Talacrest

I collected my car from Talacrest today and was told that it is possible that they will cease trading at the end of the year. On an earlier thread someone said they were packing-in the sales side of the business but now it looks like they are going to pack-in completely unless trade picks up over the next month. The guy that runs it is going to focus on an auction business.

Since they sold me a car that has put a big smile on my face over the 18 months I've had it and have been pretty good with servicing and repairs, I will be sorry to see them go.

 

If you need someone vaguely local to look after your car try Rardley

http://www.rardleymotors.com/index.htm

 

QV are pretty close to Talacrest and are nice chaps too! We used to take the 355 there and never had any problems, it's worth checking out

http://www.hamletcg.co.uk/qv/qvimenu.htm

Foxy x

 

I would second that recommendation
Steve

 

Is this the state of UK market or something specific to them? They've been around for a while.

 

That's a shame - they're nice guys. Didn't Mike Wheeler of Rardley use to work for them?

 

Sounds like the guy who owns reckons he can make more money out of a different business.

Scott at Talacrest said that the advertising costs were really hurting them - that was one of the reasons they pulled out of the sales side of the business. I guess there is a lot more competition than there used to be.

Thanks folks for the pointers to alternative dealers!

 

I wondered why their stock didn't appear to be changing on the website much.

I bought my car from Guy Tedder there 3yrs ago, really nice chap. With the reputation they have it will be a great shame to see them go

 

Guy is now at www.castlefords.com

 

Jim

Not really the Market, Talacrest were one of the earlier specialists to emerge in the late 80's boom and they made a lot of money, at some point Symbolic invested in them although control rested with John Collins (I think that's his name!)

In the early 90's crash he was quick to dump stock even at a loss and therefore survived the worst ravages of depreciation, it carried on for a while as the market slowly picked up and then Symbolic bought the controlling interest, I think about 1999/2000, this didn't work for them and JC bought it back after a fairly short period (I think he did a good deal! ) andthtey continued selling cars. In the last 12 to 18 months they have been making more money from Auctions of Music memorabilia and I think this is now where JC's interest lies

I should say that the above is my recollection from various conversations with Guy Tedder, newspaper reports and IIRC a nice booklet I have somewhere about their earlier history so some if not all of it may be inaccurate

 

Mark,
I think I have read the same sources as you have, regarding the founder of Talacrest.
As I recall he started the business after selling his Ferrari back to the dealer. The dealer gave him a stack of reasons why he couldn't give him much for the car. Several days later the car was in the showroom with an enormous mark up & sold very quickly.

The key to his business strategy in the early days was that he could effectively 'hold' cars at dealers with a small deposit. When the market was booming in the late 80's he would put a 3k deposit on a 30k car.
He would then advertise the car for 40k. Once a buyer was found he would settle up with the dealer and trouser the 10k.
With a (relatively) small amount of capital he was able to maintain a large stock of cars - he was only risking his deposit, he did not have to store the cars, insure the cars etc

 

If it happens, it will be sad to see Talacrest go - but it just goes to show that the F dealer world is competitive and that's good news for the customers.

 

Not that I want to be a vulture, but would love to get in contact with someone there and see if they're ready to part with the half-assembled Cizeta they've had for eight years. I can restore it back to its original self. If anyone has a contact (preferably email because of time difference), please forward to me.

 

[email protected]

Same people I believe.

 

Looks like Talacrest are making a comeback
They always had some fantastic machinery there.

From the web

http://www.racecar.co.uk/talacrest/

Talacrest - the company who have handled some of the most exotic collector Ferrari deals in the past two decades are to re-enter the market after a brief sabbatical developing other business divisions.

John Collins the chairman who personally has handled a number of trades of exotica such as 250 GTO, 250 TR and numerous other Ferraris will be re-opening for business towards the end of the year - dealing in cars at the top of the market which show real investment potential.

John announced - "After a brief respite from the market my passion for serious Ferrari's has been rekindled - and I look forward to re-acquainting myself with colleagues old and new. I believe there are a number of cars which are showing good investment potential - and I look forward to the challenge of doing it all over again second time around - although this time Talacrest will concentrate purely at the top of the market where hopefully our knowledge and extensive "black book" can be put to good use." August 2007

 

nice to see...I never had any dealings myself but they always appeared to be good guys to deal with...

 

Good news, always wondered why such a company stopped selling exotics to sell rock and roll gear?? never bought anything from them but was in contasct with them many times always had positive feed back from them.

 

well they had better find a new showroom then, when I drove past the old one this morning it was a cleared patch of ground waiting for the builders to move in

 

I've got some space on the drive they could use.

 

I'm still waiting for talacrest to get back to me on a red 348 that I was interested in over 2 years ago.........

 

Called them a few months ago about a guitar I was interested in. Actually, I called them 4/5 times over a period of 2 weeks and asked to speak to John Collins (always "busy"). No return calls, despite promising to, so I eventually gave up as by this time did not want to spend a penny with them.

They'll never have any of my business nor would I recommend them to anyone else. If you can't get basic courtesies right, there isn't much hope for the rest.