Winner's of our Christmas Draw

Thank you to all our customers who entered our Christmas draw. And the winners are Big long pause xfactor style!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jackie Fox Deba Correia Glenda Summers Thank you to you all, i will deliver the prizes today. A merry Christmas to all our customers And thank you for all your business this year. We are back open on the 28th December. Ian

Win and ipod 2 in our Free Christmas Draw

Christmas draw taking place on Christmas eve, Free to enter just visit the showroom or pop in to the service department.
Take a test drive before Christmas and get a second entry, or if you buy a car get 5 entrys.
Any service work also doubles your entry.
If you have liked our facebook page, you are in the draw, congratulations.

Free winter driving evening

If you felt you didn't feel safe or know enough about driving in winter conditions last year, this will be just the evening for you.

We are following the same format as we did last year, in conjunction with Buckinghamshire county council, and the Buckingham Advertiser, we will be starting at 7pm on Thursday the 17th November, In the showroom at Buckingham Ford. The evening will start with a talk on driver and driving safety from Graham, being an ex traffic policeman he not only has some great advice, but some real life stories to tell, about drivers not knowing what they are doing.

We then move onto the part of the evening were you get to ask anything of our senior technicians about caring for your car, this is the time were no question is to silly, as it is your car that you rely on. They will go through some basic tips on keeping you and your care safe and in the right condition for winter.

If you wish to come along please book your space with us on 01280812121. http://youtu.be/l4w-w984zdA

Great day of parking fun

We held the parking competition on Tuesday, and then had to set it up again on Thursday as we had more people wanting to try the Focus that parks itself. Everyone seemed to like the idea of the parking aid, but a lot thought it felt very strange to let go of the steering wheel and let the car do it for you. Customers who hadn't parked a car with just park assist were impressed and are looking to have us fit these to there existing car. The overall winner of parking the car without any aid was one of the first to try Sarah Kellett, who parked with only a 6am gap between the tyre and the kerb. If my memory serves me correctly she said "If I win this my husband will never believe it" Well Sarah will have some proof when we see her next week to hand over her prize.

Parking challenge event next Tuesday

According to a survey on net mums 21% of women say they are great at parallel parking and 38% say ‘Yes they are ok at it’, so thats over 50% are quite happy and a further 32% find it tricky but get there in the end.

Of course there was no such survey on Men parking as they would obviously all be great or not have answered the question.

We are holding a fun parking competition on Tuesday 11th from 11am to see if it is easier to park a car with or without the cars help.

With a prize for the best solo effort, along with some other great prizes.

Watch the focus part itself on you tube, just copy the link below

Have you neglected Herbert

It may be Herbie, Speedy or just plain Freddie the Focus, but an awful lot of people have been neglecting there cars since the recession, and think they have done very well saving £15 here and £35 there on a car service or an Mot, and yes sometimes you may be right. We are starting to see a large number of cars that have been neglected, but not always by there owners, as some believe they handed there car over to a professional, who has then not done the job properly, it could be as simple as not putting the right oil in, that the engine is designed to run on. We have seen some cases of engines blowing up from the wrong oil, were cheap oil has been put in , and then blocked the oil ways as it is too thick, leading to parts of the engine to not be lubricated and then failing, sometimes never to run again. But if you think you may be guilty of this, believe me there will be someone worse, and we can help you get it put right. And we will take a look for FREE. Just pop in and we will take 15 minutes carrying out a FREE health check on your Herbie for you.

Are you comparing Apples with Apples

Following a long talk with a customer this morning, who bought her 13 month old car in to be looked at, i sat down with James and digested what the customer had explained to me.

This same customer's sat down with us 3 months ago before they purchased the said Focus that she bought in this morning, the difference between buying from us came down to we were "too nice". My words not hers but this is what happened

1. We let her test drive with her daughter, without us in the car making her nervous.
2. We didn't put any preasure on her to buy the car there and then.
3. We explained our car had a warranty for 30 months.
4. We would service the car before she had it, and re valet the car for her.
5. We gave her a better part exchange price than she eventually achieved.

The reason they didn't buy our car was that there daughter found the same car! £400 cheaper but 130 miles away and they went to see it, after all £400 is £400. When they arrived there the car they had seen on the web site wasnt there (even though there daughter had called to check that morning) it was at another branch. But after agreeing that it was the model and colour they were looking for, the sales person went to value there car, and they then found themselves in a high pressure sales process that ended with them signing an order form and leaving a £500 deposit for a car they haden't seen, and the crunch was they ended up paying more for the car, as there was a purchasers admin fee, extra for it to be valeted and serviced. And although they purchased the car, they said they would never go there again, and didn't have a good word to say about them.

But even after learning about this, we will not be changing the way we do business.

After all we still want to treat people the way we would want to be treated.

Hassle free

New registartions out on the road now

September has been very busy so far with the new 61 plate cars leaving our forecourts last week and over the weekend.

But one customer who collected his new Focus really made me think, we were discussing the many new cars he had over the years, and every one came with some new technology. But what really came out of this was his surprise of exactly how much new technology the Focus now has packed into it.

We went down memory lane and discussed the first time he had power steering and then Anti lock brakes on the next one and airbags, and then they not only came from the front but the sides and the roof and now by your legs. Where is it going to stop he asked?

Its not was my answer, because you can now get a Focus that can parallel park itself with little help from the driver, it will tell you if you are drifting over the white lines while driving or warn you if someone is coming into the blind spot on the motorway.

He stopped me then and said Ian enough, i think all that can wait until the next one, its great to reminisce but i need to go and enjoy this one now.

He called me today just to tell me his new Focus is fantastic, and the best car he has ever had, and no he wouldn't swap for any of the old ones we talked about.

The lesson i learned from this, is we have a lot of customers who still would not know what is now available in the way of safety or convenience in the new Focus, and all other new models.

Its New and available right now

No its not a new model of car, or some fantastic new device, but thats not to say we are short of them right now.

But personal contract hire is now available in the UK, as we know the way they do things in the States always makes its way over to us eventually, and this is one we have been waiting far to long for.

I could go back 20 years and customers were asking for this then, I just want a car to drive for the next 2 years and then change it, no hassle of ownership just a monthly payment.

Well you can get that now, we are busy loading them up on the we site as i write this. Try this link for starters

http://www.buckinghamford.co.uk/vehicle_details.php?V_ID=88

There will be many more coming soon, but if you want to get a quote call James or Jeff now

Exemplary Service

Hello Ian,

I'd like to say that the overall service I have received from both Bicester and Buckingham Ford during the last few years has been exemplary.

I normally contact Bicester ford as its the closest to me, and I have to say that every time I have had to deal with the branch the same caring and considerate approach has always been displayed, whether working with Jeff Lawrence in changing cars, who is relentless in his perseverance in finding the right product, yet very patient when discussing the clients needs.

When working with Neal and Andrea, there is nothing that is too much trouble.

Just recently I have had to put some of our cars through the bodyshop at Buckingham, and again Russell and his team have done the company justice in the quality of their work and good service which surrounds it.

I visited the Buckingham branch this weekend to pick up my Son's Fiesta Black from the bodyshop after some minor repairs, but while at the branch promptly "dumped" some additional work onto your team at very short notice due to one or two worries I had about my Focus Estate prior to a very imminent family holiday journey to Cornwall.

Dave and his team were able to sort out the problems, very swiftly, including the sourcing of parts.

A special thanks to Scott who sorted out the bonnet release, a commitment taken on very late in the day, but still with the professionalism and enthusiasm which I have to say I have rarely experienced in other dealerships.

Working in the service industry myself I can appreciate the hard work that goes on behind the scenes by the whole team and very often this level of service is not recognised. Well done to all!

Kindest regards and thanks again,

Trevor Mockford

Edgcott

The New Focus Woman

I can't add anything to this, this customer says it all.

Hi Ian , I would like to say thank you to James of New Car Sales for all his help in letting me test drive the New Focus Titanium by bring it to me at home after my Operation and then looking after me so well .
The New Focus Titanium is a pleasure to drive not only does it look superb , its lines are sleek and classy , but it is a lot quieter than my previous Focus's and is a very smooth ride . I was looking at going to a different car manufacturer as I have had Focus's from you for the last 14 years (Focus Woman) but am so glad I did not.

The Trip Computer tells you everything you need from tyre pressure to how many miles left in the petrol tank (which I need) to your average speed and also helps with fuel economy by assisting in gear changing so my fuel consumption has been less.

Once again thank you for looking after me so well.

Anne Marie

20 Years Between cars

There is a lot to be said for a good product lasting a long time, and when it is a car its the maintenance that is very important.

Dr Chapman picked up his Ford Fusion last Saturday. "Nothing unusual about that" I hear you say...

Well, the car Dr Chapman disposed of was the Ford Orion 1.6 GLX in Tasman Blue that he bought from me 20 years ago - this is where regular maintenance comes in.

Because 20 years ago I was working in a Ford Garage along with David our Service Manager who was a technician at the time, and Dr Chapman is David's Father in Law, and because he has maintained his car regularly it has lasted him over 20 Years.

You don't need to have a relation who can maintain your car to make it last this long, but what this shows is that if you do keep your car regularly maintained by professionals it can last you a very long time.
To bring this into perspective this is the first car Dr Chapman has had with Power Steering.

Keep cool this summer, with this celebration offer

The first Birthday offer starts today, and as its 15 years yes you guessed it's £15 off our normal prices.

We often get asked... Why have your air conditioning serviced???? Well there is the obvious one that it is not cold enough or it will not de-mist the windows. Your car can lose up to 15% of its refrigerant every year which can lead to the system having to work harder to keep you cool, which can on some cars lead to the engine working harder and using more fuel. Also a poorly performing system can cause a build-up of fungus, bacteria and other microbes growing inside causing a smell.

What is the difference between a regas and an Air conditioning service?
Well a regas is just that, we recover the existing gas from the system and vacuum it out , and then refill as required. And a service is as the regas but we will add a dye during the recharge of the system to enable us to check for leaks from the system, using a UV light. We also run a cleaner through the ducts of the heating system to kill any bacteria build up, and take away any nasty smells, carry out tests on the system controls, for both heating and cooling, and check that all is working correctly.

Can you do this on any make of car?
Yes to 95% of them, please call us with the make and model of your car, and we will be able to tell you there and then. As with car servicing and MOT, we can carry out an air con service to any car.

So if your air conditioning is not behaving itself call us today to make an appointment on 01280 812121 and speak to Paul or David.

15 years old on 22nd July, £15 off an MOT

Yes Buckingham Ford is 15 years old this year, it was on the 22nd July 1996 that we opened our doors for the first time. And it will be us giving out the presents.

Of course the showroom hear at Ford street has been here since 1888, before the engine took to the roads, making horse drawn carriages and hand carts on site, and then selling them from the showroom.
We may be venturing down memory lane on our birthday, but before then we will have over 15 great offers for you to enjoy, over the coming weeks.

The first is the continuation of the £15 off we started at the beginning of the year when you have a car mot'd with us, normal price £54 but just £39 with us, i am not sure that we can continue running this promotion beyond our Birthday so grab your voucher now at:
http://www.buckinghamford.co.uk/offers.php

If you are looking for a FREE mot you can also get that on the same page, with a major service.

Happy Birthday to us soon.

The Sun is out, need a car thats fun for under £4000

The sun is out and here to stay for easter, and hopefully into next week. And this great little convertible is just the carriage to turn up in at a Royal wedding or a barbecue.
It has had 5 owners, but don't be put off as they have all looked after this one, as they have all maintained it wonderfully, as you can see from its full service history, One owner we believe and we don't know which one has been parking it a little too close to the kerb as you can see on the near side alloy wheel, but they probably had other things on there mind as they parked it, like just how good they looked in there cute convertible.
I have had a look around, and there isn't a car that can give you this much fun for under £4000 that comes with the good pedigree that this one does, and 6 months warranty, before you take it away we will service it and give it a nice new MOT, so you get piece of mind as well.
If things do get a little too hot, you can always put the hood back up, and turn on the air conditioning to get your temperature down. Take a look at all the nice pictures and specification here
http://www.buckinghamford.co.uk/used_vehicle_details.php?P_ID=263
This just could be the carriage you have been waiting for to take you away?
Have a great Easter everyone

Not just accident damage in our bodyshop

This was the end result, of a full restoration of this fantastic looking E-Type Jaguar, we were approached by the owner to do all the paint work for the car, after we had done some insurance repairs on a Land Rover and a Bmw for the company he owns.

The car actually belonged to his Father, and at some point in the past he had promised his Father who had had the E-Type for a number of years, that he would get the car restored to its former glory.

He was carrying out all the mechanical and interior work himself, so gave us the car piece by piece to prepare and paint.

We started with the main chassis, doors and boot, As the car had had a number of repairs in the past, and a total repaint at some point. The owner applied to Jaguar to find out what the original colour of the car was, so that it was back to its original colour. We then took the car back to bare metal before repairing any imperfections as you can see in the picture below.

He then had them back so he could start the rebuilding of the engine and the interior of the car.

He then gave us the front, which comes in one piece, and was the hardest part to prepare, due to the fine lines of the E-Type this took a fair few hours, as we didn't want this car having a lot of filler used on such a fine car.

The result was an E-Type that looked brand new, he had made a great job of the rebuild.

A special Thank you to all our repeat customers

WOW what a week, it has been so good seeing so many customers coming back to change there cars, and a lot of you all turned up in the same week, let alone the same day.

Last Saturday was so busy, with a lot of you all turning up to look at the new Focus. I can honestly say we went home exhausted but very very happy, you also sold us some great cars in part exchange, that we have been servicing for you, and thank you for looking after them so well.

Just a short note this time.

Thank You

Ian

Coincidentally Spooky

I wrote a Blog post back in February, during the 14 days of love campaign titled "Kindest testimonial so far" well the customers who wrote that testimonial Alan and Sandy Hastings came in again about two weeks ago and bought a New Focus from us for Sandy.

Well you might say there is nothing "coincidental" or "spooky" about that, and you would be right, what was coincidental was while they were there Sandy was looking around her possible purchase, and next to it was her old car , not the one she was part exchanging this time, but the one she bought in 2006 and sold back to us in 2009, we of course had sold it and bought it back yet again.

Well the spooky bit comes about the day after Sandy has her new Focus, Sandy calls and tells us about a potential customer she has given our details too, and she will be calling us. Well when we get the call we have exactly what this lady is looking for, Sandy's 2006 Focus, and yes she is driving it now......That's Spooky.

What's behind the Showroom

Recently as we have been introducing customers to our service department, when they collect a New car. A few have been commenting that they never knew we repaired accident damage, or i didn't know you serviced all makes of car.

The highlight to this was a customer last week, who has lived in Buckingham for over 20 years, who said "I thought you just sold cars". So now I feel I need to explain exactly what we do, and it is a lot more than just sell cars. Although that is important to us, by far the repair and servicing is the biggest part of our business at Buckingham Ford,

• We have an 8 bay Workshop that can service 95% of all cars and vans.
• All our Mechanics have regular training, and did there apprenticeships with other brands.
• Our Accident repair centre, covers insurance repairs and restorations.
• We MOT all makes of car.
• We carry out Air conditioning servicing on most vehicle makes.
• We offer a Free vehicle health check to all our customers.

So next time you pass and see the showroom at Buckingham, just remember we are here to help with all your motoring needs.

New cars, New number plates 11

The first of many new cars are being collected by customers today, on the new 11 number plate.

The first one here at Buckingham, was collected by Mervyn, bright and early this morning.

Mervin has been buying his cars here for some time now, he has said in the past "Its because the coffee is good" but today he told us the real reason why he keeps coming back.

I have had my last 3 Fiesta's from James at Buckingham Ford, I get on really well with James and the team at the garage, and see no reason why I shouldn't continue to deal with both the sales and service side of the business.

Thank you again Buckingham Ford

Mervyn

The New Ford Focus

Now We have had the New Focus here for a few days now, and keep looking at it, and believe me it is worth looking at, because we cant find a picture that captures the true greatness of this car.

Yes it is great to drive-I would say that.

Yes it is comfortable - I would say that.

It looks beautiful in the flesh, but annoyingly i can't find a picture that shows you that, and unfortunately we all buy first with our eyes, and i cant find a picture that will get you into our showrooms to look at what i believe is the best car we have launched for years - Unless you can just believe me on this one and come and take a look, take a drive and make the decision for yourself.

I could at this point start to go through all the new technology that is involved, but they are all in the new brochure, all I will tell you, is that the drive is so smooth it even took some of our lovely pot holed roads and I didn't flinch, thinking I had just buckled a wheel (not the deep deep ones of course) and it corners so positively it makes you feel secure.

All i am trying to say is don't look at the pictures come and look at the real thing!

Most loved business in Buckingham

But we weren't on our own.

Press release

A national campaign to find Britain's most loved local businesses has discovered that Swan School of Dog Training and Buckingham Ford tied to become Buckingham's favourite small businesses.

Hundreds of local people from Buckingham put forward their nominations for their favourite local business as part of a national campaign run by local business champions Richard Clapham of thebestof.co.uk/buckingham.

Richard Clapham from thebestof Buckingham said, "The huge number of local people who took time to write testimonials goes to show just how important great local businesses are to this local community, especially during difficult economic times. Small businesses including those in Buckingham and the surrounding area are the engine room of our economy and lots of local business owners in Buckingham - and their loyal staff - are feeling great this morning because their efforts have been recognised and appreciated by so many of their customers."

Jane James from Swan School of Dog Training said the following:

"This is great news and I am grateful to all those customers (and dogs!) who have supported us. We love doing what we do, have fun doing it and feel our customers have a good time It is always wonderful to have that confirmed. Thanks also to Lizzie and Andew my trainers for their hard work and dedication.":

Ian Redding, MD of Buckingham Ford said the following:

"As a well established local small business we are thrilled at this result and would like to thank those customers who gave us such wonderful feedback. We strive to give a good service to our customers both in the car showroom and the workshop and it is wonderful when our efforts are seen to have the desired effect."

And once again a big thank you to all our customers for sending there messages of love into the best of. The other good news from this is that we came 3rd in the country for the car dealer section with our sister dealership Bicester Ford coming in 3rd overall.

Eighth Car supplied to The convent of Jesus and Mary

Over the 15 years since we have been in Buckingham, the convent of Jesus and Mary, at Thornton college have been loyal customers of ours.

In that time we have supplied at least eight cars to them, mainly Ford Focus 5 doors and Estates, but this time they choose to go for the Fiesta as it suited them, for getting around locally.

Before making the purchase Sister Mary bought three of her colleagues down to make sure they would all be comfortable.

Sister Mary said "We were looking to replace the Focus we had bought from Buckingham Ford, and required something a little bit smaller, James showed us how much space we could enjoy in the New Fiesta, and that this one had been owned by one local person, it was ideal for what we wanted"

Supporting Buckingham School

Buckingham School have now got there own Motor vehicle management course, including there own Garage/workshop for students to learn in.

I hope to visit them soon to take a look at what they are doing with the Ford Escort we have given them, this will enable them to gain practical knowledge working on this vehicle, giving them a better understanding than just the theory side.

Hopefully this will give us some future apprentices, who will start with a greater understanding, of working in a workshop.

Ford press release about new product

This is just an extract of a press release this week re developments coming, and going to be announced at Geneva motor show.

The 81st Geneva Motor Show will be the stage for a series of major new vehicle and customer focused technology announcements by Ford. Ford of Europe Chairman and CEO Stephen T. Odell will unveil a ground breaking new vehicle during a Ford news conference at 14:30 on March 1 at the Ford stand, in Hall 5.

"Today Ford has its strongest product line-up ever and we've got an aggressive plan to keep our vehicle portfolio the freshest in the industry," Odell said. "We have at least 20 new models and derivatives coming across our entire European range - from small cars to commercial vehicles - and at Geneva we will be introducing some of these. From zero emission electric vehicles like the new Focus Electric, the versatile new Ranger Wildtrak and the Vertrek SUV concept - that hints at the next-generation Kuga - to our latest rally car, the Fiesta RS WRC, they will all be on the Ford stand."

Ford also plans the European debut of the C-MAX Energi, a pre-production version of the plug-in hybrid first shown at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, that will launch in Europe in 2013. The vehicle will be built at Ford’s Valencia plant in Spain.

Exciting times ahead. Starting with the new Focus later this month.

A great day out yesterday

The New Ford Focus launch to the dealers, what a great car and packed with new features I had never heard of.

Torque vectoring control - no i hadn't heard about it either, but a great safety feature, designed to improve traction, roadholding and agility when cornering. to us laymen it will adapt the maximum grip you have at each wheel.

Not just making it safer but gives you a better driving experience - and it is standard.

Blind spot information system is available as an option - great for the motorway, when you look in the mirror to change lane, it will illuminate to tell you that there could be another vehicle in your blind spot.

And a range of new engines, with improved power and fuel economy, not the two things you would normally hear in the same sentence.

I will admit i wasn't that excited about this car until yesterday, when i saw it and experienced it for myself, this is a car to get excited about, it was like when the first Focus came along to replace the Escort all over again.

And the new Estate version, fantastic, but I will save that for another day. If you want to come and get a preview of this new car before the public launch on March 11th let me know I may be able to help.

More New Focus information coming every day as i get the news myself.

14 Days Of Love Kindest Testimonial so far

I have received this glowing testimonial this morning, Just to give it a bit of background.

Alan and Sandy came to us after being recommended to us in Milton Keynes, and have been a pleasure to deal with ever since. I won't go on as I think their words say it all.

"We have been purchasing our cars (eight to date) from Buckingham Ford since 1998 and would not consider going anywhere else. Ian and Mike and the Team almost feel part of the family and their personal and friendly service is fantastic. We always do some research on prices before going to see them and they always give us a good deal. The Team, from Ian through to the mechanics, are the epitome of customer service, to whom nothing is too much trouble. We cannot praise them enough and would not hesitate to recommend them to anybody. Our thanks to all at Buckingham Ford for always giving us a pleasant experience when we visit. Keep up the excellent work. (There aren't enough hearts in the business rating, we would give them at least 10). Alan and Sandy Hastings Bletchley Milton Keynes."

14 Days of Love

A big thank you to all our customers who have visited the link below and left us a testimonial, during the 14 days of love.

The campaign is designed to show some love to the local businesses that you appreciate, take a look at what our customers have been saying.

http://www.thebestof.co.uk/local/buckingham/business-guide/feature/buckingham-ford/5170/review

Thanks once again for all those great words