JustBritish

Having opened a new facility in Goldhawk Road, West London this week, Nicholas Mee & Co says it is the first ever high-street, officially endorsed, Aston Martin Heritage showroom.

The company was established 21 years ago and held a party to celebrate the opening, with guests including Aston Martin CEO Dr Ulrich Bez and Director of Works Service and Parts Operations, Kingsley Riding-Felce.

Riding-Felce said: “Aston Martin takes its heritage very seriously, and it is crucial that current and prospective owners of our Heritage models are able to receive the kind of levels of service and specialist knowledge that is expected of the Aston Martin brand.

“Up until now our heritage network has not had such prominence in London and it is wonderful to see Nicholas and his team investing so heavily in the future of Aston Martin’s Heritage business.”

Nicholas Mee added: “It seems essential to us that Aston Martin Heritage has a dedicated showroom in the heart of London. These premises will be London’s focal point for showing and dealing in these beautiful, collectable cars. Perfectly located at a central point between Heathrow and Mayfair, our new high street showrooms offer collectors, buyers and sellers an ideal environment to showcase their cars.”

A wealth of unseen historic British cars could soon be on display at the Heritage Motor Centre after a trust based there received a lottery cash boost.

The British Motor Industry Heritage Trust has received initial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund for a £2.5 million project to create a new building to store and display the Trust’s reserve collection of historic British cars, at the Gaydon centre.

Funding of £51,100 has been awarded to help the Trust progress their plans to apply for a full grant in 2012. If two more rounds are awarded building work on the new project could begin in 2013.

The Trust has a collection of almost 300 cars, telling the story of the motor industry in Britain from the 1890s to the present and although more than 160 of these vehicles can be seen on display at the Heritage Motor Centre, the rest of the collection remains hidden in store.

The project will allow people to see the whole collection for the first time in a purpose-built facility that will also include a vehicle restoration and conservation workshop.

In addition the Trust will launch a new volunteer programme allowing people to get more involved with the collection by helping with its conservation and interpretation and will also run a series of events and other activities as part of the project.

Tim Bryan, of the Heritage Motor Centre, said: “We are delighted that the Heritage Lottery Fund has pledged their support for our project which will help us make our collection far more accessible than before and enable people to learn more about the motor industry which has played such an important role in the West Midlands.”

Trying to break into a new marketplace is never easy – and it’s a damn site harder when it’s the ultra-competitive car market. That, though, is effectively what MG is trying to do as the company’s Chinese owners return to the table with the first new models to wear the MG badge in 16 years.

Their task is made even harder by the history involved here.

The messy demise of the previous company cost the brand a lot of the goodwill and then there was the, perhaps understandable, scepticism as the Far Eastern conglomerates stepped in to pick over the wreckage.

However, the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation seem to be taking the right steps to woo the army of MG followers back. They have set up their UK headquarters in what is retained of the Longbridge plant, which had become the marque’s home before its collapse.
Read the rest of this entry »

MG has exclusively revealed to Car Dealer Magazine the 10 most important towns and cities it wants to find new dealers for.

The UK car manufacturer, which was relaunched in 2008 with the backing of Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, wants to establish showrooms in the following eight locations in England: Birmingham, Derby, Leeds, Liverpool, Nottingham, Northampton, Swindon and South London.

The firm, which has recently launched a new range of models that have been designed and engineered at its 69-acre site in Longbridge, Birmingham, also wants to establish outlets in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

MG’s list of potential dealership locations also includes more than 20 medium-priority locations, including Brighton, Exeter and Guildford in the south of England, and Blackpool, Burnley and Carlisle further north.

And at the bottom of the list are six low-priority spots, including in England, Barnstaple; in Wales, Swansea; and in Scotland, Inverness.

MG recently opened a new sales centre onsite at the famous ‘Elephant House’ at Longbridge. Customers are able to test-drive vehicles from the new MG6 range there and can also buy vehicle from the home of MG.

MG Motor UK Ltd has selected GMAC UK plc, a subsidiary of Ally Financial Inc., to be its preferred retail financing provider in the UK for manufacturer programmes and standard rate finance. GMAC UK will provide financing to MG customers under the MG Financial Services brand.

Guy Jones, sales and marketing director of MG Motor UK, said: “GMAC is a trusted financing source in the industry. As a company with extensive experience, resources and capabilities in the UK market, GMAC will support our brand and help us grow our business. This important development allows us to offer a competitive range of retail finance products for the new MG6 GT, Magnette and following models.”

“We are extremely pleased to enter this new retail relationship with MG in the UK,” commented Ed Paulat, GMAC UK managing director.  “We look forward to working with MG and supporting its dealers to maximise vehicle sales with competitive financing.”

GMAC and MG have entered into a multi-year agreement to finance new and used vehicle sales for customers through MG dealers.

GMAC is also the preferred financier for Vauxhall, Chevrolet and Saab dealers and their customers in the UK. This new relationship with MG represents another step in GMAC expanding its customer base and further leverages GMAC UK’s core competency in auto financing.

Exciting new material about the filming of ‘The Persuaders’ TV series has been uncovered in the Archives of the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust (based at the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon, near Warwick) during a major re-cataloguing project.

‘The Persuaders’ celebrates its 40th Anniversary having debuted on British TV in September 1971. The stars of the show were Sir Roger Moore and the late Tony Curtis, who drove an Aston Martin DBS and a Ferrari Dino 246 GT respectively. Sir Roger Moore was re-united with the actual Aston Martin DBS used at a recent event, to commemorate the anniversary and the release of the series on Blu-ray DVD.

Photographs, film production records and correspondence relating to this classic Seventies TV series have come to light in the personal collection of the late Roger Stowers. Roger Stowers worked at Aston Martin Lagonda Limited from 1966 until 2000 and was for many years the company’s historian. The Archive team at the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust are beginning to catalogue and conserve this significant collection.

Read more at the BMIHT site.