Historic vehicles – a growing market with more opportunities as Winter approaches.
The constant growth of the Historic Vehicle sector and its absorption of the increasingly popular “Youngtimer” period - ‘80s ‘90s and Noughties cars - means that more and more historic vehicles of this period are on the roads daily, presenting real and growing opportunities for workshops and factors supplying to them. With increased numbers of people using their historic and “future classic” cars for daily transport, comes the opportunity to target both those groups of vehicle owner and, with the onset of autumn and winter - and road conditions becoming commensurately more difficult - it is important that classic vehicles are in good shape.
Engine Oil
Towards the end of a busy season, with some owners starting to think about laying up their cars for winter, the engine oils in their vehicles will contain products of combustion such as acids, soot, wear metals and other contaminates. Leaving this dirty, used oil in the engine exposes the vehicle to potentially harmful corrosion.
Motul’s lubricant ranges therefore, cover everything from Pre-War vehicles to ‘Youngtimers’ and the key characteristics of each oil are designed to tie in with the specific requirements of engines of their period.
Promote changing the used engine oil to a fresh charge of a high-quality engine lubricant and run the engine.Motul has a full range of Classic lubricants for cars of different eras each with special properties designed to cater for the needs of engines of a particular period and is one of very few engine oil suppliers - with its Classic20W-50, for example -to include a ‘tackiness’ additive to ensure that the metal surfaces are coated with a protective layer that prevents condensate from adhering to the metal surfaces - particularly important if a car is ultimately going to be laid up for
the winter.
Extending The Opportunity Further
Engine oils provide the central requirement for historic vehicle lubrication, but there are many other lubricant and fluid requirements and, of course, caring for a vehicle is as important on the outside as it is under the hood.
Motul has therefore extended its Classic range to include coolants, which, like its engine oils, are designed specifically for classic car maintenance and care, offering further opportunities to deliver the optimum product to owners and extend the upsell as related work.
It might seem like a waste of time to wash, clean and polish the bodywork, but if enthusiasts are planning to put a cover over the vehicle, it helps to reduce the risk of dirt becoming trapped and marking the paintwork. Even if no cover is fitted, inevitably dust will gather on the paintwork, so it is much easier to wipe this off if the exterior has been polished or waxed. Motul now has a full range of car care products - as well as the cloths, wipes and brushes necessary to apply and/or polish as required. The range deals with most aspects of exterior and interior care.
Please note that it’s also wise to advise customers to periodically remove the cover to allow the vehicle to breathe - it helps to reduce the risk of damp settling inside the car. It’s also a good idea to run the engine from time to time.
The Motul range has long encompassed workshop sprays, greases and fluids, but it is also moving into complementary workshop equipment to make the lives of workshop technicians easier, cleaner and also create business opportunities.
Additives can also present numerous possibilities in the historic car sector, and Motul’s Professional range offers Fuel Additives for both petrol and diesel engines, oil additives for cleaning engines and treating leaks as well as transmission and cooling system additives. The additive offer also comes with the opportunity of bringing in an additive dispensing system, for example, is simply connected and started up, running supervision-free so workshops can get on with other business.
Motul has also taken a fresh look at parts cleaning with BioClean - a new, solvent-free parts washing system, that, with its warm biological cleaning agent is safe, effective, cost-efficient and pleasant to use and will soon also introduce its automatic gearbox flushing and cleaning equipment.
So the Motul message on historic vehicles is that their presence in the service and repair sector is increasing and it presents numerous opportunities when Winter is in the offing while enthusiasts look at putting their cars into hibernation over the winter period.