaining dealers are now on the north side of the Mersey. In the 70s I drove Maxis and took them to the local BMC dealer. Ford was also represented as we were only about 12 miles from Halewood, and there was also Kia for a while. I believe the same Pug dealer still operates in Widnes with the same family name on the front.

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Mon 20 Dec 2021 09:36

60 years of local car sales - thunderbird

About 10 miles north there is a Renault/Dacia dealer and Aberdeen is 32 miles south with pretty much all popular makes with the exception (last time I looked) of Citroen(?). So we are pretty well served by comparison.

If we stray to the closest larger town (about 60% bigger area with about 60% higher population) about 5 miles away (no great hardship) we have a much greater choice.

In no particular order, Vauxhall, Volkswagen, Skoda, Ford, Mazda, Nissan, Citroen, Honda, Hyundai, Renault, Dacia, Suzuki (always looks empty when we pass), Toyota, Peugeot. Vauxhall and Volkswagen are on a well established sites close to town, all the others are on former green field sites developed within the last 20 years and out of town.

In the 60's they probably had a similar choice of dealers to our town but whilst our dealers simply disappeared theirs seemed to fare much better, probably the council helped with land for the new premises out of town. Of all those brands only the Skoda dealer is still a small(ish) independent, all the remainder part of large groups.

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Mon 20 Dec 2021 14:16

60 years of local car sales - Steveieb

In my town we have seen a dramatic change in the location of dealers..

Once located in the town centre and surrounding roads they are now to be found in a purpose built complex and JLR have combined forces and opened a new joint site near to junction 15 A along the lines of IKEA.

But we do have a local Cazoo dealership next to Volvo , BMW and Volvo.

The only dealer that has not relocated in 60 years is Volvo. So some stability there supplemented by a joint project with Kia.

We have a higher than normal number of MB cars maybe from employees of AMG power trains who get special deals. But Swindon won’t see so many Honda s nowadays since the plant closed last summer. At one time everyone knew someone working there and maybe were able to secure a deal.

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