The Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars podcast – Episode # 127 – Dealership Experience matters

127 – Dealership Experience matters

Show: Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars
Date: 2026-07-06
Hosts: Trevor Long & Stephen Fenech

[00:00:01] Trevor Long: This is Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars with Steven Fenech and Trevor Long. Thanks to NRMA Insurance and Uniden. Great to have your company. NRMA Insurance helping Australians protect what matters most for 100 years and more. And they're also one of Australia's largest insurers of electric vehicles. So all we ask is that if you're in the market for insurance, if your insurance is just about to come up on your beautiful new car that you bought a year ago, give NRMA a call or go online, get a quote, and you never know, might be a better deal or could be a great deal, whatever you like. And while you're there and you're online, have a look at Uniden Smart Dash Cams and get yourself a dash cam for your car, EV or otherwise. You might have 2 or 3 cars in the driveway, get a dash cam for all of them because it'll give you peace of mind on the road.

[00:00:43] Stephen Fenech: Front and back. Yeah, 2 cameras, front and back.

[00:00:46] Trevor Long: We want the whole deal. We want you fully protected, folks. Okay, so get yourself a dash cam and be happy. Steven, great to be with you, mate. Let's talk electric cars as we love to do.

[00:00:55] Stephen Fenech: Let's do that. Should I— I should reveal I've actually chosen my next car.

[00:01:00] Trevor Long: Official.

[00:01:00] Stephen Fenech: Should we keep it? Should we keep it a secret?

[00:01:02] Trevor Long: Or— I mean, I don't— I've chosen— I've chosen the chances of someone who's a reasonable term listener to this show not already knowing what you've picked. All right, given that you haven't really talked about any others. Yeah, because really it came down to the Macan was a bit of an option for you.

[00:01:17] Stephen Fenech: It was.

[00:01:18] Trevor Long: But as soon as another vehicle showed its face and you were able to get a sense of it, and I think we got the pricing revealed live on the show once we did. Yeah, and it was Very sharp, given it's a much lower kind of level car than your current one.

[00:01:32] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, it is the level down. So it is the Mercedes-Benz CLA Electric. Yeah, 350+.

[00:01:37] Trevor Long: Sorry, I didn't ring up Sparklers and Things for you.

[00:01:39] Stephen Fenech: The 350+, expecting it. I was actually one of the first orders though, they reckon. So expecting it in September.

[00:01:45] Trevor Long: Very nice. Yeah, we're going to drive it in a car.

[00:01:48] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, I know, I'm going to the launch of a car in July that I've already bought.

[00:01:52] Trevor Long: Yeah, I can't wait for you to tell that story 100 times while we're up there.

[00:01:56] Stephen Fenech: Hey, might have slipped through on an email.

[00:01:59] Trevor Long: Well, it's exciting. Are we going to track it like we did last time with the—

[00:02:03] Stephen Fenech: potentially, yeah, possibly. Hopefully it'll be sooner though. They reckon it might be sooner, but they're saying— I think they're trying to manage my expectations— they're saying, uh, should be September, early September, early. And my lease runs out in early August, so there might be—

[00:02:18] Trevor Long: I'll, uh, I'll be sure that leaning on the other, the other cars. Yeah, we— oh, actually, we need to make sure I sort that because I'm away, so I'll be Yeah, not booking anything. I'll make sure we sort something out for you, Stephen. You'll be behind the wheel of something spectacular while you wait for your glorious new car. Well, congratulations, mate. Thank you very much. Very exciting. Yeah, it's a good-looking car.

[00:02:37] Stephen Fenech: That's great. You know, I've seen— I haven't seen the electric, I've seen the petrol model. Yeah, I've sat in it. I think I've sent you messages, remember, showing you how it's not that much smaller inside than my current car. Remember I showed you the photo, the side-by-sides.

[00:02:52] Trevor Long: Yeah, please don't send me photos of your knees again.

[00:02:56] Stephen Fenech: They were covered, mate, it was all good. I had jeans on.

Lenny — Traded up to a Cupra Tavascan, dealership experience & home charging setup

[00:02:59] Trevor Long: All right, well, if you're in the market for a new car, or you're like Steven, you've put your money down, you're waiting for your new electric car, send us a text, uh, thanks to Vodafone, 0477 657 657. We'd love to hear from you about your EV journey, new or old, uh, long or short. Uh, we'd love to have you on the show. Lenny's on the line. G'day, Lenny.

[00:03:18] Lenny: G'day, Trev. G'day, Steve. How are you?

[00:03:20] Stephen Fenech: How you doing, mate?

[00:03:20] Trevor Long: Really, really good. Um, where are you at in your EV journey, my friend?

[00:03:26] Lenny: Well, my, my journey— I've just bought a car. My wife just bought a car, I should say. I've been on the journey as long as you guys been on.

[00:03:33] Stephen Fenech: Oh, okay.

[00:03:36] Lenny: So yeah, you guys started the journey with— I started the journey with you guys when you started buying your Model S's and your Kia Kia.

[00:03:43] Stephen Fenech: Oh, he knows as well. He knows as well.

[00:03:45] Trevor Long: Well played. So hang on, it's the wife's car. If you've been on the journey, have you been on this journey together, or did you just luck out and she got to get the first one?

[00:03:54] Lenny: No, we've been on a journey together to buy a car for her. Yep. Um, I had some input but not all the input. Um, it was more about, more about making her happy.

[00:04:05] Trevor Long: Isn't life?

[00:04:06] Lenny: She chose a car. She had the car. She chose the car in the end. I wasn't 100% agreeable on it, but it is a good car.

[00:04:13] Trevor Long: Well, before you tell us, before you tell us what you got, what was it, without giving it away, what was it that you didn't agree with about the vehicle she chose?

[00:04:23] Lenny: Uh, just this technology, um, um, guys. Um, it's, it's not as technologically, um, as other cars.

[00:04:30] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:04:31] Lenny: Um, there's a few things missing that I, that I wanted in the car for, for the family, and it the car didn't provide. It was actually— it's actually provided in Europe, but they stripped it out for the Australian version.

[00:04:44] Stephen Fenech: Aha.

[00:04:44] Lenny: So there's a clue.

[00:04:46] Stephen Fenech: European car, right?

[00:04:47] Trevor Long: I feel a familiarity to this story.

[00:04:51] Lenny: Yes, you're right, Trevor. You feel—

[00:04:52] Trevor Long: it's killing me. I want to know what you get.

[00:04:56] Lenny: The journey started way back with you guys. The journey started way back with you guys. We looked at Polestar 2 and we looked at Tesla Tesla Model Y on top of Tesla Model S. Yep. And a Mustang Mach-E and a few others. We nearly bought the Mustang Mach-E 2022, 2023. We nearly bought that back then, but my wife was a little bit insecure in the job at the time and thought, oh, we won't go ahead just now, we'll just see what happens.

[00:05:20] Trevor Long: Okay.

[00:05:20] Lenny: Yeah. And we— and you're not getting made redundant, so luckily it was the right move. Yep. Yeah. Now she feels secure and with this petrol thing that just happened a few months ago, she said it's time.

[00:05:33] Trevor Long: There you go.

[00:05:35] Lenny: So we drove a model, uh, Zica 7X, which I was impressed with.

[00:05:39] Trevor Long: I love this thing.

[00:05:41] Stephen Fenech: You and thousands of other people, mate.

[00:05:42] Lenny: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The actual, um, the actual, uh, dealership was— experience was good, but it was— they're just too busy to answer any of your questions. You had to wait 3 months for the next— for the next shipment to arrive, and right, this wasn't quite right for us, and my wife wanted it now and then. Uh, we then went and drove the Cupra Tavascan. All-wheel drive. Yep. And it put a big smile on my wife's face. The car was going to be available within a week or two, and it was like more or less— the guy at Cooper was really fit, really good. Tristan at Fortitude Valley Cooper, um, done an amazing job with us. Great. Um, the car is great. I love the car very, uh, a lot. But it's not— the amount of money you spend on the, on the car, you'd expect a heads-up display and a few other things, navigation.

[00:06:31] Stephen Fenech: Because we've driven the Taviscan. Yeah, we've driven this car.

[00:06:33] Lenny: Yeah, because Trev's a Cooper.

[00:06:33] Stephen Fenech: I mean, I love my son's a Cooper.

[00:06:37] Trevor Long: I don't get to drive it much these days, but, but I, but when I— so we— I think I got back from overseas and there was a week before I had our next press car pickup. So I said, Jackson, mate, you're in the Mazda, I'm driving the Cooper again. And it just gave me the same joy. And that, yeah, after a couple of years to get the same joy I got from the very first time I drove it.

[00:06:57] Stephen Fenech: Yep.

[00:06:57] Trevor Long: It just made me so happy. But Lenny, I hear you in In Europe there's an app, in Europe there's a SIM card so that you can, you know, check in on it, start the cooling and all that kind of stuff. So they don't have that in the Aussie model? They don't have that in the Aussie model. Is that one of the big gripes along with head-up display?

[00:07:16] Lenny: Yeah, yeah, that's the main gripe. But as far as driving, it's great, it's comfortable.

[00:07:21] Stephen Fenech: Beautiful car.

[00:07:22] Lenny: It's a driver's car, as you're probably aware. It handles like you wouldn't believe. Car's great, there's nothing wrong with it. It's just missing a few things for the money you pay compared to some of the other cars.

[00:07:32] Stephen Fenech: Okay, so this is your wife's car, you said? So she's just—

[00:07:35] Lenny: yeah, the wife's car to go to work. And the—

[00:07:38] Stephen Fenech: what does she like to drive?

[00:07:39] Lenny: Bugger all. She's been away for the last 3 days in Cairns on her job, so I took it to work.

[00:07:45] Stephen Fenech: So she knew it's her work car, basically, isn't it? Is that what we're saying? She just uses it?

[00:07:48] Lenny: Yeah, yeah, she goes— yeah, and we use it for the weekends because it's a lot cheaper to run, as you, as you understand. It costs us about $1.50 a night to charge, you know.

[00:07:56] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, it's great. And so has this, has this tipped you over to— are you, are you a two-car family or are you thinking of maybe getting your own in, in a little while?

[00:08:05] Lenny: Well, I'm— yes, I am, I am. I've, um, I drive a ute. I'm not— I don't need to drive a ute, but I, we like our utes. I like my ute to, you know, go to the dump and use it as a ute.

[00:08:16] Trevor Long: Fair enough.

[00:08:17] Lenny: The only option I'd have would be the, the Shark 6, which I do like. Yeah. Yep. Um, I'm still halfway through a novated lease, so I've got to wait for my novated lease to finish before I do something else.

[00:08:28] Trevor Long: By the time that lease ends, there might be other options. We know we spoke to the guy about the SsangYong that he's driving, the SsangYong KGV or whatever it's called. Um, that's a fully electric ute. Fully electric ute, look great. I mean, pricey-ish, but, uh, I thought it was a great option. And if that's existing, then there's going to be more. And what have you done at home, uh, to cope? Have you gone granny charging? Have you installed a wall charger? What's been that experience?

[00:08:51] Lenny: Well, we started with the granny charger for the first, we've had it for about 5 or 6 weeks, Trevor and Steve. We used the granny charger for the first week and just sort of said to ourselves, let's upgrade to the wall charger. So we've got an EVNext, I think it's called, EVNext 7 kilowatt wall charger.

[00:09:06] Stephen Fenech: Nice.

[00:09:07] Lenny: And now we can charge at the times we want. We can charge it at midnight for the 8 cents a kilowatt type of thing and go from there.

[00:09:15] Trevor Long: Outstanding.

[00:09:16] Lenny: And at some point in the future, we'll probably look into a battery, but at this stage, that's how we're charging.

[00:09:20] Trevor Long: We haven't used any public chargers yet. Okay, okay.

[00:09:23] Lenny: Don't feel, don't feel the need to, but we'll, we will try and experiment one weekend and just go out and just try a couple to see how they work and all that. But yeah, just haven't done it yet.

[00:09:31] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, fantastic.

[00:09:32] Trevor Long: Very nice, mate. Um, it's, it's amazing. Has the wife given you any feedback about driving or owning electric car as a daily driver? Anything that she's, you know, not negative about, but just things that she kind of, you didn't know in that early, you know, discovery phase of several years?

[00:09:49] Lenny: Oh, just the things are on the opposite side. Uh, there's a few little, little quirks with— yeah, blinkers and how things work. Um, that's the only negative feedback, but we just will go through the, go through the, um, the instruction manual, so to speak.

[00:10:04] Trevor Long: But isn't it interesting, Lenny, that's just car feedback. What you've just given us is feedback if you had bought a Cupra Leon or Formentor, which are not electric. You, you were just switching to a European car.

[00:10:13] Stephen Fenech: And yeah, it's—

[00:10:14] Trevor Long: well, we drive a new car every week, and isn't it funny, Stephen, sometimes you're like— and it's embarrassing because we pick it up from like a warehouse where all the cars are Sometimes you're sitting there going, where's the start button? Exactly.

[00:10:23] Stephen Fenech: I've done that a few times. You think, how do I turn this? I know I don't want to go inside and ask because I feel like a goose, so I've got to work it out.

[00:10:30] Trevor Long: Do you know the worst one? And this is, uh, real, um, real, um, top-end thinking, but it's Porsche. You're sitting in a Porsche— like, it's because it's a Porsche dealership, and you're sitting there in the driveway of the Porsche dealership, and they're like, have you driven one before? I'm like, yeah, totally. And then you get in, you're like, I've forgotten, it's been a while.

[00:10:43] Stephen Fenech: The little gear lever.

[00:10:45] Trevor Long: Oh mate, it's embarrassing. But So that's the great thing is your discovery. How old was the car that she used to drive?

[00:10:51] Lenny: It was a 2010 Mazda 6.

[00:10:54] Trevor Long: So mate, any car you had or bought, electric or otherwise, was going to give you a whole range of new discoveries. Not just the left and right, but how do the wipers work? How does the cruise control work? Because mate, adaptive cruise control you probably didn't have on the old Mazda is a phenomenal feature of pretty much every new car. Um, yeah, so it's always going to be discovery. So it's fascinating to me that after a few weeks you've, you've not really had any, um, discoveries in an electric sense.

[00:11:20] Stephen Fenech: Smooth transition.

[00:11:21] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, good stuff.

[00:11:22] Stephen Fenech: No, no.

[00:11:23] Trevor Long: Well, mate, enjoy the Cooper.

[00:11:24] Lenny: Look, we did a lot of our discoveries on the pre— on all the, all the, um, all the test drives we did on all the other cars. We did a lot of discovery.

[00:11:31] Stephen Fenech: Okay, nice. Yeah, of course. Yeah. How many tests?

[00:11:34] Lenny: We've been in this journey for a couple of years.

[00:11:35] Stephen Fenech: Did you get out? Did you get near the record test drives? How many test drives did you do?

[00:11:39] Lenny: No, mate, it was about— it was about— is that definitely under 10? Oh, okay. Maybe 8.

[00:11:42] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:11:43] Stephen Fenech: You're not in the— yeah, you're nowhere near the record.

[00:11:46] Trevor Long: No, no, but well tried. You gave it a crack.

[00:11:48] Stephen Fenech: 8's a solid number too, by the way.

[00:11:51] Lenny: Yeah, yeah, it's not, not too bad, eh, mate?

[00:11:53] Trevor Long: Welcome to the Cupra family. Welcome to the EV family. And, uh, thank you. Give your wife our best and hope she enjoys the car. Just tell her every now and then let you drive the car.

[00:12:02] Stephen Fenech: Come on. Yeah, give you a drive, mate.

[00:12:04] Trevor Long: Yeah, give it a squirt every now and again.

[00:12:05] Lenny: Thank you, gentlemen.

[00:12:06] Trevor Long: Cheers, buddy. Great to hear from you. Thanks, mate. Cheers, Lenny. Oh, that's awesome. What a cool story.

[00:12:13] Stephen Fenech: And you know what, happy wife, happy life, mate. You know how it works. You know, looking after—

[00:12:18] Trevor Long: I mean, this should be two blokes talking marriage counseling. Exactly. Because essentially, yeah, the number of times after the boss that we've talked about who makes the decisions. Oh yeah, marketing to the wife and things like that.

[00:12:29] Stephen Fenech: It's probably, you know, the, the not just in EVs but across every market, you got to appeal. There has to be a feminine appeal because often the women in the family are the treasurers, the gatekeepers of the cash, and they're the ones who organize everything.

[00:12:46] Trevor Long: And we should be clear, it's not because they don't let you spend, it's because you want them to be happy. Like, that's what partners do. And so it's amazing to me, like, Amanda hates the Cupra. Really? She doesn't like the look of it, doesn't like driving it, doesn't want to borrow it.

[00:13:00] Stephen Fenech: Same with Jo. Jo doesn't like the Merc. She says it's like sitting on the road. She doesn't like being so low on the road.

[00:13:05] Trevor Long: If there was, uh, like a—

[00:13:07] Stephen Fenech: she ever driven it?

[00:13:08] Trevor Long: Yeah, a couple of times.

[00:13:09] Stephen Fenech: Joe's never driven my car.

[00:13:11] Trevor Long: If there was a mechanic in the driveway working on like changing a tire on the car and she needed to go to the shops and there was a Cooper and a Mazda 2 from 2012 in the driveway, Mazda 2 every day. All right, wow, 100%.

[00:13:20] Stephen Fenech: Well, Joe's never set foot— or she set foot in the car, she's been in the car but not in the driver's seat. She's never driven my Merc. She never ever drove my Tesla either. I don't know.

[00:13:29] Trevor Long: Yeah, I'll tell you what that is. That's fear. She doesn't want to bump, scratch.

[00:13:34] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, she doesn't want to scratch my rims.

[00:13:36] Trevor Long: Can you quickly tell the story of the Great Grandma Express and how you trolled your mother and mother-in-law?

[00:13:42] Stephen Fenech: Well, we, uh, I went up to Newcastle because we had our little, our grandson, little Jack, and my daughter Hayley and, and, uh, and James live up on Warners Bay. And I'd seen the baby, and of course Joe had still there, but my mother and Joe's mother they had an opportunity because my mum's now on her way to Malta. She's already gone. So this was her only chance to see little Jack. And so I charged up the Merc and I said, right, we're going to head up. And, you know, we got up there, plenty, plenty left in the battery. And on the way out, we're walking out and I said, look, I think I've got enough charge to get back to Sydney. We might have to walk the last couple of K's. And they go, what? What do you mean? I said, we should be fine. Don't worry. And I said, no, no, we're all good.

[00:14:23] Trevor Long: You're a terrible son and son-in-law.

[00:14:25] Stephen Fenech: But then what happened, right, because we're in my Merc, right, really smooth ride, both of them have fallen asleep on the way home. They're both having a little snooze and I'm just driving away. Looks like I was by myself, mate. What you said, they woke up sort of the—

[00:14:36] Trevor Long: what you could have done with them asleep was pull up on in one of those emergency spots, put the bonnet up and just go and just sit there on the phone for them to wake up. What's happened?

[00:14:44] Stephen Fenech: Sorry, yeah, we've got run out of battery. Yeah, should have done that, you're right.

[00:14:49] Trevor Long: Uh, anyway, don't do that to your elderly parents and grandparents, folks.

[00:14:52] Stephen Fenech: Great grandmas, they had a great time. Yeah, they, uh, but now we— I got them there and back safely.

[00:14:56] Trevor Long: Well done. I noticed you didn't take the tank.

[00:14:58] Stephen Fenech: No, no, I thought we'd go up in the Merc. Yeah, do a bit of style, mate.

[00:15:02] Trevor Long: Fair call, fair call. All right, two blokes talking electric cars. We'd love to hear from you. Send us a text or WhatsApp 0477 657657. Ah, two blokes talking electric cars and dancing in the studio. If you're on the YouTube, you'll know exactly what we're talking about.

[00:15:25] Stephen Fenech: A lot of energy this morning.

[00:15:26] Stephen Fenech: A lot of energy.

[00:15:27] Trevor Long: Yeah, we're fired up.

[00:15:28] Stephen Fenech: We are.

[00:15:29] Trevor Long: I am actually fired up. Oh yeah, you know, I just feel—

[00:15:32] Stephen Fenech: yeah, there's a very positive energy in the— in this conversation.

Ryan — Wife's new MG4 Urban, charging habits and dealership experience

[00:15:35] Trevor Long: There's a vibe. Uh, all right, we'd love to hear from you. As we've said, uh, Ryan's on the line. G'day, Ryan.

[00:15:41] Ryan: Good morning, how are we, gentlemen?

[00:15:42] Trevor Long: Mate, really good. Where are you at in your EV world? We believe you've, uh, you've put your money down on an MG4, the Urban.

[00:15:50] Ryan: Uh, we actually took delivery on Tuesday.

[00:15:53] Trevor Long: Oh, Fresh. Now, now, can I, uh, I'll, I'll be very clear, um, haven't driven it, um, saw it for the first time on the road yesterday. I was pulling out, Stephen, you'll know this, you drive up the road, then you go up the hill to the lights. This car pulled out in front of me.

[00:16:06] Stephen Fenech: What is that?

[00:16:07] Trevor Long: Because it's, um, it doesn't look as sharp and angled as, say, the MG4. It's a little bit more, I don't know, rounded on the edges or something. And I don't know, I didn't mind the look of it, but it's also pretty affordable, is it not?

[00:16:21] Ryan: Correct. Yeah. Look, it's, yeah, probably a bit more rounded on the edges. It's not essentially my car. It's my wife's car.

[00:16:28] Stephen Fenech: Of course.

[00:16:28] Trevor Long: So we've had this discussion this morning already.

[00:16:32] Ryan: Yeah. And it's so it's she went from an MG3 to the MG4.

[00:16:37] Stephen Fenech: Oh, so she stayed in the family, right? Okay.

[00:16:40] Trevor Long: And you know what? Can I just stop you there? That is, that is a huge endorsement of MG because the MG3 You know, that was a petrol car. It's just a car. Let's be honest, there's nothing special about it. But it was an unbelievably well-priced car sold in big numbers. Yeah. And that was how they created themselves a real market on the road. So she obviously had a very positive experience with the brand.

[00:17:03] Ryan: She loved that car. She loved the MG3. It was more than just a car to her. She's—

[00:17:06] Stephen Fenech: wow.

[00:17:07] Ryan: Yeah. So she was very reluctant to let it go. So she only wanted to look at MGs anyway.

[00:17:12] Stephen Fenech: Like, really? So no other brands came into it? No, she didn't want to look at any other things, test drive anything else.

[00:17:18] Trevor Long: Wow.

[00:17:18] Stephen Fenech: That's all.

[00:17:19] Ryan: I didn't get close to your test drive record. We only test drove the one vehicle. Yeah.

[00:17:24] Stephen Fenech: And that was—

[00:17:24] Ryan: and we're in the barmy— we're in the barmy area of Ballarat. So we turned on the heated seats and she goes, yeah, this will do.

[00:17:32] Stephen Fenech: Wow.

[00:17:33] Ryan: So the MG3 was bought on the color. So cars aren't very important to her.

[00:17:39] Stephen Fenech: What color would you know?

[00:17:41] Ryan: It was like a lavender color.

[00:17:43] Trevor Long: So if the MG3 was bought on color— what?

[00:17:46] Ryan: No, no, no, no, no, no. The MG3 was bought on the heated seats, I reckon.

[00:17:50] Trevor Long: I think that was the tipping point for us. Oh, sorry, I missed that. Right, so you went for the— is it the lavender greeny looking color on the Urban?

[00:17:57] Ryan: No, so the new one's that greeny silvery color. I'm not sure.

[00:18:01] Trevor Long: I think it's the one on the homepage. Yeah, it's their feature color. Their, uh, what do we call that in the smartphone world? Your, um, Hero, Hero, Hero color. Yeah, it'll be on all the billboards and stuff.

[00:18:12] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, they've got some nice colors, MG.

[00:18:14] Trevor Long: I like their colors.

[00:18:16] Ryan: Yeah, and that was partly because that was in stock as well too, so there wasn't really— so it was on the show, got into it straight away.

[00:18:22] Trevor Long: But hang on, yeah, Ryan, she loved the MG3. Yeah, she was reluctant to get rid of it.

[00:18:27] Stephen Fenech: What—

[00:18:28] Trevor Long: why did you?

[00:18:30] Ryan: Uh, because we've got, uh, solar at home. I just put a 42-kilowatt battery on as well. At home. And I just sort of said, and I just said, look, we've got all this energy and we're essentially empty nesters. It's just my wife and I at home now. So we, we put a lot more charge in than what we use, especially through the summer months. And I said, look, you can fill this, you can fill up an EV for free. You don't have to go to a petrol station anymore. She hates putting fuel in a car, like detests it. And I just said, you plug it in when you get home and then unplug it and drive it to work. And then after a test drive, yeah, she was like, yep, right, let's do it.

[00:19:07] Stephen Fenech: Okay, we'll get to the—

[00:19:09] Trevor Long: we'll get to the plugging in, but I'm curious. I'm on the MG4 EV configurator. Um, yes, and that color that's on the homepage, I don't see— have they— was that a launch color or something? Because you can't order it in that color. You can only get it in white, green metallic, stone green metallic. Where's that?

[00:19:24] Stephen Fenech: Second one from the left. Second one, top row.

[00:19:28] Ryan: No, it's a standard— it's a standard color.

[00:19:30] Trevor Long: Yeah, okay.

[00:19:30] Stephen Fenech: Green is a—

[00:19:31] Trevor Long: well, green, green metallic. My bad, I'm on the MG4, not the Urban.

[00:19:35] Stephen Fenech: I'm not on the—

[00:19:36] Trevor Long: yeah, Trevor. All right, back to you, Steven.

[00:19:41] Stephen Fenech: So, yeah, tell me. So it wasn't a hard sell then. The brand obviously wasn't a hard sell, but the fact it was an EV, was that something that she, you know, because even to this day, like my wife, she's thinking, yeah, I'm not sure if I want to go fully EV or maybe a hybrid. And was your wife fully on board?

[00:19:58] Trevor Long: That much?

[00:19:59] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:19:59] Ryan: Yeah. Hates petrol that much. And the other thing is to look, she's probably doing 25 to 30 kilometers tops a day. Okay, so yeah, you know, like we're putting $50 a fortnight into the MG3 and that would, you know, be keeping it nearly full. So we're not really doing that many K's in it. I've got a Ford Ranger for work with a Magic Fuel card that I don't have to pay back. So if we do trips on weekends or whatever, we take—

[00:20:27] Trevor Long: Is your washing get done by magic as well?

[00:20:29] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:20:31] Trevor Long: Does that happen?

[00:20:32] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:20:33] Ryan: So yeah, yeah. So we, you know, it's really just the runabout, the about town car. So we even, we just went with the 43 kilowatt version, is it?

[00:20:41] Trevor Long: Yeah, yeah. The S43.

[00:20:44] Ryan: Yeah. 315 range.

[00:20:46] Trevor Long: 316K range.

[00:20:47] Stephen Fenech: You told us about your amazing solar setup and battery setup. So have you got a, did you get a, do we discuss if you got a wall charger or how are you charging it? You got the wall charger?

[00:20:56] Ryan: No, I just got the granny charger.

[00:20:58] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:20:58] Trevor Long: That's all you need for that, for that low amount of K's. Like when you were, And also, is the car home? Is she at home most days so it's getting the sun and the solar?

[00:21:08] Ryan: No, look, she works from an office, but 3 days a week. So she's working from a, like a hybrid setup, 2 days a week from home as well.

[00:21:15] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:21:15] Ryan: So you do get a bit of a mix there.

[00:21:18] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:21:18] Stephen Fenech: And what about your driving? Do you guys do a lot of driving on the weekend? Do you sort of head out? I know you've got your Ranger, but are you guys sort of campers or what do you like to do?

[00:21:28] Ryan: Oh, we've got a caravan and stuff, so I use a Ranger to pull that. So it's really just going to be an around town car. But we're off to Bendigo this weekend from Ballarat, so that's about 120k. So we thought we might take the EV across and then just plug it in on a—

[00:21:42] Trevor Long: yeah, why not—

[00:21:43] Ryan: on a charger just to do that and show her how to do it. So she's got some confidence.

[00:21:47] Trevor Long: You mentioned in your text messages, you mentioned the option for accessories and what you should buy. So is that something the dealership kind of threw in? You've got a $500 credit, you can go and buy a few accessories from them.

[00:21:57] Ryan: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So it was all, you know, all the boot mats, all that sort of stuff.

[00:22:02] Stephen Fenech: Where did you get it, mate? Give him a shout out. How was the experience? Was it—

[00:22:07] Ryan: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely great. It was Wayne at Peter Stevens MG in Ballarat.

[00:22:12] Stephen Fenech: Yep.

[00:22:13] Ryan: So he was great. Like when we went and actually did the test drive, we just sort of pulled up and said, oh, we'll just go in and have a look. And, you know, not expecting to test drive it. And he's like, hey, you know, you can grab the keys, take it for a drive, you know. And the only limitation we had was they were closing at 5, so we had to get it back back by then. So we still had 45 minutes to take it out. Took it out on the highway, drove it, drove around town. Wayne was really good, not pushy, just answered all our questions, told us a few things that we thought we might have needed to know. So if you're in the market and you just want to test drive one, you go and see him. Great bloke.

[00:22:46] Stephen Fenech: Can I ask, so sorry, when you were in that experience of the test drive and, you know, obviously negotiating the price, did you ask— like, we had this issue in the last couple of weeks about, you know, servicing repair costs. Did that come up, the post-sales information?

[00:23:06] Ryan: No, not really, because I probably jumped online and had a look at most of that and answered those questions for myself. And, you know, just sort of looking into it just from an interest from the solar point of view. We've got such a good setup at home. I'm thinking, yeah, fantastic. How, you know, how else can we benefit from that? And the next obvious step was an EV.

[00:23:24] Trevor Long: The only other thing I think worth pointing out, because you mentioned in your text message, I would invest in the, um, see the cable for public chargers.

[00:23:34] Stephen Fenech: So, um, so that didn't come with the car.

[00:23:37] Trevor Long: Most cars come with a granny charger, not with a Type 2.

[00:23:39] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:23:40] Trevor Long: Um, yeah, so you want that. It's the kind of male and female ended cable. It's because for those chargers that don't have a cable, and you mentioned in your text, and I have said this before, in both of our EVs there's under the bonnet, in the frunk, in the boot, wherever it is, there's two packs. One of them is the trickle charger, so if we're on a road trip and everything's broken, we can just plug into a power point anywhere and for days we'll get it charged. And the other one is the Type 2 to Type 2 for public chargers that don't have a cable. And that— I was at Taronga Zoo yesterday and I took the Kia, uh, and they have public charging with no cable. And so I'm like, oh, beautiful, pop the Pop the thing, put it in, got a heap of charge. And I had to— I came home and swapped the cars and had to go back. And I went there at night in the BYD ATTO 1, and I thought, I'll park in the EV spot. And I didn't have a cable because it didn't come with one. It came with only the granny charger. Rookie. And so I wasn't being a— I didn't want to be naughty. I moved into a normal spot and off we went.

[00:24:36] Stephen Fenech: But you didn't ice anyone.

[00:24:37] Trevor Long: I was parked for, you know, 3 hours, so I would have got a bit of charge. So yeah, it's a great thing just to have. It's the rarest cable you'll ever need. But it's also the one that will matter the most. Yeah. When, you know, it might, it might matter. So I would invest in one of those, mate, and throw it in there in the boot or wherever you can.

[00:24:54] Ryan: Yeah, I'm going to get one of those. But I had a look in the value for the MG one versus the ones that you can buy online. Yeah, they're probably half the price.

[00:25:03] Trevor Long: Just make sure you get one that's certified for Australia. So it's, it's been electrically certified here. But otherwise, mate, yeah, go if you like.

[00:25:10] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, that's not the sort of thing you don't skimp on the price. I'll get, I'll get one that's got it's good quality and that's past all their standards.

[00:25:16] Ryan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, and that's— oh, look, look, I've researched into that. So my background's technical sales, and so I've got a fair understanding of all that.

[00:25:26] Trevor Long: So yeah, you said you're going to head out to the— and do some driving and stuff, mate. Just open up Plugshare, the app or the website, and look at all the chargers in the kind of 200K radius and make sure you've got all the apps. So And this is the thing before you go, and I say this to everyone, don't do it when you get there. Bloody hell, you know.

[00:25:46] Ryan: Yeah, that's the other thing I asked too, the apps as well. Which ones do you suggest?

[00:25:50] Trevor Long: PlugShare is the best one. So PlugShare for sure, a better route planner. We've discovered it's fantastic. That's really good. And then basically, I mean, there's a million apps. There's EVie, there's Chargefox, there's Tesla. But look at, as I say, look at the 200-kilometer radius around your home. And see what all the brands are, because there might be a couple of brands that you need special apps for.

[00:26:11] Stephen Fenech: And it's, it's worthwhile too, for if you do, if there are some brands around you, to download their apps, set them up. Oh yeah, just in case, because you turn up at a charger, you think, oh, I've got to download the app, and I've got to— sometimes there's not enough reception to download the app. So if you're ready, it just saves that time.

[00:26:28] Trevor Long: Do all that now and then you're ready for any trip anywhere.

[00:26:31] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:26:32] Ryan: Yeah, that's good advice.

[00:26:34] Trevor Long: Yeah, mate. Enjoy the car, Ryan.

[00:26:35] Stephen Fenech: Congratulations, mate. Yeah, it's good.

[00:26:37] Trevor Long: Enjoy your Ranger. The wife's enjoying the car.

[00:26:40] Ryan: Yeah, I'm out here burning fossil fuels. She's sold her car, the lavender Lamborghini, as we used to call it. We sold that off to her daughter, so we're keeping it in the family. So she's very nice. Not too disappointed. So she'll still see it. So yeah, which is good.

[00:26:55] Trevor Long: She'll get visitation rights on the old MG.

[00:26:56] Stephen Fenech: I hope she got mates' rates too, mate. Yeah, looked after.

[00:26:59] Ryan: Yeah, she— yeah, no, no, no. We looked after her on price as well. She got it. Yeah, much cheaper than retail.

[00:27:05] Stephen Fenech: That's very nice.

[00:27:06] Trevor Long: Very nice. Well done, Ryan. Good to talk to you, mate.

[00:27:08] Stephen Fenech: Thanks for—

[00:27:09] Trevor Long: thanks for reaching out. Thanks for getting in touch.

[00:27:10] Ryan: All right, thanks, Jim. Thanks, gents. Great pod, love it.

[00:27:13] Trevor Long: I really appreciate it, mate. That's great words. Cheers. Oh, that's awesome. And isn't that— do you know what, growing in brand loyalty.

[00:27:20] Stephen Fenech: Great endorsement of MG too, as a matter of fact, that they're the South Sydney major sponsor too.

[00:27:24] Trevor Long: Not at all.

[00:27:24] Stephen Fenech: He's in Victoria, he wouldn't even know.

[00:27:26] Trevor Long: He wouldn't give a rat's—

[00:27:27] Stephen Fenech: okay, I just thought I might ask.

[00:27:30] Trevor Long: Wouldn't care.

[00:27:32] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, probably not.

[00:27:33] Trevor Long: Yeah. Anyway, I'm— look, I've got nothing bad to say about the MG brand.

[00:27:37] Stephen Fenech: They're terrific.

[00:27:37] Trevor Long: Yeah, I'm just— I've never heard such a glowing story.

[00:27:41] Stephen Fenech: Oh yeah, absolutely. But you know what, they're really— I think they've made their name for themselves in that sort of the entry to mid-level. They've never tried to over—

[00:27:51] Trevor Long: well, that's to do— because they brought in the IM brand to try to overstep.

[00:27:55] Stephen Fenech: Well, that's true.

[00:27:56] Trevor Long: So you're not over—

[00:27:56] Stephen Fenech: stayed in their lane.

[00:27:57] Trevor Long: They're not over-promising and under-delivering. Delivering. They're just, they're just delivering. And I think that's a really good—

[00:28:03] Stephen Fenech: remember the iM? We had a caller, was it, was it Bruce? That was the— he loves his iM. He was raving about it.

[00:28:08] Trevor Long: I recommended one to someone the other day who said, mate, what do you think about this car? I said, mate, just buy it if you're interested in it. Yeah, great car, very nice. Knock it over.

[00:28:14] Stephen Fenech: Nice looking, works well, runs well.

[00:28:16] Trevor Long: Two bikes, towing electric cars. We'd love to hear from you. Get in touch and we'll get you on the show. I control the camera, so it could be a complete stitch-up.

[00:28:33] Stephen Fenech: Exactly right. Yeah, not the last— not the first or the last time that there's been a stitch-up on this show, or any of our shows for that matter.

Jacob — Upgraded to a Polestar 4 after a poor Zeekr dealership experience

[00:28:42] Trevor Long: Who likes doing electric cars? We'll keep going with your calls. Jacob's on the line. G'day, Jake.

[00:28:47] Jacob: G'day, guys, how are you?

[00:28:48] Stephen Fenech: Really familiar voice. We've had you on the show before, haven't we, Jacob?

[00:28:52] Jacob: Yep. Almost 2 years to the day.

[00:28:55] Stephen Fenech: Wow. Okay.

[00:28:55] Trevor Long: Can you refresh us? Talk to us. Remind everyone who's new to this. There's a lot of people new to the show over the last few months after the bombing of Iran. Let's be honest.

[00:29:04] Jacob: Right.

[00:29:04] Trevor Long: So welcome, everyone. Tell us about what we talked about 2 years ago and why are we talking now?

[00:29:10] Jacob: So 2 years ago we were talking about— I'd rented a Polestar 2 and it was, it was quite an interesting insight going to public chargers and noticing how many of the chargers were down and be you know, how difficult they were and, you know, nuanced, I suppose, to be able to activate them properly.

[00:29:29] Stephen Fenech: Right.

[00:29:29] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:29:29] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. And so that was 2 years ago.

[00:29:31] Trevor Long: And now what are you driving? A Dodge Ram pickup truck? V8 Hemi?

[00:29:38] Jacob: Almost.

[00:29:39] Stephen Fenech: Almost.

[00:29:39] Jacob: I'm now— I'm a month into ownership of a Polestar 4 Long Range Dual Motor.

[00:29:44] Trevor Long: Hey, you went hard, you arse. That's a $94,000 car, bro.

[00:29:50] Stephen Fenech: Very well, Jake, eh?

[00:29:53] Jacob: I mean, under the luxury car tax was all it needed to be.

[00:29:56] Stephen Fenech: Is that right?

[00:29:57] Trevor Long: There it is.

[00:29:57] Stephen Fenech: Just made it.

[00:29:58] Trevor Long: Yeah. Nice. Okay. So talk us through the process. What, what did you consider? Because with, with the greatest respect, with a budget like that, there's a lot of options. So were you always going to be Polestar or did you, did you give a few a whack?

[00:30:14] Jacob: So I had, I've always had a soft spot for the Polestars, but interestingly enough, not only was I was I looking at other brands. I, we'd gone into Zika and I was about to pull the trigger on a Zika X, sorry, a Zika 7X. Wow. And what I noticed, and you guys have talked about it before, was the dealership experience can actually, you know, make or break a sale. And it did for me. I walked out of there saying, you know, I don't, I don't want to, I don't want to give them my money. And we said, we'll just— Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:30:44] Stephen Fenech: What happened, mate?

[00:30:45] Jacob: So just the— it was just the sleazy car salesman experience, you know, it was, you know, if you don't buy this car, the next person will, you know, all those sorts of tactics. Yeah, it was, it was quite interesting and surprising because it's not the, it's not the feedback that I've read about the Zeker experience as well.

[00:31:04] Trevor Long: You might have gone to just the wrong place at the wrong time, but it also cost them a sale. And again, we've told this story a million times about my local Kia dealer and how I've tried to buy there twice and haven't done it? Interestingly— random story but my wife was across the road at the Toyota dealer doing some social media stuff with them and she mentioned this to them like that "my husband" yeah and he goes mate…

[00:31:26] Stephen Fenech: My husband Trev Long from The Situation!

[00:31:27] Trevor Long: No no no no no no no no he's the guy at the dealership said mate we get a lot of customers from over there because obviously right they have that experience so isn't it amazing uh that Jacob that obviously no one said something and said, listen, you got to work it out. I mean, let's not name names, but where was the dealer? Because I think Zico would want to know that. I genuinely think that from our vibe of the company, they'd be like, hang on a minute, what?

[00:31:54] Jacob: Yeah, well, it was one of the dealerships in Sydney.

[00:31:57] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:31:58] Jacob: In New South Wales.

[00:31:58] Trevor Long: Well, I'll tell you what, I want you off, off air. I want you to text me as much information as you can because there's no bone, no skin off your bones, mate. You bought a car. Yeah, but I think I need that feedback. I think they need to hear this. And know that they lost a sale.

[00:32:12] Stephen Fenech: Look, can I ask, mate, if this dealer, if they had been a different— had a different approach, would you be sitting in a Zeekr right now?

[00:32:20] Jacob: Then I would probably have a Zeekr on order. I don't know if I'd be sitting in one, but definitely. I mean, the walk— walking out of that dealership, I said to my partner, you know, let's, let's just go and have a look at the Polestar just to say that we've done it. Yeah. And walking in there, it was just a completely different experience. Like, it felt, it felt like a premium experience. And we were probably in there for about 15 minutes before he had a deposit. So it's completely just polar opposites.

[00:32:50] Stephen Fenech: That's remarkable.

[00:32:51] Trevor Long: It's just common sense. I mean, again, and a random story again, but Amanda and I went door shopping because we're getting a new front door. And honestly, 5 minutes into the place, I'm going, why are we still here? And so when we left, I said to Amanda, I said, we're not buying a door here, right? And she goes, and she looked at me, I went, I didn't enjoy that experience at all.

[00:33:09] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:33:09] Stephen Fenech: Did you test drive it?

[00:33:11] Trevor Long: Yeah, open it, shut it. It seemed really good. But I think hinges— I think it's fascinating that sales hasn't evolved in some places. And look, it's unfortunate that, you know, car salesmen— there's actually a reputation, right? The old used car salesman thing. Or as you said, the sleazy car salesman thing. It's not hard to be a modern salesperson because of all the information that exists online, all the reviews you can watch. Mate, you could probably watch 15 videos from Australian journalists of the Polestar 4 or the Zeekr 7X, let alone internationally, and form a very strong opinion.

[00:33:41] Stephen Fenech: It's all about that— what do they call it— the last 3 feet of the sale. Yeah, that would say when you're there, you— and that, that's, mate, you drop, drop the ball on the line.

[00:33:49] Trevor Long: Jacob, why don't you give, um, every car dealership a lesson? What happened in that 15 minutes that, that went, okay, I'm ready to put a deposit down?

[00:33:59] Jacob: I mean, the biggest thing, guys, is he, you know, the salesman that we dealt with, he— we didn't feel like we were just a number to him. You know, it was a personal experience. He stopped what he was doing. And, you know, we'd walked in there on a random Sunday morning and I said, you know, is there a chance of a test drive? And he said, look, the cars are pretty booked out, but let me see what I can do. He came back in 3 minutes and he said, it's all good, we've got this car for you. I mean, the polar opposite to the Zica. They said, oh, our test drives are out for 8 weeks, so we can't— yeah, we can't let you drive one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:34:31] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:34:31] Jacob: And, you know, I said to Zico, look, I want to have a look at the Performance Model. And they said, oh, we don't put them in the showroom. So it was just that sort of stuff.

[00:34:38] Stephen Fenech: And the—

[00:34:38] Jacob: yeah, the salesman I dealt with at Polestar, he, he answered every question. There was no pressure. Like, he— I think he genuinely backed the product and, you know, he was pretty passionate about it. So he didn't, he didn't need to sell the product. It was give me the information that I needed. Mate, you know, make me feel like I'm a, I'm a person and not just a sale to him.

[00:34:58] Stephen Fenech: And you're a valued customer.

[00:35:00] Jacob: Yeah.

[00:35:00] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:35:01] Stephen Fenech: Wow.

[00:35:01] Jacob: And even still, like, I mean, their, their after-sales service has been amazing as well. Like, we've got a, we've got a slight issue with the car, just, just a wheel balance issue. And Polestar Australia call me every 2 days and they say, listen, I just want to give you an update on this. This is where we're at. Like, it's— I cannot fault them.

[00:35:18] Stephen Fenech: Wow. That's great.

[00:35:19] Trevor Long: That's simple.

[00:35:20] Stephen Fenech: So yeah, well, the, the post-sales, that, that's been a big theme of our shows the last few weeks of how these companies go after you've put your money down, after you've taken delivery. Sounds like Polestar's on a winner here with you.

[00:35:33] Trevor Long: And what have you done charging-wise, mate? Have you made some changes at home or are you trickle charging? What's the plan?

[00:35:39] Jacob: Yeah, so we live in an apartment here in the inner west in Sydney, so we're actually just using the public chargers, so the EVX, you know, street mount chargers. But the car's got 22-kilowatt charging, so we, you know, we drop it off and walk home. It's 200 meters home and then go for an afternoon walk and pick the car up on the way back through. So I mean, it's sorted. It's an easy experience.

[00:36:00] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. 22 kilowatts you can do. That's nice.

[00:36:02] Trevor Long: Which is, you know, one of those— again, it's, it's that Taronga Zoo thing. I was there. It's 22 kilowatt charger, but I'm getting 9.7 kilowatts in the Kia. So it's like it makes a big difference. That's a really interesting observation, Jacob, because for you only using that at half the speed would be a vastly different experience for, for many of the other cars. So Did you know about that before you bought it?

[00:36:26] Jacob: I did. Yeah. I mean, I sort of researched to the nth degree and, you know, run some numbers and thought, yeah, it's not, it's not really an inconvenience. Any day I work from home and I need to charge the car, I drop it up there, get a coffee and pick it up later on.

[00:36:38] Stephen Fenech: And it sounds like you're very happy with your purchase, mate.

[00:36:42] Jacob: I'm stoked. Absolutely stoked.

[00:36:44] Stephen Fenech: So is this the one that doesn't have the rear window? Is that the one?

[00:36:47] Jacob: Yeah.

[00:36:47] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. How do you, how do you do with this issue on the show, mate? How do you do your thank you wave? There's no rear wheelie.

[00:36:53] Jacob: Well, yeah, I flicked the hazards. Give the hazards a flick.

[00:36:57] Stephen Fenech: Is that it?

[00:36:57] Trevor Long: Is that how you do it?

[00:36:58] Jacob: Oh, okay.

[00:36:59] Stephen Fenech: Wow. Flick the hazards. Is that another way of saying thank you?

[00:37:01] Trevor Long: I don't know if that's legal, but anyway.

[00:37:05] Jacob: I won't tell if you don't.

[00:37:06] Trevor Long: Yeah, well, listen, just so you know, officer, I'll flick the high beams to let people know you're there. So, you know, because there's some people that don't use Waze, so I like to warn them that things are coming.

[00:37:18] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:37:19] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:37:20] Jacob: I'm not a Waze user myself, so I appreciate you on the road.

[00:37:23] Trevor Long: Yeah, mate. When I picked up the BYD Atto 1 and, you know, I got to drive the M7 home and that's been under construction for some time now. Yeah, I thought it was still an 80 road and so I'm going, but I'm going 110 like I'm, I'm flying and there's a cop on one of the, on one of the entryways, like the, the on-ramps. And I just went, I've slowed to 104 maybe, but I've gone, no. And then I've gone, oh, it's 100, woohoo! But the one time, the one time I don't have Waze running and I nearly— I come so close to being pinned.

[00:37:57] Stephen Fenech: What do you mean you don't have Waze running?

[00:37:58] Trevor Long: I don't know, I just hadn't turned it on.

[00:38:00] Stephen Fenech: You're off with the—

[00:38:01] Trevor Long: It's a small screen. I was just running Spotify, just run a bit of music and sing along to myself.

[00:38:05] Stephen Fenech: I look forward to using this small screen, eh, next few weeks.

[00:38:08] Trevor Long: All right, Jacob, congratulations on the car, mate. Thank you for being on the journey and keep us updated, mate, as you learn more and enjoy the car.

[00:38:16] Stephen Fenech: We expect to hear from you in another couple of years, mate.

[00:38:19] Jacob: Perfect. Thanks, guys. Love the show.

[00:38:21] Trevor Long: Cheers, buddy. Appreciate it. Good on you, mate. There you go. That's Jacob, who joins us for the second time a couple of years down the track, having finally made the plunge into the world of EVs.

[00:38:32] Stephen Fenech: If people in the industry, if dealers aren't hearing what has just been said now and talking to their staff, then something's wrong.

[00:38:40] Trevor Long: And that's why— and I'm not trying to dob people in. I just think that, and I do this in tech as well.

[00:38:45] Stephen Fenech: And he lives in a city, so I know.

[00:38:47] Trevor Long: We know exactly what dealership they went to. But it's, I think that a lot of the time people just leave a 1-star review or something and it doesn't really go anywhere. But I think that especially our conversations with Zeka, we've had them on the show. Yeah, I know. I think they would be very keen to hear that, not because they want to sack someone, because someone needs to hear that call. They can do it better. They should play that call in the dealership and say, guys, we missed an $82,000 sale. This guy wanted the performance model. You should have taken him out the back.

[00:39:18] Stephen Fenech: You should have said, come and have a look at it, mate.

[00:39:19] Trevor Long: Mate, we'll take you into the workshop and you can have a look at it yourself. You know, even if, do you know what, if the salesman took me out the back and said, this one's just been here, it's going through pre-delivery. It's got all the, it's still got all the plastic on the seats and everything because someone else's car, but you can have a look in it in a quick sit. You can't drive it, but it's someone else's car. Here's what's different. Look at the wheels. Look at the, you know, point to all the things that are different. Would have taken 10 minutes. And 5 minutes later he'd have a deposit.

[00:39:43] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, here's your deposit. Yeah, exactly right, mate.

[00:39:45] Trevor Long: He was, he literally said he was willing to wait 3 months.

[00:39:47] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. Unbelievable. Anyway, he's happy with the Polestar and good luck to Polestar because, you know, we've had them on the show too, right? So their experience, the dealer experience, I think is similar to sort of Mercedes-Benz and all these established brands that they want. They want to sell you one car. They want to sell you 5 cars. They want you to be—

[00:40:06] Trevor Long: over the next 20 years.

[00:40:06] Stephen Fenech: They want you to be a customer and they're going to look after you. After you. And that, that's sort of the long game.

[00:40:11] Trevor Long: And you know what, long game, they're in, they're into the theme of this show because just think about the first caller we had. Yeah. And how Lenny's wife— yeah, just loved MG. Is she's going to be an MG owner for life. Absolutely. Her next car will be an MG, I can tell you that already. Like, we can both say safely with pretty much confidence.

[00:40:28] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

[00:40:29] Trevor Long: Well done. There you go, folks. Pay attention, car dealers. Get your act together. Look, I don't think it's a lot Well, but I think it's a small few and it just takes one.

[00:40:39] Stephen Fenech: It's what's the saying? It's nice to be important, but it's important to be nice.

[00:40:43] Trevor Long: I've never heard that saying before, but I love it.

[00:40:45] Stephen Fenech: There you go. So that applies.

[00:40:47] Trevor Long: It is nice to be important.

[00:40:48] Stephen Fenech: That applies to dealers.

[00:40:50] Trevor Long: Like, you know, not always nice. Yeah, Trev, I need to write that somewhere.

[00:40:55] Stephen Fenech: Write that on the wall.

[00:40:57] Trevor Long: Yeah, I should probably write that on the wall. But don't you reckon it's that kind of—

[00:41:00] Stephen Fenech: that taking the time to do that. Would look at the money they would have made. And like, dealers work— they mustn't work on commission. Do they work on commission? Like, how does it work?

[00:41:10] Trevor Long: Maybe in this new world it's different.

[00:41:11] Stephen Fenech: Maybe. But you know, it's positive though, isn't his job to sell cars?

[00:41:15] Trevor Long: And also maybe there's complacency. Maybe it's complacency because they're selling so many. It's like, mate, we're booked out for 8 weeks.

[00:41:22] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, that's arrogance.

[00:41:23] Trevor Long: If 10% of the test drives sell, we've got our book covered for the next 3 months.

[00:41:28] Stephen Fenech: Like, I'll tell you this for a fact, Mercedes-Benz wouldn't do that. Mercedes-Benz wouldn't say— and they do have cars, like, I'm waiting for 4 months for my car, yeah, right? So they do have that, but they will never ever ever treat a customer that way.

[00:41:42] Trevor Long: And I bet you any money when you went in there, they didn't shy away from saying, look, the, the, we don't have the electric, but the petrol's here, come and have a look at it.

[00:41:48] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, they knew I was after the electric. They know me.

[00:41:50] Trevor Long: No, no, but they wanted you— but what I'm saying is they wanted you to look at it.

[00:41:53] Stephen Fenech: I said in the petrol version, I didn't have the electric one in the dealership yet. I haven't even driven the car I know you're an idiot.

[00:41:59] Trevor Long: So what if we go to the Gold Coast? Where are we going? Somewhere up there.

[00:42:02] Stephen Fenech: Gold Coast, yeah.

[00:42:03] Trevor Long: What if we go up there and you're like, oof, I don't know about the drive. How many Mercedes don't drive well?

[00:42:09] Stephen Fenech: Exactly. And I've only watched like 400 YouTube videos on it too, so I think I'm good.

[00:42:15] Trevor Long: All right, well done. Thank you to everyone for being on the show. Lenny, Ryan, Jacob, and to you for listening. If you want to talk EVs with us, we'd love to chat. We will listen.

[00:42:23] Stephen Fenech: It's our favorite part of the week.

[00:42:25] Trevor Long: 0477 657 657. Save that number in your phone as the Two Blokes. And then text us or WhatsApp and we'll get you on the show and talk EVs with you. Steven, let's do it all again next week.

[00:42:36] Stephen Fenech: I will be here for sure.

[00:42:37] Trevor Long: All right, mate, see you then.

[00:42:38] Stephen Fenech: Bye-bye.