Tag Archives: Tesco cars

women drivers

Bristol Mum wins Tesco taxi award

Bristol Mum Sharon Appleyard has won Tesco Cars’ inaugural ‘Parent Driver of the Year’ award – a nationwide competition to find the parent that goes above and beyond the call of duty in providing the ultimate ‘parent taxi’ service.

Winning the hearts and minds of the Tesco Cars’ judging panel, Sharon was shortlisted alongside three other finalists before being crowned the overall winner, receiving the very welcome £1,000 Tesco voucher prize in time for Christmas.

Sharon was nominated by her daughter Amy, for giving up endless amounts of time in chauffeuring her and her two brothers to an extensive range of after-school clubs and weekend activities.

Sharon said ‘I was shocked to hear I had won Tesco Cars’ Parent Driver of the Year competition because all the finalists were equally deserving. It’s natural for parents to want the very best for their children and driving the distances I do gives my little ones those important opportunities to grow and develop as individuals. Ultimately it’s something I get pleasure from, but it’s obviously fantastic to be rewarded this way.

I ‘d like to say a big thank you to everyone who voted for me; my friends, family, the general public! Also a big thanks to my daughter Amy for nominating me and to Tesco Cars of course for making this Christmas a bit more special!”

Rebecca Ryan, Marketing Manager of TescoCars.com said; ‘We were overwhelmed by the hundreds of heartfelt and impassioned nominations we received for this competition. There are some truly wonderful mums, dads and even grandparents out there, but unfortunately there can only be one winner. Congratulations to Sharon and her family from all of us at Tesco Cars.”

The Tesco Cars’ Parent Driver of the Year competition followed recent research that found thousands of parents are driving their children more than 200 miles a week, excluding the school run – almost a third of a London taxi driver’s weekly mileage. The extra mileage could potentially add around £1800 a year to the family fuel bill.

The study showed on average parents make three trips per week, covering 50.2 miles to transport their children to various events and activities. Dads will drive their children 10 more miles per week on average than mums and parents in Wales recorded the highest average mileage, around 65 miles.

And well done Sharon for being such a worthy winner too.

FOXY

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cost of motoring

Calling Mums Taxis everywhere

According to Tesco Cars, thousands of mums and dads are averaging more than 200 miles every week acting as taxi drivers taking their children to and from after-school activities, sporting events, parties and other commitments. Converted into current fuel prices, this additional mileage could add a staggering £1800 a year to an already stretched family fuel bill.

Tesco is now looking for the Parent Driver of 2011 in a competition to recognise the one that is going above and beyond the call of duty by providing their children
with the ultimate ‘parent taxi’ service.

The competition runs from 19 September to 14 October and is open for nominations now.

The study found on average parents make three trips per week, covering 50.02 miles to transport their children to various events and activities.

Parents in Wales recorded the highest average weekly mileage, around 65 miles, whilst North East parents drive the least at 39.5 miles. Just under one in seven parents (15.95%) said they don’t drive their children to any events or activities at all, with some citing the high cost of running their vehicle as reason and using public transport instead.

Parents living in the West Midlands are some of the most generous with their time and fuel budget, with just under 8% – or one in 12 – regularly topping the 200 mile mark each week as acting ‘parent taxi.’

Surprisingly, parent drivers living in traffic infested Greater London will regularly clock up an average of 52.5 taxi miles each week.

FOXY

buying a new car

Women drivers will like Tesco Cars

Female buyers accounted for almost a third of all sales in Tesco Cars’ first month of operation and will surely influence many more new car sales in future.

Tesco now sells cars and garage services to women

Tesco has untold experience of marketing to millions of women and in this instance they are promising a ‘no hassle, no pressure’ experience so that female motorists don’t have to visit a local car showroom.

But surely a local contact and dealership staff SHOULD be the better service option?

I am surprised if/that Tesco Cars only seems to be including a one month RAC warranty although the Sale of Goods Act gives women added protection for six months (but they mightn’t know) and buyers will of course be sold an added longer warranty.

Of course no buyer would expect to be unhappy with their car after such stringent checks have been made but some will be because this is the motor industry and cars that were previously neglected, even if still ‘young’, will quickly demonstrate that neglect in terms of unreliability and expensive repair bills. That’s automotive life and you can’t odds it.

As would be expected, popular models from Britain’s ‘Big Three’ saw Ford, Vauxhall and Volkswagen dominating the Top 10 with enquirers using Tesco Cars’ Lifestyle tool to compare and contrast features, price and the all important running costs.

Popular models with women did particularly well such as the Ford Focus, the Ford Fiesta and Vauxhall’s Corsa with VW’s Golf and Polo in the top ten too.

THE TOP TEN MODELS SEARCHED FOR
1. Ford Focus
2. BMW 3-Series
3. Volkswagen Golf
4. Vauxhall Astra
5. Ford Fiesta
6. Vauxhall Corsa
7. Ford Mondeo
8. Vauxhall Zafira
9. Volkswagen Polo
10. Audi A4

Tesco Cars’ vehicles are typically one previous owner, independently checked by RAC (167-point inspection) and given an HPI history check. Multiple images and a video test drive conducted by RAC complete the online buying services. Cars will be sold as ‘Buy It Now’ or ‘Pre-order’ and they reserve the car they want with a £99 handling fee which can be refunded if they choose not to go ahead. All buyers have a named adviser to contact in the event of any follow up need.

Tesco Cars deliver cars to the buyer’s front door for a small extra, offer a seven-day no-quibble money back guarantee and a one-month’s RAC Platinum warranty which seems to suggest buyers are on their own after that. Needless to say, Tesco Financial services including car insurance and finance will be offered at the point of sale and buyers will receive 2,000 Clubcard points for each car purchase.

I feel sure Tesco Cars will soon want to offer women some peace of mind during the first year of car ownership…

That would be the right thing to do. And to forge better links with the industry because we all need friends, even Tesco Cars.

FOXY

buying a new car

Testing Tesco Times

On behalf of women drivers I welcome Tesco’s entry into the car sales market because they cannot afford to get this wrong  and they know what we want. This gives them a distinct edge over many dealerships.

But if Tesco does get it wrong they will pay the price. Let’s not forget, this is the much complained about motor industry where used car quality can be a hit and miss affair and customer service is all too often an oxymoron.

To perform to Tesco standards, we can expect a tight contract to cover industry ethics as well as customer service, sales performance and commission levels. They want to sell Tesco car insurance and finance products too. So all cars must be HPI checked (easy) and inspected (RAC, sounds trustworthy) and costed competitively. All this needs to be 100% watertight because their stock of used cars includes fleet cars, ex rentals and Motability car returns which may or may not have been well cared for during their pre MOT years.

Fortunately they are leaving a big gap in the market by not offering a part exchange service; providing those that fill it don’t do what webuyanycar.com did by quoting a price online and then dropping this significantly when they came to collect the car.

And it’s relevant that Tesco’s cars are in Birmingham which means that you can’t always ‘see before you buy.’

The good news is that this is surely the time for car dealers to up their game with women in mind; it’s us that influence c80% of all car buying decisions and local dealers have the advantage here of being local and knowing cars.

My point is that because Tesco is a female friendly brand, I’d expect more dealership groups to think long and hard about their ‘marketing to women’ strategy.

Wake up guys. Selling cars isn’t the only way to sell cars…

Sell her female friendly garage services for starters, know what she wants, spoil her, prove she can trust you and she’ll look to you for advice when she’s next car shopping.

Why is this so hard for so many male dominated and car-sales-oriented franchised dealerships to understand?

FOXY

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