A Drive for excellence

When transport giant Arriva announced it was to pull out of theretail motor trade to concentrate on its core business of publictransport, a number of Bristol dealerships began negotiations to takeover the Honda, Toyota, Lexus and Vauxhall franchises the companyheld in the city.

And the first people to pick up this opportunity were themanagement team at Arriva Vauxhall in Bristol, who formed a newcompany to take over the soon-to-be vacant business.

So Drive Vauxhall Bristol emerged as the new name for Vauxhall inBristol, with all the former Arriva sites being run by the newcompany.

The management buy-out picked up all Arriva's Vauxhall franchises,three in the West at Bristol, Clevedon and the Kawasaki motorbikefranchise (also in Bristol) and seven more around the country.

Drive now has more than 700 employees and an annual turnover ofGBP200million.

It expects to sell 10,000 new Vauxhall cars as well as 6,500 usedcars every single year, as well as fulfilling all the various after-sales and servicing commitments of the old Arriva dealership.

That little lot makes it one of the top 30 dealer networks in thecountry.

It's a huge undertaking, but Drive's joint managing directors,Steve Bessex and Paul Manning, are completely at ease with thesituation, having both been involved in the business for years.

Both are former directors at Arriva.

As far as Bristol customers are concerned, however, there will beno really noticeable changes.

Drive is committed to providing an even better standard ofservice, while the quality of the cars they sell seems to be on anupward trend at the moment, too.

The new Vectra is a huge improvement on the old car, while theAstra and Corsa are still selling well.

With the launch of the all-new Minerva and Sigma very soon and abrand new Astra in the pipeline, this is a very exciting time forVauxhall.

Steve Bessex, who's been working in the car business for 30 yearsand with Vauxhall for the past 19 years, is totally confident thatthe combination of the new Vauxhall name in Bristol and the promisingline-up of cars it will sell will ensure that Drive will go fromstrength to strength.

"Each Drive dealership aims to build on the excellent reputationestablished by the existing management team, " he said.

"We look forward to serving our many longstanding customers andbuilding on the relationships with them we have established overmany years.

"This is an exciting time to be with Vauxhall and I expect thewhole range to continue selling very well.

"Our customers won't notice the changeover, as we have gone fortotal continuity.

"Every member of staff has come with us to the new company,showing a complete commitment to us and to the Vauxhall name."

For more information about Drive Vauxhall Bristol and the carsthey sell, simply call ( 0117) 977 0411.

Meanwhile speculation is increasing about who will be taking overthe other Arriva sites in town.

Honda itself is said to be close to signing up the existing Hondafranchise in the city, while the two Toyota sites and the Lexus siteare still under negotiation.

The Lexus site seems to be a particularly attractive catch.

It's the only totally dedicated, solo Lexus site in the entirecountry.We'll let you know what happens!