More in A modest member of the motoring industry
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Confessions of car advertising – a cruel pastime
Years ago I worked for a struggling car importer where every dollar was precious. That made it hard when it came to advertising. One of our models was an SUV […]
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The bitter truth about government fuel tests
A work colleague asks me why my fuel figures are always so different to the official ones and I explain the process involved in arriving at those official figures. She’s […]
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Holden: A disaster we saw coming 20 years ago
Up until 1984 Australians mostly bought locally made cars. That was because government legislation ensured they did. But with the lifting of local content restrictions by the Hawke Labor government […]
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What’s in a badge? Subaru finds out the hard way.
There was an extremely subtle change made by Subaru in 2005 when it introduced an updated Forester, I wonder if I was the only person who noticed. It dropped badging […]
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The cars that cut it at five-star hotels
Your car may be expensive and new, it may have had critics raving in magazines and eyebrows lifting in Cross Street, it may have even scored a cool from the […]
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The world’s biggest car audio competition was all my fault
Greenville, South Carolina, is not a large town. When the International Auto Sound Challenge Association held the world’s biggest car audio competition there it was pretty much the biggest thing […]
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Assisting our readers in life’s little vicissitudes
Dear Editor, I recently got a quote on a new Toyota Corolla and while the salesperson was totally negotiable on just about everything, the one thing she wouldn’t touch was the […]
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Confessions of a service manager
Want to know what I like? I like factory-sponsored free air conditioning campaigns. Want to know what I hate? I hate the new car sales department. Sales people will give […]
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Confessions of a sales manager
What’s the one thing every executive in a big car company has in common? Easy, none of them buy cars. Sometimes these people are so far away with the fairies […]