Losing the plot

But Clive and Joan Smith have no regrets. They reckon that what has evolved into a mini business park inside the ring road at number 379, is far better for them, their tenants, employees, and, above all, customers, than would have been the case if they had sold up, taken the money, and perhaps a block of flats or offices had mushroomed on the site instead.

Mr Smith said: “About 18 people work here now in five units. There is the Majestic Wine company on the road front and, behind it, four more small enterprises, all connected to the motor trade, and all able to help and support each other.”

He added: “Majestic moved in here recently. We regard that as a feather in our cap, that a company like Majestic would want to locate one of its 160 outlets here.”

Majestic Wine’s move from next door at number 381 might also illustrate the wisdom of his earlier words about not selling to developers. That next door site was bought by a developer who subsequently ran into difficulties — and now the place stands forlorn, undeveloped, and for sale.

But behind Majestic the yard buzzes with activity. There is Cowley Road MoTs, which does nothing but test cars; Dunn Car Sales, where Tony Dunn, after 34 years with Hartford Motors, set up on his own five years ago; Steve Bartrum, paint sprayer and body repair specialist who has worked on that site for nearly 40 years; and the French and Italian Car Centre, which specialises in car servicing and repairs.

“It is like the old days here,” said Mr Smith. “Small businesses doing their own thing. Not great impersonal places out-of-town.”

And how did he and his wife come to be owners of such a place? Over a cup of tea and sitting comfortably round a desk in Tony Dunn’s showroom, I heard all about it.

After leaving St Margaret’s Road School, Oxford, Mr Smith got a job as a secondhand car salesman in 1962, at what was then called Greenings, next door at 381. Then, after getting married to Joan in 1966, he went freelance — buying and selling cars, even though he had no premises. In 1972, the opportunity arose to rent Number 379 from old-established car dealer and garage Crappers who, in Mr Smith’s words, ‘did car repairs, MoTs, caravans, bottled gas — the lot’.

He said: “When the freehold came up for sale in 1981, I went along to the bank manager.

“In those days there were proper bank managers, and this one was fantastic. So I bought the place.

“I remember it was worrying, and we joked that the business should really have been called Kamikaze Car Sales.”

But the risk was allayed when they succeeded in selling a field behind the yard to the Oxford Housing Association.

Mr Smith added: “There have certainly been ups and downs. I was supposed to have retired from this place 18 years ago in 1995, when a Fiat dealership bought the business, but not the site. No such luck. When they gave it up in 2000, I decided to rent out the different units and let people go it alone.

“Steve Bartrum, who started working for me when he was 15, is now his own boss. It is a way of using the site which has simply evolved. But it works well.”

“And it is our pension,” said Mrs Smith.

She added: “Now we hope that our son Tim, who helps run the place, will take over the business in due course.”

The business is still evolving, too. Majestic Wine will soon take over another large unit on the site, and the Smiths are going to build four flats, too.

Mr Smith said: “I rather hope that people working here might take the flats. After all, it would save them having to drive to work.”

And Mrs Smith said: “It is true that this place does feel more like the old days in Cowley Road.”

But perhaps this is a case of ‘back to the future’, with people being given the chance to work for themselves.

Mr Smith reckons it motivates people to work and offer better service. And, after all, there is the old question: “Whoever washed a hired car?”

o Contact: Clive Smith, 01865 351945.