Rover dealerships list

redrover

Well-Known Member
Does any body have an old handbook or list of all of the Rover dealerships in the 60s and 70s? I'm curious to know where my car might have been sold from. The only thing I have to go on it that it was _MP registered, which was 'Greater London' up to 1974, and then 'London North East' until about 1997. Huge catchment area, but wondered if anybody had a least a list of Rover dealers in the North/NE London area so I could see how many there were.

It was first registered 01-07-1972, but may well have been a demonstrator, as I believe the build date was Dec 71 (based purely on bits of trim and the fact that certain components are stamped 12-71)

Any help much appreciated!

Michael
 
It would be great if anybody out there could supply this info' as it'd be hugely fascinating...

I can only imagine how many outlets there were as it would be in the whole BLMC and BL bubble... :roll:
 
My hope is that my registration date might just pre-date the roll-out of the JRT initiative, so hopefully the dealership network at that point would still be exclusively made up of original Rover/Land Rover dealers, and not Jag and Triumph dealers with Rovers in the forecourt as well.

Would be a mine-field after that :-(
 
I'm sure you'll figure it out some way or another...

Maybe trying to get a heritage certificate would shed some light on things...?!

Alternatively I am sure there is something you can do with the DVLA that lists the previous owners so it may state the supplying dealer on that (I could be very wrong on that comment though!)...?
 
From memory, Henlys, Harvey Hudson, Bonnallacks, Lamb's. I'll add more if I think of any, or if I find one of the handbooks I have lying around here.
 
Was Trident another dealer network...?! I remember there being one in Woking (it was also in an episode of The Sweeney!) many moons ago... That was just a general BL dealer though so it was all encompassing...!!!
 
I forgot Ray Powell. IIRC that premises in E7 became Bonallacks. Lamb's would be Essex rather than London.
 
Michael
I have a copy of Rover Dealers & Distributors (Part No 4315) Nineteenth Edition April 1968 ! !
It lists about 10 dealerships in the N/NE London areas (pre Postcode) and about another dozen in the outer areas of Middlesex and Essex that were within Greater London.
So you will really need to be lucky to locate it!
Oh, and there's another in East London, South Africa but probably it ain't them?
In fact the booklet is quite interesting as it lists all dealers or national distributors - worldwide.
Brings back memories of the way we regarded the World then.
There were none at all in the Soviet Union or any of the Warsaw Pact nations,bar Yugoslavia.
There was one on St Helena though (Pop 4,200)!
It is the 1st time I've ever looked at the booklet and I doubt if I'll open it again. If you'd like it send me your address and I'll pop it in the post to you.
Regards
John
 
You're a top man, Mr Kingbean.
Thanks, helps narrow down the field of its origin to a few addresses!

Michael
 
redrover said:
The only thing I have to go on it that it was _MP registered, which was 'Greater London' up to 1974, and then 'London North East' until about 1997...
The chaps Rover has an 'MP' code as he stated right from the start... I never read the first post when I hop on a thread a little later so I'm not surprised you missed it :wink:

I do wish it was easier to locate a cars 'origins' but as these cars get older and peoples memories become a little more fragile we may never know where our cars came from...!!!

It'd be great if we could all get together to try and get some kind of database together of all the dealers that were selling P6's from 1963 to 1977 as that would make for fascinating reading and we could then try and place 'our' cars with the relevant dealers...
 
The first letter makes a lot of difference though, I worked on cars supplied by the dealer I was at at the time that started LMP, but not many other letters, and I could certainly be sure of most letters that didn't originate through there.
 
My car "RKP" was sent out to Lambs Woodford according to the heritage certificate! So if you get a heritage certificate it should tell you the dealer and the date sent out.
I had tried to find an image of this garage in the past with no luck but this thread inspired me try again! I turned up a letter sold on ebay last month from the dealer which included a drawing of the garage at the bottom (not certain if its Woodford branch though?). Not as good as photo but something at least.

 
One way of doing this is to actually visit the archives at Gaydon yourself. In the Rover build registers the dealer to whom the car is dispatched is always stated. Gaydon just haven't twigged that people might be interested, so don't bother putting it on the Heritage Certificate.

Chris
 
Found the March 1964 Version of that list in my collection. (came with the 65 200SC) It is labelled "British Isles Edition"
 
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