MCG Autos – Our New Trade Van!

A New Year brought new challenges to our business . A new start for most businesses in a post-covid era as the country finally began to leave lock downs and restrictions behind. 2020 & 2021 were 2 tough years for any business but we were one of the lucky few businesses that actually thrived during these 2 years. People could not go out for dinner or pints, could not book holidays etc so one of the few things people could still spend their money on was cars. And everyone who buys a new car of course wants to add some upgrades from MCG!

Now that the country has fully reopened, customers have been splurging out on all the things they could not over the last 2 years and their cars have taken a bit of a back seat temporarily as money is being spent elsewhere. Post-Brexit, car dealers are also still struggling to source stock and along with likes of Covid still raging elsewhere globally and issues caused by the Ukraine war, New cars are also very hard got!

All these factors have lead to an expected slower start to 2022 and so we wanted to further expand our business to combat this and help out the many great Car Dealers & Trade customers around the country.

In order to this we decided to launch our New 2022 Trade Van!! When we say New, we mean New to Us :D We faced the same issue as many customers do and were on the look out for a good, clean van for weeks on Donedeal but very little was coming up that was’nt crazy money.

Luckily we were checking in daily and came across a very clean, neat, well looked after 2014 T5.5 SWB in TW Motors In Dublin ( http://www.twmotors.ie/ ). The van went live that morning and we had it viewed and deposit paid by lunch time that day. The van was immaculate for its age and body very clean which was very important as would be going In for wrapping.

We collected the van later that week and on its maiden voyage home we even managed to make a collection and so it had already started saving & making us money!

We quickly went to work on coming up with ideas and plans for our new van as wanted something that would showcase the range of parts we do and obviously wanted to make it stand out from the crowd. Luckily due to our Huge stock levels and the range we offer for most cars & vans, we had all the required parts in-stock and so there was no delay in starting its transformation.

The List of Upgrades we decided to go with were:

– T5.5 Sportline Front Skirt
– T5.5 Fogs with M5 Non-Fan LED Fog Bulbs
– T5.5 Maxton Design Gloss Sportline Fit Front Splitter
– T5.5 Bonnet Protector
– L9F H4 LED Driving Bulbs & DRL LED Bulbs
– T5/T6 Heko Window Visors
– T5/T6 Maxton Design Gloss Side Skirt Extensions
– T5/T6 Gloss Mirror Caps
– T5/T6 Barn Door Spoiler
– T5/T6 RGM Rear Bumper Protector
– T/T6 LED Replacement Number Plate Units
– Metal Pressed Plates
– MTS Technik Coil-Overs

We brought the van to the Best in The Business Galligans Motors in Oldcastle ( https://www.facebook.com/galliganmotorsoldcastle ) to Spray & fit the parts and Tadhg did a brilliant job as always.

The Van already looked brilliant and just needed a new set of wheels & Sign writing to complete the transformation.

Before we sent it off for sign writing though we wanted to do a few Interior & ICE upgrades so that our driver Tommy would be comfortable & safe on the road. Even though ICE (in Car Entertainment) is one of the smaller areas of our business , we still can supply most popular brands & parts and we are often over looked for these! As our new trade van would be as much a Driving Advertisement for our business, we wanted to make sure it had plenty of cool toys inside :D

We hence fitted:

– Tailored Rubber Mats
– Tailored Seat Covers
– Pioneer Wifi & GPS Dash Cam
– JVC Double Din Touchscreen Bluetooth Stereo with Apple Car Play
– Brake Light Replacement Reverse Camera
– Vibe 2-Way 270w T5 Specific Fit Front Speakers
– LED Upgrade Interior Bulbs

As the Trade Van would be travelling up & down the country and with the price of Diesel these days, we brought it to our friends in JAF Performance ( https://www.jafperformance.com/ ) For an economy map and so to make sure it was as economical as possible on the road.
The last Upgrade to go on the van as a set of 18” 5×120 Calibre Direct Fit alloys. A lot of people fit BMW wheels on the Transporter vans but as these are not load rated, they need to be swapped annually for DOE which we wanted to avoid. We hence fitted these Gorgeous Matt Black Calibre Alloys and fitted a set of TPI Black Wheel Bolt Covers to finish the upgrade. A very over looked product at just €20 a set of 20!

Finally we had to send the van for wrap! We got in contact with our friends in Precision Window Tinting & Graphics ( https://www.facebook.com/precisiontints/ ) and got working with Jay on a design. The design brief we gave was that we wanted something Loud & Bright that would stand out from every other van on the road. Given our links to the Motor Sport & Performance Parts scene we wanted to go with a Drift style livery and PTG pulled out all the stops to come up with an Amazing design that blew us away!

We wanted to showcase our company colours along with some of our biggest MCG brands such as Hardrace, Silvers, Maxton Design, Chemical Guys, MTS, TA Technix, Soft99 & Stoptech.

When we finally got the van back from Sign writing we were blown away by the design and finish! All the parts we had selected and fitted and had been complemented by the PTD Wrap design. We decided to put a little extra drop on the van to give it a more aggressive stance but this was easy job thanks to the quality of the MTS Technik coil overs we decided to fit. As the MTS coil overs use Eibach springs, we maintained a lot of the Factory comfort and the van is still able to carry huge weights and we have filled it with a pallet of coil overs many times which is no issue to the MTS coils.

Since we launched our Trade Van we have been blown away by the response from not only retail customers who love the design and look, but also by the response of New Trade customers!!

Trade customers love the handiness of being offered FREE delivery (on orders over €150) and not have to worry about filling out orders or large boxes or High delivery charges on likes of bumpers & kits etc. Our Trade van gives our trade customers access to Ireland’s Largest stock of aftermarket parts, kits & accessories and all without having to keep the stock themselves. All our trade customers need to do is advertise and sell the parts / kit their sales cars out and make their money :D

Our Trade Van currently covers the Northern Regions (Cavan, Monaghan, Louth, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Down & Armagh) on a Wednesday and Southern Region (Meath, Kildare, Dublin, Wicklow) on a Thursday.

We hope to expand our trade route West in coming months so keep an eye on our social media for more info!

Are you a Car Dealer, Motor Factors, Mapper, Tuner or Accessory Shop and want to join our weekly trade run?

Then get in contact NOW and apply @

https://www.mcgautostyling.com/trade

If our Trade Van does not cover your area then don’t forget that we can still offer you trade pricing and delivery nationwide with DPD & Fastway couriers daily and prices from just €10!

If you see our van out and about on the road then make sure to tag us @mcg_autos on Instagram so we can share on our stories!