Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rootes75]

We drove past the village garage today and was surprised to see diggers in and the pumps removed!
The garage was opened in 1950 and we have always been friends with the chap who owns it and his father who opened it. He stopped doing MOT's not all that long ago due to his test equipment being outdated.
Such a shame that another village garage has gone.
_________________
Various Rootes Vehicles.

[Rick]

Agreed, from speaking to locals there were a number of garages within just 3 or 4 miles of us, all gone now with houses in their places. Progress eh!?

RJ
_________________
Rick - Admin
Home:https://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk
Videos:https://www.youtube.com/user/oldclassiccarRJ/videos
OCC & classic car merchandise (Austin, Ford ++):
https://www.redbubble.com/people/OldClassicCar/shop

[Rootes75]

Our village has lost its shop, post office, pub and petrol station but we have gained around 80 houses in their place!
It is progress but in my opinion its killing the village.
_________________
Various Rootes Vehicles.

[badhuis]

It is something that will become worse in the near future I think. Small towns losing shops in the High Street because of internet shopping. Only supermarkets and specialists stores will remain in the smaller towns.
Same for garages. Only a few big main dealers will stay plus some specialists shops.
Not sure there is an answer to this.
_________________
a car stops being fun when it becomes an investment

[alanb]

Lack of use is the reason, garages selling just a few hundred litres a week and the odd repair or service is not going to cover its costs let alone make a profit, same for village shops and pubs 15 pints and 3 meals a night is not enough to pay a barmaid. If we all did our weeks shopping in the village shop and ate out 3 times a week in the village pub and had all our fuel, repairs and servicing at the village garage then I'm sure they would still survive.
_________________
old tourer


Morris 8 two seater

[petelang]

It's not paying the barmaid that is the issue with pubs, it's meeting the greedy pub chain owners impossible rent expectations.
With regards garages, with the ongoing investment needed in specialist tools, every make demanding more new and the difficulty finding trained skilled staff, there is little profit there. It's buying and selling that makes more cash flow and, for someone nearing retirement age, a developer offering a very big wad of notes must be just too tempting.
Besides, most kids don't want to get their hands all dirty nowadays.

[Rootes75]

About 3-4 years back the old chap in the garage asked if I would ever consider running it, I am no MOT tester so couldn't do that, I know my way round classics well though.

We put a little business projection together and after taking rates/rent/utilities into account we would have had to bring in about £2k a week to earn us a sensible living.

It just wasn't a viable option even though it sounded ideal for our interests.
_________________
Various Rootes Vehicles.

[Mog]

When I was a teenager , with a mate , we went to the Lion at Hampton Lode , nr . Kidder minster , for a beer . We were the only people in the bar all night . It was a Monday .

[Penman]

This just popped up on FB so I went searching on Gmaps and streetview. It's a 2024 image. As well as Petrol and Diesel including Red it looks like he could even refuel a steamer if one comes by. Might not be able to recharge an electric though.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/gwi6arXtDCoyTdU4A
_________________
Bristols should always come in pairs.

Any 2 from:-
Straight 6
V8 V10

[Ray White]

Interesting to see the Burmah sign still there. As it happens you haven't been able to buy Burmah petrol for some 25 years. The company was taken over by BP in 2000...

[Bitumen Boy]

There used to be an old scruffy garage at the end of my street, which is the old main road up the valley. I just missed them selling fuel when I first came here in 2002, apparently they jacked it in when Tesco opened their filling station 2 miles down the road, though the old Esso sign stood for a few years afterwards. But there was still a business on site doing repairs and servicing, good guys who looked after their regular customers, and another guy doing tyre fitting from one of the other buildings who did most of his work under the old canopy. Both good, useful, local businesses, and both gone now after some scrotes tried to break in and started a fire one night...

One end of the old building was patched up after the fire, one bay for the tyre fitter and another for the younger of the two mechanics working on his own, the older man (think they were father and son, but wouldn't swear to it) decided to retire. After a couple of years, the landlord decided to kick them both out and redevelop the site, the mechanic got a job with the RAC while the tyre guy found new premises closer to town. The buildings and the rusty old canopy were pulled down, then one day the fuel storage tanks were dug up and carted away on a lorry - I had the misfortune of following it most of the way to Newport, presumably going to the docks as scrap.

And then... nothing. Nothing has happened for a good three years now, the site is up for sale with outline planning for houses to be built, but nothing's happening. There are heaps of rubble from the old buildings, Heras fencing and a couple of busted freezers hanging around, but most concerningly, two large holes full of stagnant water where the fuel tanks used to be. I can't help feeling that sooner or later a child is going to get past the Heras fencing, fall into one of those holes and drown, and I can't imagine why they didn't fill the holes in with the rubble from the old buildings to at least make them safe until something does happen. As it stands now anything would be an improvement.

[Rusty]

We must be "a little" luckier than you by the sound of it, we still have a very "few" older style garages in the country here, but they are disappearing quickly. One of the ones in my home town has just closed this year, but it was run for the past fifty years by a bloke I went to school with and despite being a good popular mechanic and having for quite a while the "only" bouser in town (or the next 20 miles) he couldn't find anyone willing to take it on, so at the age of 71 decided to shut up shop. One of the things that stopped him finding a replacement was some "investors" recently bought one of the other redundant garages that shut in the 90s and remains closed still, but they put in automatic pumps operated by "cards" on the old tanks and now the passing traffic gets fuel there, and now my mates has gone, the locals will be forced to go there too!

[Rootes75]

I recognised that place straight away, its on the A36, we've passed it many times and always had a look in.
_________________
Various Rootes Vehicles.

[norustplease]

Our local repair garages seem to have split off from being petrol stations as well. Most of the local petrol stations themselves are now like mini motorway services with convenience shop, coffee machine and in some cases a full blown cafe, plus electric charging points. The retail side is usually one of the recognised outfits, eg: SPAR. Only one has bitten the dust and rebranded itself as a hand car wash.
The village repair garages seem to be doing okay, each of our local villages has one established, plus a couple that have set up at the local farms in redundant buildings.
Non main manufacturer used car sales places are fewer. I suspect that the car supermarkets of which there are several in the surrounding area have killed them off. Even main dealers are thin on the ground now with most of them concentrated in Preston or Blackburn rather than in the smaller towns and villages.
_________________
1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1957 Austin A55 Mk 1
Boring Tucson SUV

[ukdave2002]

The margins on road fuel are wafer thin, our local garage proprietor told me that he makes as much profit on the coffee a driver purchases as he does on £100 of road fuel, hence the reason just about every petrol station sells coffee, snacks and groceries these days.

I suspect that with the increasing reliability of modern vehicles the demand for repairs must have declined, again hitting the traditional independent garage.

On a more positive note, our local garage has Add Blue at the pump, its about half the price that the supermarkets sell it for in containers.