July 2019,
Hello everyone and welcome to our first blog post.
We are going to try and keep this as up to date as possible and attempt to give everyone a small insight as to what we do during our working days, weeks and months.
This year has flown by and I cant believe how quickly we have grown. People are beginning to notice us as the biggest Classic Car dealer in Ireland and it feels amazing. I still find it crazy when people stop me in the street and beep at traffic lights to admire the cars we have in stock. Sometimes it’s just say they follow us online and love what we are doing. It’s so cool that people are going out of their way to say how much they love our cars, well… nearly as much as I do. In my wildest dreams I couldn’t have imagined this and we feel very humbled.
Having taken over the garage from my father Ollie three years ago, we have all been working extremely hard to turn Deane Motors into a household name on the Irish classic car scene. I couldn’t do all the work myself, trying to juggle collections, showing cars, VRT appointments and anything else the days threw at me. I’d always end up pulling Ollie or James away from their already busy schedules to give me a dig out. Something needed to change. So in march I had to bring a new member on the team, who we’ve all now come to know as “the other Simon” or “Shimo” ( pronounced “Shy-moe”). Simon helps me in the day to day running of the business and can often be found asleep on the plane or down in the VRT office signing his life away. He also loves driving on the M50…Being from Mayo he’s not used to heavy traffic and just last week he drove 20mins out of his way to avoid sitting in a car with no air-conditioning. Dead right to be fair.
So what have we been doing this year you might ask?
Well, we have sold over 80 classic cars already and to say we have sold some crackers would be an understatement. The sold stock ranges from just about anything across the classic category, as you might imagine. We literally just buy cars we like. In all fairness, its kind of easier to sell what you like.
Our first car into stock, all the way back in January, was an extremely rare 1981 Porsche 928s Wide Track. It was a limited production model and extremely sought after. It didn’t hang around too long and we wish we could have held onto it a bit longer. It was an awesome drive. After that, the list goes on and on. We have stocked from a 16k mile Ford Cortina right up to an amazing 2018 Porsche Caymen GTS, so we’re not completely stuck in the past like Marty McFly, we do like to mix things up….occasionally. We’ve had a lot of stock come and go over the past two months. We have had a total of five Porsche’s come in and three have left.
So where are all these cars now? We’re glad you asked!
A beautiful 912 that came from Italy ended up in a new home all the way down in cork. A 1987 Porsche Carrera 3.2, g50 Cabriolet will be staying in Ireland too along with an incredible glacier blue 911 turbo which has been spotted in Ardee. Our lovely 1989 Mercedes R107 300SL, which never even hit our website, stayed in Dublin. The super clean Volvo 740 has found a new home in Mayo. Our one owner 53k mile 190E is heading to Kilkenny and the big 450 6.9 SEL is staying in Dublin. Good cars always sell.
The next couple of weeks will be fun replenishing our stock, so be sure to stay tuned on instagram and facebook and watch us win, or fail, while we try and bring cars back from the continent.
In June, myself and Shimo went to Italy TWICE in the space of a six weeks to collect the SAME Porsche 912. On first attempt we hadn’t gone 15miles down the road when, at the very first toll, the car cut out (not a rare occurrence in the daily life of Deane Motors). ‘Simon get out and push’. After we got her running again we drove for two miles to the nearest petrol station to check the engine….. Oh dear God….. After a full “rebuild” she was all sorts of blown up. We had to get it recovered and back to the garage we had bought it from. They agreed to rebuild it for us. We said we’d be back over for it when it was ready. Fast forward six weeks and the two Shimos are running through the terminal to catch a flight back to Italy for attempt number two!! We spent two days more than we should have to get the little cracker home, due to hangovers, driving her back to the factory, the tedious setting of points and not being able to run the fresh engine hard. BUT we made it and we had a very happy customer. Totally worth it.
As if the heart ache of driving across Europe wasn’t enough, we decided to finish restoring an Alfa Romeo 2000GTV that we started over three…. yes three years ago. The final touches are being added, a cream colored head cloth has been fitted and a very bold, almost blood red, carpet has been chosen to contrast the stunning silver bodywork. We’re full steam ahead to get it finished on deadline at the end of month. The clock is ticking but we are looking good to make it.
After all the cars we’ve sold this year nothing gives me more pleasure than seeing an Irish car stay in the country. Driving around Dublin, or anywhere in the country, and seeing one of our cars on the open road, in traffic or even in a driveway is what I love about my job. People enjoying the cars that we have sold them is what it is all about. I just love old cars, but not just because of the way they drive or look. The stories we gather and the people we get to meet along the way are what makes our working day and weeks that little be more interesting. A customer said to me recently, and after having a little laugh and think about it, he couldn’t have been more right. “You know you’re not selling cars don’t you? You’re selling dreams, memories and nostalgia”. People reminiscing about the cars their parents had or about the cars they always wanted growing up is what it’s all about. Seeing people get the cars they always wanted is one of the many reasons I love what we do.
See you all soon, #getoutanddrive