Why have vehicle pollution levels gone through the roof in cities like London recently? The newspapers, bloggers and politicians are all majoring on the "Diesel engine" problem, as most business and privately owned cars are diesel-engined - a situation brought about many years ago by the afore mentioned politicians who [...]

After working for Porsche for about 25 of my 50 years in the motor industry, in July last year I felt duty bound to express my thoughts on the departure of Ferdinand Piech from the Supervisory Board of the Volkswagen Group. He fell out then with his Porsche cousins and [...]

Throughout most of my time at Porsche in Hertfordshire a cornerstone of our marketing effort was an involvement with motor sport. This took many forms including supporting Club racing, attending the Le Mans 24 Hours and British Carrera Cup series, and also sponsoring Porsche Classic rallying. We supplied parts to [...]

I have mentioned many times that my favourite road going Porsche is the 993 - the last of the 911's with an air-cooled engine. Not just that, it was also the perfect size. Over the past 30 years or so when car manufacturers produce their next "new" model, it's always [...]

In the early days, our Porsche customer Le Mans 24-hour race trip was very much a "boys weekend." To say there was one toilet for 300,000 people would be a gross exaggeration. In actual fact there were two. The drive down to the race in those days was mind blowing [...]

I was in Fastlane Paint and Body in St. Albans the other day and saw a lovely Guards Red 1989 Porsche in the 911 Sports Coupe model, which they were refurbishing to pristine condition. It brought memories flooding back of my early days with Porsche in Hertfordshire. In the 80's [...]

What is good customer service? How do we give it ? Do we expect too much as customers? Do some customers elaborate their issues? Is the compensation culture killing customer service ? Do managers know how to deal with customer issues? Why do most companies nowadays try to hide their [...]

Launching a new car or new model can have a tremendous impact on the network of dealers representing that Franchise. Over the 50 or so years of my motor trade experience, some of the manufacturers recognized that and some less so. In the early days the manufacturer would get the [...]

After an undistinguished schooling at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution (Belfast Inst.), all I really wanted to do was work in the motor trade, third generation as it turned out to be. My father was in the motor trade, he had his own Ford Dealership called Lindsay Robb ltd.  Grandfather [...]