Motoring majesty moving on

Majestic Motors founder Ian Hoggard is to keep his almost 40-year crown as a countrywide dealer of used luxury cars despite selling his new car dealership.

Mr Hoggard first established the business in 1967 on the corner of Chapel and Jackson Sts when he took over the Singer/Daimler dealership and service station from Mick Malmo after three years running his own Blinds and Awnings company.

He grew up on a farm just out of Pahiatua and after leaving school started an apprenticeship as a carpenter that failed to fire. He had been angling to find his fortune in Palmerston North, but launched a business selling blinds and awnings in Masterton instead.

His first car was a Ford Zephyr Mark II that he had serviced and gassed up at Malmo's Motors. His choice of garage paved the road to his eventual post as arguably the longest serving car dealer in Wairarapa.

Within the ensuing decade the five-car showroom business was shifted, which he rapidly expanded then outgrew, to its present site in Dixon St. A new showroom and workshop was constructed in time to greet the 1980s.

"[Our] stock steadily built up on the original site, until we were using the street to park some of the cars."

He decided at about the same time to change his focus in used vehicles to American and exotic cars, a move that drew markedly mixed reactions.

"Some of the cars I was selling were the same as the ones the baddies drove in the movies and on TV.

"Masterton was a far more conservative place in the 70s and we were confused with characters on the screen and suddenly, we were criminals too."

The targeting of a niche market paid nationwide dividends for the business, he said, despite the odd haywired hayseed beyond the showroom doors and the opening and closing in 1973 of a capital city yard that "just didn't work".

"But I was selling exotic cars to buyers from Auckland to the south of the South Island and I'm proud to be known throughout New Zealand as a reputable dealer of luxury vehicles."

He said he has at times had 120 cars for sale on his yard, which was expanded to two yards in 1995 and as a dealer has captured more than $200,000 apiece for some high end vehicles that have rolled through his hands.

"I think our success has been the wide range of cars we've been able to offer right through the price range and the staff have had a lot to do with the success of Majestic Motors over the years.

"I haven't done all this by myself - that's definitely a two-way street."

He said market trends have naturally changed over his career and the internet has singularly had one of the greatest impacts, opening the door to buyers nationwide while also "bringing every car yard in New Zealand to Masterton".

The new owners of the business site, Eastwood Motor Group, are to concentrate on trading new and used late model Hyundai - a dealership Mr Hoggard has held since 1989 - and Kia vehicles, he said.

"I believe it's a good opportunity for the new owners to move forward and I'm sure Hyundai and Kia will gain far more market penetration than there is today."

Mr Hoggard is a veteran member of the New Zealand Rolls-Royce and Bentley Club and remains so enamoured with the marque he will continue trading in exotic cars "in a far smaller way" .

The business has been a long-time family affair involving his wife Pam and his eldest son Lawson, who imports and sells cars to other dealers at his own Masterton business, from where his father will trade as Majestic Motors.

His younger son Matthew was not bitten by the same motoring bug, he said, and instead is the district planner for the Kaikoura District Council.

Mr Hoggard said he regrets selling some luxury vehicles that have come to him, but has kept a 1921 510 Fiat for the past two decades after finding one day that "I wanted a vintage car".

"But I do have an '01 Bentley Arnage Le Mans for sale at $140,000 - that's negotiable."