Gavin Green is a former editor of
Car magazine. Still a
Car contributor, he also writes for
The Independent, British Airways Business Life and
Motor Trend magazine in the US.
Marketing is just a fancy word for selling, so you may be surprised to learn that many car firms now spend more money on marketing than they do on engineering.
Why, then, is the sales experience when buying a new car frequently so poor?
Dealers, or car retailers, are the downside of cars. They are to cars what needles are to doctors, hangovers are to champagne and heart attacks are to sausages. Dealerships, so often, are dire.
I have recently owned two cars, both bought new. I will start with the Mercedes dealer because it was easily the worst.
Until a few months ago, we had a C-class estate. We like Benz estates - we had a second-hand W124 estate before and it was superb.
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| C-Class was ideal for kids and brainless spaniel |
My wife used the C to ferry my three children and a brainless spaniel around west London. It is compact yet roomy, handsome, nimble, easy to park, has a fabulous turning circle (amazing how media road testers rarely care about that) and - rip-off Mercedes parts and accessory prices not withstanding - inexpensive to run.
We bought it on a three-year PCP from a Mercedes-owned dealer in west London.
The car, unfortunately, was troublesome, and went back six times for warranty work in three years. Faults ranged from inoperative central locking to rattling ventilation.
