9th July 25. Kia Day.

Today was the start of the expansion of my business. Five jobs to do today. One to deliver the Kia Stonic I collected from Newport, Wales last Friday. Which had been safely stored until today. For delivery to Tates Kia Pyecombe. Brighton. A dealer I , and millions of others have driven past on the A23 from London to Brighton. This place has a strong memory for me. Back in the 90s, 94 to be exact. I had been working as a manager in a Honda motorcycle dealer in London. We sold a new Fireblade to a customer who pulled up in an Alfa Romeo 164 V6 Cloverleaf. Brand new at the time and I obviously got talking to him about the car. And the bike he had to change for the "Blade," was a 1993 Ducati Peso 750. In blue.

We sold him the bike and it turned out he was the sales director of a dealer group in London, selling Fiat and Nissan. Shortly after he took delivery of the bike. He called me to ask if I'd come and work for his company. I was flattered, but he said we had given him exactly the service. He wanted to offer his customers. Being a Fiat lover I accepted and was soon the new business manager of Fiat on Uxbridge road Shepherds Bush. I have so many stories about working for this one dealer. I have mentioned already. It was probably my favourite time in the industry.

Apart from one thing. One day we came into work and the sales director a man called Andy Brogan had passed away. A heart attack. He was in his 40s.

The reason I remembered this Kia dealer on the A23 to Brighton. Was that we'd gone for a run on the motorbikes together with a few others? I had a Kawasaki ZZR 1100 at that time. We had headed down the A23 at ridiculous speeds impossible today. Stopping for a break at the services by this garage we pulled in only to see three police cars racing down the road after us. Obviously not noticing we'd pulled in. Phew!

His loss was sudden and shocking. Another shock awaited us all. His wife decided his funeral would be on August 1st 1997. Being the only new car registration date in the year and the busiest day for all the motor trade. A day chosen, I think to get back at an industry that probably killed him due to the stress so his wife can't be blamed for that. It meant that a lot of us couldn't go to his funeral. Sad times.

Today I had five jobs to organise. Three I was doing myself and two I subcontracted out to another company.

First I delivered the Kia Stonic to the dealership on the A23, I had collected last Friday. Then I had to get a train from there to South Coulsdon near Croydon. So a quick Uber to Hassocks railway station and the 50 or so minutes journey via East Croydon to Coulsdon South.

From there it's a short walk to the Kia dealership group I was doing the other four jobs today for. These were cars that had gone overage at the respective sites and were being swapped. The first car was a 2022 Kia Niro going to Kia Maidstone.

2022 Kia Niro

The dealership in South Croydon was about 35 minutes drive to Maidstone. Where I was collecting a brand new Kia Sportage to go back to Croydon.

New Kia Sportage

It was a fairly straightforward day and the first car dropped off at Maidstone appraised and signed for and collected the car to go back to Croydon.

Once there they accepted the car, signed for it and I was able to make the short walk back to Coulsdon South station and on to Victoria station, the underground to Marylebone and back to Aylesbury.

The company I sub contracted the other two jobs today is a company I used when I worked in London previously.

They are a lot more expensive but they agreed to do them for the price I quoted. I made a little bit on top obviously but it was worth doing to keep my customer happy and all in all. Got five cars delivered today so plenty of invoicing to do when I got home.