Gowan hand back citroen

ismynametoolong

More sad news from a beligured Industry !

http://www.autotrade.ie/09auto-news/09a1032.html

Mailman

good riddance.
They were responsible for the high price of Citroen cars in this country.
Hopefully we'll now see the UK distributor taking over and pricing the cars agressively like they do in the UK.
The new C5 is a great car and with a decent distrbiutor would be selling like hot cakes.

Darsad

Mailman wrote: »

good riddance.
They were responsible for the high price of Citroen cars in this country.
Hopefully we'll now see the UK distributor taking over and pricing the cars agressively like they do in the UK.
The new C5 is a great car and with a decent distrbiutor would be selling like hot cakes.

Yeah your right and screw the poor unfortunates that will probably loose their jobs ! Tssr

Mailman

Distributors fault, not mine.
Tssr is applicable to the distributor not me.
Direct your contempt toward those who deserve it and that is Gallic Distributors who held the franschise and then ran it in to the ground.
It suited them but suited neither the consumer here in Ireland nor PSA.

kippy

I am getting a serious case of Deja Vu here with those last two comments.

Anyway, I've never dealt with the car model or the distributor in this country but its tough on the workers no matter what.

Mr. Squirrel

Mailman, dont make a fool of yourself by mouthing about something YOU no nothing about, you are not even worthy of debate so please say no more on this sad day for the Irish Motor Industry.

Mailman

Mr. Squirrel wrote: »

Mailman, dont make a fool of yourself by mouthing about something YOU no nothing about, you are not even worthy of debate so please say no more on this sad day for the Irish Motor Industry.

It's not a sad day. I've been waiting years for that Distributor to loose that franchise.
I'm not worthy of debate???? I'm not being debated. Citroen's Irish distributor is being debated.
The franchise wasn't there for the benefit of the franchise holder or the employees. It was there as a means of efficiently delivering Citroen product in to the local market.

crosstownk

Mailman wrote: »

Gallic Distributors who held the franschise and then ran it in to the ground.

And how, exactly, did they do this - in your learned opinion???

Mailman

By not agressively pushing the brand in the local market and doing nothing about Citroen's perceived lack of quality in the locale.
The cartel didn't help much either.

BigEejit

tbh, importers are only part of the story with the high prices of some car makes in Ireland.

I have been looking at getting a 2L honda ex auto ... 24.25k uk otr (26.5k euros), 40.5k euros in Ireland. CO2 band of 28% VRT on 26.5k = ~34k euros. So more than 6k (15%) more than same UK car ... yeah it costs more to ship it to Ireland, but 6k???

alias no.9

BigEejit wrote: »

tbh, importers are only part of the story with the high prices of some car makes in Ireland.

I have been looking at getting a 2L honda ex auto ... 24.25k uk otr (26.5k euros), 40.5k euros in Ireland. CO2 band of 28% VRT on 26.5k = ~34k euros. So more than 6k (15%) more than same UK car ... yeah it costs more to ship it to Ireland, but 6k???

VRT is a % of the retail price so works out at €11,340, so thats a Pre VRT price of ~€29k. Accounting for the VAT difference between the UK and Ireland would have it at ~€27.5k, so in reality it's not that far out.

alias no.9

Darsad wrote: »

Yeah your right and screw the poor unfortunates that will probably loose their jobs ! Tssr

In instances like this where a distribution contract changes hands, the existing employees must be given the option of moving to the new company before any external candidates are considered for jobs.

BostonB

BigEejit wrote: »

tbh, importers are only part of the story with the high prices of some car makes in Ireland. ...

+1

I don't get the sympathy for car dealers. If some other company let 100 people go ye wouldn't blink an eye.

Anan1

Darsad wrote: »

Yeah your right and screw the poor unfortunates that will probably loose their jobs ! Tssr

Won't the new distributor need to employ people too? TBH, my (admittedly infrequent) dealings with Gowan have been consistently unimpressive.

Anan1

Mr. Squirrel wrote: »

Mailman, dont make a fool of yourself by mouthing about something YOU no nothing about, you are not even worthy of debate so please say no more on this sad day for the Irish Motor Industry.

Constructive discussion is welcome here, personal insults are not.

Tipsy Mac

Can't really see there been any need for them to stay around when previously they were operating a price-fixing cartel and found guilty of the offence.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/car-dealers-fined-836430000-for-roles-in-pricefixing-cartel-1784856.html

Hellrazer

Anan1 wrote: »

TBH, my (admittedly infrequent) dealings with Gowan have been consistently unimpressive.

+1

Try working for a Citroen Dealer--now that was bad.The biggest problem I had with them was that they hadnt a clue how to run a parts distribution centre and I was regularly left waiting weeks on stuff from France.

Actually remember one time all 4 ramps being tied up for days due to non supply of parts.We had to service some cars on the forecourt.
Obviously the job losses are terrible but other than that its good riddance to them.

Hellrazer

Anan1 wrote: »

Won't the new distributor need to employ people too?

Ive just heard today that there wont be a new distributor over here and that the Irish operation will be run from either the North or the UK and there wont even be an Irish head office.

Dont know how true it is but my source is usually reliable.

Zonda999

Hellrazer wrote: »

Ive just heard today that there wont be a new distributor over here and that the Irish operation will be run from either the North or the UK and there wont even be an Irish head office.

Dont know how true it is but my source is usually reliable.

Thats a shame in some ways but to be fair Citroen UK have always been competitive on price over there so lets see if they are able to ignite some life to the Citroen market over here. At the right price the C5 should sell over here, such a great looking car.

crosstownk

Tipsy Mac wrote: »

Can't really see there been any need for them to stay around when previously they were operating a price-fixing cartel and found guilty of the offence.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/car-dealers-fined-836430000-for-roles-in-pricefixing-cartel-1784856.html

Incorrect. Gallic Distributors had absolutely nothing to do with any price fixing cartel. Fact.

Hellrazer wrote: »

Ive just heard today that there wont be a new distributor over here and that the Irish operation will be run from either the North or the UK and there wont even be an Irish head office.

Dont know how true it is but my source is usually reliable.

Your source is somewhat incorrect in this instance.

Hellrazer

crosstownk wrote: »

Your source is somewhat incorrect in this instance.

Ah go on then share the info.Its a very reliable source

dmca77

Hellrazer wrote: »

Ah go on then share the info.Its a very reliable source

I heard about 3 weeks ago that Citroen Ireland headquaters will be based in the uk along with another two by another six months as uk are currently buying stock from Irish Distributors. FACT

Tipsy Mac

crosstownk wrote: »

Incorrect. Gallic Distributors had absolutely nothing to do with any price fixing cartel. Fact.
.

Apologies but they are part of the same group, The Gowan Group.

crosstownk

Tipsy Mac wrote: »

Apologies but they are part of the same group, The Gowan Group.

You obviously have a lack of understanding when it comes to the structure of the Gowan Group.

crosstownk

dmca77 wrote: »

I heard about 3 weeks ago that Citroen Ireland headquaters will be based in the uk along with another two by another six months as uk are currently buying stock from Irish Distributors. FACT

You are living in the past my friend.

EPM

crosstownk wrote: »

You are living in the past my friend.

Well in that case put us out of our misery and tell us instead of one line comments telling people they are wrong...

Hellrazer

EPM wrote: »

Well in that case put us out of our misery and tell us instead of one line comments telling people they are wrong...

Yes please

You are living in the past my friend.

I only got my info yesterday morning--Not that far in the past.

RedorDead

This would seem to back hellrazers source up

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/gallic-distributors-closes-doors-with-loss-of-30-jobs-1904942.html

niceirishfella

crosstownk wrote: »

Incorrect. Gallic Distributors had absolutely nothing to do with any price fixing cartel. Fact.

Putting the word "fact" after a post, do not make it a fact unless you can inform us all of the background to your affirmation?

dragonsgates

I have a C3 1.4 hdi which I bought when living in the UK, brand new in 2002 £8,400 stg. The same car in Ireland was €18,000. It was the perfect car for Ireland, 80mpg, small engine and now cheap tax. €140 a service.

I have used a large Midland's Citroen dealer for the last 6 years for servicing and have spoken to them about the price differences, and I genuinely wondered why they just didn't source their own cars from the UK.

A current C5 hdi new in UK is 15k stg, but 29,000 euros here. Whats going on?

Darsad

dragonsgates wrote: »

A current C5 hdi new in UK is 15k stg, but 29,000 euros here. Whats going on?

21.5% VAT and 24% VRT charged on a price that already supposes its inclusion goes quite a way to explaining whats going on .

Anan1

Darsad wrote: »

21.5% VAT and 24% VRT charged on a price that already supposes its inclusion goes quite a way to explaining whats going on .

Not really - if the figures dragonsgates quoted are accurate and the specs are the same then the car is seriously overpriced here.

Mailman

No, removing VRT and VAT differential still leaves about 3600 euro difference in price according to my quick calc.

biko

crosstownk wrote: »

Incorrect. Gallic Distributors had absolutely nothing to do with any price fixing cartel. Fact.

It's not fact unless you back it up. Which you didn't do. So it's not.

Hellrazer

crosstownk wrote: »

Incorrect. Gallic Distributors had absolutely nothing to do with any price fixing cartel. Fact.

Your fact is exactly the opposite.

With the search function down Ive spent all morning trying to find a thread here about one of the dealers that Gowan and Gallic own and their involvement in the price fixing by the Citroen Dealers Association.

eventually I found it.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=2055426484

Gallic/Gowan had to know what was going on since they own the dealer in question.

PaddyFagan

Mailman wrote: »

No, removing VRT and VAT differential still leaves about 3600 euro difference in price according to my quick calc.

My numbers are coming out the same, but my calculations suggest (to me) that for the ex-Tax cost to be the same here and the UK the irish retail price would have to be 24,000.

My numbers work like this:
UK retail price: £15,000 less VAT (@ 15%) £2,250 = ex-Tax £12,750 (€13,775)
Irish retail price: €29,000 less VAT (@21.5%) €6,235 less VRT (@20%) €5,800 = ex-Tax €16,965

So the difference is approx: 3,300

BUT Given VAT and VRT are applied to the retail price it has to fall by more to make up for the difference, for example:
Irish retail price: €24,000 less VAT (@21.5%) €5,160 less VRT (@20%) €4,800 = ex-Tax €14,040

Or is my math iffy?

Paddy

PS The VRT rate is based on CO2 emmisions of 145 & the GBP-Euro conversion is from www.xe.com

Mailman

VRT is OMSP (RRP -10%) multiplied by the percentage for the band it is in.
29000 - 10% = omsp 26100
24% VRT band = €6264 euro.

biblio

Whoever takes over the franchise , i hope they give the dealers a few lessons in customer service, I run both peugeot and citroen vehicles and the customer service has been very poor, rude staff on service desk, taking 3 attempts to repair a brake system fault, having nearly no parts in stock, having to get a diagnostic unit down from Dublin to re set a dash warning light! Nice vehicles to drive though