12:18 pm, June 2, 2025
For most experienced figures in the motor trade, a love of cars is something that runs deep.
We’ve all heard the story a million times: ‘I grew up around cars, my parents were always taking me to events and it was all I ever wanted to do.’
Dealers like this make up a huge portion of the automotive industry, allowing their passion for the products they sell to shine through.
However, the approach is far from the only way. For some, the joy of selling cars comes from other places – and that could not be more true of our latest guest on the Car Dealer Podcast.
Joining us this week was James Gammon, boss of JG Cars in Essex, and it’s fair to say the 47-year-old is certainly not a petrolhead!
Speaking with hosts James Baggott and John Reay, Gammon admitted that cars actually ‘bore him to death’ and he has ‘no interest’ in them at all.
Instead, he says he loves the people he meets through the trade and helping customers get exactly what they want.
‘I’m not business minded, my business partner Ray does all that back office stuff,’ he explained.
‘I’m right at the front and I love what I do. I love people – I have no interest in cars, they bore me to death!
‘If we go to a party and someone starts talking about cars I’m like: ‘No, mate, you’ve got the wrong geezer. I want to know about you and get right into people. That’s what I love.’
He added: ‘I love what I do. I love people. I like making people feel good.
‘What I love is getting my reviews in the mornings, how was their experience, and just the hearing fact that they’ve loved it.’
Despite having no love of cars, Gammon has enjoyed a long and successful career in the motor trade.
He even starred in fly-on-the-wall documentary series ‘The Dealership’ for Channel 4 back in 2013.
Looking back on filming the show, he said: ‘They actually filmed for nine months, believe it or not.
‘They say it’s one day’s filming for one minute of TV, which is quite mad. You just rock up in the morning, they put a mic on you and you literally just get on with your day.
‘They were there for so long, you forget they’re there. You can’t pretend for that long – you just got to get on with it. It was fun.’
The Car Dealer Podcast, sponsored by Carwow, sees an industry guest join our hosts to discuss the motor trade’s biggest headlines of every week.
A full list of the stories discussed on this week’s episode can be found here.
You can listen to all episodes of the Car Dealer Podcast on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
