Features

The purpose-built Swansway Jaguar Crewe showroom opened its doors on 1 April following a £5.5m investment. The opening marked the premium brand’s return to Crewe after a long absence; a major coup for family-owned Swansway which happens to be based in the town. The 10-car showroom boasts Jaguar’s latest corporate identity, has space to display 40 used cars and its ...

To be among just three UK dealers named among a franchise’s best outlets in Europe for customer service is an achievement. To win this accolade two years in succession is remarkable but in fact Burrows Toyota in Barnsley has been the recipient of the Toyota Ichiban award for customer service for three of the past four years. The name comes ...

The family-run Ancaster Group has been a mainstay of the local south London community since it was established in 1949 by Harold Cole, father of current chairman Robert Cole. Launched as a garage to repair and restore trucks it opened its first franchised site in Croydon in 1956 when it started selling Standard Triumph. In 1972 it was one of ...

In February 2015 Shropshire based dealer group Greenhous purchased two Ford dealerships in Newtown and Welshpool in mid-Wales from WR Davies. Over the last 18 months the Newtown Ford business has been redeveloped to accommodate a new Transit Centre. To help run the group’s first Ford outlets Greenhous employed Tony Mellish, who had wide fleet experience wiht Ford. Initially fleet ...

One of the highlights of ASE’s annual trip to the Nada Convention and Expo is the visit to a local dealer to see first-hand how cars are retailed in the US. This year it was the turn of Lexus of New Orleans. The long established family-owned business is part of the Price LeBlanc Auto Group, now run by the eponymous ...

Fine Cars proudly proclaims on its website to be the UK’s biggest-selling approved-used Kia dealer of all time. The family-owned company has a string of awards, particularly for its used performance, all the more impressive as it operates across just two compact locations. Its main sales outlet is on the corner of two residential streets, yards from the beach, in ...

The last two years have seen major changes for mid-Wales based family-owned dealer group WR Davies. In February 2015 the Welshpool and Newtown Ford outlets, established as the company’s first major franchises in 1966, were sold to Shropshire-based Greenhous. Then in July 2016 Toyota outlets in Shrewsbury and Telford, along with Nissan’s Telford franchise, were acquired from Greenhous. WR Davies ...

Earlier this year the factory-owned TrustFord group opened a purpose-built FordStore in Epsom, Surrey, with GM Lucy Curtis at the helm TrustFord Epsom opened in April following a £4m of investment programme. The new-build dealership in the Longmead Industrial Estate replaced two separate sites operated by the group in the Surrey town. This impressive looking new business plays an important ...

The opening of a new Rolls-Royce dealership is a rare event with just seven showrooms covering the UK. The latest purpose-built addition is operated by Rybrook Group, rated 28 in the Motor Trader Top 200, and sits alongside McLaren, Lamborghini and Bentley and a top-end specialist used cars outlet in Cribbs Causeway, just north of the city centre. The new ...

Seat Derby was acquired by Vertu Motors in 2010 and earlier this year completed a £250,000 refurbishment ahead of the brand debuting the Ateca, its first SUV. In April Mark Currie was appointed as general manager having accrued plenty of experience with the brand, having previously been at the group’s Seat Barnsley site for five years, prior to which he ...