After the Flames; Cheers at Osram; The Artie T. Effect
Last month’s fire at Herb Chambers’ Jaguar and Land Rover of Sudbury represented a serious loss. The explosion of a customer’s Jaguar that was in for repair decimated multiple nearby vehicles that were parked overnight before spreading into the service bays. The official report put the loss at 19 vehicles and $750,000.
But it could have been many times worse.
The dealerships are at the Wayland-Sudbury line. Separated by some trees and a grass strip is Chambers’ Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini, and Maserati facility.
“As bad as this was, it could have been a real disaster,’’ says Chambers. “There were millions of dollars of Bentleys and Rolls-Royces parked there.’’
Security personnel and surveillance cameras are used to watch such valuable inventory at dealerships. “The cameras show no reason for the fire,’’ says Chambers. “There’s no reason to suspect anything but spontaneous combustion in an older Jaguar that had been left for repair.’’
Jaguar engineers were on the scene for more than a week but couldn’t pinpoint the cause for the fire.
“The cameras show that this older Jaguar was the first to catch fire. It’s bad enough to lose an $80,000 car,’’ Chambers says, “but once that car got really going, it exploded and spread the fire.
“For us, it was fortunate that the car was parked outside the building and not kept inside in one of the bays while being repaired.’’
When unfortunate things happen to cars, one result is more sales. An example is that GM’s sales numbers increase in lockstep with the company’s increasing recalls.
A fire sale isn’t the way Chambers wants to sell cars, but in a way that’s what happened.
The affected customers needed cars, and they were at their home dealership for the most part. “In most cases, the car owners put a claim in on their fire insurance,’’ says Chambers, “and we paid the deductible.’’
Most of the cars involved were Land Rovers and Range Rovers, vehicles that are in short supply. “I made a personal appeal to the company, speaking to the president,’’ says Chambers, “and they were able to send us some extra cars to cover the losses.’’
The outcome turned out to be a variety of solutions.
“Some of the cars were older, some were new,’’ says Chambers. “There were a variety of brands involved. Some people wanted the same car, others wanted to switch brands.’’
“We offered some outstanding buys on pre-owned vehicles and threw in some extra cash in some instances,’’ says Chambers.
The Artie T Effect
“I’ve never seen anything like this,’’ says Mrs. G.
She wasn’t referring to the foliage on a drive through southern and central New Hampshire, though that was impressive.
Instead, she was reacting to the outstanding management and motivated workforce at Osram Sylvania in Hillsboro, New Hampshire. It was reminiscent of employee feelings for Market Basket CEO Arthur T. Demoulas.
The occasion was the annual Employee Appreciation Day at Hillsboro, and a big part of the festivities was celebrating the plant’s LED highlight assembly on the new Ford F-150, the first LED headlight in a pickup truck.
Engineers at the plant collaborated with Ford to create the design.
Ford had the new F-150 on display. Two Osram division CEOs, Ford chief engineer Wayne Bahr, US Senator Kelly Ayotte, and Congresswoman Ann Kuster were just a few of the dignitaries making their way to this out-of-the-way town. All received warm ovations.
Osram senior vice president and general manager Alan Barlow and plant manager Cheryl Blackwood got standing ovations.
However, the biggest applause was for Jonathan Dunlap of the Hillsboro plant, who led the F-150 project for Osram Sylvania, working with management, engineers, and even out in testing grounds at midnight.
Ford, obviously was pleased with the result and as part of the festivities, donated a new F-150 to the Hillsboro Fire and Rescue Department.
The Buffett Effect
Some of us thought the biggest automotive news billionaire investor Warren Buffett would make was when he bought a new Cadillac back in July.
Instead, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. jolted the automotive world this month by buying the Van Tuyl Group, the nation’s fifth-largest dealership group.
“The Van Tuyl Group is three times the size of my company,’’ says Herb Chambers, whose 53 dealerships comprise New England’s biggest group.
“This is very big news to those of us in the business,’’ he says.
One of the big worries for the entrepreneurs who build such large families of dealerships is a succession plan.
“When you get to a certain size, who can afford to buy it?’’ asks Chambers. “The Van Tuyl sale opened that door.’’
Automotive News ranks the biggest new car dealer groups as AutoNation, Penske Automotive, Group 1 (which has New England Operations, including the Ira dealerships), and Sonic.
Etc.
On our drive through New Hampshire, besides foliage, we found an interesting roadside political sign: John R. White for N.H. State Senate. Globe readers will remember White’s long tenure as the paper’s auto editor and resident contrarian … The car show season is winding down, but there still are some notable events. Today (10 a.m.-2 p.m.) is Japanese car and motorcycle day at Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline. Also today is the 2nd annual Merrimack College show (10 a.m.-3 p.m.) on the campus in North Andover … Next Saturday is Extinct Car Day at Larz Anderson (10 a.m.-2 p.m.) … AltWheels, which started as an introduction to green-powered vehicles first at Larz Anderson and later at Boston’s City Hall Plaza, has grown to an all-day expo for fleet managers, which takes place tomorrow at the Four Points by Sheraton in Norwood.
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