Another Dealer Gone **No garages named without linking to a source**

El Guapo!

McKeon motors has been the latest dealer to close up shop with the loss of 50 jobs. Sad news. I thought we were starting to see a bit of a turn-around with some garages getting back on their feet.
I heard through the trade yesterday that McKeon spent approx €1m on 4x4 vehicles last year in the hope to shake up the business and get some money back in but to no avail.

MEATH CAR dealership McKeon Motors closed its premises in Kells yesterday until further notice amid fears for the jobs of an estimated 50 employees in the firm. The company holds the franchise for BMW and Mini, along with Opel, Mitsubishi and Kia.
BMW yesterday took possession of new cars ordered through the dealership and said they have contacted customers about alternative delivery arrangements.
The dealership was set up by Micheál McKeon in 1980, taking on the BMW franchise in the mid-1990s. In recent years it redeveloped its two showrooms in Kells town centre. In its last filed annual accounts the firm recorded a loss on ordinary activities before tax of €586,138 up to September 30th, 2008. The accounts show several financial institutions hold personal guarantees from Mr McKeon, including €2,725,000 to AIB, €500,000 to Lombard Ireland and €100,000 to National Irish Bank.
Mr McKeon is also a director of Emdan Developments Ltd, which has carried out construction work for Aldi, along with other projects in Kells, including the local town hall and swimming pool.
The motor industry has suffered significantly in the recession, with an estimated 10,000 job losses last year and over 70 garage closures. However sales have recovered since the introduction of a scrappage scheme, with national new car sales up 45 per cent on last year to 67,846 by the end of June.
Attempts to contact McKeon Motors last night were unsuccessful.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0722/1224275195248.html

furtzy

Yeah heard that yesterday. Guess being tied up in the construction & motor trade was never going to end well.

Matt Simis

They were a really good garage for parts, sad and annoyed to see them go.

furtzy

Knew a lot of them personally but stopped dealing with them after several servicing mistakes and 70% mark up on parts....sad to see people loose their jobs though

mullingar

furtzy wrote: »

Knew a lot of them personally but stopped dealing with them after several servicing mistakes and 70% mark up on parts....sad to see people loose their jobs though

I know that garage too and some staff, big loss to the town.

I wonder did Micheál McKeon make the 2 biggest mistakes you can in a garage, ripping people off and in so losing any customer loyalty and second; only using un-highly skilled mechanics (read: paying buttons to those who will take the job and do sloppy work), and again losing any customer loyalty

He was also competing with dealers up north (not that far from Kells!)

furtzy

mullingar wrote: »

I know that garage too and some staff, big loss to the town.

I wonder did Micheál McKeon make the 2 biggest mistakes you can in a garage, ripping people off and in so losing any customer loyalty and second; only using un-highly skilled mechanics (read: paying buttons to those who will take the job and do sloppy work), and again losing any customer loyalty

He was also competing with dealers up north (not that far from Kells!)

Sales staff were always o.k but the parts/service area was appalling in any dealings I had with them. Pretty sure he owns the garage/shop as well.

Gophur

I was buying a BMW a few years back, trading in a very good clean car. Comparing the "offer" I got from this Kells dealer, to what I eventually ended up doing (buying and selling privately) I "saved" €17,000.

His catchment area was never going to support a dealership his size, when things got tight.

ilovedresses

I wonder did Micheál McKeon make the 2 biggest mistakes you can in a garage, ripping people off and in so losing any customer loyalty and second; only using un-highly skilled mechanics (read: paying buttons to those who will take the job and do sloppy work), and again losing any customer loyalty

I think that's harsh....my brother is a mechanic there...he lost his job yesterday...you cannot say that all the mechanics are the same...there's 52 jobs on the line it's very tough...i think Michael has realised his mistakes with employees and business like a lot others out there! Business got big and didn't keep a close eye on everything...i'd say he let managers mis manage if you know what i mean....a bit like Sean Quinn.

People aren't buying cars difficult to get finance and who wants another loan? ...they are keeping what they have in good order...and the north is only up the road!

Run_to_da_hills

I thaught that this thread was about someone getting shot.

Owen

Sad news, good friend of mine was working hard there to make ends meet. Hope she'll be okay.

meathgal2010

Although im sad for the staff that lost thier jobs this announcement does not surprise me. Bought an Opel of them a few years ago and have never been treated so badly as a customer. Was overcharged for service, then when they discounted it down they rang me two years later looking for the difference to balance thier accounts. Got 3 shoddy paint jobs because they didnt fix it right the first time ( car was bullet proof after ), The sales man ( who sold me my car) accused me of hitting the car in the same place 3 times and thats why the paint was falling of ( when really it was the shoddy paint jobs), I was reduced to tears due to his outright rudeness and cruelty.

Needless to say I went to Boyne Valley Opel
in Drogheda to get my car serviced from then on even though it was a 40 min drive.

I am now the proud owner of a Ford Focus and dealing with the guys in Navan Ford Center has been a delight! First service last week and was a quarter of the price of the Opel in Mckeons. Plus gave me a free car to the same standard as my own and service was done within two hours!

Due to my experience in Mckeons I shall never buy an Opel again and stick to Ford in the future

MidlandsM

It's not just McKeons that went to the wall recently - Lewis OPEL in Portlaoise, one of the hertitage operators in Laois went Bang too - and they were not dabbling in property - just not shifting metal is all.

VinnyTGM

This reccesion has and is still weeding out all the bad dealerships.

meathgal2010 wrote: »

Due to my experience in Mckeons I shall never buy an Opel again and stick to Ford in the future

Don't judge a particular car brand from your dealings with one dealership, I'm pretty sure that there is a bad Ford dealer out there.
I judge by the owners name not the car brand on the front of the dealer.

meathgal2010

VinnyTGM wrote: »

This reccesion has and is still weeding out all the bad dealerships.





Don't judge a particular car brand from your dealings with one dealership, I'm pretty sure that there is a bad Ford dealer out there.
I judge by the owners name not the car brand on the front of the dealer.

I know I shouldnt but I acutally hated the car after my dealings with Mckeons couldnt wait to get rid of it, The Astras are lovely cars (bit weak in terms of parts) but just left a sour taste in my mouth.

meathgal2010

VinnyTGM wrote: »

This reccesion has and is still weeding out all the bad dealerships.





Don't judge a particular car brand from your dealings with one dealership, I'm pretty sure that there is a bad Ford dealer out there.
I judge by the owners name not the car brand on the front of the dealer.

to be honest Boyne Valley werent great eaither

-Corkie-

meathgal2010 wrote: »

I know I shouldnt but I acutally hated the car after my dealings with Mckeons couldnt wait to get rid of it, The Astras are lovely cars (bit weak in terms of parts) but just left a sour taste in my mouth.

Astras.. I always thought he was a bmw dealer..

El Guapo!

SARASON wrote: »

Astras.. I always thought he was a bmw dealer..

Not just BMW, he also done Mini, Opel, Mitsubishi, and Kia.

meathgal2010

SARASON wrote: »

Astras.. I always thought he was a bmw dealer..

Yeah he sold BMW, Opel,Kia,Peugeot and Mini

Trampas

probably back next week under a different name like a few other dealers

golfbgud

meathgal2010 wrote: »

Although im sad for the staff that lost thier jobs this announcement does not surprise me. Bought an Opel of them a few years ago and have never been treated so badly as a customer. Was overcharged for service, then when they discounted it down they rang me two years later looking for the difference to balance thier accounts. Got 3 shoddy paint jobs because they didnt fix it right the first time ( car was bullet proof after ), The sales man ( who sold me my car) accused me of hitting the car in the same place 3 times and thats why the paint was falling of ( when really it was the shoddy paint jobs), I was reduced to tears due to his outright rudeness and cruelty.

Needless to say I went to Boyne Valley Opel
in Drogheda to get my car serviced from then on even though it was a 40 min drive.

I am now the proud owner of a Ford Focus and dealing with the guys in Navan Ford Center has been a delight! First service last week and was a quarter of the price of the Opel in Mckeons. Plus gave me a free car to the same standard as my own and service was done within two hours!

Due to my experience in Mckeons I shall never buy an Opel again and stick to Ford in the future

Go Girl!

Big Nasty

Apart from being a Multi Franchise dealership they also had a motor factor business and a property portfolio. I'm sad to see another dealership go under, it seemed like that trend had slowed down a lot.

mullingar

ilovedresses wrote: »

I wonder did Micheál McKeon make the 2 biggest mistakes you can in a garage, ripping people off and in so losing any customer loyalty and second; only using un-highly skilled mechanics (read: paying buttons to those who will take the job and do sloppy work), and again losing any customer loyalty

I think that's harsh....my brother is a mechanic there...he lost his job yesterday...you cannot say that all the mechanics are the same...there's 52 jobs on the line it's very tough...i think Michael has realised his mistakes with employees and business like a lot others out there! Business got big and didn't keep a close eye on everything...i'd say he let managers mis manage if you know what i mean....a bit like Sean Quinn.

People aren't buying cars difficult to get finance and who wants another loan? ...they are keeping what they have in good order...and the north is only up the road!

Will you re-read my post fully, make special note my first 2 words of generalising any garages that fail " I WONDER ........."

Edit; I do not know all the mechanics that lost their job, so my sincerest best wishes to get another job soon, but something went horribly wrong with the management in McKeons that caused this

VolvoMan

Cashel Motor Works in Tipperary went to the wall as well today: http://www.autotrade.ie/10auto-news/1409.html

Between Koping, Tom Canavan Motors and the Casey Group, that's another dealer down for Volvo Car Ireland.

They also had franchises for Citroen and Peugeot too and had what looked to be a massive showroom built during the good times, so their demise is hardly suprising.

creative100

VolvoMan wrote: »

Cashel Motor Works in Tipperary went to the wall as well today: http://www.autotrade.ie/10auto-news/1409.html

Between Koping, Tom Canavan Motors and the Casey Group, that's another dealer down for Volvo Car Ireland.

They also had franchises for Citroen and Peugeot too and had what looked to be a massive showroom built during the good times, so their demise is hardly suprising.

Massive showroom for Opel/Kia in McKeons also, recently...

GiftGrub100

VolvoMan wrote: »

Cashel Motor Works in Tipperary went to the wall as well today: http://www.autotrade.ie/10auto-news/1409.html

Between Koping, Tom Canavan Motors and the Casey Group, that's another dealer down for Volvo Car Ireland.

They also had franchises for Citroen and Peugeot too and had what looked to be a massive showroom built during the good times, so their demise is hardly suprising.

Unfortunately, Chapmans were a Volvo dealer as well.

creative100

What will happen the building company and petrol station seeing as money is owed to the banks?

VolvoMan

GiftGrub100 wrote: »

Unfortunately, Chapmans were a Volvo dealer as well.

Forgot about them.

It's strange that they went because they were one of the very ones who didn't invest in any fancy showrooms.

bazz26

On a side note I'm surprised how other Volvo dealers are still copeing as I have not seen one 2010 reg Volvo so far this year down my kneck of the woods. My local Volvo dealer has a small retail unit rented in a retail park that is almost invisible from the main road, stocked with the same S40, V50 and S80 in the front window since January. I can only imagine that their adjoining Ford franchise is compensating for their lack of Volvo sales. I'd say the new S60 cannot arrive too soon as it might stimulate sales of the brand.

VolvoMan

bazz26 wrote: »

On a side note I'm surprised how other Volvo dealers are still copeing as I have not seen one 2010 reg Volvo so far this year down my kneck of the woods. My local Volvo dealer has a small retail unit rented in a retail park that is almost invisible from the main road, stocked with the same S40, V50 and S80 in the front window since January. I can only imagine that their adjoining Ford franchise is compensating for their lack of Volvo sales. I'd say the new S60 cannot arrive too soon as it might stimulate sales of the brand.

Up in Dublin I've seen a few so far this year, mainly S40's and a few S80 DRIVe's (1.6 diesel:rolleyes:). I was talking to my dealer recently as well and he said while business is in no way as good as it used to be, he's selling the odd few cars.

While we're on the subject, I just had a quick search on Motorcheck and it says 796 registrations so far this year, which isn't too bad. It's hard to know which are dealer pre-registrations or demos though, but in a good year, Volvo Car Ireland used to sell roughly over a thousand cars, so those figures don't seem bad at all.

Voodoomelon

Shame to hear this, on the few occassions ive been down everyone was helpful and genuinely decent. Looks like im now forced to go up north, purely by distance. Hope they re-open. Not least because they have a cracking receptionist...

ahal

VolvoMan wrote: »

Cashel Motor Works in Tipperary went to the wall as well today: http://www.autotrade.ie/10auto-news/1409.html

Between Koping, Tom Canavan Motors and the Casey Group, that's another dealer down for Volvo Car Ireland.

They also had franchises for Citroen and Peugeot too and had what looked to be a massive showroom built during the good times, so their demise is hardly suprising.

I tried to give Cashel Motor Works my money in 2003. My Volvo developed a minor fault so I rang up to book it in. The service manager refused to look at it. This was, apparently, because I had not bought the car from them and hadn't always got it serviced there. His attitude / tone was amazing: he almost went "eww" at me!!!

My uncle from Limerick went in there looking for a Citroen van, but left half an hour later having had not one salesperson approach him. It's no big surprise to me that they went out of business.

af_thefragile

Today I noticed the Lotus dealer in Chapelizod (which I think was the only Lotus dealer in Ireland) was gone and was replaced by the Toyota dealership it was under.

I felt a little sad to see it go. I always used to look forward towards glimpsing an Elise or an Exige at the dealership everytime I passed by on that road...

EPM

Looked at an S40 there once and thought yer man was sound that I dealt with. Big setup that they had

Guy:Incognito

af_thefragile wrote: »

Today I noticed the Lotus dealer in Chapelizod (which I think was the only Lotus dealer in Ireland) was gone and was replaced by the Toyota dealership it was under.

I felt a little sad to see it go. I always used to look forward towards glimpsing an Elise or an Exige at the dealership everytime I passed by on that road...

Linders lost the Lotus franchise many months if not a couple of years ago iirc.

I think Lotus wanted more of a showroom than just a glorified portacabin.

Drummerboy08

Stekelly wrote: »

Linders lost the Lotus franchise many months if not a couple of years ago iirc.

I think Lotus wanted more of a showroom than just a glorified portacabin.

I think it went in the last few months. It was defo there last year

Guy:Incognito

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

I think it went in the last few months. It was defo there last year

Maybe they only just got around to taking down the signs?

It'd been a while since i was around that way

Drummerboy08

Stekelly wrote: »

Maybe they only just got around to taking down the signs?

It'd been a while since i was around that way

Probably. I went by that way around 3 months ago and they still had the signs up but no sign of any cars.

I know 2 guys who used to work in there in the good times, their target was a car a month!

opinion guy

bazz26 wrote: »

On a side note I'm surprised how other Volvo dealers are still copeing as I have not seen one 2010 reg Volvo so far this year down my kneck of the woods. My local Volvo dealer has a small retail unit rented in a retail park that is almost invisible from the main road, stocked with the same S40, V50 and S80 in the front window since January. I can only imagine that their adjoining Ford franchise is compensating for their lack of Volvo sales. I'd say the new S60 cannot arrive too soon as it might stimulate sales of the brand.

Just my impression - most of the new cars i see around seem to be VAG or Toyota.

Drummerboy08

opinion guy wrote: »

Just my impression - most of the new cars i see around seem to be VAG or Toyota.

Even though Renault has the biggest lump of 2010 market share....

opinion guy

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

Even though Renault has the biggest lump of 2010 market share....

Ah yeah a fair point! True I have seen alot of new model Megane's around now that you mention that. I would say i've seen alot of Megane's, golfs, a4's, a5's, avensisis and the odd BMW3 series. THats what i've noticed alot of anyhow.

bryaner

In the end unfortunately it boils down to greed.

Drummerboy08

bryaner wrote: »

In the end unfortunately it boils down to greed.

How?

bryaner

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

How?

Michael Mc Keown wanting more and more not happy with what he had.

Drummerboy08

bryaner wrote: »

Michael Mc Keown wanting more and more not happy with what he had.

So how did that result in the dealership closing down? Most people would call that ambition btw.

bryaner

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

So how did that result in the dealership closing down? Most people would call that ambition btw.

He had a good steady dealership years ago, then took on too many franchises and then got involved in property.

Most people would call that greed. How much money do some people want/need.

Drummerboy08

bryaner wrote: »

He had a good steady dealership years ago, then took on too many franchises and then got involved in property.

Most people would call that greed. How much money do some people want/need.

I'll agree with you on the property front, there isnt much of a need for it.

However, I cant see the harm in taking on too many franchises. We have 5 franchises where I work.

opinion guy

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

So how did that result in the dealership closing down? Most people would call that ambition btw.

To be honest if he did put a million into buying SUV stock a year ago i'd call that ...misguided ....and thats being generous

bryaner

opinion guy wrote: »

To be honest if he did put a million into buying SUV stock a year ago i'd call that ...misguided ....and thats being generous

Correct

Drummerboy08

opinion guy wrote: »

To be honest if he did put a million into buying SUV stock a year ago i'd call that ...misguided ....and thats being generous

Is there any proof that he did this though, or is it just hearsay? Not disagreeing with you btw.

-Chris-

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

Is there any proof that he did this though, or is it just hearsay?

+1 - please don't post hearsay as fact, provide links or sources please

bryaner

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

I'll agree with you on the property front, there isnt much of a need for it.

However, I cant see the harm in taking on too many franchises. We have 5 franchises where I work.

Maybe but I'm a firm believer in looking after one or two brands well as opposed to shoddy service on five.

Not saying thats how your company works but in my experience over the years thats what I have found.