Aftersales

All aspects of aftersales, bookings and followup

Should you teach young drivers how to change a flat tyre

Trying to be a good father.

Having driven for a lot of years, with very patchy mobile phone coverage for a lot of those years, we sometimes forget the basics for our children.

Thursday night made me think.  Coming up the A1 through Cambridgeshire in the rain, I got a puncture. I won’t draw you a picture but swearing was involved and so was being soaked through as I had to change the tyre on the side of the road.

Teaching our children how to change a flat tyre.

But it did set me thinking.  So over the bank holiday (much to my wife’s amusement) I ran through the steps required to change a wheel with my two youngest children – him 17, her 23.  And I can recommend it to every father.

It wasn’t raining in Yorkshire on Saturday (I’m not that nasty), but we had the usual moans of “do I have to. . ” and “I’ll get dirty“, but I think in the end, they appreciated it.  Especially when I pointed out, that at best, on the Thursday night before Good Friday even the RAC will take 3 hours to get to you.  AND what happens if you’re in one of the few mobile phone back spots.

So . . .

  • Find where they put the jack. (What is a jack dad?)
  • The wheel out of the boot.
  • The small clip to get the wheel nut covers off.
  • And the wheel brace / wrench.

The questions of where to put the jack I was expecting and able to demonstrate, the wonder at why we had to lock wheels I wasn’t.

Wasn’t it easier when wheel hubs had studs to locate the new wheel? And you remember to slacken the nuts slightly before you jack the car up?

But we got there.  Lots of struggling to get the wheel out of the boot, and how you might have to stand on the wheel brace to undo a very tight wheel nut, but they both achieved the end result.

I had considered buying an Easter egg for the fastest time taken, but in the end they both got one.

As a recommendation.  Especially if you have a daughter.  Buy an 18” length of pipe to go over the wheel wrench handle to make it a bit longer. You don’t really want to be leaping up and down on the wrench at the side of the road.

Oh, and buy an RAC membership!  

Does anyone remember the stupidity of certain French manufacturers who put the spare wheel outside the car, underneath the boot floor? Assuming the small latch to release the frame wasn’t seized solid, you had to try and push a deflated tyre and wheel back onto the framework and lift it back up into place while simultaneously trying to put the latch back into place, with one wet, dirty, oily, hand!

You know who you are Renault.

Cymark, supporting the Motor Trade for 29 years

Cymark. 29 years young

Cymark celebrates 29 years providing no commitment telemarketing and email campaign support to the Motor Trade.

‘My god, you made it to 29 years.’ This has happened a few times this week. Not quite as catchy as 25 years, or 30 years, but 29 years is a long time supporting one industry.

A great thank you must go to everyone who has worked for Cymark during that time. Lots of late nights and hard graft. You laid the foundations for today’s company.

In those decades, we have worked for numerous manufacturers and hundreds of individual retailers, providing successful and cost effective telemarketing and e-marketing for retail sales, local business and LCV sales and database building, aftersales service bookings and post service follow up.

The pandemic brought a lot of changes. Cymark streamlined its processes (we got rid of the big white binders so many of you remember). It’s all online and easily accessible. We still make on-site visits, we want to make sure we are doing it right for your retailer.

Successful industry marketing and comments are included within other blog pages.  Make sure you subscribe.

Guy Winter

01423 501234

07711 978908

Have a look at the links across the top of the page for Retail / Service / Sales Conversion information.

Is the UK car trade closed off

Xenophobia and the Motor Trade

Is the general motor trade, slightly xenophobic?  And if it is, has that proven to be a bad thing for the countries that are slightly ‘more’ than others?

Not trying to be contentious, but the motor trade, like its buying public has always been slightly xenophobic, you only have to watch American films covering the last 30 years to see the shift away from Detroit iron to euro boxes as they used to call them over the pond.

The move has certainly been bad for Detroit and Michigan as a whole.

But across Europe, did the British stand out as ‘less’ xenophobic?  We welcomed innovative design from our European neighbours with open arms through the 70’s and 80’s at the sad loss of our own Motor Trade.  As Birmingham will attest.

Can we honestly say that the Triumph Dolomite or Austin Princess were worse than the Renault 12 or Fiat 128.  Or a decade later was the Maestro much worse than a Renault 11 or a Fiat Strada.

Yet, these two countries probably lean towards ‘more’ xenophobia, France is still awash with Renault, Peugeot and Citroen, while Italy is strongly Fiat and Lancia.  Have they done better out of a slightly nationalistic stance?

The concerns this week in the mainstream press, with France unwilling to bend over Chinese EV imports into Europe. I can see why.  Out of all the European manufacturers producing today, the French machines are likely to be the most competitive against the emerging Asian brands.

I think Italy would be standing firm alongside France, except Italian politics is a law unto itself at the moment. 

So where does it leave UK retailers?  Over the next few years I won’t be surprised if they embrace the EV’s from China and Korea, we have done it before, we will do it again.  Certainly with our handover calls, or service follow-up calls we are not seeing worse customer comments than the more UK established brands.

If new makes drive customers through the showroom door, it can only be a good thing for the retail motor trade.  We need products that can be sold, or rather bought by the general public.  Not just as a first car, but as a second or third.

The future is rosy, complicated, but hopefully profitable.  Retail dealers are very good at finding a profit where there doesn’t always seem to be one.

#ev, #aftersales