It’s Back!!!

The NRL season kicks off this week with a new year of hopes & aspirations for teams and their supporters. At Wakelings whilst supporting the Tigers is not compulsory it’s a pretty wise move for our staff to do so!! Having said that we’ve got our fair share of Doggy supporters, the odd Rabbit & Eel and even a Rooster or two. It’s amazing how the NRL can bring out the passion in a group of people.

I look forward to talking with my staff on a Tuesday morning. More often than not the Tigers have won and someone’s team hasn’t, so we can all gloat in our collective success. I see this year as a massive year for the Tigers, building on the success of last year, with Coach Sheens directing the young brood. .

The addition of a few new players will bring a new dynamic to the team and I look forward to watching them progress throughout the season…who do you support? How will they go? I guess in a few days we’ll be closer to knowing those answers... bring it on!!

Whilst I was in the States recently I was taken aback at the way in which the Americans spoke when seeing the Hyundai Brand.

Hyundai’s brand recognition has skyrocketed over there in recent times with great exposure through winning lots of JD Power accolades, as well as some dominant presence in the Super Bowl ads!!

It was interesting to note the Hyundai Genesis, which we don’t currently have in Australia. The Genesis received rave reviews from Dealers who weren’t sure what it was. When they found out it was a Hyundai they were floored!

This new model avalanche has recently flowed to the Australian market with the release of the funky designed Veloster. This small sports like coupe has one door on the driver’s side and two on the passenger’s side and it's cool looks have given it a lot of street cred. Indeed I saw a few in the traffic in LA and it turned lots of heads. If you want to see one up close we have them in stock now for test drives & of course after you drive it you can always buy one!!

Last week I wrote about how we’d been attending the NADA convention in Las Vegas, we’re back on deck now but our heads are still spinning at the size & scale of dealership operations in the States.

I guess it’s to be expected with some of the dealerships we visited having well over one million potential customers right on their doorstep.

The convention was closed on the last day by none other than George W Bush, and I’ve got to say I was really impressed with what he said & how he said it. with statements like... “It’s no sacrifice to serve something you love...and I love America” and when discussing his book “It came as a shock to some in our country that I could write as well as read”!!

Over all our trip to the States opened our eyes to new ways of doing business, new customer procedures and new ways of ensuring that every transaction is rewarding for all involved. I look forward to implementing some of these processes and continue to strive to “Look after Macarthur”....

This past week I’ve been in the USA attending the NADA annual conference. We’ve also taken the opportunity to visit several dealerships along the way. To compare I’ve got to say that the major difference is most obviously size & scale. Two of the dealerships we visited sold in excess of 6,000 cars per year with Longo Toyota (LA) selling over 28,000 in 2006! Cars, and especially trucks, are literally huge over here, fuel is cheap at around 85 cents per litre, when we mentioned the price of petrol back home in Oz most Americans were gobsmacked.

In Los Angeles there were whole lanes dedicated to car pooling and hybrid vehicles, (there were heaps of these on the roads)... they also enjoyed eight lane freeways which despite their size were still gridlocked just like the M5. What have we learnt so far? Mainly we miss home, we know that Aussie dealerships can measure up to the best over here, and most of all we are lucky to be Australians....