Many years ago when I was selling cars at a prestige dealership in central London one of my colleagues took a Lotus Elan Turbo in part exchange. Although by no means the most exotic part exchange we’d ever handled the Elan did generate a fair bit of interest amongst the sales team when it arrived a few days later.
The same afternoon that the Elan had arrived I had to run down to our service department to pick up a sold car. I needed one-way transport and the Elan was sitting idle so I grabbed the keys and slipped behind the wheel. Firing up the engine I decided it would be a good idea to take the ‘long route’ to the service department, I rolled off the forecourt and headed east. As the road opened up ahead of me I buried the throttle, but nothing happened. The car maintained its speed and if anything spluttered slightly. After what seemed like an age, suddenly it ALL happened. The turbo had spooled up the chassis groaned and a huge slug of torque slung me up the road. The front tyres scrabbled for grip and a combination of torque steer and road camber had me heading for the kerb in a dramatic way. I fought with the wheel, eased off the throttle and regained some control but as the Lotus gained pace it’s body began to shake, the mechanical noise grew louder and my sense of composure evaporated.
‘Why would anyone buy a Lotus Elan?’ I thought as I backed off once again. The ride was hideous, the power delivery ridiculous and the chassis felt dreadful. I cut my extended journey short, made directly for the service compound and deposited the Elan with a valeter. As I slipped behind the wheel of a 500SL I promised myself never to lust after a Lotus again.
Back to the showroom my colleague, who had taken the Lotus in part exchange, asked me what I thought of it. ‘Hideous’ was my single word response. The surprised look on his face told me all I needed to know ‘did you drive it before you valued it?’ I asked. His crumpled face and single word answer confirmed my suspicion ‘No’ he said, now looking worried. And worried he should be; he had bought the car untested and worst still already traded it to a specialist buyer in West London for around £2,000 more than anyone else had bid. I could see a disaster unfolding.
Next day the buyer from the specialist dealer arrived, trade plates in hand and cheque book in pocket. The salesman, Steve, was already a worried man, but his concern turned to near panic when the buyer said ‘I’ll need to take it for a drive before I write you a cheque, there are some real pigs out there’.
Resigned to his fate, Steve handed him the keys and sat gloomily at his desk, the tension in the showroom was palpable. After what seemed the Elan returned. The trader hoped out, marched into the showroom and up to Steve’s desk. He shook his head and sucked his teeth, ‘She’s a beauty, drives better than brand new, nicest one I’ve ever bought, worth every penny’. You could have heard a pin drop, Steve grinned we were gobsmacked and the trader was happy.
So what happened there? Well we all learnt a lesson, a Lotus doesn’t drive like a BMW, a BMW doesn’t drive like a Citroen and a Citroen doesn’t drive like a Volkswagen. It may sound obvious but it’s not, unless you drive them all. The more cars you drive, the better you will get at understanding what they SHOULD drive like. Essential when it comes to valuing part exchanges but what about the cars we also sell and service?
In the past all sales people had a demonstrator, and inevitably they were the same make as the cars they sold, it was a perk of the job. But then the tax rules became more stringent and driving a company car (particularly a prestige brand) became very expensive. Today I meet sales people selling BMW, Jaguar’s and Audi’s that drive VW’s, Mini’s and Ford’s.
Quite often the only get to drive the cars they actually sell is when they are taking a customer on a demo or attending a training event. As for driving part exchanges, forget it; their managers are so paranoid about the tax man finding out that they would rather have them walk home than take a used car.
And it’s not just sales; our friends in aftersales spend all day sorting out customers cars yet rarely, if ever, get behind the wheel of one.
As managers and owners it’s time to think again about how our sales and service people can get to experience the cars they sell, maintain and buy. If we want to understand our customers better surely we have to experience what they experience and that means driving the same cars as them. Tax man or not, it’s time to put our products at the heart of our business, we are after all in the motor industry let’s remind our staff of that fact by letting them drive the cars they work with.
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