7:13 am, February 10, 2024
Selling supercars and dealing with the buyers that can afford them requires a fastidious level of service – and the team behind Alexanders Prestige know that better than anyone.
Started back in 2005 by lifelong friends Andrew North and Alexander Brimelow, the luxury and prestige car dealership meticulously prepare the cars they sell.
When we visited them – a little over a year ago now – to film the latest instalment of our Selling Supercars video series (above), I was impressed by the spotless cars, the immaculate showroom and, well, the attention to detail.
They even have a name for it – they call it ‘the unseen’ – and it’s a principle that runs deep throughout the business, based in Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire.
Alexanders have even made a video about it which dominates their website, telling people they like to focus on the small things so everything just feels right when you buy a luxury car from them.
‘The unseen is about everything we do behind the scenes,’ North tells us in our video about his business.
‘We don’t shout about it. We don’t tell everyone about it. It all just happens. So you leave as a customer, whatever it is you purchased, just thinking, I’ve got everything I needed there. And that’s because we’re just quietly behind the scenes just trying to do things right.’
It’s an enviable stance and clearly runs deep throughout the business. The on-site bodyshop touches up even the smallest of marks, the valeting teams prepare cars to concourse condition before they take up their place in the long, barn-like showroom and the mechanics are busy working on customer cars in much the same fashion.
When we visited, used car prices – especially for luxury cars – were still high and the showrooms was packed with a mix of luxury SUVs, including an Aston Martin DBX and Range Rovers, peppered with some of the latest supercars.
A blue Maserati MC20 was just being driven into the showroom – a car North had bought himself to drive for a few months as ‘he was fascinated by it’ – while there were plenty of Ferrari and Porsche models to choose from.
If you take a look at the firm’s stock today, the mix is much the same. With everything from a Ferrari 488 Pista to a Lamborghini Urus Performante.
North said: ‘Our high volume stuff is Range Range Rover product and things like that. We do a lot of G Wagen too. But we also do a lot of the specialist stuff as well. Many Porsches – a lot of Porsches – Bentley, Ferrari, anything that’s a high-end prestige car.
‘We try and cover sort of every avenue – our average selling price is around about £100,000.’
Walking through North’s perfectly laid out premises, it’s certainly not hard to miss his perfectionism. The cars are lined up inch-perfectly in the spotlessly clean showroom which would rival many franchised dealerships I’ve set foot in.
You can tell they haven’t scraped on the fit out. The floor tiles are luxurious, there’s plenty of space and light to let the supercars shine and the branding is high end. Personally, I think the logo is fantastic.
It’s clear, North and the team also love what they do. He teaches his sales staff not to sell – he says that’s not their job at all. They’re there to answer questions and help guide the buyer through the process of buying their dream.
Some, he says, are famous footballers and sports stars, but most are successful business people treating themselves to a toy.
‘Brand is the key to it,’ he says in our video.
‘You don’t have to be a stereotypical car dealer. It should be a nice experience buying supercars.’
North started out working in a BMW dealership, but decided that ‘wasn’t going to pay the bills’ and decided to start the business with his friend. These days it turns over around £71m a year and makes profits of around £1.5m, according to its accounts for 2022.
And he says he’s never surprised by how eccentric some of his buyers can be. While filming this video series we’ve heard from Romans who told us about a company’s staff clubbed together to buy their boss a Bugatti while Amari told us about the Lamborghini bury who turned up on a bus.
‘One customer surprised me when he bought a new Bentley Continental GT with a cream interior from us,’ he said.
‘The first thing he did was open the boot of his Range Rover, got his massive dirty lurcher dog out of it, and put the dog in the back of the Continental. I couldn’t believe he was doing it, but his car was his life and so too was his dog.’
Having spent some time with North, I know every dirty paw press on that car’s leather would have made him wince…
During the first four parts of this video series we’ve met some of the most famous supercar dealers in the country, and Alexanders seriously impressed. It’s no wonder the business is a serial Used Car Award winner, picking up our Days to Sell award in the recent 2023 event and a nomination in the Specialist Used Car Dealer category too.
North adds: ‘If we enjoy it, our customers enjoy it. I don’t know why people find buying cars sometimes isn’t a nice experience – it should be. We want to give buyers the best experiences of their life.’
You can find all episodes of our Selling Supercar series on the dedicated playlist on our YouTube channel.
