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.