Our Heritage

John Brown, born in 1910 - son of a coal miner. In 1927 John Brown & Co starts trading from a rented garage in Greenside, Edinburgh. After qualifying as a Certified Insurance Broker in 1934 John Brown & co moves to Tollcross in Edinburgh. After servicing as a WWII Spitfire mechanic from 1939 - 1945 John Brown designed the first mobile bank in 1950.

n 1954, he bought the Eastern Motor Company which traded from George Street in the centre of Edinburgh. He saw the large weather vane that sat on the top of St George’s Church on George Street and adopted it as his company emblem. The weather vane is still used today as our Group motif.

John Brown bought Dean Park House , Craigleith in 1960 and developed the site into a family home and Esso petrol station. In 1963 116 Colinton Road was purchased and BMW & Mercedes-Benz cars were sold from this site.

Douglas Brown, one of three children John & Rona Brown had was born in 1963.Throughout the 1960's John Brown competes in a range of motor sport activities including both hill climbs and circuit racing.

The 1970 were economically very turbulent and the UK witnessed the advent of the 3-day-week and mass unemployment. There was a world fuel crisis and resulting energy shortages. People had to queue for fuel and staff regularly used candles at work.

John Brown bought one of our most iconic sites in 1973 - No 1 Corstorphine Road, Edinburgh. This remains our registered office to this day.In 1975 Western Commercial opened it's Mercedes Van and Truck business at Newbridge.

Sadly in 1981 John Brown died. The business was passed to Douglas Brown, aged 18. Douglas joined a programme run by Mercedes-Benz UK which involved a two year secondment to London.

In 1982 Eastern BMW moved to No 1 Corstorphine Road, where it remained until 2009. In 1984 our Financial Director, Nasser Mohammed, joins the business as 'Assistant to the Group Accountant'.

Eastern Western Financial Services is incepted. In 1991 our Managing Director, Keith Duncan joins the group as Sales Manager and our Financial Director Kenny Robb, joins the group as Purchase Ledger Clerk both at Western Mercedes, Colinton Road, Edinburgh. Our Managing Director, Peter Collin, also joined Western Mercedes, Colinton Road, as General Manager in 1992.

Van Delivery Service was started in 1996 delivering the groups mail and parts distribution. We expand into England with the opening of Saab Newcastle. At the same time we aquire our first VW business, this was based in Falkirk.? In 1999 Western Mercedes opens a second business in East Edinburgh.

Abercromby Volkswagen acquired in East Edinburgh becoming the group's second Volkswagen retailer. Lexus Edinburgh opens at Newbridge, Edinburgh. Eastern MINI opens following BMW's launch of the MINI brand across the UK. Initially in a corner of the BMW showroom.

3 Abercromby Toyota sites acquired. Western Toyota opens at Sighthill, Halbeath and Whitecraigs in East Edinburgh. Sloans Volkswagen acquired in Gorgie Road, West Edinburgh giving us 3 Volkswagen retailers at this time. In 2004 our industry leading bodyshop opens at Broxburn, West Lothian and the Current Head Office opens at East Mains Industrial Estate, Broxburn and all current Head Office functions relocate to this location.

The Harley-Davidson brand is acquired for Edinburgh and Western Toyota Whitecraigs relocates to a new location on old Dalkeith Road.

In 2006 Western Commercial relocates from Newbridge to purpose built facilities in Broxburn. Western Commercial expands with new sites opened in Glasgow and Bellshill. Western Mercedes Passenger Cars relocates from Colinton Road to the UK's largest Mercedes-Benz site at Newbridge.

Car Deal Warehouse, the groups own multi-franchise used car brand opens at Gorgie Road. Gogeta Rental Car, the groups hire car business, starts trading. Eastern BMW & Eastern MINI relocate from Corstorphine Road to Newbridge. The showroom design was the first 'slice design architecture' BMW showroom in the UK.

Car Deal Warehouse Halbeath opens, trading within the Western Toyota site. Edinburgh's Luxury Car Village' at Newbridge is created and this description would quickly become 'normal parlance' in Edinburgh.

We replace Arnold Clark as the Lexus franchise holder in Glasgow, initially trading from Kennedy Street. Car Deal Warehouse Glasgow opens within the Lexus Glasgow site.

In 2010 we replace Chatham Honda and open our first Honda franchise in Fort Kinnaird, Edinburgh. We replace John Martin group and open our first Mazda dealership at Corstorphine Road, Edinburgh. We are appointed Nissan dealers for West Edinburgh, sharing an address - but not a showroon - with Mazda at Corstorphine Road.

Western Toyota Sighthill relocates to The Luxury Car Village in stunning new premises. Lexus Glasgow relocates from the temporary premises at Kennedy Street to a stunning showroom in West Street, Central Glasgow.

With the demise of Saab?, Lexus Glasgow relocates to a city centre location. Western Honda opens it's second franchise in Fife, Dunfermline, replacing Arnold Clark Honda. Western Commercial opens it's fourth location, this time in Dundee. Scotlands Car Buyer, the group's online car buying service opens for business.

Western Volkswagen relocates from Gorgie Road to brand new purpose built premises at Edinburgh's Luxury Car Village. Car Deal Warehouse opens it's first dedicated & branded showroom adjacent to Western Volkswagen in Edinburgh's Luxury Car Village. Car Deal Warehouse, Edinburgh East also opens within the Western Honda Fort Kinnaird site.

Western Nissan Stirling opens having replaced Arnold Clark as the franchise holder. Western Nissan Fife opens in Halbeath adjacent to Western Toyota and Western Honda.

Western Nissan and Western Mazda relocate from Corstorphine Road to purpose built premises within Edinburgh's Luxury Car Village.

Eastern Western Motor Group acquires the Grassicks BMW and MINI businesses in Perth. Deciding to keep the Grassicks name due to the heritage the business has in the Perthshire area.

Mercedes-Benz of Edinburgh moves from it's Willowbrae Road site to a brand new purpose built state of the art showroom in Fort Kinnaird.

The Group acquires Barnetts Motor Group in Tayside including two Volkswagen dealerships, one Nissan and one Mazda dealership. With most brands trading from the iconic Riverside Drive location in Dundee and St Andrews.

Western Nissan and Honda Stirling both move to purpose built showrooms in Broadleys Business Park.

Edinburgh Harley-Davidson moves to new purpose-built premises in Sighthill and launches Kawasaki from the same location in 2021. The Group acquires Alex F Nobels Nissan Straiton business in the same year.

Western Toyota Stirling opens beside the Group's other brands in Broadleys business park, initially trading from temporary accommodation while their purpose built showroom is completed.

Mercedes-Benz of Dunfermline opens in Halbeath alongside the already established businesses of Western Honda, Western Nissan and Western Toyota. Bringing a luxury car brand to Fife for the first time.

Maxus joins the Group with Western Maxus opening it's first dealership in Broxburn.

2023-2024

We open our first dedicated Volkswagen Commercial and Touring centre at the Luxury Car Village at Newbridge in 2023. Trading initially from a temporary site for a short time and then moving to our permanent facility on the site.  

January 2024 brings more growth to the group with the following businesses opening:
Lexus Dundee, Barnetts Toyota Dundee and Perth, Detailogy Dundee and Car Deal Warehouse Dundee

In August 2024 the Group gains the Honda franchise for Dundee and begins trading from a temporary showroom on the Dunsinane site in the city. At the same time the Group also expands again in Perth with the purchase of the Honda site based at the Triangle in Perth rebranding it to Barnetts Honda Perth and opening a Car Deal Warehouse site at the same location.

This was a big growth year again for the Group which started off with our Western Toyota Edinburgh East dealership moving from their site at Cameron toll in Edinburgh to a new RC25 showroom at Fort Kinnaird in Edinburgh alongside our Western Mercedes-Benz dealership.

Chery enters the UK market for the first time and Barnetts and Western Chery open three dealerships in Dundee, Newbridge and Straiton.

Western Commercial Broxburn, the Groups flagship Mercedes Commercial site completes a full refit to bring the premises up to the latest MB UK standards for it's customers.

Western Volkswagen Van Centre opens a large state-of-the-art dedicated Service Centre in Broxburn.

The Group completes the purchase of Audi Edinburgh and Audi Stirling, bringing another luxury brand into the Eastern Western family.

The Groups large scale dedicated Aftersales and Service Centre opens in Halbeath.

We expand our offering in The Scottish Borders with Western Volkswagen and Western Maxus joining our newly refurbished Western Mercedes-Benz dealership in Coldstream.

We expand again with Chery, opening our 4th dealership in Stirling on t he same site as our Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Car Deal Warehouse businesses.

Another of the VAG brands joins The Group with our first Western Skoda dealership opening in Fort Kinnaird, Edinburgh on 1st April.