Essays
Technician’s Update: It doesn’t stop with cut-price cowboys
Mike Humble When I used to put a price out for a job whilst working as a mobile mechanic, I would always ask if the potential customer had obtained a quote from elsewhere before giving a price. Pitch the opening gambit too high and you will get three beeps or a long tone to signify the caller has rung off, [...]
May 17, 2013
· 
Mike Humble · 
10 Comments
Sales Talk : Treading carefully with over-inflated egos
Mike Humble I used to work for one of the biggest dealer chains in the country, and before it was taken over by another equally huge group, it was a pleasant outfit to work for – providing you pulled your weight. I transferred over to a nearby Vauxhall site eventually, but at first, my role involved selling new [...]
May 16, 2013
· Mike Humble · 21 Comments
Technician’s Update : Mutton dressed as lamb
Mike Humble When I went from the busy world of High Street retail motor parts to a small and remote Rover dealer, the customer base couldn’t have been more different between he two. On one hand, the nature of the game involved selling audio systems and styling parts through to oil and brake pads for local taxi [...]
May 12, 2013
· Mike Humble · 28 Comments
Essay : Overture to the Allegro
On the eve of its 40th birthday, Ian Nicholls digs into the archives to discuss the Austin Allegro from the perspectives of British Leyland’s movers and shakers at the time Britain in May 1973 was a different country to what it is now. This was a world where the most desirable consumer item was a [...]
May 4, 2013
· Keith Adams · 45 Comments
Not their finest hour : Guy Wulfrunian
Mike Humble From personal experience, there is no customer more difficult to trade with or educate for that matter than a Bus or Coach operator. Your average road haulier for example will look for overall cost and network support before driver acceptance and a typical average car buyer tends to look for reliability and a [...]
May 1, 2013
· Mike Humble · 24 Comments
Blog : Mike puts the boot into garage chains
Mike Humble I was wondering to myself just the other day what was I to do with three days off on the trot… However, no sooner had I returned home from my last day at work, than there was that knock on the door which signalled a favour might be called for. My neighbour’s Rover 25 Impression had failed its MoT and [...]
April 28, 2013
· Mike Humble · 62 Comments
Not their finest hour : Ward Bros & ACE Ltd
Mike Humble Ward Brothers of Lepton near Huddersfield at one point ran a medium sized coach business operating a mixed range of services including Continental holidays. To say their choice of prime mover was different would be an understatement, but the coach chassis of choice for Ward was the lesser known Seddon Pennine VII. Seddon [...]
April 19, 2013
· Mike Humble · 10 Comments
Blog : To MGB or not to MGB – that is the question!
Mike Humble Ever said those fatal words “yeah, I can do that, no problem” and wished you hadn’t? It’s something we all say, all get burnt with and never ever seem to learn from. A very good friend of mine, who also supplied me with Project Partridge – aka the 800 Vitesse coupé, is a real Brit car [...]
April 12, 2013
· Mike Humble · 11 Comments
Essay : Did Government kill MG Rover?
The history of BMC and its decendents has been inextricably linked to that of whoever has been resident at Number Ten Downing Street… Be it Conservative or Labour, the Government has been unable to maintain a watching brief; always favouring a more ‘active’ role… IAN NICHOLLS takes a look at how each successive government has [...]
April 8, 2013
· Keith Adams · 55 Comments
Essay : Top 10 AROnline classics for cheap running
We love Bangernomics at AROnline and in the interests of running cars on a shopestring, we choose 10 great and unusual cars to run on a shoestring using the principles we hold so dearly. We know that fuel prices are going up, and tax is being squeezed, but you could beat the system with any [...]
March 20, 2013
· Keith Adams · 169 Comments
Technician’s Update : A Saintly act of kindness…
Mike Humble Never has a more true word been spoken at the phrase ‘laughter is the best medicine’ - unless you actually die laughing that is! My own little world has been a bit up and down as of late owing to the fact that, after a short illness, my father passed away very recently. [...]
March 7, 2013
· Mike Humble · 25 Comments
The Bus Section : Leyland Atlantean
Mike Humble Atlantean: bearing the weight of the world Should you be of a certain age, a bus still rustles up a mental picture of something big and noisy with large 22.5in tyres that rattles your fillings and windows with the thumping growling big block Gardner or Leyland 680 power unit. The sights, sounds and [...]
March 4, 2013
· Mike Humble · 29 Comments
Unsung heroes : Honda TN/Acty Van
Mike Humble The vehicle I have chosen for your delectation this time is for sure one of those ‘when did you last see one of those’ motors in every sense. Most of us I’m sure will give a little smile merely at the mention of the Honda Acty van and many of us may have [...]
February 16, 2013
· Mike Humble · 46 Comments
Sales Talk : Managing the expectations
Mike Humble In a previous muttering, I explained how ‘messers’ are the most universally loathed folk in the motor trade. Too often I hear people bemoaning about the shark infested car showrooms and how sales staff seen to sink to unheard of depths in order to get your moniker on the dotted line. Much of [...]
January 25, 2013
· Mike Humble · 38 Comments
Blog : Is the Lion an endangered species?
Mike Humble Only yesterday as I was trudging round the shops in that post Christmas bargain search, another sign of the ‘motoring times’ came to remind me about the critically parlous state of the car game. Recently, I posted a feature about our local Vauxhall agent hitting the skids, but within a few depressing months, [...]
December 28, 2012
· Mike Humble · 116 Comments
Technician’s Update : Clutching the money…
Mike Humble Around this time of year, my hat goes off to the army of breakdown folk and mobile mechanics who sit in a lonely cab. Radio 2′s warbling in the background and they’re awaiting the dread of the mobile ‘phone ringing for desperate assistance from another hapless motorist who’s car is in need of [...]
December 25, 2012
· Mike Humble · 12 Comments
Unsung heroes : Bedford/AWD TK and TL Series
Mike Humble When you think of British trucks, the same names automatically come to the forefront of your mind: ERF, Foden, Leyland and Seddon Atkinson. All but one (Leyland) are long gone, either swallowed up by European corporates or they’ve simply faded away. UK truck manufacturing was once as sprawling and complex as our car [...]
December 8, 2012
· Mike Humble · 44 Comments
Sales Talk : The right way to do it…
Mike Humble The other day I was bimbling along in my cocooned world of Rover’s patented leather and walnut when I was overtaken by a Hyundai i40. ‘What’s the fuss about that’, you may think, but I had to rub my eyes partly due to the fact that I actually found it to be a [...]
November 26, 2012
· Mike Humble · 31 Comments
Technician’s Update : When in doubt, Ecotec it elsewhere!
Mike Humble Most of us would probably acknowledge that, in its earliest incarnation, the Vauxhall Vectra failed by a country mile to capture the hearts and souls of the British motorist. It was by no means a flop - in fact, it sold rather well - but no one could ever describe it as dynamic as say the [...]
November 22, 2012
· Mike Humble · 32 Comments
Technician’s Update : A real SEi opener…
Mike Humble I will, as many of you may now know, equally applaud excellent service as well as lambast the shonky or slate the slapdash. Anyone who entrusts their motor to a garage - either due to an acute lack of skill or ability - knows it’s like placing your head into the Lion’s mouth. It’s the same [...]
November 18, 2012
· Mike Humble · 14 Comments
