pickles

LA Auto Show trends

2017-12-05T04:12:16Z

You may think of auto shows as a place where manufacturers introduce new and updated models of vehicles, but this is only part of what goes on at these shows. Auto manufacturers and other vendors often also use these shows to unveil new technology that has the potential to be transformative to the auto industry as a whole, to an audience of journalists, investors, executives, consumers and others.

(Image credit: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)

At this year's 2017 Los Angeles Auto Show, there were cool cars and cool technology being teased - including some synergies of both, like the possibility of a hybrid Porsche 911. NPR highlighted potentially disruptive auto innovations on display at the show:

Car-by-subscription. Auto manufacturers like Volvo and Cadillac are now offering subscription services where a monthly payment covers your vehicle, plus insurance. The Cadillac service uses the tagline "Access is the new ownership" - delivering one of their five flagship vehicles to you on demand.
The internal combustion engine. Yes, hybrids and all-electric vehicles have been the most buzzworthy innovations for the last several years. But petrol-powered vehicles aren't going away anytime soon, and manufacturers like Infiniti and Mazda are still working on engines that improve fuel economy.
GPS. Standard map software still talks about intersections and street names, but autonomous vehicles, and software-driven services like Uber can yield better results with proper latitude/longitude coordinates. (This can resolve issues like having two streets in the same town with the same name, or even whether an Uber driver needs to pick you up from the front or the back of the building.) In addition, new companies like what3words are creating grid-based addressing services.
Personal conveyances. This category is broadening - it's currently popular with a younger audience, but there are expectations that small mopeds and other two- or three-wheeled transportation will also help older people keep more mobile. Many companies are starting to offer electric alternatives to gas-powered bikes in this category as well.

At Pickles, we constantly monitor these trends to better help our clients understand the potential impact on future valuations, and to look strategically for ventures that extend the utility of automobiles and other personal conveyances. The future for transportation is an exciting and varied one, and we look forward to it.

Customer Experience @ Pickles

2017-11-29T02:44:19Z

For the last 50 years we have worked hard at running our business based on integrity and trust. We have been successful as a business and mostly successful in providing a trusted service. We don't always get it right, but we have always been committed to making our offering and service better.

About two years ago we recognised the need to improve the experience our customers have when they deal with Pickles. Our vision for the future is to take what we do, do it better and do it anywhere. To be true to this vision we needed to take action.

What was required was a mechanism to measure, benchmark and drive customer experience across the business. So we implemented the Pickles Cx (Customer Experience) Program, based on the Net Promoter Score. We call it our Cx Index.

Two years on we are progressing well, but with room to do what we do better. Our Cx mantra to our staff is simple: our NPS scores (explained below) are an indicator of our progress, but our focus is on the detailed feedback from our customers. We want to drive healthy behaviours internally in relation to creating great customer experiences.

Why is Pickles Cx important to us?

Simply put, by providing our customers with a total experience that is both wonderful and memorable, we earn their loyalty, which motivates them to stay with us, buy more, and refer us to others.

How do we know how well we do what we do?

We measure that experience using Net Promoter Score® (NPS®). NPS® is all about determining the advocacy of our customers (their likelihood to recommend us to others) based on their experience with our service.

NPS® is not new - since its development by Fred Reichheld of Bain & Company and Satmetrix, it has become the most widely accepted measure of customer loyalty and retention worldwide. It is also a customer experience metric that provides insight into a company's potential growth and financial health.

At Pickles we are focused on improving customer loyalty, and NPS® is the key indicator of the perception our customers have of our brand and service.

NPS asks the question "How likely is it that you would recommend Pickles to a friend or colleague?" and measures responses on a 0-10 point scale. The scale is broken up into three types of response: (0-6) are Detractors, (7&8) are Passives and (9&10) are Promoters.

Think about how few companies you would rate a "9" or a "10" and you can see how high the bar is set by this scoring. The final score for a company is calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters, leaving you the Net Promoter Score.

The gold is in the feedback.

The response to the NPS question gives us a score and tells us how well our business delivers on customer experience, but it doesn't tell us why. Understanding why, is as important as knowing the score.

In order to determine the Why?, we ask for feedback, and that's as simple as asking the follow-up question "So why did you give us that score"? More often than not people are happy to share their thoughts, and this feedback becomes a goldmine of useful insight that helps us to define areas of focus for improving the customer experience.

We take these comments and analyse them for common threads and themes, and if we see an issue appearing regularly we know it's a focus area of improvement for the business. These comments also tell us what we do right, and we use this information to reinforce our positive actions, and ensure they are delivered uniformly across the business.

Sharing is caring!

Pickles Cx (Customer Experience) is not a department, it's an attitude! It's a philosophy that we encourage everyone at Pickles to be part of, and one that everyone owns.

In order for this to be true we need to share! Share the results, the insights, the plans, the good news and the bad. Without sharing we don't engage, if we don't engage we don't encourage and if we don't encourage we don't deliver. And if we don't deliver, we don't improve, which ultimately means we don't grow.

So we encourage everyone in the business to be part of our Cx program, from the receptionist, to the head of division, to the forklift drivers - everyone has a role to play. This enables us to recognise the great work our people at all levels of our organisation do every day, and reward those who consistently deliver above and beyond the expectations of our customers.

In a nutshell.

Pickles Cx is a program of improvement and engagement. In line with our vision to take what we do, do it better and do it anywhere - creating an experience that is truly beyond our customers' expectations is our goal.

Click here to see our video about why and how NPS is used at Pickles.

Ferrari Sale Sets Records At Charity Auction

2018-01-02T00:37:20Z

A futuristic Ferrari recently set a record for 21st-century vehicle sale prices, fetching a whopping €8.3 million (Australian $12.4 million) at a charity auction. The auction was part of an event at Ferrari's factory to celebrate their 70th anniversary. The entire sale price will be donated to Save the Children, an international youth education charity.

(Image credit CNN Money)

The winning bid was more than twice what the vehicle was expected to fetch at auction, with at least twelve competing bidders, and was a significant premium from the last LaFerrari Aperta sold at a charity auction which benefited Italian earthquake victims and sold for about $8.4 million AUD.

The vehicle itself has yet to be produced - it will be the 210th, and last, LaFerrari Aperta. It will be outfitted with specific, unique Rosso Fuoco livery, metallic Biano Italia racing stripes on its hood and tail and an interior trimmed with black leather, red stitching and black carbon fiber paneling. Bidders were able to review digital renderings of the vehicle. Several other Ferraris were also sold at the auction, including a a California 250 GT SWB and a 1958 250 GT Cabriolet Series I.

If you missed out on this LaFerrari Aperta or if your tastes tend more toward the classic exotics, please join us as we team up with the Gosford Classic Car Museum for an exciting auction event. A limited number of VIP tickets for the auction are also available.

Omnichannel Car Sales: Improving the Car Buying Experience

2017-10-05T22:24:27Z

We've seen widespread technological innovation in the auto market in the last decade. As we discussed in a recent blog post, adoption of autonomous driving, shared mobility, connectivity, and electric cars has been rapid. What we haven't seen, yet, is much of a change in the automotive sales model. With the exception of Tesla and a handful of purely-online start-ups, most dealers' marketing, operations, sales and service have stayed within the traditional model.

Many analysts, like Bain and Company, expect this to change. A generation of "digital natives" groomed on customer experiences delivered by companies like Amazon are becoming mainstream car buyers, and these buyers research, select and buy cars differently than their less tech-savvy predecessors.

Bain and Company identified seven ways car buying is changing:

Credit: Seven Ways Car Buying is Changing, by Bain and Company

Customers do a significant amount of research online, move between traditional and digital channels, make more of their decisions before they ever step foot in the door of a dealership, rely on friends and family, make their decisions fairly quickly and even make their vehicle purchases online.

The service and sales model for dealerships will require changes to meet these new expectations. How to stay competitive in a less dealer-centric universe? Dealers need to bolster their presence on channels customers now use, including social media. There will be infrastructure requirements - like a need to invest in IT systems and data analytics to keep the experience seamless as customers cross channels, and garner deep insights that support personalised marketing and service. This can also include offering additional services that keep buyers within your ecosystem after the sale with apps that keep cars connected. The process may also require internal organizational changes, investment in new technology for managing customer contacts, hiring new staff with expertise in these areas, and shifting sales incentives in a way that supports online channels (e.g. vehicle app registrations and even online sales).

In addition the personalised experiences these digital upgrades can find, some brands, especially those with more boutique or aspirational brands and/or vehicles, may want to consider experimentation with "pop-up" brand experiences.

In short, the evolution in the automotive landscape has been dramatic on the technological side, and will need to be just as dramatic when it comes to sales and service. It's why we've opened up new sales channels like Pickles GO, upgraded our internal systems and marketing campaigns to deliver the most relevant content to our customers, and utilise survey technology like NPS (Net Promoter Score) to measure our effectiveness and optimise our sales and service processes to provide the best, most personalised experiences for our customers.

McKinsey on Autos: High-Speed Disruption

2017-10-04T03:05:29Z

It's no surprise that there has been some disruption within the automotive industry this year. Many forecasted the rise in connected cars and autonomous vehicles, and both of these sectors continue to develop. A recent report by McKinsey sheds some light on other changes that are taking place within the automotive ecosystem.

McKinsey defines four specific trends: autonomous driving, shared mobility, connectivity, and electrification. They're all accelerating, and are mutually reinforcing. Some exciting data points around each of these trends include:

80% of auto manufacturers have defined some type of plan for highly autonomous vehicle production before 2025
USD$32 billion (AUD$40.5 billion) has been invested in ride-sharing start-ups
While only 12% of cars have embedded connectivity solutions, a majority of OEMs are installing self-contained systems that provide diverse in-vehicle services in all of their premium vehicles
Electric cars continue to grow in popularity with the industry aspiring to equip 50 percent of all new models in 2021 equipped with xEV drivetrains

Understanding how disruptive each of these trends will be is critical. The forecast presented by McKinsey for how it might impact revenue is wide, with 40% variation across their six market scenarios. In their base case, by 2030, about 20 percent of value generated from traditional vehicle sales may be shifted toward new technologies, yet more than 60 percent of revenue from these disruptive business models could still be carried by traditional elements like the shared vehicle itself or fleet operations.

In our market, this will impact our customers' choice of fleet composition, vehicle residual values for cars with and without these features and much more. For our customers, we provide forecasting services for the impact of these variables and their immediate as well as long-term impacts on their vehicle valuations, with forecasts tailored to their business use case and region of operation. Learn more about our Valuations team and how we make forecasts like these actionable.

Can cars be a good investment?

2017-09-26T04:34:46Z

What if the thing in your garage appreciated in value faster than your entire house? It happens more than you think. Taking many by surprise, we review the market that has grown four times faster than property: classic cars.

Looking to invest in your own future? We are excited to collaborate with Gosford Classic Car Museum to bring to life Australia’s most iconic classic car auction to date…

Pickles partnering with Eclipse

2017-09-05T02:05:18Z

Case study for D365 Phase 1

Looking to move to the cloud and in need of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that would provide visibility over all operations, we recently enlisted Eclipse, a DXC Technology Company. Acting as a single source of truth for decision making, flexibility and scalability to expand the business in any direction, we updated our systems to Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations and ultimately transformed the business by giving decision-makers greater visibility into performance and accounts, as well as delivering greater flexibility and agility.

Find out more about our past challenges and journey with Eclipse…

Driving New Insights At Pickles

2017-08-29T04:59:04Z

The last six months have been busy ones for our Insights team. With the recent announcement of the formation of Datium Insights within the Pickles Ventures group, the team is busy rolling out a number of new analytics services to provide actionable insights to our vendors.

These services include:

Residual value and valuation services: We have created a flexible valuation and future forecast tool for Australian vehicles. The software is adjustable to best fit risk profiles to your business needs, so it can serve the needs of all industries and levels of government. To derive insights, it combines our data from over 100,000 vehicle sales each year with broader market trends and forecasts to deliver the most accurate values available in the market.

Vendor benchmarking: Our benchmarking service uses an easy-to-understand online dashboard to measure how your remarketing performs against your industry or other industries. The service also shows what channels others are remarketing in, how those channels are performing and how you are performing on similar metrics.

The countdown is on with these services launching in coming weeks. Interested in giving one or more of these services a try or finding out what else is new? Please reach out to us info@datiuminsights.com.au

Pickles Photodome - A First In Australia

2017-08-29T00:51:46Z

Pickles understands that buyers want to see as much detail as possible before bidding on a vehicle or purchasing at fixed price. And, in the future, we expect even more buyers will conduct their entire vehicle purchase process online without seeing a vehicle in person - so we want to make sure we're providing these buyers an in depth view of their new vehicle before they bid or buy.

Our new technology, the Pickles Photodome, makes it possible for potential buyers to get a 360-degree view of any vehicle. The Photodome is equipped with state-of-the-art horizon lighting, a super-high-resolution camera with zoom capability and a turntable that makes it possible to capture the view of our vehicles from every angle.

Our software takes all of the images captured and stitches them into a 360-degree image that invites buyers to navigate around the vehicle, hover in for a closer look when needed and even see an aerial view. Our high resolution images ensure that items such as scratched alloys or stone chips on a bumper are fully visible providing absolute transparency and confidence to our buyers.

The first Pickles Photodome was implemented in our Brisbane (Geebung) location, and based on the initial interest and success, we look forward to deploying the Photodome at five Pickles locations in the coming year - allowing us to produce 360-degree images of approximately 85% of our inventory. We're excited about this new technology and the benefits it brings to our buyers, vendors and dealer network.

Check out this incredible technology by visiting our Geebung auction lists and click on any car you see with a 360 icon in the top corner.

Extending the Auction Experience With Facebook Live

2017-08-29T00:54:31Z

In today's digital world, attending an auction doesn't have to be a physical event. While many will enjoy the atmosphere and excitement of attending a Pickles auction event in person, others may find it more convenient to view an auction online and bid at home. Our Pickles Live bidding platform makes it easy for trade and private buyers to view our auctions and bid on a car they'll love, and we're always looking for ways to make it easier for buyers to find and bid on the right vehicle.

This year, to bring the auction experience to an even wider audience, we introduced Facebook Live streaming for our Luxury auctions. The first broadcast was an overwhelming success - over 50,000 viewers checked out the live stream of our auction. Some of the unique features of the Facebook Live format include the ability for viewers to banter with each other, as well as to ask questions about the vehicles while the auction is ongoing. Facebook also archives the live auction streams, should anyone wish to go back and see the price achieved for a particular vehicle. The initiative has enabled Pickles to reach a wider, untapped audience of potential buyers as well as generate a large amount of cost-effective exposure for our high-calibre Luxury auction events.

If you haven't checked out a Facebook Live stream from one of our auctions yet, be sure to follow us on Facebook for notification of upcoming events.

Tesla: A Long Wait For the Model 3 In Australia

2017-08-29T00:55:31Z

Many Tesla fans have anxiously awaited the launch of the Model 3, a more budget-friendly model in comparison to other vehicles in the Tesla line. While not inexpensive, the Model 3 is expected to be priced around A$50,000 - making it more accessible than the Model S and Model X.

There have been over 400,000 pre-registrations to the car to date, indicating definite enthusiasm in the market for a more affordable electric vehicle that still carries the premium Tesla brand. To date, they have only sold around 200,000 vehicles globally in the last six years, but expect to produce 500,000 Model 3's in the next year and ramp up production to 1 million a year by 2020.

Even though they're ramping up production, for those of us in Australia, however, the wait for the Model 3 is not yet over. AFR noted how the Model 3 will be distributed:

"Tesla employees will get priority delivery of the Model 3 - to reward loyal staff as well as fix up any last minute issues - then those in the company's home state of California. Those in Australia may be waiting up to two years for the arrival of the Model 3, according to a Tesla Australia spokesman."

AFR also indicated that while there are no precise statistics available from Tesla, it's believed there are less than 1,000 Teslas on the road in Australia.

A Commitment To Innovation: Pickles Ventures

2017-08-29T00:57:27Z

At Pickles, innovation is at the heart of our business. This innovative spirit is nurtured within all of our divisions and lines of business. We seek not just to implement new technology within our auction processes, but to innovate in ways that improve the customer experience and journey for all of our partners and buyers. We continue to drive a fully-integrated business model with innovation at its core, streamlining processes and seamlessly fusing new capabilities into our existing customer journey to drive our future growth.

This is why we've formed a specialised innovation unit - Pickles Ventures. With an initial investment from Pickles of $10 million, Pickles Ventures will fund and mentor early-stage startups with the capacity for disruptive innovation in the automotive and auction industries. Pickles Ventures will function as an incubator, supporting advising these early-stage companies with our deep expertise, drawing on members of the Pickles team across all of our lines of business. These innovative new companies will deliver on our commitment to implement new technologies that improve auction processes, as well as services that diversify our revenue base and broaden our reach in the marketplace.

"We're excited to announce the launch of Pickles Ventures," said Simon Meyrick, General Manager at Pickles Ventures.

"As we collaborate with other companies, both here and overseas, to launch new products, we continue to drive a fully-integrated model with innovation at its core. This change in our business model is really the platform to drive our growth at scale and at speed."

Pickles Ventures is launching with a full class of fledgling startups: these include co-branded Pickles businesses and independent entities that sit across Australia and Asia. These include Australian based Datium Insights, Carzapp, and Iungo as well as Malaysia based Pickles Asia.

Learn more about Pickles Ventures: see the press release here.

What happened to all those Samsung Galaxy Note 7s?

2017-08-29T00:58:15Z

Whether or not you owned a Samsung Galaxy Note 7, you likely remember the massive issues last year when defective batteries caused several of the devices to burst into flames. To protect customers and prevent any further incidents, Samsung offered exchanges and refunds on the devices.

(photo credit: techcrunch article)

Worldwide, 2.5 million of the devices were sold - that's a lot of phones for Samsung to take back. What does a company do with that many unsaleable phones? Especially when the majority of the device is still in good condition?

In our salvage division at Pickles, every day we see different assets for disposition and the strategy often differs depending on factors like asset condition, asset quantity and local or global consumer demand. Initially, Samsung announced plans to refurbish the phones. Refurbishment is a sensible idea to minimise environmental impact, when there is still consumer interest in a product. A more recent story this week, however, suggests Samsung may have concluded a more effective fiscal and environmental strategy is to salvage useable materials from the phones, including rare metals, OLED display modules and camera modules. Just for an example, the phones are expected to yield 157 tonnes of rare metals, including gold.

Samsung is not alone among smartphone companies looking to salvage renewable materials in their production, and when announcing their plans for the Galaxy Note 7s, said they plan to "actively lead the industry in terms of environmental protection and resource recycling." A focus on producing - and disposing of - assets in the most sustainable way possible is admirable and should be a goal for all corporations.

How Will Big Data Transform Industrial Work?

2017-08-29T00:58:54Z

"Big data" and the "Internet of Things" have the power to transform all industries. Most of the buzz in this sector is around home automation and connected cars, two spheres which are easy to understand for a layperson and directly applicable to all of our everyday lives. The fundamental concept of collecting data via sensors and deriving insights from it will transform every industry, and the industrial sector has many opportunities for optimising processes with data-driven insights.

Our industrial division at Pickles is keenly interested in developments that leverage data to improve efficiency and increase the useful life of equipment. This recent Wall Street Journal article on the evolution of data services from basic telematics to the integration of multiple data sources to drive business decisions caught our attention.

The article specifically covers how Caterpillar uses data in mining operations, but the processes are applicable across additional industrial uses as long as sensors are deployed to collect the relevant information. As Caterpillar's director of Internet of Things and channel solutions told the WSJ, "The data is as important as the machine providing it." These solutions focus on financial, operational and safety goals. For example, if a construction team can work optimally during daylight hours, they should finish work faster - resulting in lower expenses of overtime pay and fewer worker injuries due to low visibility in dusk or evening hours.

The right data collection can also keep machines in better working order, resulting in longer service life and higher residual values when they are sold. Sensors can alert to problems like temporary overheating or clogged filters, recommending preventative maintenance to reduce breakdowns.

The observation that this type of knowledge has a different value for different customers and at different points in time is also a keen one. Larger, more complex organizations may have a higher need for efficiency, but more redundancy in equipment and tolerance for downtime. One thing is for certain - there will, in the near term, be no shortage of available industrial data for companies to leverage. It will be critical to understand on which parts of your business this data can have a positive impact, so that it can be leveraged accordingly.

With major sales coming soon, watch this space to find out more.

Maas Plant Hire Sale

2017-08-29T00:59:58Z

Another Aussie challenge for driverless cars: Roos

2017-07-05T00:16:05Z

One of the biggest advantages self-driving cars should be able to give us is a reduction in the number of collisions. For collision detection, self-driving cars use technology such as LiDAR, which fires pulses of light and measures how quickly they rebound, compounding that information with many other environmental variables, or optical camera-based systems.

The technology has had a lot of practice detecting other vehicles, and pedestrians. It has also become pretty good at detecting animals that frequently cross roadways, like deer, elk and caribou, all of which have a fairly standard stride. However, Volvo has indicated there’s one animal that still confuses their autonomous vehicles - kangaroos.

Australia's National Roads and Motorists' Association states that 80% of animal collisions in the country involve kangaroos - more than 16,000 strikes each year, with millions of dollars in insurance claims. The image at right shows just a few vehicles that collided with kangaroos and ended up in Pickles’ salvage inventory.

In this BBC article, Volvo’s technical manager for Australia went over some of the kangaroo-related issues. The problem seems to be one of perception: when the kangaroo is in the air, it appears to be further away than it actually is when it lands. To solve the problem, they’ve engaged in additional data collection where collisions are frequent, and are working on a solution that involves a combination of radar and cameras. The end result should work out well for drivers and kangaroos: Volvo has an ambitious target that no-one is killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo by 2020.

New Guidelines In Place For Self-Driving Vehicles

2017-06-01T06:51:16Z

An official framework for trials of self-driving vehicles is here: the National Transport Commission (NTC) and Austroads have released a set of national guidelines governing trials of automated vehicles on Australian roads. The first trials were staged in South Australia in 2015, and these guidelines have been in the works since March of last year.

Where would you like to go? Soon, cars like this may be able to drive you there autonomously.

The guidelines aim to set a balance between encouraging innovation and maintaining safety for the general public. Organisations seeking to stage trials will require authorisation from state or territory road transport agencies, and agencies will require trials to report any data on crashes, near misses, and complaints from the public. Approval will only be granted for those organisations that provide a high-level description of the technology being deployed, a traffic plan and comprehensive insurance. State and territory governments will be able to approve trial locations. You can see the full guidelines here.

At Pickles, we are keenly aware of the potential for this technology to change how people and business utilise their vehicles and the changes it may cause on vehicle supply and demand, which may include everything from accelerated consumer upgrade cycles as the technology emerges, changes in the composition of rental and taxi fleets, or logistical improvements that may result in better-condition used trucks and vehicles from less "stop and go" driving. How do you think autonomous vehicles will impact the automotive market? Let us know in the comments...

How Are Millennials Redefining Car Culture?

2017-05-15T23:38:34Z

We wrote recently on the Pickles blog about millennial car collectors and their flashy choices, like Justin Bieber's blue Ferrari. But, outside of the luxury segment, how are millennials really interacting with their cars? Some have declared that millennials' interest in ride-sharing and delay in obtaining drivers' permits may eventually spell the end of the automotive industry as we know it.

The demise of "car culture" seems unlikely - but how will this generation cause it to shift? A recent blog post on Medium suggested that millennials may actually be the key to *sustaining* the automotive industry.

On the sharing-economy point, with services like ride-sharing, cars are of course still critical to the equation. Strategically, automakers have already begun investing in this space to ensure they maintain relevancy. The cars shared may become more utilitarian, chosen for passenger-friendliness and overall durability rather than luxury symbolism. The overall principle that cars are a convenient form of transportation remains intact; the ownership rules and maximization of the vehicle's utility (e.g., in the form of less idle time) may change. Another form of utility maximization is the "recycling" of cars; for example, at Pickles we take cars that are already in the market and facilitate their transfer to the next owner, for example at auction.

It is true that many millennials have delayed getting a drivers' license: in 2006, Australia saw 72.5% of millennials driving, and this had dropped to 67% in 2016. But, they are still purchasing cars, just a bit later. The purchase process is where their preferences can change things dramatically. Rather than the hassle of visiting dealerships and engaging in lengthy negotiations, millennials are relying on their mobile devices to find the right car (80% of millennials, vs. 46% of those over the age of 35) and seeking what the article cited above referred to as "seamless stress-free experience, integrated with online pathways to purchase".

This is something that we have taken note of at Pickles, as we make investments in technology that makes it easier to find, assess and purchase the right car at a good value. In fact, this quarter, we'll be announcing a seamless, one-stop platform for buying and selling vehicles, including finance, insurance and warranties, that makes the process even more stress-free - stay tuned!

Throwback Thursday? Auto Industry Still Using Clay Models

2017-05-04T04:52:14Z

In an era of digital optimisation, including the transformation of the transportation industry generally with technologies like connected and driverless cars, it might come as something of a surprise to learn that the auto industry still uses life-size clay models in the vehicle design process. (At Pickles, we did recently auction a replica Lamborghini, but we have yet to auction a clay model of a vehicle. However, when we do, you can be sure you'll see it on the blog.)

(Image credit: Flickr user Iain Farrell)

Vehicle design made an all-digital push as 3D modeling technologies matured and manufacturers saw an opportunity to cut costs. However, they learned that removing the clay-model step of the process was resulting in vehicle designs that were ultimately less satisfactory. By not taking a tactile approach, they were missing what they called the 'human element': there was no human interaction and it was difficult to assess the interplay of design elements with the environment.

Ultimately, digital techniques have reduced the use of clay by 70% - increasing efficiency, while retaining the human element. It's a good business lesson on the benefit of modernizing your internal processes - something our CIO Claudio Salinas recently discussed with CIO Magazine - while staying focussed on the hands-on processes that impact your customer experience, and measuring that quantitative and qualitative impact.

Salvage or Collectible?

2017-08-29T02:03:57Z

(Image credit CENTURY 21 Desert Hills Realty)

If you'd like to amass a classic car collection in one fell swoop, we noted a recent news story featuring a man's collection of 340 cars, plus the land on which they are stored, with a current asking price of approx $1.45 million CAD (about $1.43 million AUD).

The owner of the cars, Mike Hall, works as a rock scaler, and began amassing vehicles with his spare income. Eventually, the collection outgrew the space available on an organic farm he and his wife shared, so he purchased an appropriately zoned wrecking yard and his collection continued to grow to the size it has reached today. They range from collectibles to daily drivers, with many now in salvage condition:

"Spending their winters buried in snow, many of the cars and trucks are little more than rusted shells, while others were purchased for parts to support restoration projects, like the six Sunbeam Alpines Hall picked up to sacrifice for a Sunbeam Tiger that he still hasn't gotten around to working on."

That said, he's pulled a few gems before putting the lot for sale, like a 1968 Chevrolet Chevelle and a rare V8-powered 1966 Beaumont, and others he's putting on loan to the White Post Auto Museum. The valuation of the remaining cars he's estimated at between $500 and $35,000 (CAD) per vehicle.

For those of us in this business, there are some interesting lessons in the lot - a buyer would want to carefully evaluate each vehicle, determine whether its current condition is more appropriate for salvage or restoration, and their potential resale value as such. For collectors, there are also lessons in the importance of carefully amassing one's collection in a way that it can be properly stored so that the vehicles retain their value. Of course, if you're looking to add to your collection, we welcome you to join us at our next classic and prestige vehicle auction.