So to Kettners in London’s Soho, an eatery with private rooms much loved by corporate entertainers who want to engage the attention of the Press for a couple of hours.
The occasion was to mark the departure to Detroit of Duncan Aldred, managing director of Vauxhall UK.
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The trick on these occasions is to grab the seat next to the VIP, control the urge to concentrate on the very fine, bottomless bottle of red wine, grill the VIP (in the interrogative rather the culinary sense) and get a better story than the next man.
The additional challenge on this occasion was that the seat on the other side of the great man was swiftly taken by the editor of just-auto, Dave Leggett; ideally, we avoid writing the same thing. And we succeeded in that.
Aldred has done well. Maybe too well. Never before has a Brit been plucked from Luton to ride high in Detroit. Things have not been going so well for GM in the US. “They see me in the US as some sort of saviour which will make the going tough but I look forward to getting into that team.”
He had his reservations about going (“it’s always hard to leave when things are going well”) but he has carried with him through his business life, a sentence of advice from his mum delivered when he was just eight years old: “better a mistake than regrets.”
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By GlobalDataWhen he says that things are going well in the UK, what he means is that demand for the Adam is hot. With Chevrolet, a US GM brand now gone from the UK (and not particularly missed) Vauxhall will soak up about half that retail business when owners need to renew. “Vauxhall will sell more Corsas in the UK than Renault sells cars,” forecasts Aldred.
PCPs (personal contract purchases) are a major selling tool. Half of Adams and Mokkas sell that way. For most people, the monthly cost of the little cars is less than the owner expects to pay for his phone or the caffeine addict spends a month on his coffee…or as Mr Aldred will need to learn to pronounce it: “cawfy”.
