Car Dealerships

[escort1 10]

My dad bought a brand new Hillman Avenger for £750 from Fred Wilson's in 1972, I think they were somewhere at Hillsborough then. He ran it until 1989!

[IRONMONGER 10]

I remember a Chrysler/Hillman/ Simca dealer on Bradfield Road, Hillsborough the name Fred Wilson seems to spring to mind. I remember winning a motoring competion on Radio Hallam sponsored by Wilson's and a group of us being taken to the Rootes factory at Ryton and seeing Hillman Avenger's being made. As I had an Avenger GT at the time I remember drooling over a V8 engined Avenger destined for Brazil.

I also remember Highfield Motors on London Road where I bought my Sunbeam Imp Sport in grasshopper green metallic.

The dealer in Glossop Road , Broomhill was called Hancocks (of Hathersage) I was in their showroom to witness the launch of the Ford Consul Classic.

As a schoolday I was also in the showroom of Ernest Hatfield on Norfolk Street at the back of the Peace Gardens to witness the unvieling of the .......................................JAGUAR E-TYPE !!!!!!!!

Rippon Bros. opposite Ecclesall Church sold Rolls-Royce, this later became Europa.

Joseph Tomlinson, bottom of Eccy Road - Above The Arcade, sold Standard.

Jack Clarke sold Volvo from a shop unit in Berkeley Precinct, also Eccy Road.

[bullerboY 10]

Hi escort1 he did have a small hillman dealership there and a repair shop at the bottom of herries rd.

[IRONMONGER 10]

How can we have forgotten Portland Autos on West Bar. I believe they sold cars from the eastern bloc before becoming the countries first Datsun (Nissan) dealer. I believe that I learnt to drive on one of the first Datsuns in Britain at Broomhill Driving School. It was a Datsun 1200 and sold for £888.

Another dealership I forgot was Sandygate Motors, when I was 13 my Dad went to look at a Morris Minor Estate (woody).

[mally350z 10]

Burton House (part of Dixon Motors) sold Rolls Royce down Attercliffe , later became Reossi selling motor bikes , was going to be dixon bikes , but didnt sound quite right does it !!

 

dicks on bikes

[mally350z 10]

central motors on scotland street , did mitsibushi .

machon bank motor co. did suzuki

[Beesa rider 10]

Sheaf Motors, mentioned earlier, were an official Ford Dealer at their Dyches Lane Garage at Coal Aston .

I well remember the Ford Capri arriving there "The Car You've Always Promised Yourself" circa 1968. To wet the appetite for the revolutionary new fastback design the advance brochure contained a cut out cardboard version of the car.

 

The first batch were kept hidden away for a day or 2 leading up to the launch but I, as an inquisitive 17 year old petrol head, found them under wraps in the old shed at the back of the garage.

[Tooeg 10]

Do you remember John Mason on city road, he bought a load of anglias to make a hire fleet, then had a load of reprobates driving them back from Dagenham I suppose, about 1964

[andrejuan 10]

I remember back in the 80s, I sold my car to a chap who came down from N.Yorks. He got chatting and it turns out he was one of the founders of Autoways (I think) He said it was the first dealership to offer hire purchase on new cars. He told me the whole history of him and two others getting started and growing it into a national dealership with branches all over the UK. They were responsible for allowing ordinary people to buy new cars. They sold it in the 70s for a couple of million (a lot in those days). He retired to spain and went into property just at the right time, one of the others started the Black book, and I can't remember what the third one did. He was getting on by the time I met him and had retired back to England. I'll always remember him turning up dripping in gold and driving a Rolls Royce. He said he wanted my car to take to his holiday home in Spain.

[harry r 10]

Bentleys had a dealership at Crosspool and Kennings had a dealership at Broomhill, on the road next to the Broomhill Tavern. Pearl Motors on East Bank Road was also an official Rootes dealership - there was still a 'Singer' sign there well into the nineties. If you look up at the right place, near the junction of John St and Bramall Lane you can still see the Gilders VW sign on the end of the building they used. Don't know if anyone has mentioned it but there was a dealership roughly where Staples is at the bottom of the Moor ; in the sixties one half of it was Simca the other was Rolls Royce. Does anyone remember where the Wartburg and Moskvich dealers were in the sixties. My dad always used to consider them when buying new cars (he was a member of the communist party!) then go and buy a Vauxhall anyway.

Palmer Road garage were the agents for Wartburge and Moskvich also Saab , after we stopped dealing in Ford.

Edited April 13, 2009 by harry r

[mally350z 10]

Bentleys had a dealership at Crosspool

 

where was this ?

[IRONMONGER 10]

Another dealer we forgot - B.J.? Williams on both sides of Abbeydale Road, I think it is now Moonlight Textiles. They must have been Morris dealers because my dad bought a brand new Morris Minor Traveller there in 1960, reg. number 4501 WA.

He also bought a new Morris Oxford Estate in 1967. reg. number OWE749E, from Shukers of Sheffield. I think they were on Duke Street, probably now somewhere under Sheaf Square!

Of course Brocklehursts, of Chesterfield, also had an art deco style Rootes showroom at Meadowhead - now the filling station opposite The Norton.

I also think that the Blue Star Garage on Ecclesall Road at Banner Cross, currently a Texaco filling station, had a showroom selling Ford.