Meet Christine Mitchell – also known as The Car Lady. She will be a regular contributor to The Car Magazine with her insights about understanding and operating features of newly purchased automobiles and the importance of regularly servicing them. She considers a car purchase the second-largest investment a person will make next to buying a home.
Christine, who resides in Port Elgin, Ontario, and her staff work with dealerships throughout Canada to help their customers learn more about their new car purchases. She said when people buy cars they are attracted to the purchase, but they may not be familiar with the vehicle’s technology and the importance of service.
“Everybody just thinks showroom, showroom, showroom,” Christine said. “I think I’ve certainly influenced a lot of people in the way they’ve felt about their car, their confidence level with their own vehicle and their relationship with their dealership. I’ve certainly educated a lot of people.”
Christine started her company more than 25 years ago and the Know Your Car Night presentations she and her staff do are popular with dealers across Canada. They hire her to help them retain customers and, in turn, the customers learn more about operating their new vehicles. Her motto is: Give Your Dealers A Second Chance At A First Impression.
“The bread and butter of The Car Lady has always been the after-sales seminars,” said Christine. “The Car Lady is all built around educating customers about service and the customer retention. My favourite customer on the Know Your Car Night is always the first-time buyer because they are looking at me to make great decisions going forward about their service and to keep that car looking its best and I’m grateful for the opportunity to have taught those people something.”
Christine speaks from her experience and passion for cars. It began at a young age growing up in Peterborough. “I wanted to drive fast, I wanted to look good, I wanted it all,” she said. “I wanted to be like Steve McQueen my entire life.”
As soon as she passed the course to become a licensed driver at age 16, she applied for a job at a major dealership in her hometown.
“I just loved the car business and I never had it in my background,” Christine said.
“I was so enamored by the whole process of working in a dealership and changing people’s lives through transportation. I don’t know why.”
She started out as a receptionist, but wanted to work as a technician so she enrolled in a school to learn how to do it. She was the only woman among 64 who took the course.
“My mother used to call it a target-rich environment because I was the only girl, and I was blonde and I was young,” Christine said. “The Car Lady became a manufacture of that because when I was working in service they trotted me out for every photo opportunity because they wanted some diversity.” She subsequently became a salesperson.
She decided to make a career switch after giving birth to her daughter in 1997, giving her more flexibility with her time.
She evaluated her skills and felt she had a great voice, a good presence and knowledge about cars. Applying that all together, she decided to start a business teaching car clinics to women at General Motors dealerships. She began with Women’s Clinics and parlayed that into the Know Your Car Night.
“Every time I’d go into a dealership, somebody would say, ‘hey, there’s that car lady, there’s that car lady’ and so I said, ‘Okay, I’ll be The Car Lady. I was a mechanic who was a woman who parlayed that into a business. I’ve literally met thousands of people and taught them about their cars.”
Beginning in 2011 when her business started to boom, she hired staff to help with the events. Her recruits were women with experience working in a dealership or had a full-time job and wanted to work part-time at night.
“I know a Car Lady as soon as I meet her,” Christine said. “I don’t care if she doesn’t know anything about cars, I’ll teach her what she needs to know.”
In 2018, Mitchell received a Leadership Award at the Women & Automotive Conference.
“I believe in The Car Lady,” Christine said. “I believe in what we’re doing. People need to be educated on service. Service is essential. I’m the voice of service. I’m your second chance at a first impression.”
Perry Lefko is the Content Manager of The Car Magazine. He can be reached at [email protected]. Feel free to forward any story suggestions or comments.