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Who are they now? - AFN Chelsea

james.mckenzie

Well-known member
Joined
17 Jun 2014
Messages
77
Hi all,

I think I've found out that my car was originally supplied through AFN Chelsea. (after calling all the dealers in the UK!) I believe they don't exist now but have merged with another Porsche group. Can you tell me do they still exist on the same site under a different name? When did this happen? If so/if not who are they called now anyway and where would be the best start to find some original supplying information?

Many thanks,

James
 
Don't you mean AFN Chiswick?
if my memory is correct there was
Motortune were on the old brompton rd, ( kensington) now a restaurant or a nightclub?
Charles Ivey were main dealers in the past in Fulham
Charles Follett were in Mayfair

don't recall a main dealer in chelsea
 
Cheers Mark,

I am only going off what old systems at Porsche centres are telling me. I have just received today data back from teh DVLA which lists Motortune Limited on Brompton road as the first owner. Does that mean they were the supplying dealer?

Is AFN Chiswick still around? Or have they merged into West London? Same site?

J
 
AFN the first importers of Porsche were originally in Isleworth on the London Road ........ latterly to become AFN in Chiswick which is now OPC West London.

They have just built a new workshop and the old workshop and show rooms are now being made into a brand showroom facility which is coming along a treat.

It looks like it is going to be a pretty impressive Porsche centre with the separate work shop and show room and I presume parts centre. I will be angling for an invite to the opening party ......... ;)
 
Thanks madalaa,

It looks like the original sale from keeper 1 to keeper 2 was from Motortune in Brompton road. The question is, was Motortune the original dealer for the car or was Motortune the first owner after buying the car from AFN Chiswick?

Thoughts?

Big thanks,

James
 
james.mckenzie said:
Thanks madalaa,

It looks like the original sale from keeper 1 to keeper 2 was from Motortune in Brompton road. The question is, was Motortune the original dealer for the car or was Motortune the first owner after buying the car from AFN Chiswick?

Thoughts?

Big thanks,

James

James,

Motortune in the Brompton Road were indeed Porsche main dealers who also held a BMW franchise. Owned by a great guy with a top sales/ service team. Unfortunately, the premises were just too valuable to make sales & on site servicing viable and it was sold for development in the '90s.

Had a 930 Turbo and then a 928GT supplied by them. Happy days!! :grin:

David
 
AFN were the Porsche uk importer / concessionaire
they were taken over by Porsche Gb and renamed Porsche UK/ Porsche Retail group
retail group being Chiswick, mayfair, guildford, hatfield
the old names being AFN Guildford, Reading, Chiswick ( isleworth) AFN ParkLane being around the corner from Folletts of mayfair who i think were in Barclay square

The AFN company is still going in bristol as an engineering co
 
Cheers Mark,

Porsche Customer Services keep telling me it was AFN Chelsea who supplied the car. It appears a fella (John ......) at Motortune (Brompton road) had the car for 3 months before selling it to 'keeper 2' - by DVLA records.

My only questions are:

- Who and what were Motortune if AFN were the importers?
- Why do I keep getting told AFN Chelsea? (now Porsche Mayfair)


J
 
its probably the staff at Porsche GB
I ve been selling cars for 28 years, always had 3/4 Porsches a year until 14 years ago when i became Porsche only

whilst i ve got a good memory, i may be wrong but i ve never heard of/ can't recall AFN chelsea

But can remember motor tune
 
Wow, quite a back catalogue Mark! Have any favourites?

So who were Motortune and what did they do then?

J
 
Official word is AFN Chelsea Motortune. Just got the original sales invoice in the mail today by the first owner! I wrote to him after the V888 paperwork came in from the DVLA! Mega win!
 
Motortune History

I know this a late response to this thread, but as a former employee of MotorTune I thought I would spread some light on questions asked in the thread.
Motortune was in Brompton Road just down from the Michelin Building at Brompton Cross, we were Official Porsche Dealers along with being Official BMW and Alfa dealers.

AFN was the Official dealer in Isleworth West London and it was them that were the original importers of Porsche Cars into the UK.
John Cleave was the MD and was indeed a character, we did sales and service from this site and I started in the workshop as a Technician and progressed to After Sales and then to selling them at Motortune.
They were a privately owned company, the chairman Ronald Clark had a flat above the petrol forecourt which he stayed in when in London. I have very fond memories of working there, and was there for 25 years in total (inc AFN ownership)

I cannot remember the exact dates but BMW put pressure on Motortune to drop the other franchises as they were not compatible to their brand, Motortune made the decision to drop ALFA (Rust Buckets at that time) and BMW and build a new showroom with the glass ceiling in place of the Petrol Forecourt, which at the time in the 90s was still manned by an attendant who filled the car for you, none of this self service stuff.
From this we became a solus Porsche Centre, when the lease came up for renewal, we were told that the cost to renew was astronomical and that the business was being put up for sale.

Charles Follet in St Johns Wood were interested along with Nick Van Der Stein who I believed owned BMW in Kennington.
AFN/Porsche cars were after a central London site and that is how we came under the umbrella of AFN/PCGB.

Isleworth was old and too small, hence the purchase of the old Ford Site on the Great West Road, which was redeveloped into a State of the Art showroom and workshop facility and became the forerunner of how all the Porsche sites look today, and as has been said has been redeveloped again and they have also purchased part of the Old Dairy across the road for further expansion.
I spent 25 years working for Motortune and then AFN when they bought Motortune and still have contact with a number of people who still work there today.
 
Thanks 1931a

:welcome: to 911uk

What's prompted to join in the fun :?:
 
T8 said:
Thanks 1931a

:welcome: to 911uk

What's prompted to join in the fun :?:

Thank you :thumb:

Having worked for Porsche for 25 years and been a custododian of a 1991 964 from new(which has done only 21000 miles in its life), I thought I would answer some of the questions raised in the thread I responded too :)
 
1931a said:
Having worked for Porsche for 25 years and been a custododian of a 1991 964 from new(which has done only 21000 miles in its life

You'll have to start your first thread on the 964 forum with plenty of pictures then. :thumbs:
 

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