Our History
Below you will find a timeline of the SMC Motor Group history from 1982 to present.
| Year | SMC History | World Events |
|---|---|---|
| 1982 | Slough Motor Company is founded by Mike Warnes & Leon Friedman & begins life as an Austin Rover dealer | • Argentina invades the Falklands resulting in war • ET becomes the highest grossing movie to date • The first successful heart transplant is performed in Salt Lake City, Utah |
| 1983 | Swale Motor Company in Kent joins the SMC Company and becomes SMC Ford | • The US Embassy in Lebanon is bombed in a terrorist attack • Cellular phones make their first appearance in Chicago • Michael Jackson releases the hugely successful album Thriller |
| 1989 | SMC expands its empire – taking over dealerships in Hillingdon and Hayes | • George Bush succeeds Ronald Reagan as US President • Sky Television is launched in Europe and is received by home satellite dishes • The United States invade Panama to arrest General Noriega on charges of drug trafficking |
| 1990 | After buying a Greenfield site in Gravesend, SMC build a large state of the art Ford dealership | • Nelson Mandela is released from prison after 27 years of incarceration • East and West Germany are reunited with the fall of the Berlin Wall • John Major replaces Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister |
| 1993 | SMC Uxbridge is developed on an old post office site | • Czechoslovakia splits into 2 countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia • The Worldwide Web is born • Tennis star Monica Seles is stabbed by an obsessed fan of Steffi Graf |
| 1998 | SMC develop a Greenfield site in Crayford | • Ford Motor Company buys Volvo for $6.45 billion • The Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky affair dominates the news • Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergei Brin |
| 1999- 2001 | SMC SEAT in Windsor and SMC Suzuki in Harrow join the SMC Group | • Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigns and Vladamir Putin succeeds him • Millenium celebrations take place around the World • On September 11th 2001 3 planes fly into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon |
| 2002 | SMC Mitsubishi at Erith and Stockley Park Accident Repair Centre join the SMC Family | • Brazil win the World Cup beating Germany 2-0 • US launches military action against Afghanistan • North Korea admits to developing a nuclear weapons programme |
| 2003 | SMC comes to High Wycombe still as an MG Rover dealer | • A deadly new virus called SARS kills thousands around the world • US launches invasion in to Iraq to oust Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein • China becomes only the third country to put a man in space |
| 2006 | SMC open their All Makes Service Centre at Stockley Park | • Abu Musab el Zarqawi the terrorist leader in Iraq is killed • Warren Buffet, the world’s second richest man announces he will donate nearly $30 billion to charity • Steve Irwin the popular naturalist and TV personality dies after being stung by a stingray |
| 2010 | SMC opens new showroom in Sittingbourne for Mitsibushi, Suzuki and MG | • A massive earthquake shatters the poverty-stricken Caribbean nation of Haiti. • The Conservative Party forms a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. • Thirty-three Chilean miners who have been trapped deep underground for 69 days are finally rescued |
