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| The Volvo we hired in Sweden. Thank heavens it wasn’t sold in the manner of Rory’s suggestion – or by a man wearing shorts like these. |
My column from Tuesday’s Lincolnshire Free Press was published online yesterday. This week it’s a lot of silliness about car buying: how car showrooms would be improved if they mirrored their nationalities.
Feel free to have a read and add your own suggestions if you like.
Ideas to make car shopping more fun
I think a flat packed car might be interesting. If the show rooms were set up like you suggested I'd be more interested in visiting them. I hate car shopping, in this country there's hardly anything slimier than a car salesman, we hold them in even lower respect than our Congress and that's saying a lot.
Ha! This is just what they need then, to improve customers' experience!
I take it the volvo foto is taken from the good side and the other side is held together by trusty duct tape to compensate for the missing screws of Flatpack hell
Yes, if you look closely you can see my husband is holding an Allen key and a very small tube of PVA glue.
What is wrong with his shorts?! 😉
Great column and ideas. xx
Just a bit loud – when you're close up to them!
Thanks for checking out the column – it's great to have your support xx
Rory is a treasure. Well, so are you.
He is such a lovely boy. Not sure about me! ;-))
Massive congrats on the column! So happy for you. I am in no position to comment on the article as my cars are museum pieces. xx
Ooh how lovely to hear from you again. Are you blogging again? I must pop over and see what you've been up to. x
Hello Trisha,
We absolutely love the idea of car showrooms reflecting their national heritage. Yes, this could definitely make car buying the newest 'on trend' activity. Indeed, rather like international fashion shows, could there not be Ferrari Week or Volvo Fortnight or Mini Weekend with all the glamorous celebrities adding their own inimitable style alongside the car salesmen.
We cannot see what is wrong with the shorts wearing salesman at all. We are so tired of the sharp suits and pointy shoes…..so much better to have the laid back beach look when making one's motor car purchase! Give us the open top and the open road…….and we could possibly squeeze in the man wearing shorts too!
We have just found you by a strange route but are delighted to have arrived. We are just a click away if you wish to know more.
Hello Jane and Lance
Lovely to have new visitors. I think you may have found me via ELS above: I've seen your name on her blog. Delighted to have you here.
I think your idea of a Ferrari week etc sounds perfect: I can see you appreciate the car showrooms need a makeover.
You're so right, salesmen should indeed wear shorts and have a laid back attitude. The man in the photo above is my husband and I like to poke fun at his loud shorts, though I do love him dearly. I'll see if he's available for your road trip!
I shall certainly click and learn more about you.
Leave it to Rory to sum up the Swedish car ! You need to spend that next trip to your Mum's coming up with pseudo-realistic sounding car names, now! MrL and I occasionally make up Swedish names for furniture/accessories/pets and preferably include extra j's or k's and a few dotted vowels or other diacrtical marks we haven't got in English (suggestions for the dog included Häünd and Wööf) to entertain ourselves. This could easily apply to other countries, though: the word has to sound vaguely similar to an English one, as well has having some sort of relationship to the functionality of the object. We have the best time looking at the car names here in Korea – they're all written in English, but never seem to be anything that a real English speaker would name a car model. Present popular sedan names for the well-heeled, successful Korean businessman of a certain (middle) age: the Chairman and the Grandeur. ; )
This has opened up a whole new game for the family to play. I can see both boys really getting into the spirit of it. Brilliant x
The last time I bought a new car was in 1996 and it was not a positive experience! Basically anything would be better! Not a snack or a glass in sight, just a fairly surly dude who couldn't count.
No snacks or drinks? Things have moved on since 1996. Try again – pretend you're interested and check out the biscuits.
We've just got a new car (not a Volvo – I refused!) and I have to admit that I am totally in love with it. Rory's idea of a flatpacked car is brilliant! x
Curious to know what you've got now, as I'm nosey beggar. We've had a couple of Volvos in the past, I must admit, when we were in our twenties! We were so sensible back then.
My friend had a really old one, Volvo that is, she could turn on a dime! and she called it the Vulva (and us girls wondered why we never had boyfriends…)heading over to read your latest article!
Ha! That's just given a whole new dimension to Ms Caroline's word game. Rude car names. Will work on that but don't think the local paper would be happy to print them.
Haha… brilliant! Here of course you can go to BMW welt where you can see your car "being born"!!! 😀
Now that's a great idea – my mind is now morphing car showrooms into nurseries!