Ireland's 'super' main dealers

goochy

Main dealers often get a bad reputation for ripping people off and can often lack the personal touch, however there are a number of main dealers around the country ( seems to be a provincial thing ) who seem to do all the fancy premises stuff that is required these days yet still offer great deals and sell cars all over the country because of this and are very well known.

They have survived the recession - possibly a few ! - and seem to do most things right.

heres a few dealers I can think of - you can add more .

Al hayes Portuma and now Ennis - vw and skoda

frank Hogan - limerick - vw skoda and merc.

tom murphy Waterford - vw and merc.

Michael moore - athone and portarlington - merc. vw , audi and skoda

n conlans - Kildare and limerick - land rover , Peugeot , bmw and mini.

Notch000

i like snackboxs but some times go to mcdonalds too, even an auld kabab the odd time but supermace still dose it for me.

whats your point ?
Is this an open ended statment or a question ?

goochy

two words and second one is off !

GustavoFring

goochy wrote: »

two words and second one is off !

He's got more of a point than your post.

Seems to be a list of random dealers that are around a while. What do you expect?!?

JoeA3

Al Hayes does "most things right"?? Bit early for April Fools isn't it?

Lex Luthor

Recently dealt with a few Honda dealerships and found them exceptional
Fitzpatricks Honda in Kildare Town (Brian Doolan is a gent)
Clonskeagh Motors....great bunch out there esp Robert

Special Circumstances

goochy wrote: »

two words and second one is off !

Is it a film? Or a book?

porsche boy

I do often wonder how Al Hayes does it. Back when I was a car salesman you couldn't accept large cash payments, max was about 7-8 grand. After that all sorts of question were asked. Al seems to be able to accept full cash payment for gti golf's and high line Passat from people who have no definable source of income....

goochy

these are far from random dealers , anyone familiar with them will know they run businesses that are the envy of their competitors.

Drummerboy08

Not quite sure Al Hayes or Tom Murphy are the envy of the motor trade....

pajosjunkbox

I second Brian Doolan from Fitzpatrick's Kildare. Bought a civic of him a couple of years ago. Was impressed with his sales videos on youtube. Great way to sell a car and it's what got me interested and I came from Kilkenny. Very genuine guy and will buy of him again when the Civic needs changing ! Check out his videos on YouTube !

edburg

I'll add

Greenhalls Opel dealers in Buttevant, County Cork.

They been great with me and family and come across few others who like them on another site/group.

CIP4

I don't recommend garages too easily as I'm fussy I wouldn't recommend any of my local 10 plus garages. But there is two that I would recommend.

Newmarket motors cork - main dealer VW + VW commercial vehicles great to deal with better than any other VW garage I've been too go over and beyond for the customer.

Autoimage Carlow - main dealer Renault, Dacia, Citroen, Subaru. I bought my car of them and know a lot of the lads that work there. They are great to deal with in terms of buying secondhand cars they are priced well and they have an excellent service department highly efficient. Warranty on secondhand cars are covered even cheaper cars if something goes wrong they fix it no arguments no questions asked they are always at the end of the phone willing to help.

TrailerBob

Active Car Sales in Bluebell industrial estate....

Titzon Toast

I don't know what a tracker mortgage is...

bazz26

There are at least 2 dealers on the OP's original list that I would not class as offering either "good deals" or "value for money" based on my experience. Otherwise I would not have bought my current car or the new car I'm picking up on Monday, from a dealer down the country.

ba_barabus

To be honest I generally try and steer people towards smaller family owned garages with a franchise as I find the service is often better especially if things go wrong. I'm currently going through the grinder with one of the garages on the list over very minor issues that they couldn't be arsed sorting out after we purchased a new car for my mother.

Clareman

Sheil's in Ennis and Limerick are great in my opinion, mainly Ford but I think they do Honda now as well.

naughtysmurf

Clareman wrote: »

Sheil's in Ennis and Limerick are great in my opinion, mainly Ford but I think they do Honda now as well.

Gave them €175 last week for a civic service, car has less than 10,000km, oil & filter, reset the tyre pressure sensor & some screen wash, thought it was a bit saucy tbh, we also have a Renault & find Dennehy motors, dock Rd, Limerick pretty good service & price wise.....would have thought that Frank Hogans wouldn't have had the best rep in Limerick?

Clareman

naughtysmurf wrote: »

Gave them €175 last week for a civic service, car has less than 10,000km, oil & filter, reset the tyre pressure sensor & some screen wash, thought it was a bit saucy tbh, we also have a Renault & find Dennehy motors, dock Rd, Limerick pretty good service & price wise.....would have thought that Frank Hogans wouldn't have had the best rep in Limerick?

I've only ever dealt with the Ennis version and I've never had a problem, my brother has bought about 5 cars off them (changes to new every 2 years) and he's never had a moments trouble. My wife has had 3 cars, 2 of them were bought second hand from Sheil's and they were both top notch (Fiesta and Focus)

I've never had any dealings with Frank Hogan's, I bought a card from Hogan's in Shannon 9 years ago and have never had a problem with it, that's now my wife's third car.

For the interest of full disclosure, I got my current car serviced in Conlon's of Limerick this week, I really couldn't fault them, they have a lovely showroom and they did a great job of cleaning the car, as the car has less than 30k on the clock I can't comment on the service just yet.

ceecee14

Hinchys, Garyspillane Co Limerick. Opel + Kia

Dan Dooley, Knocklong Ford

Pierse Motors, Tipperary, VW + Audi

VincePP

TrailerBob wrote: »

Active Car Sales in Bluebell industrial estate....

Not so active now

naughtysmurf

Clareman wrote: »

I've only ever dealt with the Ennis version and I've never had a problem, my brother has bought about 5 cars off them (changes to new every 2 years) and he's never had a moments trouble. My wife has had 3 cars, 2 of them were bought second hand from Sheil's and they were both top notch (Fiesta and Focus

Other than what they charge for a pretty basic service, I've no problem with them either, car still under warranty so will stay with them until then

The last time the Renault was in for a service, I got an email from Dennehys with a video attached of the mechanic walking around the car pointing out potential issues, many dealers doing this now?

liam7831

I was down in Als there a few weeks ago in Portumna, looking for a Golf around 10 or 11 reg. Never seen so many modern cars with green growing on various parts of em. They prob would not have circa 200 used cars if they were not asking crazy money. The yard is so full that the entrance is blocked when they close up and park these outside when they open

TrailerBob

VincePP wrote: »

Not so active now

AMGer

Bolands

colm_mcm

Clareman wrote: »

I've only ever dealt with the Ennis version and I've never had a problem, my brother has bought about 5 cars off them (changes to new every 2 years) and he's never had a moments trouble. My wife has had 3 cars, 2 of them were bought second hand from Sheil's and they were both top notch (Fiesta and Focus)

I've never had any dealings with Frank Hogan's, I bought a card from Hogan's in Shannon 9 years ago and have never had a problem with it, that's now my wife's third car.

For the interest of full disclosure, I got my current car serviced in Conlon's of Limerick this week, I really couldn't fault them, they have a lovely showroom and they did a great job of cleaning the car, as the car has less than 30k on the clock I can't comment on the service just yet.

Hogans in Shannon would have been Tom as opposed to Frank, formerly Greenfield Motors, Renault. Funny how things work out, Hogans Ennis are Renault now!

winnie the schtink

porsche boy wrote: »

I do often wonder how Al Hayes does it. Back when I was a car salesman you couldn't accept large cash payments, max was about 7-8 grand. After that all sorts of question were asked. Al seems to be able to accept full cash payment for gti golf's and high line Passat from people who have no definable source of income....

they probably give him travellers cheques

allthedoyles

Last time I was in one of the showrooms mentioned on OP , there were salesmen everywhere in small offices reading newspapers and not even noticing that I was looking at cars for sale .

I wondered how the garage could afford to pay these guys for just been there , but then after checking out the prices in some windscreens , I fully understood.

CianRyan

naughtysmurf wrote: »

Other than what they charge for a pretty basic service, I've no problem with them either, car still under warranty so will stay with them until then

The last time the Renault was in for a service, I got an email from Dennehys with a video attached of the mechanic walking around the car pointing out potential issues, many dealers doing this now?

We (Windsor Group) do it on all service cars, it only makes sense really.
Your service advisor coils tell you all about rusty wishbones and they could be fine but if we have to do a video on your car, starting and ending with your Reg plates, you can see exactly what wrong and how bad it is.

I think the videos are great, something about making them brightens my day a little too.

Soulcrew09

Frank Hogan and Al Hayes. Like FG & FF, both as bad as each other and have enough fools to follow them.

J.pilkington

porsche boy wrote: »

Al seems to be able to accept full cash payment for gti golf's and high line Passat from people who have no definable source of income....

I highly doubt he is taking large cash payments.

1. Breech of Money laundering laws carry serious penalties and are enforced.
2. Would be pure stupid to take large cash (you mention cars costing €30k ++) from shady characters for security reasons.
3. Likely not covered by insurance

corks finest

goochy wrote: »

Main dealers often get a bad reputation for ripping people off and can often lack the personal touch, however there are a number of main dealers around the country ( seems to be a provincial thing ) who seem to do all the fancy premises stuff that is required these days yet still offer great deals and sell cars all over the country because of this and are very well known.

They have survived the recession - possibly a few ! - and seem to do most things right.

heres a few dealers I can think of - you can add more .

Al hayes Portuma and now Ennis - vw and skoda

frank Hogan - limerick - vw skoda and merc.

tom murphy Waterford - vw and merc.

Michael moore - athone and portarlington - merc. vw , audi and skoda

n conlans - Kildare and limerick - land rover , Peugeot , bmw and mini.

Bought from auto direct, little island Cork, great to deal with, warranty stood over,no problems

Tea drinker

Lex Luthor wrote: »

Recently dealt with a few Honda dealerships and found them exceptional
Fitzpatricks Honda in Kildare Town (Brian Doolan is a gent)
Clonskeagh Motors....great bunch out there esp Robert

Myself and a mate went to Clonskeagh motors before they had the glass palace, were walking around "windowshopping" when a salesman came over to us, we said we were just looking. Guy starts muttering about coming in here wasting his time. Now I started laughing at the stupidity, but my mate did think about laying his ignorant ass flat out.

FrontDoor

I would honestly prefer to take my chances on the Naas Rd when looking for a second hand car than at some of the places mentioned.

porsche boy

winnie the schtink wrote:

they probably give him travellers cheques

Gold star!

porsche boy

J.pilkington wrote:

I highly doubt he is taking large cash payments.

J.pilkington wrote:

1. Breech of Money laundering laws carry serious penalties and are enforced.

That's kinda my whole point there chief.

Truckermal

porsche boy wrote: »

That's kinda my whole point there chief.

I purchased a few cars from Hayes down through the years and found them very honourable to deal with but on two occasions there was members of the travelling community buying new whassats and paying in cash..

pa990

porsche boy wrote: »

I do often wonder how Al Hayes does it. Back when I was a car salesman you couldn't accept large cash payments, max was about 7-8 grand. After that all sorts of question were asked. Al seems to be able to accept full cash payment for gti golf's and high line Passat from people who have no definable source of income....

i've made large cash payments with no questions asked, and that was with very prominent main dealers.

IN GOD WE TRUST, all others pay cash

George Dalton

Anything up to €15000 in cash (within a 12 month period) is ok. Anything over that means the garage is supposed to obtain proof of ID and proof of address from the individual.

barneygumble99

Al Hayes has a great reputation for getting a good deal when buying from him but aftersales side of things is meant to be a completely different ball game.

JoeA3

The stories I've heard about Al Hayes would put the shivers down your spine. I seriously cannot believe he's been listed in a thread like this. I would not buy a newspaper off the guy, I'd be absolutely certain there'd be something wrong with it. Probably would be missing the Sports pull out section lol. Only the other week I heard about a guy who bought a car off him and when he landed home he found a bag of cash (many many thousands!) under the passenger seat!

His place is worth a visit though, if only to poke around all the unregistered Golfs and Passats with moss and grass growing in their carpets.

Drummerboy08

The only reason he makes posts like this is because he's cheap - sometimes.

Cheap isn't always best tho...;-)

daRobot

JoeA3 wrote: »

The stories I've heard about Al Hayes would put the shivers down your spine. I seriously cannot believe he's been listed in a thread like this. I would not buy a newspaper off the guy, I'd be absolutely certain there'd be something wrong with it. Probably would be missing the Sports pull out section lol. Only the other week I heard about a guy who bought a car off him and when he landed home he found a bag of cash (many many thousands!) under the passenger seat!

His place is worth a visit though, if only to poke around all the unregistered Golfs and Passats with moss and grass growing in their carpets.

And this is considered a negative?

Irish94

Was down in Al Hayes this morning. Looking for a Golf and came across a nice one at a decent price. Had good miles, in good condition and with a 6 month warranty. Was contemplating purchasing it in the next week or so but I am weary of buying from them after reading this thread. I've have never bought off them before. Are they really that bad to deal with?

Truckermal

Irish94 wrote: »

Was down in Al Hayes this morning. Looking for a Golf and came across a nice one at a decent price. Had good miles, in good condition and with a 6 month warranty. Was contemplating purchasing it in the next week or so but I am weary of buying from them after reading this thread. I've have never bought off them before. Are they really that bad to deal with?

No they are fine I have purchased several cars off him along with family and never had a problem.