Old, Long Forgotten Car Dealers

Big Nasty

I don't know about Winfield being in Rathmines but they were in Sandymount as Ford dealers for many years until they closed. They also owned Crawfords in Dun Laoghaire.

EDIT: a quick google shows they were in Rathmines at one stage.

Capri

MCMLXXV wrote: »

I don't know about Winfield being in Rathmines but they were in Sandymount as Ford dealers for many years until they closed. They also owned Crawfords in Dun Laoghaire.

EDIT: a quick google shows they were in Rathmines at one stage.

Winfield were in Upr Rathmines rd ( Maxwell Rd ).

The Downey Bros. had a very good name in the area and were well respected.

Went to school with Jack Downey's son, there was brothers Eamon and Andy there as well. I think Aidan was starting to collect old cars as well as doing a bit of rallying, so you never knew what'd be in the showroom.

I worked for Michael Grant when the Malahide road site was redeveloped into more or less what appears now

Lived beside Grants on the Malahide Rd , sold the land to him so he expanded after that before he sold the lot. Micheal Grant Opel , Richard Cassidy was the salesman along with ....

swarlb

Capri wrote: »

Downeys of Dollymount (multi dealer ) and Sweeney and Forte (FIAT) on the Howth Rd along with PR Reilly (DKW /LLOYD assemblers) and Cahills (DATSUN) up in Raheny.

Downeys was bought by Micheal Grant (Opel - Malahide rd / Pierse Roche Opel back in the late 60's ) , he applied for permission to extend and was told the area was zoned residential - so he built apartments (and retired to Spain I think :cool: )

Sweeney and Forte are still there, as is PR Reilly. Hardly forgotton.....

Mac 3

Few old photos from the early 90s. Some of you may have seen these on Octane a few months ago. Anyways, theyre all cars for sale in garages in Dublin when I was a young fella..

Mac 3

XJ-S in Stuarts of Ranelagh





Braemor Motors Churchtown (Porsche)





Des Cullens rathmines







Ferrari 308GTS in Donnellys long mile road.





Crosbies, Ladd Lane.

Mac 3

Murphy and Gunn Harolds cross.







Maxwell Mtrs, Blackrock.

Wicklowandy

Some lovely pics

Big Nasty

Brilliant pics Mac!

I don't remember the Porsche garage in Churchtown at all - when did it close?

Any more?

Mac 3

MCMLXXV wrote: »

Brilliant pics Mac!

I don't remember the Porsche garage in Churchtown at all - when did it close?

Any more?

I cant remember when they closed, but I think they moved to Tallaght and became either Braemor autoplatz or Belgard Autoplatz.

I have more pics from the early 90's I might put them in the "I spotted a classic" thread..

goochy

Excellent pics ! If u have any more pls put them up ! Anyone know why des Donnelly / Donnelly grennon in the long mile road ? Went bust ? Know he's still in business but he went down market after that ! Loved stuarts when they moved to tallaght garage went really down hill the current Stuart's bunch obviously aren't car buffs !

Silvera

Great pics Mac 3 !!
Keep em coming please!:)

Mac 3

Few more lads, I might have some more at home, these are the ones I have scanned.

exador

goochy wrote: »

Excellent pics ! If u have any more pls put them up ! Anyone know why des Donnelly / Donnelly grennon in the long mile road ? Went bust ? Know he's still in business but he went down market after that ! Loved stuarts when they moved to tallaght garage went really down hill the current Stuart's bunch obviously aren't car buffs !

Des Donnelly was SAAB dealer on Longmile moved to Kilmainham for a while. His Son Charlie is still dealing in car sales from Naas/Kildare area. Believe it or not there are still quite a few of the Stuarts bunch that were in the old Northbrook Road, Ranelagh premises when that photo of the red XJS was taken

Mac 3

Lads, More pics over on the "I saw a classic today" thread. Enjoy..

carchaeologist

Those pics are excellent! Truly time travelling!:)

68deville

Love the pics!!That Mondial ZS 3030 was living in Innistoge in Kilkenny last time i clapped eyes on it bout two years ago

hi5

68deville wrote: »

Love the pics!!That Mondial ZS 3030 was living in Innistoge in Kilkenny last time i clapped eyes on it bout two years ago

Thats the same one alright, it was for sale back in 2008.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055307991

Mac 3

hi5 wrote: »

Thats the same one alright, it was for sale back in 2008.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055307991

Going by that link it took me 4 years to post the pic up.

bijapos

Mac 3 wrote: »

Maxwell Mtrs, Blackrock.

That's a red RR Camargue on the left, not the prettiest of Coupe's but seriously rare and expensive.

Great pics Mac 3, just proof that some people here always had money, it's not just a Celtic Tiger thing.

goochy

Yes I know des donnellys still selling cars but when he moved from long mile road he went fairly downmarket for a few years ! And has never had such classy card since ! Don't know what happened to the grennon in Donnelly grennon ?? Stuart's became a bland dealer with tallaght move and don't even have a great stk nowadays !

Mac 3

bijapos wrote: »

That's a red RR Camargue on the left, not the prettiest of Coupe's but seriously rare and expensive.

Great pics Mac 3, just proof that some people here always had money, it's not just a Celtic Tiger thing.

Correct, thats a Camargue. I didnt get a pic of it at the time as I wasnt really impressed by it. Its only when I read about them years later that I realised how rare they were.

Saab Ed

Mac 3 wrote: »

Maxwell Mtrs, Blackrock.

What that on the far left of the forecourt! Bristol or maybe even a Fiat 130 Coupe !!!! Ah actually the more I look at it the more I think its a Corniche. Might be wrong.

Sorry ....just saw everybody else asked that already. I should read the entire post next time :-)

MercMad

Capri wrote: »

Winfield were in Upr Rathmines rd ( Maxwell Rd ).



Went to school with Jack Downey's son, there was brothers Eamon and Andy there as well. I think Aidan was starting to collect old cars as well as doing a bit of rallying, so you never knew what'd be in the showroom.

Lived beside Grants on the Malahide Rd , sold the land to him so he expanded after that before he sold the lot. Micheal Grant Opel , Richard Cassidy was the salesman along with ....

........small world. No doubt I know you, or would recognise you as I was there for 12 years during all that period. Just wondering, from your username, was it a 2.8i ??

You'd probably remember Paddy in the stores ?

Loving the pictures Mac3, brings back memories as I recall a lot of those cars. Reg numbers stick in my mind.

who the fug

Anyone remember the name of the Mini dealer on St Stephen Green circa 1962, the old fella had great story about walking in there one afternoon and getting his first car a mini on HP.

grennano

Tonyaus wrote: »

Spent many years in the 60's and 7o's in the car industry in Wexford. Back then we had Talbot Garage for BMC Rover, Boggan's for Vauxhall,North End Garage for Hillman and Ferguson tractors later Doyles,O'Dowds Renault and NSU,Roche Motors Datsun and Opel,Donohues Fiat,Foley's garage David Brown Tractors,Statham's Ford,that's just to mention a few.

Zetor tractors were distributed by O'Sheas of Cork who were the original importers of Opel into Ireland in the early 60's. It was eventually taken over by Reg Armstrong motors.

I knew a Tom Slater who worked at Pauls Garage Bray who were the Fiat dealers, anybody else know him?

Presently operating an RV dealership in Qld,Australia.

Tonyaus

I'm doing a project at the moment where we are assigned four companies that went out of existence before 1973 (not to be exact). I got assigned O'Sheas of Cork. I have searched the Irish News Archive and the Indo's archive but they turned out to be useless. Tonyaus, thank you for this information, just wondering do you have any extra info on this company or a place where one would could find out and reference this information. Any help/advice you could give me would be a huge help.
Thanks

Mac 3

Few more old pics, 2 from Des Cullens and the other was Ballsbridge Motors old show room.







There are a few more pics posted over in the "Today I spotted a classic...."

repsol

I worked in Huet Motors Townsend St right until it closed in 1992.Not great employers(low pay and no union) in fairness but the staff there were brilliant and it was a great place to work!At one time they owned Huets ,Chapmans in Kildare,Motorworld and Top Car in Cork and some place in Tipperary as well.Could write a book about that place and some of the characters that worked there.I would love anyone who has any photos of the Townsend St site to post them!

gfwd

I worked in Huet Motors Townsend St right until it closed in 1992.Not great employers(low pay and no union) in fairness but the staff there were brilliant and it was a great place to work!At one time they owned Huets ,Chapmans in Kildare,Motorworld and Top Car in Cork and some place in Tipperary as well.Could write a book about that place and some of the characters that worked there.I would love anyone who has any photos of the Townsend St site to post them!

One of my old neighbours in Santry, Paddy Murphy, worked there for years. They were in Lad Lane before Townsend St I think. He was partly to blame for my love of Triumphs as he would often arrive home in a Dolomite Sprint, the odd Jag and lots of different Volvos. I used to cycle past the Townsend St garage when I worked in Ballsbridge around 1990 and I work just around the corner from the site now. I'm sorry I never took pics of the place before it was flattened.

Do-more

That reminds me I had a English teacher in Dublin in the late 70's and one day she came to school in a Group 1 rally Dolly sprint in works colours she was a daughter of Toppings the BL dealers in Enniskillen.

Antenna

zilog_jones wrote: »

Cork (021) had gone up to 6-digit phone numbers some time around the early '90s - that sticker only has 5. That Nissan logo was introduced around 1984 (during the phase out of the Datsun brand), so I'd say it's from some time between then and whenever they changed to 6-digit numbers. The graphics looks very 80s-ish.

All 021 numbers were 6 digits by 1990, or a bit before (then to 7-digits in the late 1990s)
I understand areas of south-west Cork city that had 5-digit numbers 4xxxx were the last to go 6 digits in the city (4xxxx -> 54xxxx), the Motor World Nissan garage had such a number.

I came across somewhere a 1983-1984 Golden Pages which at the time was for all the country OUTSIDE the Dublin (01) area and 021 numbers were either 5 digit or 6 digit (mostly the latter) in that, click below (Pages 89-97 Car Dealers...)
Interesting to see areas of the country that had no direct dial, you were put through by the operator (towns as big as Westport, Co. Mayo)
Also some places had just 4-digit phone numbers, such as the 024 area (Youghal and surrounding areas where later existing numbers xxxx became 9xxxx)