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Hallmark
Sports Cars Ltd
1 Connaught Avenue, North Chingford,
London E4 7AE
Tel:
020 8529 7474
Mob: 07984 460014
Opening Hours
9:00am to 5:00pm Monday to Friday
9:00am to 4:00pm
Saturday
Out of hours appointments can be arranged
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October
2003 |
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Classic Examples |
| Hallmark
Cars is a well-established kit car dealership that prides itself
on selling some of the best second-hand Cobra replicas available.
Adam James paid the Essex
based company a visit to find out more. |
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Next
time you travel into north west London, make sure you drive
into Chingford and visit Hallmark Cars.
It`s very rare that you`ll find such a superb collection of
kit cars being sold second hand especially when they all look
like new, straight from the hands that made them.
There are Cobra replicas, Ferrari replicas and even a couple
of real classics like a Ferrari Dino copy and a Jaguar D-Type.
But you can be sure that these cars won`t sit around for long;
buyers frequently come in looking for a " new " sports
car in which they can re-live their youth and almost always
leave with smiles on their faces.
Paul of Hallmark kindly gave up his time to talk about how Hallmark
established itself as a pure kit car dealership and gave us
an insight into what it takes to keep his customers 100% happy. |
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Speaking
about Hallmark`s origins, Paul said it was a bit of luck which
opened the door to an ultimately successful business. He recalled,
"We started selling kit cars generally in 1984 by becoming
Panther agents whilst also selling Marcos . But the classic
car market went into a really bad recession in 1989 and it forced
us to have a re-think. By chance, we took a Pilgrim Sumo in
part exchange for a Range Rover and got quite a bit of response
so that`s how we started. From there, we went out looking for
well built Cobra replicas."
So it seem that the Cobra replica was an instant hit at Hallmark.
Was this the shape of things to come? Paul says. "Without
a shadow of a doubt, the replica cars - probably 90% of our
business is Cobras. And in all faithness I can say that around
50% of all our Cobra replicas are Pilgrim Sumos. for value for
money they are very, very good. Everybody would love to have
a real 1964 AC Cobra but in reality not everyone`s got that
kind of budget and I genuinely think that the Sumo does represent
good value whether fitted with a Ford V6, Rover V8 or 350 Chevy."
The astonishing reality about Hallmark is the fact that the
cars it`s selling are nearly all second-hand but the buyers
still treat them as brand new. Some arrive with delivery mileage
after they`ve been built and others are bought in as used and
are sold on. Walking around the cars that were on show, however,
it`s really hard to tell just how old or new the cars are, they
all look great.
So
how quickly does a kit car sell from a place like Hallmark?
Paul revealed that sometimes there is no patten that emerges
when it comes to selling kit cars. He said, "you can average
it but sometimes you can have a car you think is going to sell
quickly and it doesn`t and other times you can have a car you
don`t think is going to sell and it goes the same day"
We`ve had cars sold before we`ve even got them off the transporter.
A guy`s been here, has gone outside and said ' that`s what I
want'. It`s the luck of the draw at any one time. But to know
what to do to them and how to prepare them takes years of experience.
To know what the average person wants, what the most popular
colours are, and the trim options, to get them up to that standard."
Speaking about those who sell their kit cars without even driving
them first, Paul said, "A surprising number of people must
get a buzz out of actually building them rather than driving
them. We do actually get a lot of cars that have just got delivery
mileage on them and the guys seem to want to get onto their
next project."
"I personally don`t think it`s cost effective to build
one but that`s another matter. But we tend to buy a lot of those
cars because people like to buy a car that`s as new as possible.
Sometimes we`ll buy a car that needs repainting, re-trimming
and re-fitting. It`s been neglected but not irredeemably and
we`ll get to grips with it and will do all the necessary work.
At the moment we`ve got a car on the ramp ( a Dax ) which is
stripped and ready to be painted as it`s been left in gel-coat
but other than that, it`s a lovely car." |
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We
then asked Paul about SVA testing. Do Hallmark put cars through
SVA tests and do they check cars for SVA history before they
buy them?
"We only did it once, which really we`re not geared up
to do. It`s just too engineer orientated for us on we really
wouldn`t want to do another one. However, most of the cars coming
in, post 1997 anyway, have been SVA tested. It`s a nice selling
aid that it`s been through SVA. strangely enough, they don`t
give you a certificate to pass on as it`s taken away when you
register the car. So quite a few cars come in that are supposedly
SVA tested but we don`t know for a fact that they have been."
With the experience that the guys at Hallmark have, they are
regularly looking at kit cars that owners have built and want
to sell on. They have therefore become accustomed to, let`s
just say, some very ropey cars. Paul said that after looking
at hundreds of cars, he and his team have developed a good nose
for a decent or hopeless car.
"Normally, after years of doing this, five minutes looking
at a car is all I`ll need to tell whether or not it`s a good
or badly built car. Everything I do after that is normally confirmation
of what I already think. And I`m not normally wrong by much.
There are obvious things that people don`t realise that you
spot. For example, wiring that`s hanging all over the place."
"I recall one car I went to look at that was in the Brighton
area and the guy had wires coming out of the engine bay and
going upstairs into his bedroom and it was all connected to
his mains somehow or another. Under the bonnet there was wiring
everywhere, an oily odd engine and I didn`t even spend five
minutes looking at it before I decided it wasn`t for us." |
"Small
engines are perfectly adequate as they offer an entry-level
car with the looks of a 427 but without the high operating cost.
People buying Cortina or Sierra powered cars generally have
just as much fun as they would in a big V8. And we`re quite
happy to take them back later on and supply them with a bigger
and more powerful car. One of our customers is on his fifth."
With all these classic looking cars in his possession, I asked
Paul if he`d ever thought about selling standard production
sports cars alongside his replicas. He was very quick to put
his point across, "I`ve never in my life sold standard
cars and personally I wouldn`t really want to. They don`t excite
me at all - boring."
There is a certain amount of hassle when it comes to selling
replica cars as you will probably know and it`s all about ironing
out the difficulties.
Most
of them are caused through storage where a car has been left
lying around for a year without the guy interested enough to
get in and drive it. We then have to iron out the problems which
are usually sticking brakes, seized clutches, dull paintwork
and bits of electrics not working."
"You will always get a few problems with people who, with
the best will in the world, don`t really know how to wire a
car up properly and will wire things incorrectly. We have to
iron those problems out. But the object of the exercise is to
sort it all out, get it MOT`d prepped and valeted. Then put
all the badges and bright work back on so the car looks really
good. Having made sure it`s mechanically, we can give it to
the customer and say, 'have some fun in it'. Thats our aim and
the better we do it, the more satisfied customers we have." |
"But
because of the nature of a car, if someone has done everything
that`s visible well and it looks all neat and tidy, the chances
are they haven`t just stuck a 200,000 mile Granada engine in
it, so that`s a very good rule of thumb. If the wiring`s all
hanging out and there are bits missing off the car and the engine`s
all oily then we won`t touch it."
So with all these years of experience in selling Cobra replicas,
I took the opportunity to ask Paul what were, in his view, the
best Cobra replicas. He said "Jaguar based cars will generally
be ahead of anything else, because you can go up into the powerful
heavy weight engines, but we sell quite a few Granada-based
Pilgrim Sumos and even one or two Cortina-based kits. |
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I
then asked Paul what his thoughts on standard production sports
cars were. If he was so against them, surely he must have
reasons. He did.
"You can go out and buy some pretty exotic machinery
for the same cost as a top flight replica Cobra. But I think,
and some of our customers who have had those cars will agree,
that Porsches, Ferrari and all these lovely cars all share
the same problem - servicing costs. Ferraris, as you know,
never do any mileage, they always sit in garages, but they
have to be serviced every year to get that stamp in the book.
Every two years they have to have a belt change, which is
serious money. And after you`ve done it a couple of times
you think 'hang on, I`m not really getting the use out of
it. Yes it`s beautiful to look at, it`s like a painting but
it really hurts to be forking out two grand just to have the
rubber belts changed. And they get out of them and think hang
on, I can have the looks of the car but with modern running
gear and with much cheaper running costs. And then their thought
process takes them on to the replicas."
"When people come here, they often start by thinking
about one type of car but when they see all the others, they
get a lot more to consider."
In closing Paul gave me an insight into the type and age of
customers that come to Hallmark to buy a replica sports car.
It seems that once they`ve had a taste they want more and
more.
"I`d tend to say most buyers are aged between 40 and
45. It`s very common for people to say to me that their kids
have grown up, gone to university and when they were young,
they always dreamed of owning a Cobra and now they can indulge
themselves. It goes on from there."
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"But
it`s an ongoing thing. Most of our customers are almost friends
now. If they`re passing by, they`ll pop in and say hello and
have a cup of tea with us and we do tend to buy back cars
that we sold, so we`ve got that constant flow of vehicles.
They always come in better than when they went out. Rather
than buying a BMW that`s going to depreciate and get the odd
dent and scratch, with these cars people say 'I`ve owned it'
or 'my wife bought it for my birthday', or 'I treated myself
to that'. They come back with more bits on than when they
went out. It`s a real hobby. I mean if you were into fishing
you would buy all the things that have everything to do with
fishing - that`s what people do with their cars, they cherish
them. So I guess it is a bit of therapy."
If you fancy a bit of therapy, are thinking about a Cobra
replica but doubt your ability to build a kit or simply lack
the time and facilities to do the job, next time you drive
into north west London, make sure you drive into Chingford
and visit Hallmark Cars. |
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| Thanks
to Tom Saunders at Kit Car Magazine |
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