Tom Wright clocked up decades of experience with major automotive dealerships but, at the age of 55, and in partnership with wife Cathy, took a punt on starting their own auto business. Together, the couple founded Tugun Cars with just five cars in the yard but an endless supply of enthusiasm and determination. Six years on and the business is flourishing in the Gold Coast suburb nestled on the border with NSW.
What products and services do you offer at Tugun Cars and who are your customers?
TW: We offer used cars in the $7000 to $17,000 range. We also work mainly with Japanese and Korean cars – our customers are more interested in those makes. Smaller cars and SUVs are what we mostly sell. When you review the sales figures every month, 50 per cent of new cars sold are SUVs, so we probably have a 50 per cent split of SUVs and cars here. We’ve found that hatchbacks are much more popular than sedans too, so we try to have more of them available. Also, more people want automatics, so we look for those as well.
Our customers are mainly families looking for a car on a budget and, because we have a high school nearby, we have a steady customer base of young, first-car buyers.
One of our key principles is to prepare the car in such a way that we feel comfortable when someone’s son or daughter is taking it away. We sleep well at night knowing that, to the best of our knowledge, we’ve sold something that we’d be happy to own ourselves.
A good reputation must be vital if you are selling to families and first-time buyers?
TW: Yes. People won’t go to just anybody when it’s their kids buying their first car. Our cars are prepared by an independent mechanic, and they’re fixed as though they were going to my own son or daughter. We are a family business and that’s how we treat our customers – like extended family.
Who is on the Tugun Cars team?
TW: My wife Cathy and I started the business, and we both work here. I guess you could call me a jack-of-all-trades, but my role is predominantly customer front and it runs through from the purchase side of things to sale and delivery. Cathy’s role is more administrative – she handles the registrations, banking and so on.
My son James has been on board for just over a year now after 17 years working out at the mines and he brings a skill set that is complementary to what we do. He assists me in the buying and selling process, the reconditioning of cars and the logistics of that, and we are constantly in contact about what’s next in the process for each car.
My daughter Lucy, who has a background in hospitality, does almost a bit of everything! She isn’t involved in buying yet but is a real team player that can fill in on just about any desk. As a young mum, she works here casually while James is full time.
What’s your background in the industry?
TW: My dad was a sales manager at a Holden dealership in the 1970s but, as I went to boarding school, I was never involved in selling cars then. I actually started in the insurance industry but then a friend opened a Toyota dealership and I could see myself as a car salesman. I really enjoyed it and when the manager at that dealership went to start his own place, I went with him. Then, in 1988, I moved to the Gold Coast to a gig at Gold Coast Nissan & Honda. I always preferred used cars, and I became Used Car Manager there.
I was subsequently recruited to go the Sunshine Coast as General Manager at Nambour Toyota. We stayed there for a while but did come back to the Gold Coast where I worked as General Sales Manager, then Used Car Manager, then Group Used Car Manager, at a Toyota dealership.
In 2002, I took on a three-year contract – to run Toyota in Fiji. I was offered that role with Toyota Tsusho, which is based out of Tokyo and not part of Toyota Australia. That was quite an adventure and after the three years we came back, and I worked in a training capacity for Kingsway Training travelling from Cairns to Melbourne doing sales training. That was quite a rewarding role because I was giving people a set of tools to help them do their job better.
After a while, the travel did get the better of me and, one day, while I was training at a dealership in Townsville, I was asked if I’d like to be their General Manager. So I ended up back in a dealership, this time with the Pickering Group in Townsville.
Cathy, who is a nurse by training, worked at the Townsville dealership too, and has also worked at Tweed Mazda in aftermarket sales.
We were in Townsville for seven years before coming back to the Gold Coast where I took a General Manager’s role at VW with the Frizelle Group. Then I was made redundant.
As a 55-year-old who had never been made redundant it was a bit of a shock, but it got me thinking about having my own yard. I had often thought about that but was always convinced by others to take the jobs they offered. Then, one day, I saw this vacant block of land here in Tugun. Cathy and I recognised it as an opportunity and we counted our pennies, signed a lease agreement, and took our savings to buy five cars! That was six years ago, in October 2019, and it was pretty scary when we opened that first day.
It was a leap of faith, but we had confidence in our abilities. That first month we sold seven cars, but we were smart and knew the pitfalls, so left any money in the business to keep growing. Those first five cars turned to 10, 10 turned to 15 and so on.
You opened at the end of 2019, just before the COVID pandemic. That must have been scary too?
TW: It was! When COVID closures first happened, I remember our plan was that if we could sell one car, we’d take that money to feed ourselves . . . and I just envisaged the business having to wind down. However, car dealers were then deemed an essential service and because people couldn’t go overseas and needed a car, it actually helped us!
Today, we carry around 40 cars, which is all I can fit in the footprint we have.
How do you market and promote Tugun Cars?
TW: The repeat and referral business we have now has become key for us. Kids come back to us for their second car, mums and dads refer their kids and their friends to us and so on – it is just amazing how many people say, ‘My friends said to come and see Tom’!
Reviews are very important and we have many good ones. That started organically – we didn’t work on that – and it has become a cornerstone of our business. So much so, in fact, that we have left some online sales platforms because we don’t need them.
Do you work closely with other local businesses?
TW: We do, and that network of businesses is really important. I look at it like we are a big dealership – we have a service department, which are the five local mechanics we work with; we have a parts department, which is either a local wrecking company or new parts businesses if we can’t source second-hand parts; and we have two finance partners too. We offer the full service and are a one-stop shop.
Electric vehicles are becoming more popular, do you see Tugun Cars moving into that area?
TW: Definitely. It is happening now but, in our price range, it would be an older Prius or something like that. And at the moment we do find that people are a bit scared of a 10-year-old car with 190,000km on it and a battery with who-knows how much life left in it. We’ve had a couple here and they have not been an easy sell.
I’ve acknowledged to the kids that it is what they will be dealing with in the future, and James and Lucy’s generation are much more open to technology. They’ve grown up with it and they will adapt.
What is most rewarding about being part of a family business and do you have any ideas on succession planning?
TW: I remember when we first started that there was a lot of joking about ‘Oh, how do you put up with the missus!’ and so on. But we are very lucky. Cathy and I have been married for 42 years, we have worked together before in a couple of places, and we are a partnership – we know what works and what are roles are. We do want a proper succession, so the kids are learning what we do and how it all works, and we trust them completely.
How long has Tugun Cars been a member of MTA Queensland and what has been the greatest benefit of your membership?
TW: We became members straight away. I had used MTAQ’s services when I was with other organisations and it was a box I needed to tick when starting this business. It meant that I knew I had somewhere to go for advice on, for example, issues from a legal perspective. And I knew also that MTAQ had a code of ethics and I wanted to be a part of that.
What advice would you give a young you starting out in the industry?
TW: I think you should never have regrets. I feel like I took opportunities as they came along and while not every one of them worked out like I hoped, they all led me to where I am now. I would say, if an opportunity arises, take it, go for it!
Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (February 2025)
4 March 2025