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Robert Martin started his fly-cab business in Winchester more than 100 years ago. These two-three passenger horse-drawn vehicles were the first step in the Martin family’s aim to offer Hampshire motorists a first-class service, from showroom through to an aftersales centre. We then moved to The Broadway in central Winchester around 1910 where we operated a motorcycle franchise and sold used cars. Not long after that, a car hire business was established.

1900s

During the swinging 60s we ran Martins Self Drive, and then from the early 1970s, we opened Chandler’s Ford Motors in School Lane, Chandler’s Ford. Our first Volkswagen dealership was opened in Andover in 1979 and just three years later we added another Volkswagen showroom to the rapidly-expanding business.

1960s & 70s

In 1991, Rover and Nissan were added to our portfolio, with dealerships opening in Winchester. The doors to our state-of-the-art Audi showroom, adjacent to the Volkswagen franchise in Basingstoke, were opened in 1999.

1990s

2005 was a busy year for Martins; we opened our first Renault dealership in Basingstoke, a Volkswagen showroom and aftersales service in Camberley, and changed the Winchester showroom from MG Rover to Renault.

Between 2005 and 2006 we also introduced Nissan and Renault aftersales services in Andover, and opened a dedicated Volkswagen aftersales dealership in Farnham.

2000s

2016 saw the development of our Volkswagen Camberley sales site - 10 years since we first took over the site. The refurbishment has enabled the site to showcase more of the ever growing Volkswagen range whilst the showroom has some of the latest digital technology.

2018 The Sports and Prestigious Alpine franchise was acquired at our Winchester business. This addition was along side a full showroom refurbishment in Nissan and Renault bringing state of the art Showroom and Service department operations to the site.

2019 We purchased our Renault Reading site bringing the brand back into the Berkshire town, a fully refurbished dealership delivering outstanding sales and aftersales experiences,

2010s

2021 We obtained the Skoda authorised repairer status to add to our multi franchise site in Andover.

2022 Our investment into the future of Martins and our customers continues as we have now become 1 of 30 Volkswagen Electric Vehicle battery competence centres (BCC) in the country, High levels of training and tooling to operate this section of the business was required. Alongside the preparation to become a BCC we also carried out a full redesign of our Body shop facility.

2020s