The Ladies evening at Wessex Garages Penarth Road dealership in Cardiff

Wessex Garages in Cardiff organised a very successful evening event for their female customers last month at their Penarth Road showroom.

The event attracted an impressive 60 women on a dark and dreary October evening who were entertained whilst a dedicated team of hard working valeters treated their cars to a special Primp & Polish makeover.

Wessex’s Penarth Road showroom represents the Kia, Hyundai, FIAT and Abarth franchises in Cardiff so this was a great opportunity for everyone to give the latest models the once over.

And in case the Abarth brand isn’t as well known as the others, members of the all female audience were treated to a ‘Top Gear’ like review from a panel of  motorists who had just test driven the Abarth. Their feedback was fun and favourable which is what you should expect about such a smart and zippy car with female appeal.

Next on the agenda was an excellent presentation from Conflict Solutions covering road safety issues and survival tactics in the event of the dreaded vehicle breakdown when you are on your own. Undoubtedly the highlight of this talk was the clever self-defence moves that were demonstrated, just in case this know how ever might come in handy!

At this point in the proceedings Wessex Garages female technician, Natasha, joined the party and led a number of fun challenges (for the mechanically less experienced…) including changing wheels, checking tyres and topping up oil levels. It’s always good to have a go for ourselves, even though we know that the professionals are likely to be there to do it for us on request…

During the evening there had been a few exciting prize draws but the ultimate one that most time-strapped motoring maidens would surely covet most was a professional car valet service for a whole 12 months! Just imagine that…

To demonstrate their female friendly credentials to more women drivers, Wessex Garages Penarth Road has recently joined the new FOXY Choice approved FEMALE FRIENDLY garage network and are the first dealership listed in Cardiff.

To tie in with this initiative, all attendees were offered gift memberships of FOXY Lady Drivers Club with Wessex Garages’ compliments.

As one guest said in her feedback after the event ‘It was a cold and wet October evening and I was tempted to go home after work …but I was really glad I forced myself to go!’

Well done Wessex Garages. This was a big event that was professionally managed and organised for the benefit of the lucky ladies who attended. From FOXY Choice’s point of view we have just awarded you a generous handful of female friendly brownie points as part of our garage monitoring processes!

FOXY Steph

Hyundai’s stylish cars, low CO2, low costs and depreciation and 33,000 new customers as testimony to all this during the scrappage scheme (which is rapidly coming to an end by the way)…

But never fear, Hyundai is continuing their own kind of scrappage scheme, offering £2000 in part exchange against seven to ten year old cars in Britain.

And all because they know that foxy lady drivers do not want to have to haggle for a good price when we go out to buy a new car. It’s to do with trust and Hyundai is busy building this relationship.

And they haven’t forgotten their recent customers either.

All the 33,000 customers will get a Hyundai voucher to give to family or friends to save money on a new Hyundai and if they themselves want to upgrade to a 10 registration they can do this for £499 for an i10, £599 for an i20 or £749 for an i30.

Once more, this is what women like to do; assuming feedback is favourable, they are natural networkers and happy to share their good fortune with others.

Women drivers in the Bristol area especially can also look forward to a visit to female friendly Hyundai dealership Berkeley Vale; they have signed the FOXY Promise to ‘never overcharge, patronise or sell customers anything they don’t need or want’ so that is an added bonus for women drivers looking for reassurance when they go to buy a new car.

FOXY Steph

Find out more about a specialist motoring life assistance association for women drivers including information and advice about buying a new car in 2010…

Leading insurer esure has just conducted new research revealing 62% of British motorists are considering an electric or hybrid car as their next vehicle purchase. Just enter eco cars uk into Google to see some 19m results – this is competitive territory…

However 93% of motorists say this is fundamentally dependant on a greener vehicle cash incentives scheme from the Government.

No surprises here of course; I know from my dealings with women drivers who are members of FOXY Lady Drivers Club that green motoring is particularly close to our ethical hearts and shopping agenda!

As things stand, the government is peddling a mixed message to female motorists, encouraging many women drivers to scrap perfectly serviceable cars (we know of many really sad cases here) in pursuit of a cheap new one which has been produced overseas ;-(

At least it has helped some UK dealers to stay afloat financially and to adopt a more positive frame of mind. Remove the scrappage scheme (this will end in February 2010 if not before) and I fear for those car dealerships that seem incapable of strategic marketing of their own without an industry showing them how and holding their hand…

However, other than encouraging bargain-minded motorists to trade up (and support the UK’s many motoring-related businesses) this scrappage scheme has certainly served to demonstrate that what foxy female motorists want are small cars and economic motoring - Hyundai for example have outsold Ford here this year in terms of the value of its i10/i20/i30 cars and the Hyundai 5 year warranty.  This is remarkable but may well be explained by Ford’s considered need to raise its prices in a recession – I bet they regret this now. Needless to say Hyundai is ramping up their UK car dealer coverage to make the most of this new car sales bonanza and I would expect them to want to keep this competitive cost advantage post scrappage.

So the message to the government is clear. Incentivise motorists to buy cars and they will as the scrappage scheme confirms.

Just try to get the campaign focused on greater UK gain next time. If the message is to be ‘green’ then the industry is ahead of the game. All you have to do is reward motorists who don’t want to have to pay the higher price a la Prius, knowing that the resale value of the car is set to slump as the development costs are amortised.

In this way the UK motor industry, the UK economy and the global environment will all benefit as a result.

FOXY Steph

“Have a very good reason for everything you do.”
Laurence Olivier