Tag Archives: FOXY Lady Drivers Club

insurance for women

Win Car Insurance Competition

Thanks to our FOXY Lady Insurance partner, Cornmarket Insurance Services, we are announcing a special insurance competition so that one UK female insurance policyholder can win up to £500 worth of car insurance at renewal time in 2018.

All you have to do is REGISTER FOR AN INSURANCE QUOTE (car, home, motorcycle or pet) – and read the Terms and Conditions on that page please.

We don’t promise that we can beat ’em all, but depending on perceived risk factors and during changeable market conditions, we are one of the only insurance services (if not the only?) to ring fence a totally female portfolio when it comes to motor, home, motorcycle and pet insurance.

Which is a good thing in most instances.

And there’s more.

An added bonus for non members

If you have yet to join FOXY Lady Drivers Club, just register for an insurance quote and enter this competition to receive a FREE Online Member gift subscription to FOXY Lady Drivers Club into the bargain. This makes you eligible for our Member Only insurance services.

If you are a member of FOXY Lady Drivers Club, please tell any female friends who aren’t.

We do this because only women can legitimately be members of a motoring club so we can then reserve our preferential insurance rates/services for female members of the Club. Who can then add partners and husbands of course. But not boy racers.

Sadly statistics confirm that it’s still young men that cause the majority of (and the most expensive) road accidents.

And being a motoring club for women drivers, our road safety advice and support services put women first and we don’t want to have to pay for these expensive male accidents.

Don’t miss out. We exist to save savvy Club members money. The more that join the Club the better the deals we can negotiate across the board. To benefit us all.

FOXY

FOXY, women drivers

We Love Our Business Partners

We have a new homepage for the Club’s website making it easier for visitors to see what we do.

Until now we’ve focused our sales efforts on individual female motorists but we also have new membership packages for employers, groups and associations so we need to get this message across as well.

This has required us to look for, identify and advantage new business partners where there is a genuine and reciprocal business case.

And we’re working with some great partners I’m delighted to say.

Three Different Types of Business Partnership

Just to explain where we’re starting from here. FOXY Lady Drivers Club is run on a not for profit basis. This means no salaries for the individuals that work here. Profits are called surpluses and they get re-invested in the business.

Clearly we do need to earn some money, so the Club is funded by key business partners including the FOXY Lady Approved garages, car dealers and tyre centres our sister website FOXY Choice manages, identifying, promoting and monitoring as female friendly, ahead of others.

These businesses support us through an annual subscription to one of our approved networks in exchange for female friendly marketing services which include gift memberships of The Club for their female customers. In this way we can help these business partners grow their female fan club by keeping in touch with them in-between motoring-related purchases.

We also work with remarkable business groups and associations that are largely run by and for women – this means we understand each other’s perspective. Businesses like Mumpreneurs Networking Club, named groups within The Athena Network and certain WI Federations can give their female customers/members free gift membership of FOXY Lady Drivers Club within this partnership.

We also recognise and reward our business partners that supply Club members with specialist benefits such as VIP car checks, airport parking, legal, motor claims and anxiety support services. So they can benefit from this relationship as well, we allow their female customers to claim free gift memberships of the Club as a gesture of our goodwill here.
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Do have a look at our new partners’ scheme page to see what we’re offering. And if you would like to enquire about a new business partnership, in line with others on offer, please introduce yourself and your business to me via info@foxyladydrivers.com.

Or by all means sign up for our monthly e-newsletter and keep in touch that way.

Steph Savill

FOXY

marketing to women, women drivers

What does FOXY Lady mean?

foxy_lady.mugWhen my husband Paul and I decided to set up a motoring club for women we struggled to find a name we were both happy with.

Me, being a marketer, wanted a business name I really liked. My husband, being a man, thought we needed a name that said what the business would do.

I didn’t much like his plain ideas including ‘Motoring services for women,’ ‘A female car club,’ and one that linked lipstick and dipstick too close for comfort I thought.

After countless variations and lots of wasted time this became a big problem for me. Until, in a bloke-like stroke of brilliance, he suggested we add a female-ey adjective to lighten his combinations. I can’t remember how long it took to get to the foxy lady combo but once heard it hit the spot.

Over the years FOXY Lady has become a female motoring brand that’s memorable for women and the motor trade alike. Firstly it tells the trade that FOXY Lady Drivers are ‘shrewd, canny and discerning’ (so don’t mess with us) and secondly it tells women drivers that the FOXY Lady Approved standard means garages and car dealers that are genuinely female friendly and likely better than most others.

And so FOXY Lady Drivers Club was born.

Back in 2004, before social media had been invented, few of us were all that sophisticated when it came to searching at Google. Nor was Google I’d say or they surely wouldn’t have parked us out in the dark ages, somewhere totally unfindable for starters haha…

As a result, those interested females who’d heard me speak in the early days and remembered the FOXY Lady bit of our name (but not the precise website name) quickly found themselves in deep, murky and often deeply offensive territory – the sort of sites that women we wanted to sell to wouldn’t dream of visiting…

On the other hand, we were probably a good excuse for some men to say ‘Sorry dear, I was simply looking for that motoring website you liked…’

And I’ve often wondered how a fledgling Richard Branson would have fared if he’d launched his Virgin brand online in those bygone days. We did lose some potential customers I’m sad to say, through sheer shock…but we’ve now climbed the Google rankings and most women know to add a motoring phrase anyway…

I also remember phoning the Jeremy Vine’s Radio 2 programme from a motorway service station in our early days. I’m not sure about the precise topic but it was something that rubbished women drivers and I wanted to have my say.

My son and husband headed for the Burger bar whilst I braved the phone with the sound of motorway traffic ringing in my ears. ‘We’ll call you back in ten minutes’ they said and did. Whilst I was waiting to be put through I heard Jeremy announce ‘We now have Steph Savill from the Sexy Lady Drivers Club’ on the phone. This broke the ice, we both laughed and I had the opportunity to say our proper business name, to explain what it has come to mean (as in shrewd and discerning) and even get this repeated back. Priceless PR for FOXY as it happened!

I also think that our business name helped me get on Mary Portas’ Secret Shopper when she tried to makeover a car dealership in Aylesbury and ended up nailing a FOXY Lady Approved certificate on the wall at the end of the programme.

Thank you Mary. From one FOXY Lady to another.

FOXY

garage services, Tyres

Are wheel alignment services a rip off?

A tyre industry expert tells me “In over 90% of cases, imperfect wheel alignment will not cause premature wear to tyres. Yet at least one major tyre retailer pays a bonus when their fitters sell this service to more than 80% of their customers.”

I was reminded of this statement after I gave a tyre safety talk to The Women’s Hub in Worthing recently where I was asked why alignment wasn’t included in the cost of a new tyre.

‘Shouldn’t a new tyre be sold as fit for purpose’ was one of the questions I faced. By that she was suggesting a new tyre should come correctly balanced and wheels aligned.

In principle she’s right of course but I explained that a good tyre fitter would identify if there was a problem with a car – he’d be able to tell this from uneven tyre wear of course. But not all are that honourable it seems.

Wheel Alignment Options

In my experience, you’re asked if you need your wheels aligned when you buy new tyres and, if you don’t know why you might, you’re told various reasons why you should.

I have enclosed examples of the sort of thing we’re told at leading tyre sales websites. Advice ranges from the informative to the downright pushy.

But shouldn’t ALL wheels be checked for correct alignment BEFORE the tyre centre/garage/dealership sells you alignment services on the basis of your genuine need, tyre safety and future financial economies?

After all, we’re talking about an added £29 or more to a tyre bill here. And perhaps there’s suspension/steering work to be done to the car too?

Understandably suppliers of wheel alignment equipment sell theirs to garages by promising ‘a major contribution to their profit line’ as stated by the Supertracker website, when they up-sell this service to motorists.

NB: FOXY Lady Approved tyre centres, garages and dealers have all signed the FOXY Lady Promise ‘to never overcharge, patronise or sell motorists anything we don’t need.’ This is because we know that many automotive businesses incentivise sales staff to sell us services like alignment that we don’t need.

Website Advice re Wheel Alignment

This is what some of the bigger tyre businesses say about their alignment services.

From National Tyres & Autocare

Have you noticed any difficulties when steering? A vibration or pulling to one side? It may mean that your wheel alignment is in need of attention. At National Tyres and Autocare we use specialist equipment to make quick and accurate adjustments to the front wheels of your vehicle and with a front wheel alignment cost of only £29 why not add this to your next safety inspection?

They recommend this every 6000 miles.

This seems a reasonable and un-pushy explanation to me.

From Halfords Autocentres

Correct wheel alignment improves road holding and maximises the life of tyres. Aligning the front two wheels resolves alignment issues for most vehicles, but if additional work is needed a quote will be provided.

This does suggest financial and safety benefit for an outlay of £29.

From ATS Euromaster

ATS is selling three options costing £36.99 to £64.99 for a choice of alignment services.

Quite frankly this text baffles me (and most motorists) with its terminology and diagrams.

Knowing very little about the subject, I suspect that most motorists may fall for this pitch, even if they buy the cheapest option (which is still some £5 more than most others).

From Kwik Fit

Checking your wheel alignment regularly can prolong the life of your tyres by up to 12,000 miles and increase fuel efficiency due to the reduced rolling resistance with the road – saving you pounds at the pump.

Keep an eye out for unusual wear on your tyres, such as premature wear on the inside or outside shoulder, which could be a sign of incorrect alignment.

Kwik Fit offers a free wheel alignment check at all of our UK centres so stop in if you need any help.

NB: Kwik Fit offers front two wheel and four-wheel alignment options. The price of our four-wheel alignment includes the Hunter Hawkeye four-wheel alignment inspection and the front toe adjustment only. Additional charges will apply if further adjustments are required including any rear wheel adjustments. You will be advised at the time of inspection prior to any work being carried out. Should we find that no adjustment is necessary, we will happily refund you.

I have yet to see any evidence for their 12,000 mile claim or increased fuel efficiency, but the free check and an offer to refund where no four-wheel adjustment is necessary will reassure many.

Recommended Wheel Alignment Best Practice

I’d like tyre centres/garages and car dealers to agree to tell motorists that

1) “In most cases imperfect wheel alignment will not cause premature wear to tyres”
AND
2) “We won’t sell wheel alignment services unless we’re sure/can prove they’re needed”.

Then the wheel alignment suppliers will need to convince garages that they can STILL afford their equipment. Good luck with that sales pitch I say!
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Clearly wheel alignment is yet another ethical challenge for the automotive industry.

So, as I see it the challenge is for tyre service providers to

EITHER continue earning easy money selling £29 alignment services that most motorists don’t need or understand

OR do the decent thing and prove the need for wheel alignment services before selling them.

The likely outcome here, dear blog reader, is that good businesses will do the right thing (which is why you need to know who they are) and bad businesses won’t, getting richer from rubber-related rip offs.

This is all the more likely because garages, including tyre centres, aren’t regulated, allowing cowboys to trade alongside the genuinely good garages, tarnishing the latter’s reputation in the process.

By all means tell FOXY your good or bad stories relating to tyre sales and/or wheel alignment services – whether you bought these in a tyre centre, garage or franchised car dealerships. We can then share these within The Club.

FOXY aka Steph Savill

NB: To ask for tyre advice, Club members contact FOXY Helpdesk.

To find a good tyre centre you can trust, check our FOXY Lady Approved Tyre Register

By all means comment here via Twitter @FOXYTweets

Or Steph Savill via info@foxyladydrivers.com

cost of motoring, road safety

FOXY adds female voice to MoT consultation

Sent to MOT411consultation@dft.gsi.gov.uk.

On behalf of UK women drivers, this is FOXY Lady Drivers’ Club’s response to the UK government’s proposal to extend the MOT test ‘grace period’ of new vehicles from three to four years. As you can see we are not impressed.
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Dear Sirs

I run the UK’s only motoring club for women drivers, FOXY Lady Drivers Club, and am writing to you, on their behalf, about your proposal to delay vehicle first MoT tests from their 3rd to 4th birthday.

I was a signatory of the previous Pro-MoTe campaign, when this proposal was last aired and I remain as baffled, if not more, about the Government’s agenda here. I am particularly concerned about the implications re tyre safety.

MoT Consultation Concerns

These are the points I’d like to submit for your consideration within the consultation period.

1) A Misguided Moneysaver

The safety issues raised outweigh the one-off saving of some £54.85 (ie one MoT fee) even for the many women who dislike visiting garages.

2) Dangerous Cars on UK Roads

Delaying a first year vehicle MoT from 3 years to 4 years is increasing the number of dangerous cars on our roads, for longer.

An unacceptably high number of vehicles are failing their first MoT and whilst it might be tempting to think that tyres and brake failings are the main road safety issues, we must not overlook the risks drivers run with inadequate lighting, wipers and or windscreen washer levels.

Even worse, a van could have driven some 150k miles before its first MoT safety snapshot. Hence their higher first time MoT failure rates.

3) Newer Cars Aren’t Always Safer

Badly maintained ‘nearly new’ cars are NOT safer than well maintained older ones. A modern car with a typical 30,000 miles on its clock, driven by a motorist who is oblivious to tyre care and TPMS warnings is too common an example to ignore simply because a car has covered fewer miles.

4) Car Servicing Standards

Car servicing/manufacturer/vehicle handbook servicing regimes/checklists cannot be relied upon to alert motorists to car maintenance neglect in between garage visits.

5) Motorists Knowledge of Car Maintenance

My experience talking to groups of women drivers confirms that many of them are poorly informed about tyre safety in particular – I imagine this is true of male drivers too.

The Tyresafe infographic draws attention to this, extrapolating that 1 in 4 vehicles on our roads is potentially travelling on illegal ie dangerous tyres.

They also record that the level of ignorance relating to TPMS (Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems) is increasing. See Tyresafe.org 2016 research.

6) The Cost of More Road Accidents

An increasing number of dangerous vehicles on our roads will result in more road accidents, more serious injuries and fatalities, more days lost at work, more traffic jams and more stress for our emergency services alike. As I see it, this is the potential risk you run were you to actively postpone essential safety checks on UK vehicles from their 3rd to 4th birthday.

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All in all, I’d rather be talking to you about organising courses to help women drivers understand how to/what it takes to run safer vehicles.

Finally, I remain unconvinced that MoTs should be discounted. Demand is inelastic and MoTs should be seen as a fixed cost. Too many MoT offers look like a ‘sprat to catch a mackerel’ tactic. I’d prefer to see some of the full fee being spent on delivering better customer service.

Yours sincerely

Steph

Steph Savill

MD

FOXY Lady Drivers Club

www.foxyladydrivers.com

Steyning

BN44 3GF