Caseys Castlebar (Ford, Volvo, Renault) - Gone

yop

Heard last nite and confirmed on local radio (MWR) that Caseys garage is to close in Castlebar.

Place was busy up there late last nite with fraud vans and "viewers" as cars were been loaded up and taken away.

Very sad for all the people who work there.

Drummerboy08

AFAIK, its the whole Casey group thats affected by this - not just Castlebar.

The way its going, there'll only be one dealer left in this country!

JHMEG

Last Thurs we saw two transporters full of MO reg cars, mostly around '06, heading east on the M4. We had concluded a dealer in Mayo had gone bust. Seems we were right.

yop

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

AFAIK, its the whole Casey group thats affected by this - not just Castlebar.

The way its going, there'll only be one dealer left in this country!

From my understanding the Casey Roscommon and Athlone are not the same, someone said they are blood relatives but separate businesses.

R.O.R

yop wrote: »

From my understanding the Casey Roscommon and Athlone are not the same, someone said they are blood relatives but separate businesses.

The other Casey's went a couple of weeks ago. We were panicking a bit then as we had a car waiting for collection in Castlebar and it turned out to be the other Casey's. Thank god we got the car out of there last week!

Shame to see them go, and it leaves a fairly sizeable hole in the servicing network around those areas

Dacelonid

Any news sites picked it up yet?

Is this Gerry Casey's group or is it Peter Casey's, same as the one in Athlone that went uner a few weeks ago?

Feel sorry for all the people that have lost their jobs though.

Healyc

Trying to call them this morning as we have a car in for repair but no answer :mad:

They are a seperate company to the Athlone/Carrick/Roscommon Caseys but there blood relatives.

Drummerboy08

Healyc wrote: »

Trying to call them this morning as we have a car in for repair but no answer :mad:

They are a seperate company to the Athlone/Carrick/Roscommon Caseys but there blood relatives.

If i were you, I'd be going down to the garage now. It could get sticky trying to get your car back anytime soon, especially if the finance company involved dont know what they're doing.

galwaytt

...true, very sad.

But what is also forgotten - and what a short memory we have - is that before Casey's, that was Volex, a company that made special cables for the Telecom industry.

At one stage, there were 950 people working in that factory, and it was a (fantastic) hive of activity. They had state-of-the-art cable processing equipment (..'cos I sold it to them )... and there was an Ericsson Dept, a Nortel Dept, a Fibre Dept etc etc..........then they closed a UK plant and moved it here (3-pin plug & leads...).........then they closed Castlebar and went to Croatia (...could be worse......a no of Castlebar staff relocated to there at the time........)........and then they relocated from Croatia to Romania :eek: .........imagine being asked to re-locate after re-locating.......:( it's a long, long way from the hay-day of Castlebar to Romania.........

The UK-Castlebar-Croatia-Romania all took place in less than......8 years ?

They have maintained a skeleton staff in that Casey building ever since, simply to avoid triggering a repayment of all the IDA grant money they received over the years. Technically, you see, they are still there.......

.........very depressing, really..........

yop

galwaytt wrote: »

...true, very sad.

But what is also forgotten - and what a short memory we have - is that before Casey's, that was Volex, a company that made special cables for the Telecom industry.

At one stage, there were 950 people working in that factory, and it was a (fantastic) hive of activity. They had state-of-the-art cable processing equipment (..'cos I sold it to them )... and there was an Ericsson Dept, a Nortel Dept, a Fibre Dept etc etc..........then they closed a UK plant and moved it here (3-pin plug & leads...).........then they closed Castlebar and went to Croatia (...could be worse......a no of Castlebar staff relocated to there at the time........)........and then they relocated from Croatia to Romania :eek: .........imagine being asked to re-locate after re-locating.......:( it's a long, long way from the hay-day of Castlebar to Romania.........

The UK-Castlebar-Croatia-Romania all took place in less than......8 years ?

They have maintained a skeleton staff in that Casey building ever since, simply to avoid triggering a repayment of all the IDA grant money they received over the years. Technically, you see, they are still there.......

.........very depressing, really..........

Wow, never knew they were still there!!! Cheeky feckers Volex!!!

Nearest Ford garage now is Galway I would suspect. Or is there one in Sligo?

niceirishfella

Bad news again, I'm fecking sick of bad news.

Hellrazer

Just heard this and now theres not one Volvo dealer from the East coast to the west coast above the n4/n6 divide.

There going to be no dealers left if it keeps up at this rate.

R.O.R

Smith's of Drogheda? ^^^^

Hellrazer

R.O.R wrote: »

Smith's of Drogheda? ^^^^

Still on the East coast.Or as close as matters.

Long Onion

Hellrazer wrote: »

Just heard this and now theres not one Volvo dealer from the East coast to the west coast above the n4/n6 divide.

There going to be no dealers left if it keeps up at this rate.

Would Kenny's in Galway fall in there?

tred

yop wrote: »

Heard last nite and confirmed on local radio (MWR) that Caseys garage is to close in Castlebar.

Place was busy up there late last nite with fraud vans and "viewers" as cars were been loaded up and taken away.

Very sad for all the people who work there.

did he fold all down to bad sales or was it another man up to his eyes in property debt?

Hellrazer

Long Onion wrote: »

Would Kenny's in Galway fall in there?

Right grand you got me :D

The point I was trying to make is that there will be no dealer from Dublin to Galway ie in the middle of the country now so anyone living in the midlands that needs a main dealer will have to travel to either Galway,Dublin,Drogheda or Limerick in other words a huge commute for main dealer only work.
This is going to affect Volvos sales to no end now as if they werent bad enough.

yop

tred wrote: »

did he fold all down to bad sales or was it another man up to his eyes in property debt?

Not sure to be honest. Maybe too big too fast.

pred racer

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

The way its going, there'll only be one dealer left in this country!

which one?

germanicus

yop wrote: »

Nearest Ford garage now is Galway I would suspect. Or is there one in Sligo?

What about JJ. griffith's in Claremorris? sure thats only down the road

patrickc

theres also Bolands in Carlow still doing Volvo

donmeister

A sad day for Castlebar and the surrounding areas

Plug

Jesus I thought the garages that survived up to now would be ok, goes to show:(

sprite0

tred wrote: »

did he fold all down to bad sales or was it another man up to his eyes in property debt?

They paid a mint for the new showroom. I think if they stayed at their Turlough road site they would have been ok as it owed them nothing. They got really expensive after they moved to the Volex site. I tried to buy new off them in 2006 and Griffiths Ford were a full €2000 cheaper on a new Cmax. My dad had bought a new car from Caseys every 3 years for the last 20 years, so would have been a valued!! customer. He also switched to Griffiths in 2007 for a €1750 saving on a new Focus. I know lots of other people who left them over the last few years. Still sad to see them go and dole queues in Mayo get longer.

alanbucko

Hellrazer wrote: »

Right grand you got me :D

The point I was trying to make is that there will be no dealer from Dublin to Galway ie in the middle of the country now so anyone living in the midlands that needs a main dealer will have to travel to either Galway,Dublin,Drogheda or Limerick in other words a huge commute for main dealer only work.
This is going to affect Volvos sales to no end now as if they werent bad enough.

Actually, there is an authorised Volvo car service Department in Naas Co Kildare, located in the old Volvo Irish Commercials site in the industrial estate opposite Maudlins Hotel near the 'ball' junction on the M7. No connection to the business and not pimping! It's a new startup <snip>.

OldmanMondeo

alanbucko wrote: »

Actually, there is an authorised Volvo car service Department in Naas Co Kildare, located in the old Volvo Irish Commercials site in the industrial estate opposite Maudlins Hotel near the 'ball' junction on the M7. No connection to the business and not pimping! It's a new startup <snip>.

In fairness Naas is a long way off track for someone comming from Castlebar.

edit, Sad to hear about Casey's. They were a customers of ours...

Drummerboy08

sprite0 wrote: »

They paid a mint for the new showroom. I think if they stayed at their Turlough road site they would have been ok as it owed them nothing. They got really expensive after they moved to the Volex site.

One thing I would like to point out here.

Many distributors (Ford included) forced dealers to upgrade their premises to the glass palaces to keep in line with the product "image". In most cases, building these new showrooms were not actually the dealers decisions at all, but they had no choice unless they wanted to lose the franchise.

There's a case of this at the minute with a well known Dublin garage, but instead of spending millions they are simply handing the franchise back.

Please dont blame the fancy showrooms for the down fall of these dealers - In most cases it is actually the distributor who has caused this.

niceirishfella

Plug wrote: »

Jesus I thought the garages that survived up to now would be ok, goes to show:(

The closures are going esculate from here on in as whatever cash reserves/overdraft facilities they had to trade to here dwindle.
It's not going to be good next year.:o

yop

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

One thing I would like to point out here.

Many distributors (Ford included) forced dealers to upgrade their premises to the glass palaces to keep in line with the product "image". In most cases, building these new showrooms were not actually the dealers decisions at all, but they had no choice unless they wanted to lose the franchise.

There's a case of this at the minute with a well known Dublin garage, but instead of spending millions they are simply handing the franchise back.

Please dont blame the fancy showrooms for the down fall of these dealers - In most cases it is actually the distributor who has caused this.

I have to agree with you, from my understanding the local Volkswagen/Merc dealer here also the same "threat" and they had to move to a big new glass house.

Some else mentioned that Ford pushed something along the lines of the dealer having to pay full whack for the new cars up front on their forecourts and when Caseys didn't they weren't given the keys of the new car on their forecourt until the sale went through.

Kirzzy_Boy

As a former staff member of Casey Castlebar Ltd, I would like to give you all a little information to clear up any misconceptions.

Casey Castlebar (including Ballina) was owned and run by Mr Gerry Casey
Casey Roscommon (including Carrick-on-Shannon and Athlone) were owned and run by Mr Peter Casey. Gerry and Peter are cousins.

Why did the car dealers have to get new "glass houses"?
According to EU legislation known as block exemption, vehicle manufacturors created minimum dealer standards for all franshise holders. The reason for this is that the block exeption law states that any person/company who fulfills these minimum standards must be awarded the franshise. So, in an attempt to protect the dealer network, the manufacturors pushed the bar as high as possible to prevent smaller "Fred in the shed" type businesses from becoming "Authorised Dealers/Repairers".
An audit of these standards is carried out anually by the european head offices of the manufacturors. If a dealer is not compliant they will have the franshise revoked!
This however was not the main cause of the collapse of the motor industry in Ireland.
Who is to blame?
1. The introduction or change to the motor taxation structure in 2008.
2. The failure of the Government to introduce a scrapage sceme.
3. The refusal of the banks to extend credit.

For a list of Ford dealers click HERE
For a list of Volvo dealers click HERE
For a list of Renault dealers click HERE

Hellrazer

Kirzzy_Boy wrote: »

This however was not the main cause of the collapse of the motor industry in Ireland.
Who is to blame?
1. The introduction or change to the motor taxation structure in 2008.
2. The failure of the Government to introduce a scrapage sceme.
3. The refusal of the banks to extend credit.

You left one out :

4.The failure of the government to get rid of VRT and allow Irish dealers to compete with UK and NI imports.

ninty9er

Kirzzy_Boy wrote: »

This however was not the main cause of the collapse of the motor industry in Ireland.
Who is to blame?
1. The introduction or change to the motor taxation structure in 2008.
2. The failure of the Government to introduce a scrapage sceme.
3. The refusal of the banks to extend credit.

1. The change in tax structure made little difference, but because of the time it came at. Those who could afford new cars bought new last year, but those who couldn't still had no choice but to upgrade to within the old cc based system. It's better for the consumer.
2. A scrappage scheme is of no benefit to our economy as we are not a vehicle manufacturing country, irrespective of components, or to road safety in general as the previous mid 90s scheme.
3. The banks will extend credit to anyone they believe can repay it, the same as they always have.

Hellrazer wrote: »

You left one out :

4.The failure of the government to get rid of VRT and allow Irish dealers to compete with UK and NI imports.

The situation would be completely opposite were it not for £Stg taking a nosedive from circa €1/65p to €1/90p.
Our government can't legislate for that.

Had VRT been aboloshied, it would have wiped tens of millions off the value of stock sitting on forecourts nationwide. THAT would have really fvucked the whole industry. I still believe it would be a positive step but the next sentence which applies to 1 above also must apply.

It is the garages in this country that have screwed themselves over. By maintaining prices based on the fact that "it came in dearer" meant that the 2 year old 5 series on a Kia dealer's forecourt cost about the same as a new one come last July.

Simply put, dealers are unwilling to accept the fact that the arse has fallen out od the market. They are exacerbating the problem by not reducing prices to reflect this.

HOWEVER, the market in 2-3 year old cars seems to have peaked recently with very few available. What is left on forecourts is highly overpriced 4 year old plus cars.

The likes of a 05 base C-Class for €16k on a main Merc dealer forcourt near me might have been great value in July last year, but realistically now it is overpriced given prevailing market conditions. The scarcity of credit-worthy customers is a real problem that dealers really need to face up to. It doesn't matter what they pay for something, they will need to price cars to sell.

fignon03

yop wrote: »

Heard last nite and confirmed on local radio (MWR) that Caseys garage is to close in Castlebar.

Place was busy up there late last nite with fraud vans and "viewers" as cars were been loaded up and taken away.

Very sad for all the people who work there.

<snip rant>

fignon03

Hellrazer wrote: »

You left one out :

4.The failure of the government to get rid of VRT and allow Irish dealers to compete with UK and NI imports.

<snip rant>

cson

Regardless of any issues you may have had wiith them, the end result is more unemployment in this country. It is sad to see any business go under as it invariably costs the local community in the form of jobs and as a consequence local business through the loss of purchasing power. So please, spare us the 'greedy' spiel - no one forced you to deal with them.

-Chris-

fignon03, thanks for joining in.

Can you make your critcisms a little more specific in future, those kind of comments add nothing to the discussion.

bf

It looks as if at lot of the Caseys stock went through Merlin Auctions last night, all at no reserves. Plenty of 08 Meganes & Fiestas.

The 08 Meganies were going for about €7k before fees

junkyard

ninty9er wrote: »

1. The change in tax structure made little difference, but because of the time it came at. Those who could afford new cars bought new last year, but those who couldn't still had no choice but to upgrade to within the old cc based system. It's better for the consumer.
2. A scrappage scheme is of no benefit to our economy as we are not a vehicle manufacturing country, irrespective of components, or to road safety in general as the previous mid 90s scheme.
3. The banks will extend credit to anyone they believe can repay it, the same as they always have.

The situation would be completely opposite were it not for £Stg taking a nosedive from circa €1/65p to €1/90p.
Our government can't legislate for that.

Had VRT been aboloshied, it would have wiped tens of millions off the value of stock sitting on forecourts nationwide. THAT would have really fvucked the whole industry. I still believe it would be a positive step but the next sentence which applies to 1 above also must apply.

It is the garages in this country that have screwed themselves over. By maintaining prices based on the fact that "it came in dearer" meant that the 2 year old 5 series on a Kia dealer's forecourt cost about the same as a new one come last July.

Simply put, dealers are unwilling to accept the fact that the arse has fallen out od the market. They are exacerbating the problem by not reducing prices to reflect this.

HOWEVER, the market in 2-3 year old cars seems to have peaked recently with very few available. What is left on forecourts is highly overpriced 4 year old plus cars.

The likes of a 05 base C-Class for €16k on a main Merc dealer forcourt near me might have been great value in July last year, but realistically now it is overpriced given prevailing market conditions. The scarcity of credit-worthy customers is a real problem that dealers really need to face up to. It doesn't matter what they pay for something, they will need to price cars to sell.

Oh right, it's all the dealers fault now, even though the government trampled over the chance of ever making money out of car dealing with their over the top taxes, the motor industry has to jump through hoops now just to survive. They were in it in the first place to make a profit not to be a charity. When there's widespread carnage like this in any industry in this country our beloved government just watch and let it burn instead of trying to assist it in some way. I know i'd be hanging my head in shame if I was associated with a political party that caused this mess instead of trying to defend them.

The Nutty M

A bit off topic I know,but does anyone know if Casey Auto Rental is still going as a seperate entity or did that collapse as well?