Ever bought a new car? Not pleasant is it, usually ? The last unreconstructed bastion of sleaze bags with asymmetrical information; ie they know what cars cost. You don't. They know how that disparity can cost you a lot. They sell every day. You buy irregularly.

Here in LA cars are king. We drive a lot. So car dealers? Emperors.

But the old car was almost dead. I got referred to Longo.Called. Spoke to the lovely Chris. Turned out she was Mr Penske's personal assistant; as in Penske the owner. Cool.  Five minutes Jules later called. Set up a time to meet. An hour later, Chris called back; "just to make sure things are happening the right way".

Next day, on one of the test drives, I ask Jules how many cars he sells. "450 a year". Gulp. Nine a week eh? "Yep". Of course that's down from the 650 he used to sell when he was on the lot. We know immediately this cat's smoking. At seventy. Probably that's why he's Longo VIP Manager. (Everyone wants to be a VIP in LA) 

Longo sold 28,000 plus Toyota's last year. From this one location. They also sell Lexus and Honda. At 20K average per car, they sold 560 million dollars worth of Toyota. Jules sold at least ten million bucks worth on his own. These are numbers to impress.

Jules is very smooth. He allows the car and customer to sell themselves, just chips in with enough info to shape the conversation and clinch the deal. Three hours later I own a new Toyota. Congratulations everyone says. All the way off the lot.

Since then, (three days)  I've had two letters and two calls. This include the helpful Chris, who is 'just checking that the process went as it should'. Longo want smooth, hassle free. excellent. In fact, excellent was the mantra through the day.

Oh yes, Longo asked me to a new car owners dinner (dinner!) with  car wash, free coupon for oil change and touch up tin of paint as the come-on. Interesting eh?

This is a huge business. All  totally focused on making the customer feel good about their decision; not on price. They don't sell on price. They sell on service. Brilliant. Longo are three times bigger in sales than any other Toyota dealer in LA. Obviously they're a huge business on their own. All built on customer service. Very impressive.

From answering random referrals, through VIP managers, through speedy processing, through enough product to make quick decisions, through after sales contact, Penske, the owner has built a great concept machine that sells cars. Its easy to see now why many friends will drive 45 miles to get their car worked on there.

Service.