Features

The opening of a new Seat showroom in Solihull this month adds another franchise to the diverse portfolio of the expanding Midlands-based Arbury Motor Group which formed with just one Peugeot outlet in 2000. Now, 16 years on, the group owns five Peugeot sites, together with two Nissan outlets and Skoda, Citroën and Fiat centres. It has also opened a ...

It’s all go. A year ago Motor Trader was shown around Swansway’s brand-new £6.1m Stafford Land Rover dealership. Next month construction begins on a Jaguar dealership in Crewe. It is a build that coincides with the official opening of the new £4.3m multi-franchise centre in Chester representing Fiat, Abarth, Jeep, Alfa Romeo, Citroen and DS. Swansway now represents Abarth, Audi, ...

At first glance the premises of HR Owen’s Maserati London centre look modest, reflecting the space restrictions faced by all dealers operating in the capital. The approach is low key with the seemingly compact centre located down an unassuming driveway in South Kensington. Initial impressions are deceiving, however, and stepping inside reveals a tardis-like interior with a dozen cars on ...

Fletcher Jones Imports is a franchised Mercedes-Benz dealership located on Las Vegas’ motor mile, West Sahara Drive, a 20 minute drive from the main strip. Neighbouring dealerships include similarly super-sized BMW, Hyundai, Toyota and Mazda showrooms, as well as a Car Max supermarket. This is one of the main places for the city’s fast growing population of 604,000 residents to ...

While many dealers describe themselves as family businesses, Milton Keynes-based Delgarth Motor Group has more claim than most. Dave Turney set up the business in the new town in 1981, initially selling Reliant and Lada. A Hyundai franchise was secured in 1986, followed a decade later by Kia, by which time Dave’s son Steve was working his way up through ...

As one of Renault Group’s longest serving partners it was only fitting that Arnold Clark opened the brand’s largest site in the UK and locate its alongside its new head office development in Hillington, on the outskirts of Glasgow. Arnold Clark, the biggest privately owned dealer group in Europe, employs more than 10,000 staff across 200 dealerships and 24 franchises, ...

Only four dealers across the UK have achieved Vauxhall’s Customer Service Award in four consecutive years, and one of them is a small rural outlet on the south west coast of Wales. Celebrating 65 years on the same site, just outside Pembroke Dock, WP Lewis & Son is on track to exceed CI scores of 93.7% for both sales and ...

HR Owen’s Bentley Berkshire is showcasing the luxury brand’s CI ahead of the debut of the Bentayga SUV The launch of the Bentayga SUV in early 2016 will be the most significant event for Bentley since the luxury carmaker was acquired by the Volkswagen Group in 1998. With this car Bentley moves into a new era and so a new, ...

The September plate-change is an important one for dealers, typically accounting for around 400,000 new car sales compared to between 150,000 and 200,000 registrations in an average month. But while big numbers are important, so is the quality of business. We asked dealers how their sales performed during the month, taking a close look at retail business and focusing on ...

The rebuilding of the Renault dealer network has continued apace, the latest opening being the RMB Automotive outlet in Northallerton, North Yorkshire. For RMB managing director and owner Robert Bennett, the opening brings him back to a brand he knows well having spent 32 years with Renault, eventually running the Renault Retail Group, before leaving to set up his own ...