Alan Day dealership in Mayfair in the 80's?

[ianrandom]

Hi, does anybody know what happened to the Alan Day dealership in Mayfair? I'd like to get in contact with the business, perhaps it changed names or something?
If anyone happens to know I'd be grateful. Thanks!

 

[markjay]

Sorry, I do not know.

There was a Alan Day Mercedes Benz in Finchley Road, in the nineties they became just 'prestige' car sellers after MB UK took-over most of the dealerships, and eventually closed down altogether.

But Alan Day VW is still trading (on the A406 near North Finchley) - perhaps you can ask them?

 

[Darrell]

Wasn't the dealership by Green Park station?

 

[craigbau]

Hi everyone - my first post that came from me doing a google search on Alan Day Mercedes. I have recently bought a widebody 500SEC in Australia that has a sticker on it that says "serviced by Alan Day 01-328-472 Central London NW6" and with a 3 pointed star on it. More detail at this thread: OZBENZ - Australian & New Zealand Mercedes-Benz Forums ? View topic - That Red widebody

So is NW6 Mayfair? I don't have any history on the car but through a contact i was able to find out that the car went from from Affalterbach to the UK in 1982, which i found interesting partly because i think that is quite early for a widebody and also I thought there was an agent in the UK that did most of the conversions. All the panels have the correct AMG castings in them. It would be fantastic if there was still somebody with records from the company - I can't imagine there was too many widebody cars in '82 and can't help wondering who owned the car.

Something else that you might be able to follow up locally - from the google search I also turned up that in Linkedin a guy named Andy Wright lists in his regime that he worked at " Alan day ltd Mercedes dealer. July 1987 – July 1989 ( 2 years 1 month) Kilburn north west London ..." (Andy Wright Wright/Merc-Tech | LinkedIn) and now has his own business Wright-tech UK (WrightTechUK). I sent him a message via his site asking if by chance he remembered a red widebody but got no answer, which might mean he thinks i am nuts and not worthy of a reply, or there was some mishap in the system and he didn't get the question. If someone was local to there might be worth asking him some questions perhaps. I know our local dealer here in Adelaide seems to remember anything a bit different, but then Adelaide is tiny compared to London.

Anyway, thought i would float that one.

Must update my profile etc - I worked for a year in Wocester at the wildlife trust back in 2000-01 and you would have to call me a benz tragic with cars ranging from a 1950 170s, a 69 280sl, 108's, 126's (NB that is plural!)

Craig Baulderstone

 

[markjay]

Welcome to forum Craig.

NW6 is not Mayfair.

I believe the Finchley Road Alan Day was NW3 6ET.

NW6 fits the Kilburn area.

Google found:
Alan Day Kilburn
117 Malvern Road
Kilburn
London NW6 5PU

 

[WG M-B]

I know x2 guys that worked there. I will ask for you

 

[craigbau]

Great, so i reckon that was Kilburn where it was serviced. From memory your postcodes are great where you can pin down pretty much to a block where it is, but you use the NW6 bit to define a certain restricted area.

And thanks WG, you never know. I have a blue normal body AMG 500SEC that i have lots of history for including telex from the Adelaide guy that bought it, AMG orders, even a receipt for the fee of them picking up from the factory to drive to AMG! After buying it i noticed it had a letter stuck in the back of the service book from AMG to the service manager that was still at the dealer - a reply to the question of what to set the valve clearances at (had the solid lifter AMG modded engine). When i saw the service manager he laughed how the apprentices would drool over it whenever it came in. Since then i have been surprised how many people remember it - people refer to it as 'GP1' because the director of the first Australian F1 GP owned it and they had a special run of 'GP plates' and of course he got 1. The plate is probably worth more than the car now! So hopefully someone has fond memories of bright red widebody!

 

[craigbau]

So did you have any luck with those guys that worked their Wayne? I will do a separate thread on what i have worked out with the car so far when i get a minute for future reference but it does seem to be a very early car at 001939 and with confirmation of it being at Affalterbach in 82 I think it must be a very early RHD widebody. I haven't been able to find out when the first ones were made. Not that it matters but i do find that history side of things interesting. And some of the conversion work is not that pretty, but then i have also heard that reported from people with original cars - I get the feeling they were great engineers and designers, can imagine their motor building being fastidious, but when it came to the bodies they were creating a look and not too concerned with the hidden stuff like inside those WB rear guards.

My plan is to coat it in plenty of wax though to halt any further rusting and then i have the space to store it. I have picked up another much less rusty 500 shell that had the 300bhp 560 fitted to it, so will graft all the amg body and suspension on to that. It still makes it possible for that to all go back on the original shell, but is a much shorter road for me to take to get a WB on the road.

 

[WG M-B]

I asked both of them for you. They both said it was a very long time ago and could not specifically remember

 

[ringway]

I bet MOCAŠ would know the answer.