Irish car distributor’s heritage fleets

S Line

You sometimes see in UK car mags when there is a new car is launched the manufacturer sometimes supplies an historic model as a comparison e.g. Mk1 golf GTI to compare MK6, Datsun 240Z to compare Nissan 370Z. These are sometimes from their heritage fleet (I assume they go to an owners club if they don’t have one)

My question is do the Irish companies have heritage fleets??

Further to that I know that for example that BMW, Renault & VW in the last few years have taken over from the local company to directly distribute their cars.

Did say for example Frank Keane or Bill Cullen have E21’s, 2002’s, Renault 4 & 5’s as heritage fleet??

Itsfixed

Frank Keane certainly does.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/motors/2011/1012/1224305632454.html

bijapos

Fair play to Frank Keane for that, but sadly people like him are the exception rather than the rule.

I know of two separate cases where dealers, one Ford and one Mercedes were offered spotless classics for decent money, cars which had originally been sold and serviced through the dealership and the owners were literally laughed at.

I was surprised that the Fiesta with 400 miles on it was never brought by Ford as a display piece. Its all a bit different to Germany where most large dealers have at least one classic in the showroom.

Owen

Most main dealers I've encountered through working in the trade have little or no interest in cars, only Money. It's hugely disappointing.

kev1.3s

Hills in arklow have an opel gt and Borland in new Ross have a model t and a model a currently on display in there showroom which I think they rotate with other stuff from time to time.

carchaeologist

Owen wrote: »

Most main dealers I've encountered through working in the trade have little or no interest in cars, only Money. It's hugely disappointing.

Sadly it seems in general this is true. Divanes VW in Kerry have one of the last beetles but it's a bastardised thing sprayed gold and under sealed. I think it was originally blue.

Blue850

O'Briens, the Fiat dealers in Claremorris have/had? a Fiat 500 , 600 and 850, sometimes on display in the showroom, although the 500 was advertised on DD recently

MercMad

I've seen Frank Keane's collection several times. The 2002 was his wifes car from new. They used to live out front when he was the importer but they are now in a separate room out the back.

MDL have a serious collection too, Gullwing, 190SL, 600 Grosser to name but a few.

As Owen says though, most are just interested in selling cars and not storing classics.

S Line

While I know the B.Cullen & F.Keane are now car dealers I was using them as an example of the fact that effectively they used to be Renault Ireland & BMW Ireland respectively


My op was more about Ford Ireland, Nissan Ireland etc


I suspect the distributors in Ireland probably treat the product as white-goods and the whole heritage aspect is not important to them


It was this kind of thing I was on about


http://www.ford.co.uk/AboutFord/News/CompanyNews/2010/FocusingOnHeritage

Run_to_da_hills

O'Sullivan & Handsbury, main Citroen dealer in Ennis (before they changed ownership) had a Citroen DS that was used for promos and weddings.

Silvera

There was a recent advert in the (Indo?) for the Bill Cullen Group which showed a (very large!...1908?) veteran Renault car in one of his showrooms.

TIIRC, the advert stated that Cullen imported it (and had it fully restored?).

Bitten & Hisses

AFAIK Hornibrook's Toyota in Lismore have a mint KE20 in the showroom. You'd expect a dealer to have at least one example of a classic in the showroom, but most seem to look with disdain on the older models of whatever they are selling.

carchaeologist

I went back to the original selling dealer of my Ibiza to see if he was anyway interested in it but i might as well have showed him a new one!

Most car dealers only see cars as bags of money. Rare to find one who actually likes cars enough to keep one over and not try and make a profit on it!

ep71

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.306104092758876.63597.135021853200435&type=3

carchaeologist

ep71 wrote: »

Oh christ jeebus..that is a dirty picture...

Hermy

carchaeologist wrote: »

Oh christ jeebus..that is a dirty picture...

Made me lol.:D

gn3dr

carchaeologist wrote: »

Most car dealers only see cars as bags of money. Rare to find one who actually likes cars enough to keep one over and not try and make a profit on it!

Ha ha. I've the opposite problem - Probably why I'll never make a car dealer - I can't bring myself to sell any of the fecking things

carchaeologist

gn3dr wrote: »

Ha ha. I've the opposite problem - Probably why I'll never make a car dealer - I can't bring myself to sell any of the fecking things

Lol Me too, i have a friend who wont keep anything, no matter what its gone back out of the yard in a few days usually with a tidy profit made too!

rugbyman

A great read ,that piece on Frank keanes Cars.

re the M1, the late Phil Monaghan used have a collection interesting cars in his showroom, (now Martins Garage, Dundalk) . there was an M1 there. I did hear that he hadit for years afterwards, will enquire now that its in my head.

Regards ,Rugbyman