Benfield Motor Group has invested more than £200,000 in the creation of a multi-franchise dealership, named Benfield Motor Village, at its Portland Road site in Newcastle.

The development will bring together the Kia, Nissan and Skoda dealerships at one site as well as trebling the size of the used and nearly new car sales facility.

A team of three additional used car and after sales specialists have been appointed to work across the dealership. This team will bring expert advice to customers looking to buy used and near to new cars from a wide range of marques.

Benfield Motor Village is run by general manager, Mike Clark. He said the outlet was created within the city centre to compete with the growing number of out of town motor retail parks.

Mark Squires, Benfield chief executive, added: “The motor village represents a new style of dealership for the company and showcases our ability to adapt to meet our customers’ needs, by significantly increasing the size of our used and nearly new car offering.

“The motor village marks our on going commitment to investing in our existing 25 dealerships and expanding our used car offering across the group.”