RE Kearys Toyota

limiter12

Anyone able to verify if Kearys toyota in Cork are after giving back the toyota dealer franchise. Copied the paragraph below from toyota ireland, seems a bit of a disaster have bought my last two cars off them.

Toyota Ireland is delighted to announce two new additions to its Dealer network in Cork. Macroom Motors (Cork City) and Grandon Car Sales (Glanmire) have been announced as new dealers. These strategic appointments for Toyota in Cork follow Toyota Ireland’s decision in June 2010 not to renew their current dealer agreements with the Keary Motor Group for both the Toyota and Lexus franchises.

Owen

As there's no online sources to link to, no.

johnayo

There has been a lot of talk in the trade that that is happening and that they are getting Ford dealership. Thats being doing the rounds now for at least 12 months.
Could well be bullsh1t though.

Mr Simpson

Surely if you took that from Toyota Ireland, then you have your answer?

ofcork

Was on the examiner yesterday,apparently kearys are getting hyundai.

Owen

Most people in the Trade know what's happening at the moment with the various franchises and what's coming in to replace them, but it's not fair to any of the garages to say it online until they make their own announcements.

johnayo

Wonder where Macroom Motors, Cork City will have their premises.

ofcork

Be a big step for grandons after selling fiat and peugeot to toyota.

knifey_spoonie

Here the Link. Its been on the cards for a while now.

Zonda999

No surprise that Macroom motors have been given Toyota in the city, they are already a massive dealer, despite being situated in a town of only a few thousand people. I'm from the area, and I can say, the Toyota ownership here is higher than anywhere else in the country I'm sure. Macroom motors seem to have a great reputation so they'll be carrying that with them in the city. I actually heard this a few weeks ago, also heard that they will be bring Lexus from the city out to Macroom, which seems a bit of an odd move tbh, don;t know if thats true though

Does anyone know why Kearys lost the Toyota franchise anyway? I can only imagine their decision to put Renault with them on the same site dint make Toyota too happy

As for grandons, giving macroom motors competition in the city, I can say they will have their work cut out with Macrooms track record with Toyota, they'll have to be extremely competitive there to keep up at all

jamiecall

Taken from Wednesday's examiner. Kearys will still remain Authorised Service Repairer for Toyota and Lexus.

ofcork

Someone at work was saying he wouldnt buy a toyota from grandons given all the hassle people had with fiats bought from them,i assume maybe kearys took on renault when they knew they were losing toyota.

toyotahead

its true, macroom motors have a sign up in the old wilton motors premises. I saw it today. I believe its a temporary move for a few years.

ofcork

Yeah they will be called lehane motors there and kearys have hyundai signs all over their site.

dahamsta

Just passed Kearys today, no Lexus signage either. Silly billys.

ofcork

Why do you say that?

toyotahead

just heard from a pretty reliable source that lexus is definatly in Macroom Motors, they were appointed Toyota in the City and Lexus in Macroom last week. I believe they are almost ready to open once they get some staff and signage. also heard Kearys have hyundai's in the showroom in mallow. dunno how they managed to lose toyota tho.....

Padraig Mor

toyotahead wrote: »

just heard from a pretty reliable source that lexus is definatly in Macroom Motors,

Well.....it was in the press release a couple of weeks ago! Can't imagine they'll be selling much though. New GS will sell in tiny numbers unless they VERY aggressively price it. IS is past it at this stage. LS is only a niche seller. Only hope would be the CT, and that seems to have fallen flat on its face. Even Keary's (ex)Lexus have been reduced to flogging wheelchair accessible Peugeot Partners in the last few months to keep the cash rolling .....

rcdk1

If Keary's are getting Hyundai, what's the story with Dan Seaman's? Can't see two Hyundai dealers within throwing distance of each other.

Oafley Jones

Herself was changing her car last year and both of us were struck by the difference in attitude between Keary's Renault and the adjoining Keary's Toyota dealership. Every time we went into the crowd in Renault they were bending over backwards for people, offering tea and coffee etc. while the Toyota lot didn't seem to acknowledge anyones existence.

She also went in with her father, who bought a few Lexus SUVs of them and got the same response. I still can't understand it.

dahamsta

Kearys Toyota was always like that, arrogant. When my old man was repping he bought a dozen or more off Cogans because of it, new one every two years.

ninty9er

Not really surprised, and I know nothing of either dealership. Toyota (and others) will have to spend a lot of money compensating dealers who built huge glasshouses for block exemption, but it'll be more efficient in the long run.

Expect a lot more of what Audi has been at (no more than 10 authorised showrooms for Ireland by 2014) across all brands.

It didn't really make sense. Some counties had 3/4 dealers selling the same marque. There are at least 3 Ford dealers that I can think of off the top of my head in Limerick and 2 Peugeot dealers.

I'd say Ireland currently has close to the numbers of main dealers as the UK, madness!

ofcork

rcdk1 wrote: »

If Keary's are getting Hyundai, what's the story with Dan Seaman's? Can't see two Hyundai dealers within throwing distance of each other.

Dan seamans have lost the hyundai brand.

dahamsta

Artificial dealer limitation is great for the dealers, distributors and manufacturers, it's terrible for consumers and competition, for parts in particular. In Cork you have two options for BMW parts, for example, Kearys and Not Cork. Cork's a big county with a big population, and driving to Tralee, Clonmel, Limerick or Waterford for a part often simply isn't an option. (Although I have actually gone as far as Murphy & Gunn on occasion!)

Of course the multiple dealerships per county were sometimes operating as cartels, there's no doubt about that, but competition created that situation in the first place, and sustained it for decades in some cases. And no matter what the situation, monopolies (and cartels) are bad. There are very few exceptions to this, usually only services that need to be state-run.

I think it's only a matter of time before the Competition Authority gets medieval on them, and by that I mean the Oirish version of medieval, whereby they're told they're very naughty boys several times over, then given a light slap on the wrist. Of course the manufacturers and distributors are only too well aware of this, which is why they're going full steam ahead with it.

joe 77

dahamsta wrote: »

Kearys Toyota was always like that, arrogant. When my old man was repping he bought a dozen or more off Cogans because of it, new one every two years.

I totally agree with you , we were down there about 2 weeks ago, terrible , terrible attitude, you would think they were doing you a favour by allowing you to buy a car off them!! It was exit stage left on our behalf and i can safely say i will never set foot in their dealership again

rcdk1

ofcork wrote: »

Dan seamans have lost the hyundai brand.

Are they just keeping the Mitsubishi brand so?

ShadowHearth

toyotahead wrote: »

just heard from a pretty reliable source that lexus is definatly in Macroom Motors, they were appointed Toyota in the City and Lexus in Macroom last week. I believe they are almost ready to open once they get some staff and signage. also heard Kearys have hyundai's in the showroom in mallow. dunno how they managed to lose toyota tho.....

It was really weird to see Hyundai banners on mallow Toyota dealership alright. Then when I was going back I sow there is no more Toyota branding and it became Hyundai.
I wonder wtf is that all about. Did they lost Toyota or hunday is just better seller these days in Ireland.

d.draper

i heard the reason kearys lost Toyota is because they went with renault, and toyota do not allow their dealers to multi-brand.
Hyundai are going well at the moment but i would think any dealer would rather be selling toyota than hyundai.
I heard that the new toyota will be opened soon in wilton

d.draper

d.draper wrote: »

I heard that the new toyota will be opened soon in wilton

Yes, all the signage is up. Didn't read the whole thread but it is in what used to be the pug dealership beside topaz on the bishopstown road.

Grimreaper666

d.draper wrote: »

i heard the reason kearys lost Toyota is because they went with renault, and toyota do not allow their dealers to multi-brand.
Hyundai are going well at the moment but i would think any dealer would rather be selling toyota than hyundai.
I heard that the new toyota will be opened soon in wilton

The newer Hyundais are superior cars to Toyotas, Toyotas aren't all they're cracked up to be tbh, certainly the recent models are only a pale shadow of the cars they made in the 1990's.

Padraig Mor

TBH I think this could be good for Keary's. Hyundai are very much on the up; Toyota can't really do much else.

Zonda999

I agree that Hyundai are very much on the up, but given Toyota's brand name in Ireland, they are well able to churn out very poor cars and still sell them at a good rate. Especially in Cork, too, whatever share Toyota have of the market (15% nationally or whatever), I can guarantee down in Cork, its definitely higher, people seem to love Toyota's down here, and I certainly notice that any time I'm in Dublin, by comparison.

As for Keary's getting Hyundai, its a superb location in fairness, you see the dealership any time you go by the Kinsale road roundabout. They also have the ex Lexus showroom there as well so scope for them to get another smaller brand, if they so choose. If I'm honest though, I can't see anything but a drop in their sales figures, in the medium term anyway. As for the people saying that the reason they lost Toyota was because of Renault, well Toyota didn't seem to mind when they had BMW on site with them, but then again, I guess they wouldn't mind when they had a perceived better brand with them, something which I doubt Toyota Ireland thought of Renault..

Padraig Mor

Zonda999 wrote: »

I agree that Hyundai are very much on the up, but given Toyota's brand name in Ireland, they are well able to churn out very poor cars and still sell them at a good rate. Especially in Cork, too, whatever share Toyota have of the market (15% nationally or whatever), I can guarantee down in Cork, its definitely higher, people seem to love Toyota's down here, and I certainly notice that any time I'm in Dublin, by comparison.

As for Keary's getting Hyundai, its a superb location in fairness, you see the dealership any time you go by the Kinsale road roundabout. They also have the ex Lexus showroom there as well so scope for them to get another smaller brand, if they so choose. If I'm honest though, I can't see anything but a drop in their sales figures, in the medium term anyway. As for the people saying that the reason they lost Toyota was because of Renault, well Toyota didn't seem to mind when they had BMW on site with them, but then again, I guess they wouldn't mind when they had a perceived better brand with them, something which I doubt Toyota Ireland thought of Renault..

Toyota and BMW were unlikely to be competing for the same market; Toyota and Renault on the other hand most definitely are. Is the Renault franchise still onsite or has it all moved to Midleton? If still there, you still have two brands chasing the same customers.

Zonda999

Padraig Mor wrote: »

Toyota and BMW were unlikely to be competing for the same market; Toyota and Renault on the other hand most definitely are. Is the Renault franchise still onsite or has it all moved to Midleton? If still there, you still have two brands chasing the same customers.

It was still there last week anyway, haven't passed it since. I imagine its staying there though, Renault would want to remain in that location.

kuro2k

dahamsta wrote: »

Kearys Toyota was always like that, arrogant. When my old man was repping he bought a dozen or more off Cogans because of it, new one every two years.

joe 77 wrote: »

I totally agree with you , we were down there about 2 weeks ago, terrible , terrible attitude, you would think they were doing you a favour by allowing you to buy a car off them!! It was exit stage left on our behalf and i can safely say i will never set foot in their dealership again

I have never purchased a car off of Kearys toyota but I have used the parts department alot for my jap import Hilux Surf and I have to say they are always great to deal with. My father purchased a new Lexus last summer and found them great so I'm surprised you've have such a bad experience

I received correspondence from them during the week stating that they are still an authorised toyota service & repair centre, I called in for toyota parts today and to be honest it all seemed a bit strange.

dahamsta

Parts != Sales (or Service for that matter). Most parts departments I've dealt with have been fine. (With the exception of J&P Opel on the Douglas Road, who were an absolute pain to deal with until I discovered PJ O'Heas; and then look what happened.)

And Lexus != Toyota. Premium brands have to treat their customers like royalty or they'll lose the business, more so than at any other level because their customers can generally afford to buy anywhere they damned please. I'd say this applies doubly for Lexus, because they've set themselves apart from Toyota.

kuro2k

dahamsta wrote: »

And Lexus != Toyota. Premium brands have to treat their customers like royalty or they'll lose the business, more so than at any other level because their customers can generally afford to buy anywhere they damned please. I'd say this applies doubly for Lexus, because they've set themselves apart from Toyota.

name 3 premium brands that treat their customers like royalty in Cork..... tbh i would be surprised if you could name two

dahamsta

i didn't say they were good at it...

joe 77

kuro2k wrote: »

I have never purchased a car off of Kearys toyota but I have used the parts department alot for my jap import Hilux Surf and I have to say they are always great to deal with. My father purchased a new Lexus last summer and found them great so I'm surprised you've have such a bad experience

I received correspondence from them during the week stating that they are still an authorised toyota service & repair centre, I called in for toyota parts today and to be honest it all seemed a bit strange.

I can only tell you of our experience and it was a rather bad one

thehorse

I bought a car from kearys toyota last year and I have found them
Hopeless when I've gone back with problems.

Not very helpful or approachable at all.

Won't buy from them again