Why Jaguar?

On my travels and at the networking meetings I attend, I am often asked why I chose Jaguars. When I purchased our first Jaguar 11 years ago, I was working within a global corporate company and previously owned a Vauxhall Omega.

At the time when we needed to change our family car, which was also used to travel for work, Vauxhall no longer manufactured Omegas and didn’t produce anything near the size that we had become used to. So, having driven Vauxhalls for many years, I had to go on the search and test drive many different cars.

When I was being chauffeur driven for the corporate job I was often in BMW or Mercedes Benz, and although they are the normal chauffeur cars, they were not quite what I was looking for.

We first tried Volvo, Ford, VW, Audi and Jaguar. To be honest although the most comfortable we drove was the Jaguar X Type, we thought that there was just no way we could either afford one or would feel too embarrassed owning one being that Jaguars, were usually regarded as for the super rich when I was growing up!

We also test drove a Saab, but even that was not comfortable enough for us - we were beginning to run out of options and really, my heart was set on buying a British car.

So we went back to the garage to see what deals could be done, and Grange Jaguar at Swindon did not disappoint! We soon surprised ourselves in buying the 2005 Jaguar X Type 2.0 V6 SE in deep Pacific Blue.

The day we brought the X Type back with our faithful Omega besides

Now, the timing of this purchase was critical not only for us, but also a couple who we were due to provide a wedding car for. They expected to be using the Omega when they asked us. 

I placed the order for the X Type and while at the garage, I made a phone call to them saying something like this…. ‘Hello, it’s Dave. You know we are providing your wedding car, well we have just sold it and we no longer have it……….. instead we will be picking up a Jaguar X Type the week before your wedding - would you like that instead??’

The answer was just as we hoped for, but even better… it went something like this…. ‘That is just amazing, what an incredible treat and surprise, my fiancé has always dreamt of having a Jaguar for his wedding. Thank you so much Dave’

Our Jaguar prepared for the first big cat wedding!

One of the biggest pleasures was not only doing several weddings, as well as for our 2 oldest daughters’ weddings, but also taking my father out for a drive. He had always loved the Jaguar brand but was never able to own one even though he owned with his brother, my Uncle Gordon, a garage that sold new British cars and used cars for many brands.

That car served us well as a family car as well as for business and weddings until we part exchanged it in May 2009 for another big cat. Our long term relationship with Jaguar as a brand was developing! 

Enter Mr Bean!

During my time working for a company that was in Swindon, I was given the opportunity for overseas travel, visiting a number of countries including regular trips to Copenhagen. My three daughters and I had made an unspoken deal in the family that each time I went overseas I would bring a gift I could only get from that country. Some times it was special Danish cakes and other times wafer thin chocolate that I thought was only available in Denmark. Years later my eldest daughter found that exact type of chocolate had been available in a nearby supermarket! I tried!

About 6 years ago the Swindon office was closed and most of the employees were either made redundant or were moved to the offices in Hull or Slough. I thankfully managed to negotiate a ‘work from home’ contract which required me to go to the global head office in Slough for meetings only 2-3 times per week to start with. When friends and family asked me where I was working I would innocently reply the ‘Home Office’. Most cottoned on to the joke, but one of my sisters genuinely believed I meant the Home Office in Westminster! We played that joke for quite a while, until she eventually realised!

Being home based with the need to travel to Slough frequently, meant I was often driving to Slough during the rush hour and naturally got used to driving through those difficult conditions. Then when I had to go abroad, I used to leave my car in the relative safety of the head office car park, and catch a corporate chauffeur driven vehicle to Heathrow. This gave me lots of experience of the good, not so good and quite honestly, the painful times being chauffeur driven by other people. The seeds for creating my own executive travel company were being sown.

Whilst waiting for a meeting to start at the head office, I was sat in their reception area enjoying a coffee. Unfortunately, I was blissfully unaware that every time I reached forward to pick up my drink from the low coffee table, my tie was being dunked in my mug! I only realised something was wrong when the coffee had seeped through my shirt and trousers. Thankfully I was quite early for my meeting, so I rushed to the toilets and attempted to dry my clothes using the hand dryer, very much like the famous sketch by Mr Bean!

Aconite Mini and Floppy disks

In last weeks blog, I mentioned about producing the month end accounts and managing the forecourt at my father’s garage business. This was a time of my life when I first started to learn about hard work and making sacrifices for the family business.

Customer care was paramount when I was serving behind the till and was also required when going out to help the customer with checking the tyres, filling up with oil and fuel. I also had to deal with enquiries directly from customers related to products that we sold out of the small shop. Those were the days when we were taught that the ‘customer was always right’, and I believe this attitude has continued with me to this day.

Sometimes it was a struggle to remain polite, especially with some customers, who had never got used to the fact that automation and self service was here to stay. Often with them, it was a case of going the extra mile to meet their demands, but customer satisfaction was key to the success of the business.

Back then, I learnt to deal with cash and to give the correct change worked out manually, my strength in maths was helpful for this! That was until more and more people were starting to use credit cards, which meant we were then using a machine similar to the one below - much bigger that the machines we use today!

Around this time of our lives, just before myself and my wife were married ourselves, we often attended weddings for friends. I can remember my first duty as a wedding car provider for a friend, I had no idea that I would one day actually be a professional chauffeur! Believe it or not, I was dressed in a bright green suit and used my Mini shown below, to transport 3 bridesmaids. We had an impossible deadline to get through the city of Bath, but we got there and so my first wedding chauffeur experience was done. You may even be able to notice my green waistcoat and my fiancé by my side, who I had to leave at the church whilst I went off to collect the bridesmaids.

The same Mini was originally green but when I took it over I did some small modifications and painted it an aconite colour, using the facilities of the Paint Shop in the garage. I can remember taking that car on many trips to Cheddar, Somerset and have to admit I was not as diligent on keeping the speed limits as I have now been for many years. Guess that made me a boy racer in my youth!

Thinking again about my ‘garage’ days, the time had come to consider computerising the accounts and after much persuasion and investigation, I managed to convince my father and uncle that they needed a computer. Eventually they invested in an Apricot Computer much like the library picture below found on this link:

After many long days and nights, I finally transitioned all the accounts and management reports to the computer. The 3 1/2 " floppy disk was an incredible invention, it stored so much information… Or did it?

Anyway, thats it for this week folks.

The Lady and the Morris

Continuing on with the series on growing up within the family business and starting a career in accounting.

With both my parents heavily involved in the family garage business, it was expected that I would follow suit, but my father encouraged me to study hard and go for an accountancy career. I always enjoyed the subject of maths, so accountancy seemed like a reasonable choice. 

After school, I went to Bristol Polytechnic and took the Foundation Course in Accountancy for which there were 7 subjects to pass in and in those days all subjects had to be passed in the same sitting. This was extremely hard when, for me, there was only one subject that I seemed unable to get through, which was Law. I went through retakes over many years, also when I was working in a Chartered Accountancy practise in Cheddar, Somerset, and even during the time when I was ‘courting’ a lovely young lady who later became my wife.

With the family business being a garage, there was quite some choice of which car to use for our wedding! There were cars by Austin, Morris, Rover, MG and Wolesley, but there was car that was extra special as my paternal great uncle had bought it in 1936 from the then named 'Barnes & Sons'. A Morris 8 four door saloon. This lovely car is still owned by my older brother!

For me, this was a ‘no brainer’ and so my Uncle Gordon, Dad's brother and partner in the business, was our chauffeur for the day. Below you can see a photo of myself and the beautiful old lady, oh, and my new wife! When it had be raining most of the day previously, I could forgive the saggy ribbons!

At that stage I had never imagined that I would one day be a professional chauffeur, as my mind was still fixed on being an accountant.

In the following years after being married I changed the companies I worked for a few times, and then the accountant role at the family garage business became available. I accepted the position and gradually took over from my mother. After the transition was over, I was heavily involved in producing month end accounts for the purchase and sales ledgers as well as the nominal ledger and producing management accounts for the Forecourt, Parts, Service, Paint and Body Shop, RAC relays and Customs (for RAF Lyneham), and New and Used Car Sales departments.

It was a time when I could put my 'double entry T Account (Debits and Credits)' knowledge into practise first hand, using a massive NCR Accounting Machine, similar to the photo I have found on the website below. The whole machine weighed a ton or more and was incredibly noisy!

I learnt so much during the years at the garage and was very much involved in stock control, forecasting and managing staff and shifts on the forecourt as well as serving on the pumps and balancing the till.  Debt collection was also something I had to, and I have to say, back in those days farmers were sometimes quite difficult to get to pay. I also used to have to climb up on tankers, one of them is below to check the dipstick - we have deliveries of 27,500 litres sometimes twice a week

I can remember on more than one occasion people driving off without paying for their fuel, with me quickly getting someone to stand in for me and then I drove off promptly to chase them down, sadly unsuccessfully. But that was quite fun!

From coaches to elbow grease and sky hooks!

I would like to tell you a few more stories of the early days of just before my time, my childhood and growing up within the family business.

My father’s long distance driving really started in the 1940-50’s with the coach business known as Dauntsey Vale Coaches, which was then run as part of Barnes & Sons started by my grandfather which preceded the G & K Barnes Ltd business, where they operated several coaches as shown below. This was before my time, so all I have are a few photos now, but it helps me appreciate that the care I show my clients has its roots in my father to whom I owe a lot.

Fast forwarding several years, G & K Barnes Ltd also provided an RAC Recovery service for drivers that had broken down and needed transport with their vehicle to anywhere in Britain. Mostly Dad provided the service and we would often receive a phone call any time day or night with my Mother packing Dad up with provisions for a long journey ahead.

This service was initially using the Austin Westminster (Westie) and trailer and then later with the Range Rover (Rangey) as shown below with Dad.

On a few of these journeys during the late 1960’s and early 70’s, I had the opportunity to go along with Dad provided I did what I was told and it did not interrupt with my schooling. This was really exciting to me as a child and bearing in mind there was no ‘Sat-Nav’ as we call it, so we had to use a map and compass. It was during these trips that I learnt through Dad, how to navigate using these tools. It is so much easier these days!

Amazingly, during the late 1970s, Dad was able to stay in contact with our base via the latest technology called a mobile cellphone, as example is shown below - it looked much like a brick, although this is a photo off google and not by Dad! The below photo and more details on mobile phone history are available through this external link

I mentioned during my last blog that I used to frequently wander down to the garage as it was next door but one, to our family home. One of the ways I helped, was to fetch parts and tools for the mechanics occasionally from the Parts Department. On a few of these occasions I can remember Ray in the Workshop telling me to ask Godfrey for a ‘sky hook’, and when I asked him, Godfrey responded with the reassuring ‘I think you’ve been had Master Barnes’. On another occasion, Ken in the Bodyshop told me to ask Godfrey for some ‘elbow grease’. You can guess what Godfrey said - I soon caught onto questioning more what I was being asked for - a good lesson for a 7 year old to learn!

I hope I am a bit wiser these days! Anyway that’s it for this week folks.