Problem with Cadillac is that they have no image here, so they need the people who invented Lexus to relaunch them here - not that they can afford to do that.
Plus of course, they need to get a brand identity which they really dont have over here and some far better cars.
|
|
|
Pendragon made major miscalculation in taking on Cadillac. Unproven brand with poorly-defined image in high cost locations - doomed really, unless you have deep pockets and can subsidise for several years. I think GM got involved in the end to try sort out the mess.
Incidentally, has anyone noticed the price of Pendragon shares lately? Seems the company is falling apart - most senior people already left...
|
I wouldn't say Cadillac had no image here - any more than I'd say someone with a hefty overdraft had no money.
}:---)
|
|
|
Incidentally has anyone noticed the price of Pendragon shares lately? Seems the company is falling apart - most senior people already left...
Anyone noticed the state of a Pendragon (Stratstone) showroom lately?
Absolute toilets from what I have seen (especially laughable considering the pretentious up-market image they like to project). Just looks to me like the company has gone mad on aquiring other dealers for the sake of it with precious little to invest in facilities. Two of their worst showrooms have got to be the Saab outlets in Stockport & Manchester - very down at heel indeed, with both attempting to sell Cadillacs btw.
Getting back to Cadillac though, what on earth made GM think we Brits would buy them. They keep trying, they keep failing, so why on earth did they bother? Some of these marketing types just never seem to get it do they. LOL.
|
|
|
|
Pendragon's magnificent Jaguar Showroom opposite WoT station .............. just sits there with tumbleweed rolling across the forecourts. >>
When did it close, did it move elsewhere? I test drove an X-Type 2.0 V6 there about five years ago before choosing the Mondeo, the 2.1 litre V6 was gutless compared to a 2.5 Vectra and the diesel X-Type was a few months away.
|
A couple of years ago, at least. Before the launch of the CTS in May 2005, because that's when the man from Stratstone - Pendragon told me that 'Cadillac Weybridge' was part of the plan and I checked he really meant the closed Jag showroom at Walton on Thames station.
HJ
|
>>Absolute toilets from what I have seen (especially laughable considering the pretentious up-market image they like to project). Just looks to me like the company has gone mad on aquiring other dealers for the sake of it with precious little to invest in facilities. Two of their worst showrooms have got to be the Saab outlets in Stockport & Manchester - very down at heel indeed, with both attempting to sell Cadillacs btw...
As it happens I know both dealerships well, having valued them several times over the years. They were both independently owned Saab dealerships for many years with limited investment and getting very tired. It was hoped that they would relocate, using money from the major plc that bought them, but it never happened because sales were poor. I tried to deal with the Manchester branch but the staff were rude, arrogant and hopeless. I can't think when I will try a Saab again.
Cadillac has a silly image in the UK. A brash blingy brand suitable only for wannbe rap stars. I saw an Escalade yesterday and it makes a Hummer look sensible. Stupid cars for stupid people. Remarkably there are not enough people so stupid so as to keep the brand alive.
|
Stupid cars for stupid people. Remarkably there are not enough people so stupid so as to keep the brand alive.
Could'nt have put it better myself!
|
"Stupid cars for stupid people. Remarkably there are not enough people so stupid so as to keep the brand alive."
There are lots of stoopid people but many don't have the money for a new Cadillac..
I think they look nice in gold.. but only when Paris Hilton is inside and getting out:-)
madf
|
I think they look nice in gold.. but only when Paris Hilton is inside and getting out:-)
I know a good optician if things seem a little blurry.
|
|
|
|
Cadillac has a silly image in the UK. A brash blingy brand suitable only for wannbe rap stars. I saw an Escalade yesterday and it makes a Hummer look sensible.
Same here.
The Hummer H3 (locally assembled0 is due for release soon, and the order-books are full already.
Cadillac, Chrysler and Dodge are all selling well - the bigger and blinger the better.
The Dodge is a surefire winner - major selling point is the dropdown loudspeakers from the open tailgate - ideal for your street party!
Saw an advert the other day for a local Tyre and Wheel place - special on 19inchers, will fit Chrysler PT Cruiser and Neon...
Even locally produced music videos are a sad parody of the American scene - loads of scntily clad bints formation-dancing in front of a fire hydrant, gold-teethed and bejeweled 'singers' gesticulating wildly, and big flash American cars out cruising...
|
|
|
|
I checked he really meant the closed Jag showroom at Walton on Thames station.
Amazing that there is not a Jag dealer in Weybridge or W-o-T!
|
I think there is still a Jag service facility in Brooklands somewhere. But that's another strange thing. Tucked up against the outside of the banking next to a tile warehouse in an industrial estate and facing a Big Yellow storage place is the local Bentley dealer, Broughtons. Seems that retail property in a nice location is just too dear even to sell Bentleys from. It may well be that Pendragon's Jag showroom opposite WoT station is too valuable to do anything with, which reads stupid but can often be the case with commercial property. If it's supposed to earn £100 per metre but can only earn £30 per metre it can be better to leave it empty rather than devalue it by accepting a low rent. (However, this didn't stop Audi building its new glass and chrome showroom in the old coal yard next to the station.)
HJ
|
Broughtons (next to Byfleet and new haw station) has been there for quite some time. At least three years, because it seems they cant afford retail space in Weybridge. Funnily tho SMC renault have had a retail place on the top of monument hill, weybridge for at least 25 years.
The jaguar showroom at walton on thames station lasted less than a year, despite being purpose built. Really bad buisiness planning. Audi have built a HUGE edifice next to walton station.
The best place has to be the old HWM motors in Walton town. Now the local Aston dealer, with quite a lot of Astons, all placed (not parked, they are placed on display like pictures) outside to drool over.
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
|
The site of Woking Motors (very close to Walton) which was converted to MB and then they decamped to Brooklands did not stay empty for long before a VW dealer arrived.
I guess the long established Guy Salmon ( Sytner) serves the Jag customers in the general area.
|
The site of Woking Motors (very close to Walton) which was converted to MB >>
I had a mate who was aftersales manager there before and just after MB bought it.
I guess the long established Guy Salmon ( Sytner) serves the Jag customers in the general area.
Is that the one at Esher, the other side of the Scilly Isles from Sandown Park?
|
Thames Ditton - Please
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
|
Thames Ditton - Please
>>
You are probably right though I always though of TD as nearer Kingston, 25 odd years ago there was a great m/cycle dealer there, the name is on the tip of my tounge, often used to bomb over there on the FS1-E / RD250, back in the day eh!
|
>>25 odd years ago there was a great m/cycle dealer there<<
Comerfords?
Maybe the Bentley dealers think they have a duty to be located at Brooklands?
|
Comerfords?
That's the one!
|
Thames Ditton - Please
>>You are probably right though I always though of TD as nearer Kingston
>>
The original Portsmouth Road goes through the middle of Esher, past Sandown Race Course to the Scilly Isles roundabout ( by the Marquis of Granby). Then through the arch tunnel to Giggs Green at Thames Ditton.
Guy Salmon ( Jag & LR ) often have RR, Bently and Ferraris in the showrooms.
Since the old days we now have a Thames Honda main dealer and Dagenham Motors before you get to Surbiton.
|
|
Funnily tho SMC renault have had a retail place on the top of monument hill weybridge for at least 25 years.
Bought our Clio there, from a South African called Peter who went of to sell Peugeots at a dealer in the Ash area, he lived down there.
|
|
|
The best place has to be the old HWM motors in Walton town. Now the local Aston dealer>>
No Marenellos at Egham, stoped there briefly when up in Surrey a few weeks ago, one of my sons was made up when he saw an Enzo in the showroom.
|
Wander round the workshops at Thorpe lea - now that is a place to gaze - Italian stalions in bits.
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
|
I see that GM have had to take Cadillac back from Pendragon in UK and will be doing sales, servicing etc from their own site. Apparently sales have been only 10% of target...
Moved in here - mainly as I felt (and I may be wrong of course) that it was useful to read Aprilla's contribution in the context of HJ's original thread. PU
|
|
Why do they even bother? Are they hoping to gain sales in the US market from the prestige of being an 'international' brand?
|
|
|
|
|
|
I remember back in the 60's when we used to drive to Walton from Sunbury, after crossing Walton Bridge there was a car dealers on the left at a crossroads. Had "Hispano Suiza" written on the windows. My dad couldn't tell me what one of those looked like.
|
|
That was HWM that TVM refers to above.
|
Few people know that they also used to run a F1 team. Was it F1 then? Grand Prix anyway.
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
|
Spot on TVM
"HEROES WITH MACHINERY Words: Simon Taylor
Today, racing cars built in this country dominate almost every formula, but the first British team to find international success after WW2 is almost forgotten. It wasn%u2019t BRM: the expensive and heavily hyped V16 was an abject failure. It wasn%u2019t Connaught or Vanwall, though their day would come. And it wasn%u2019t Cooper or Lotus, who would go on to win World Championships. In fact it was a shoestring effort from a little garage in Walton-on-Thames called Hersham and Walton Motors %u2013 HWM. Over HWM%u2019s seven-year life as a racing car manufacturer less than two dozen were built, but some 70 per cent of the entire production survives today."
Also
In 1946 George Abecassis and John Heath bought a garage together and went racing with Alta-engined offset cars as HWM (Hersham & Walton Motors).
Although history sees HWM as little more than a footnote during the early 1950s they carried the banner for British motorsport and were driven by many of the household names of the day.
Single seaters were produced from 1951 and this small team travelled around Europe entering as many races as they could.
My boss ( during my part time job while still at school) was a good friend of George Abecassis.
Many times very exotic machinery would be heard outside and it was George arriving to give my boss a chance to blast it up and down the Chertsey Road ( A316)
I sometimes got invited which made a change from having a ride in the boss's Aston Martin DB2/4s. The A316 was used to test the Hanworth cars so Astons were quite a common sight in yoof.
Were my mates envious !!!? This was in a period when there were no cars in any of our families.
Great times.,
%2
|
P.S.
Hatchbacks? They are not new.
www.amoc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=vie...6
This was the colour of one I used to ride in.
|
Pendragon: Profits warning
Subject:
Date: Mon 25th Jun 2007 9:04:16
Country: UK
Industry: General retailers
Company:
Pendragon sees FY opg down by 20 mln stg, 10 mln next year UPDATE
(Adds details about potential interest rate impact, manufacturing industry)
LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Car retailer Pendragon PLC said it expects its
full-year operating profits to be down by 20 mln stg and anticipates a 10 mln
stg drop in 2008, blaming a slowdown in consumer spending.
Of the 20 mln stg reduction anticipated this year, about 5 mln stg is due to
a 4 pct cut in the number of new and used vehicle unit sales, with the remainder
due to a reduction in vehicle operating margin of about 50 stg per unit.
Pendragon said its used car unit performance is below its expectations and
expects a subdued used car market for the rest of the year.
It said its first quarter new car profits remained broadly in line with last
year. Since then, it has seen a gradual reduction in margin due to weakening of
the car market and more intense price competition.
Pendragon said it expects the market for big ticket items such as motor cars
to continue to be adversely affected by the uncertainty around interest rate
movements.
It said it also expects manufacturers to continue to force new cars into the
market either through incentives or pre registration activity, adding it expects
consumer switching to new cars to reduce its used car margins and unit sales
this year compared to last year.
The company will announce its results for the period to June 30 on August 7.
TFN.
madf
|
|
|
|
|
|
