Auto Office

Whispers of a new supercar from BMW have started since the Bavarian Marque unveiled a concept car to mark the 30 year anniversary of its inaugural (and only) mid-engine vehicle, the BMW M1.

BMW hijacked a lot of attention at last month's Italian Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este exhibition to reveal the M1 Homage, a contemporary version of the supercar it launched in 1978 for racing homologation (By the way, what a great looking car!)

BMW press releases have called the M1 Homage a design concept only that pays tribute to its first ever M car, although it has also created rumours that BMW has planned a V10-powered competitor for vehicles like the Audi R8.

Wheels Magazine May 2008

2008-04-18T15:24:00.002+10:00

Wheels Magazine has just released its May, 2008 edition.

True to form, it has a huge amount of great information and pictures. This month's content includes:

Ford's plans to export the new FG Falcon to the US

Ford's new FPV FG Power and torque figures revealed

BMW's revival of the tii styling badge

A sneak preview of the 2011 Audi A3

Thorough review of Ford's new FG Falcon Range

A rare HRT 427 Coupe sells for $920,000

Max Mosley's rumoured resignation from the FIA

Exclusive spy shots of Holden's VE Commodore Coupe

Porsche 911 upcoming Facelift

Mazda's recent worldwide business success

Sneak preview of Nissan's new 370Z

Preview of the next generation Holden Astra

As well as a feature story on the closure of the Mitsubishi plant, Ged Bulmer's editorial discusses the plant closure and surrounding issues.

Toyota increases its share of Subaru's parent company (Fuji Heavy Industries)

The sale of Jaguar to Indian giant Tata

Preview of Toyota's great looking new Prius Hybrid

Land Rover sold to Tata

Chevrolet Volt to be imported into Oz by Holden

The issues of exporting Holden Statesman to the USA

GM's remaking of Saab

Peter Robinson thoroughly endorses the Citroen C6

Extensive 1300 km roadtest of the new FG Falcon range

Audi A4 Drive Review

Wheels Automotive Design Awards, including detailed analysis of:

Volvo C30

Volkswagen EOS

Honda Civic Type R

Audi R8

Audi S5

Audi TT

Holden VE Ute

Renault Scenic

Saab 9-3 Cabrio

A profile of Pontiac G8 in the US

Mercedes-Benz C63 v. BMW M3

Reviews including:

New Subaru Forester

Latest smart fortwo

Chrysler Grand Voyager

Mini Cooper Clubman

Long term tests of:

Mitsubishi Outlander

Holden Calais V6

Ford Focus TDCi

And much. much more....

A value-packed motoring read in Wheels this month!

Nissan Dualis TV Ad

2008-04-04T14:17:00.004+11:00

Nissan Australia have launched this TV ad to promote the Nissan Dualis. Discussing the ad with friends in the industry (some of whom even have access to recreational drugs), none of us can see the merits of this ad for selling the Dualis. It's weird, spooky and alienating. The ad may get your initial attention by being "alternative" and "arty" but that probably completely misses the target demographic and once you've seen it, you're not likely to give it any attention next time you see it. It's even more odd that the Dualis has some outstanding USPs to sell it and Nissan Asutralia resort to this freak concept. The Dualis acheived the highest ever scores in the EuroNCAP crash test and was the first car to score the maximum 37 points. It has sold incredibly well in Europe, causing Nissan to expand their factory and hire 100 extra manufacturing staff. The UK advertising (it's called a Qashqai in UK) is hip and focuses on the message of the car being rugged, practical and manouevrable (urban-proof). In Australia, we get the nessage it's a bit of something and a bit of something else, but overall, a weird-mobile. Nissan are probably wondering why it's not selling as well here as it is everywhere else in the world. Could it possibly be the marketing?

Wheels Magazine April 2008

2008-03-19T16:13:00.000+11:00

The April 2008 edition of Wheels Magazine has been released.

Editor Ged Bulmer highlights how similar the new Ford FG Falcon looks to the model it replaces.

There is an overview of the Geneva Motor Show, including:

New Ford Kuga and Ford Fiesta

Bentley Zagato GTZ

Mazda 2 3-Door (reportedly due here in May)

Toyota IQ

VW Scirocco

New Honda Accord Euro including a diesel option

Rinspeed Squba

Fiat 500 Abarth

Product Launch Formula Bonus

2008-03-15T01:46:00.004+11:00

We are frequently dealing with companies (dealerships, manufacturers and distributors) who have to launch new products, as well as launching our own training products. A colleague of ours who is a leading internet marketer occasionally selects products to endorse and promote, packaged with his own extraordinary bonuses. His latest selection is available with another valuable bonus: Jeff Walker's Product Launch Formula. This is an invaluable and time-saving guide for anyone involved in launching any new product. We have recently conducted a joint venture using PLF and the bonus material and we were astonished at the results. Recommended.

Sydney Motor Show - Dualis

2007-10-11T15:07:00.000+10:00

The Sydney Motor Show started this week. We have a stand (Stand P1 in aftermarket avenue).

We've had a chance to look at quite a few vehicles on display and take some footage and photos.

Here is some footage of the Nissan Dualis that we took on behalf of a client.

Wheels Magazine June 2007

2007-05-20T20:24:00.000+10:00

The latest issue of Wheels was released last week.

The cover story is about the big money in Australian Muscle cars including Ford GTHO and Torana A9X

Wheels reports on the following test comparisons:

HSV GTS v FPV F6 Typhoon

Holden Astra Twintop v Renault Megane CC v Volkswagen EOS

There is abundant information on all of the following:

Mercedes/McLaren SLR 722

Commodore VE Ute.

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X

Saab 9-4X

Lamborghini Murcielago Superleggera

Honda NSX V10

VW Tiguan

BMW Concept CS

Audi A5 Sportback

HSV Grange

Audi S5

Holden Epica CDXI

Lexus LS460

Jaguar XKR Convertible

Audi A6 Allroad Quattro

BMW M6 Convertible

Ssangyong Actyon

Volvo C30 T5

Holden Astra CD

BMW 335i Sedan

Audi TT 2.0 FSI Auto

There is an industry report on Subaru Australia and a report on a guided tour of the McLaren headquarters.

Again, a great read for anyone in the industry.

Australia's Best Cars for 2006

2007-01-29T14:39:00.000+11:00

The NRMA Recently released their Open Road Magazine for Jan/Feb.

It included the list of winners for Australia’s Best Cars for 2006. The winners are:

Best Small Car: Volkswagen Polo TDi

Best Mid-Size Car under $28K: Honda Civic Vti

Best Mid-Size Car over $28K: Volkswagen Jetta Tdi

Best Large Car: Toyota Aurion AT-X

Best people Mover: Honda Odyssey

Best Sports Car: Volkswagen Golf Gti

Best Luxury Sports Car: Audi RS4 Quattro

Best Recreational 4WD: Subaru Forester X

Best Luxury Car: Lexus GS 450H

Best prestige Car: Lexus IS 250

Best Luxury 4WD: Lexus RX 350

Best All-Terrain 4WD: Land Rover Discovery 3

Wheels February

2007-01-27T20:24:00.000+11:00

The February edition of Wheels Magazine is out now and includes:

· 2006 Car of the Year – Holden VE Commodore

· A review of the Detroit Motor Show, including Chevrolet Camaro Convertible, Cadillac CTS, GM/Chevrolet Volt, Mazda Ryuga, Jaguar C-XF, Toyota FT-HS, Honda Accord, Honda’s next NSX, and Lexus LF-A (no mention of the Nissan Bevel Concept Car).

· 2009 Ferrari Dino

· Porsche Panamera

· Walkinshaw’s purchase of Elfin

· Lamborghini’s SUV

· New Mercedes-Benz C-Class

· 2007 Nissan 350Z

· 2008 VW Passat

· Audi’s new model line up

· Range Rover Sport TDV8

· Land Rover Freelander 2

· Renault Laguna dCi

Latest Wheels Magazine

2006-11-03T12:50:00.000+11:00

The November issue of Wheels magazine was released this week.

It includes a free DVD on the inside story of the VE Commodore as well as:

Previews of the next Mercedes-Benz C-Class, next Mazda 2, Ford Focus convertible Audi R8, and a Peugeot Soft-Roader,

Road tests on Jaguar XK and Toyota Aurion.

Comparisons: BMW 550i v. Mercedes-Benz E500 v. Holden Calais V V8 and Mazda 6 Classic v. Toyota Camry Sportivo.

Sydney Motor Show

2006-10-25T19:04:00.000+10:00

The Sydney Motor Show starts tomorrow.

In response to favourable feedback from last year’s show and this year’s Melbourne Motor Show, we have posted a page of Motor Show Resources, including free tips for working at the show, tips for following-up motor Show leads and a map of the Motor Show layout.

To access these free resources, click here.

New: Land Rover News

2006-09-09T22:32:00.000+10:00

Another recent addition to our web site is our Land Rover news page.

You can look at it by clicking here.

Sales Movie Suggestions

2006-08-06T09:15:00.000+10:00

Following our post on Sales Movies last month, I got a suggestion that I ask readers of this blog for their recommendations of Sales Movies.

We invite your recommendations of movies about sales, or movies that have examples of sales situations ( good or bad ) in them. If you'd like to suggest a movie, post a comment with the details of the movie and what examples of sales are in it ( and any other comments on the movie ), by clicking on 'comments' below.

New news ( is good news? )

2006-08-03T21:07:00.000+10:00

Our Mercedes-Benz News page has been getting lots of traffic, so hopefully the information we post there is proving to be interesting and valuable for enough people. We have added a similarly-styled BMW News page. Check it out.

3 Obstacles in 3 Years

2006-08-01T21:11:00.000+10:00

We're currently involved in training for some new salespeople at a large prestige dealership.

One strong recommendation that we have given them is to stay in the dealership for a minimum of three years. We showed them a spreadsheet and accompanying graph of what happens after three years if they have stayed in touch with their customers for their first three years. The average buying cycle for clients of this dealership is about three years, so after three years, the new salespeople will notice a significant jump in their sales figures if they've been following up their clients effectively.

We identified three common obstacles to salespeople staying in a dealership for three years and gave them strategies to address those obstacles. We'll post more on this later.

Oh my gosh!

2006-07-24T06:27:00.000+10:00

It was brought to my attention yesterday that this Auto site currently ranks No. 1 on Google Australia for the search term: Auto Sales Training.

Hope it translates into more Auto Sales Training for us!

Sales Movies

2006-07-23T11:33:00.000+10:00

Every so often in training I'm asked if I can recommend any good movies about sales.

There are several that I recommend. One of these is 'Wall Street'. It stars Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen and Michael Douglas ( among others ). Charlie Sheen's character, Bud Fox is a young stockbroking salesman.

His character shows some differences between effective and ineffective sales prospecting and the value of persistence. He also gets sold a number of times by Gordon Gekko ( played by Douglas ).

Lots of Visitors!

2006-07-22T00:20:00.000+10:00

Wow! We have noticed a big increase in traffic to this site last month. In fact, traffic has been growing steadily for the last few months. I looked at our web statistics and saw that a lot of traffic was coming from the big search engines, as we are ranking higher for various search criteria.

Some examples of our rankings today are:

No. 1 on Google Globally for 'GL 450 news' out of 54,300 competing sites!

No. 2 on Google Australia for 'Car Sales Training' out of 1,050,000 competing sites.

No. 1 on Yahoo Globally for 'Premium Automotive Industry Solutions' out of 832,000 competing sites!

No. 3 on NineMSN Globally for 'Auto Sales' out of 28,076,066 competing sites.

No. 7 on MSN Globally for 'Auto Book' out of 8,722,391 competing sites.

No. 3 on NineMSN Globally for 'BMW Sales Career' out of 310,528 competing sites.

No. 3 on MSN Globally for 'Premium Auto Sales Training' out of 429,789 competing sites.

No. 3 on NineMSN for 'Car Sales Training' out of 81,934 competing sites.

It's nice to be popular! We haven't spent a cent yet on ads ( like Google Adsense ). To achieve our high search engine rankings, less than six months ago we invested in a copy of XSite Pro, and we continue to utilise the superb services of J-Six Solutions.

What News of Mercedes-Benz?

2006-07-14T04:25:00.000+10:00

A frequent comment I hear relates to sales professionals' difficulty in sourcing up-to-date information on their brand and product, especially before their clients do!

To help address this situation, we have added a new page: Mercedes-Benz News.

We'll post articles, news, reviews and information on Mercedes-Benz there and will update it regularly. We'll be adding similar pages for other brands very soon.

Who Wants to be a Manager?

2006-07-13T22:01:00.000+10:00

What's going on? Many times this past week the topic of Sales Management has come up in discussions. Sales Managers have spoken with me about Sales Management techniques and skills, salespeople and trainees have asked me about how to become a Sales Manager. Dealer Principals have discussed Sales Management practises with me.

One of the more popular questions that's arisen this week is how Sales Managers can work effectively with over-ambitious salespeople who say that they'd like to be Sales Managers but haven't shown any aptitude or self-improvement in a management direction.

This question reminded me of when I played football. For many years, I'd seen coaches having to diplomatically waste time and effort every week ( pre-game and post-game ) trying to justify their selection decisions and match tactics to a whole host of people with varying degrees of commitment and interest in the team ( all of them with less than the coach's commitment and interest).

One of the better coaches I've seen started the season one year like this: a week before the first game of the season, he gave all of the players and other 'interested parties' a team list and asked all of us to select the team, each player in position, for the first game of the year. He gave us a list of criteria to consider in our selection, including best combination for a win against our opponents, fitness, skill, suitability for position, training attendance, pre-season commitment, etc. He also explained that we had to justify every inclusion and every exclusion. We also had to be mindful of accusations of bias for selecting our mates over other players.

My first observation while doing my 'homework' at the time was how complex the decisions were. The second observation was how time consuming the process was. When we brought our assignment back to Thursday training, the coach read each of our selections and criticised just one selection of each person's. It was enough for everyone to realise that they had overlooked at least one criterion.

He then asked each of us what we had learned and although the answers varied, I don't know of one person that questioned the coach's decisions that season.

How does this relate to Sales Management of over-ambitious salespeople? Well firstly you can delegate some simple management tasks to them. That may provide them with enough experience to know that they don't want to do it full time. If, however, they excel at the tasks, it could be the start of grooming them for management over time.

Cool!

2006-07-11T23:20:00.000+10:00

Our friend James has been achieving more success with his 'Coolest Guy on the Planet' experiment.

If you are at all interested in learning how to get more people visiting a web site, visit James' Coolest Guy on the Planet page.

More Good Service

2006-07-10T20:57:00.000+10:00

After the recent challenges I've experienced in getting my bike serviced, I finally had the work done today at a dealer that I hadn't used before and I was pleased with the service.

They did everything that they promised and even fixed a problem I gave them at the last minute. They had all the work itemised before and after the job, and they informed me on the progress during the day. The bike was finished earlier than the promised time. They gave me two good recommendations to save me money, but left the choice up to me.

Congratulations to Northside Motorcycles at Artarmon on a job well done.