Popular car dealership facing closure after wall collapsed on top of cars causing £120K in damage
Tom Bowles, 30, who runs T Bowles Vehicles Sales in Church Street, Sittingbourne, found 12 of his second hand motors crushed by the collapsed wall.
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The boss, who has owned his dealership behind Lidl for the last three years, said several of his motors will have to be written off.
Tom estimated the damage caused by the collapsed wall already cost him £120,000.
It could be months before the salesman is able to reopen his dealership and he fears he might never get it back on its feet.
Tom had been on his way to the property on Wednesday, July 2, when he received some bad news from his landlord.
Tom was told he needed to get down to the dealership as quickly as possible.
Baffled by the early phone call, which is unusual for his landlord, the dad of one raced to his dealership to find a wall had collapsed and crushed a number of his motors.
A whopping 20 of Tom's for sale motors were damaged when the wall collapsed.
Tom told KentOnline: 'I started assessing the damage and started to think 'that car is dead, that one is dead and that one is dead'. My heart just sank.'
He added that based on the Lidl CCTV it 'looked like somebody had lit a bomb on it and exploded it."
'It came down on its own and had not been hit by anything.
Shocking moment flash floods destroyed nearly $2m worth of supercars - including 8 Ferraris and a Porsche
'In total 20 cars and vans were damaged. Twelve are wright-offs, such as a Ford Fiesta in the corner that had its roof touching its steering wheel after part of the wall landed on it.
'Eight were damaged from the other cars shunting into the back of them.
'I might be able to salvage those eight if the insurance pays out. I had two cars that had already been sold damaged as well.'
A Nissan Juke and a Mercedes E class had already been sold and were due to be picked up by hopeful customers when they were smashed by the wall.
The wall that came crashing down on Tom's motors is not owned by his landlord.
The area has been closed off for repairs until further notice with Tom now forced to wait to find out who owns the collapsed structure.
Tom will have to make an insurance claim to cover the heavy costs of the damages and keep his business afloat.
A Lidl spokesman said: 'Following a partial collapse of a boundary wall in the car park of our Sittingbourne store, a section of the car park has been temporarily closed off as a safety precaution.
'Thankfully, no one was hurt, and the store remains open and trading as usual.
'We have contractors on site assessing the situation while we continue to work with all relevant parties. As this is ongoing, we're unable to provide further details at this stage.'
The Sun has contacted Lidl for comment.
Why are so many car dealerships closing down?
By Summer Raemason
According to Business Rescue Expert there are multiple reasons why car dealerships are folding across the UK.
The first major factor is rising online car sales which are beating in-person sales at dealerships.
With an extensive range of comparison and second-hand sites to chose from, may car buyers don't even step foot into a dealership anymore.
Secondly, the actual cost to physically run the sites has soared.
Rent, wages and energy bills have all been increasing for roughly the past five years, putting many out of pocket.
Car manufacturing across the globe was also hit by a semiconductor chip shortage in 2022 which made it difficult to produce new motors.
The high demand with limited supply created a backlog, which although has eased, is still having an impact on the industry.
A third reason for recent closures is the shift to electric cars.
They are becoming more popular, given the Government initiative to be Net Zero in 2050.
The industry is also affected when companies merge or are bought by rivals.
This may lead to some independent names falling victim to the ongoing spate of closures.
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