$4m Turners Cars site open for business
A nationwide motor vehicle chain has officially opened its new $4 million Timaru branch on a historical site
While Turners Cars Timaru, at the corner of Meadows Rd and State Highway 1 in Washdyke, started trading in November, it was officially opened on Friday.
Chief executive Greg Hedgepeth said the company believed the new branch was bringing “better choices” and “better value” to the people of South Canterbury.
“We decided a couple of years ago to come to Timaru. We have done analysis and we can see that there is growth and there is a lot happening in this part of the world,” Hedgepeth said.
“So we wanted to bring our brand and our offering to the people of Timaru. This is our 21st car branch across the country.
“We are selling three or four thousand cars a month and we have, at any given time, 3000 cars available.’’
Hedgepeth confirmed the total investment in the new site was $4m.
It originally housed the Doncaster Tavern, which was Timaru’s third-oldest licensed hotel, after the Carlton and Royal hotels.
Timaru businessman Leo Leonard purchased the site, which he used to run Leo Leonard Motors from, after the Doncaster Hotel shut its doors in August 2009 after 149 years’ trading. Turners bought the site in June 2022. “A lot of rich history is on this site. The building itself was a bit run down and needed to be taken down but we would like to think what we have built in this place does the old site proud,” he said.
“We are looking forward to seeing the people of Timaru come on down to the blue business down the road, and and come in and see us.”
Hedgepeth said so far feedback had been “really good” since the soft opening in November. “Even before we opened the doors we had people approaching us wanting to come and buy or sell cars, and the first few months of trading have been really good.
“We have now got a full team on board, which is great, so it means we can really service our customers very well and things are looking very positive for us.”