20 Years A Winner for Tauranga Motor Company

Just a few blocks from the Tauranga CBD is a Suzuki dealership with a fair bit of history. Tauranga Motor Company (TMC) has had Suzukis on its yard since 1994 – and a good number of its 20-strong team can tell you all about it.

“The first car we sold was a blue Suzuki Samurai, to Bay of Plenty Times”, recalls Graeme Hayley, who’s been with the company since 1991 and takes care of new Suzuki sales. Neville Huddlestone has been part of the grooming team since 1996, and many others have been there for more than a decade.

The list of vehicles goes on too: it was TMC that originally sold Trustpower on Jimny; and they still have customers come in for servicing with Swifts they first sold in 1999.

Some things have changed, though – like the unusual places they used to take 4WDs for demos, in the days before everything could be researched on the internet.

“A couple of Fieldays ago, we went almost to Turangi”, Graeme explained. “The farmer said ‘if it goes up that hill and down again, I’ll buy it’. So I had to do it. They couldn’t believe it, with normal tyres. We got the sale.”

That’s not to say they won’t still go the extra mile if you need it, or that you can ever replace the team’s service, knowledge or history with anything you find online. To take them up on that offer, you should make a point of visiting the Third Avenue dealership and asking for pretty much anyone.