Questions
Eight things people ask us before they phone
Do you sell cars, or take anything from a dealer?
No, and that is the whole point of the arrangement. We are paid by the person we are helping and by nobody else. No stand, importer, dealership, insurer or workshop pays us a referral, and we do not hold stock. If we recommend an independent workshop for an inspection, it is because we have used them and we get nothing for saying so.
What do show tickets and parking usually cost?
As an indication, an indoor expo ticket runs somewhere between a hundred and fifty and three hundred rand, children are often cheaper or free, and on-site parking is forty to a hundred and twenty rand depending on how close you want to be. Club displays on a lawn are frequently cheaper, sometimes a donation at the gate. These figures move, so check with the venue.
Is a test drive on the show loop worth queueing for?
Worth it for driving position, visibility and the controls you will use every day, not worth it for ride or refinement, because the loop is flat, smooth and slow. If the queue is longer than twenty-five minutes we usually skip it and ask for a proper drive on our own roads instead.
We are flying in and hiring for two weeks. What do you actually tell us?
Mostly the unglamorous parts. What the daily rate excludes, what the excess is and whether you can reduce it sensibly, whether tyres and glass are covered, what the agreement says about gravel roads, and which photographs to take at handover so a scratch argument at the end goes your way. Then route notes for the first and last day, because those are the ones people get wrong.
Can you help if we are retiring to a small town?
That changes the advice quite a lot, and usually for the better, because the criteria get clearer. Parts availability and the distance to a workshop start outranking almost everything else, gravel becomes a weekly fact rather than an occasional one, and a car sold in large numbers suddenly looks much more attractive than something interesting and rare.
What about an electric car, with load-shedding the way it is?
It depends almost entirely on where you park at night and how far you drive in a day. Thirty kilometres a day and a wall box at home is fine, and a schedule that takes your block out for two or three hours will not stop you charging overnight. Long Karoo legs are still awkward, and if your garage door is electric you want a manual release and a key to the pedestrian gate regardless of what you drive.
Do you look at pre-owned, or only new cars at shows?
Both, and more pre-owned than new these days. A two-year-old example of a better car, with a complete service history and no gravel life behind it, is usually the stronger buy. We will sit in on the inspection and translate the findings, and we will tell you which items are negotiating points rather than reasons to leave.
What will you not do?
We do not negotiate on your behalf, we do not sign anything, we do not hold money, and we do not value cars for insurance. We also will not tell you a car is suitable for a daily drive we have not seen you make. If a question needs a qualified person, an engineer, an insurance assessor or an attorney, we say so and stop talking.
A forty-five minute call the week before an expo changes the whole day, and it costs less than the parking and the tickets together. Phone the Bree Street number during the hours on the contact page, or send a note through the form and tell us which show you are going to and what the car has to do for you.
Show halls and long roads
Phone us before the show, not after it
A forty-five minute call the week before an expo changes the whole day, and it costs less than the parking and the tickets together. Phone the Bree Street number during the hours on the contact page, or send a note through the form and tell us which show you are going to and what the car has to do for you.