SPECIALIST: CRIDFORDS
30-years of Porsche sales and service in the Surrey Hills
Cridfords is a well known name in the UK Porsche world. Founder Jonathan Leach started trading in Weybridge back in the aircooled era, tapping into a steady market: in a little over ten years he was able to up sticks to premises in Ripley which offered more retail space and a workshop. It was at this emporium incidentally that your correspondent alighted one day and bought his first Porsche after having it demonstrated to him at impressive speed down the A3. A third move, in 2014, saw Cridfords take up its current residence in the rural Surrey village of Ewhurst. In 2017 the company celebrated 30 years in the Porsche business.
“I always wanted to sell cars,” says Jonathan with refreshing candour. “I cleaned cars for a Volvo garage as a Saturday boy; when I left school I was a trainee in the workshop of another garage till they let me out front as a salesman. The business was based in Farnham and dealt in Rolls Royces and Porsches. Rolls Royces bored me and it must have showed because they had me selling their Porsches.”
It was not his first exposure to the cars from Zuffenhausen: he had already come to admire them in his earlier Saturday job,
but here, at not even 20 years of age, he was driving if not owning them. His excitement recalling those days is palpable: “It made me want to run my own business, I was full of the mad enthusiasm of youth – I couldn’t imagine not succeeding.” At 21 he struck out, working initially from home in Woking and calmly going to Barclays for a £7000 loan knowing he had no assets to back this up.
“As an employee it had looked easy, but on my own it was harder than I ever thought.” However, Jonathan Leach is nothing if not focused and by the new millennium his now mature Porsche business was established in Ripley just off the A3 and five miles from the M25. “It was a good site, very accessible,” he recalls, “but as the business developed I really wanted more workshop space.” Hence the more recent move to Ewhurst.
“I especially liked this spot because it had not only a traditional car showroom on the main road, but also a substantial workshop at the back. Ewhurst is a bit off the map compared with Ripley, but these days people know who we are and they find their way to us. And the locals seem to approve of our row of Porsches along their high street.”
Indeed on a sunny weekday morning there is a steady coming and going of punters and Leach and his salesman Michael Watkins who joined him in 2005 find themselves fielding a number of productive conversations, some concluding sales and others relating to service work. The latter is an important aspect of Cridfords’ business: the four-hoist workshop also houses an MOT bay – of Cridfords’ eight technicians two are registered testers, and the latest geometry alignment rig. The company services around 25 cars a week, mostly Porsches, but will also handle cars belonging to the denizens of Ewhurst and surrounds: all good neighbourly public relations. Cridfords also rebuilds engines, recently transforming its parts counter into a dedicated engine ‘clean’ room. Demand in this department especially for air-cooled cars as they go up in value is increasing steadily and Jonathan as an old school enthusiast is happy to respond to it.
Part of his attachment to his workshop is
the support he gives his sales cars. “We abandoned third party warranties a long time ago. Cridfords does any warranty work itself and that alone is an incentive to prepare our sales cars properly so that they don’t come back.”
Jonathan’s normal stock is 30–40 cars and sales average five or six per week. In terms of positioning, Cridfords has always seen itself as one tier down from the official Porsche network. Although some customers do come to him on the recommendation of the local PC, he feels strongly that in general Porsche has not recognised the importance of the role the independents: “We support the top tier and we often bring people into the brand.”
His current spread of cars extends from a 17 plate back to an 07 and pricing from £70,000 for first generation 991s to £15,000 for ten-year-old Boxsters. The latter would be low mileage specimens, often with several Cridfords stamps in their service history. Jonathan will sell a car if he believes it can be brought up to Cridfords’ standards and still priced competitively: “We probably average £3–£4000 preparation costs per car. About a quarter of this will cover work to the body and cabin and the rest on mechanical aspects, particularly suspension refurbishment which involves at least a four wheel geometry check if not new suspension components. Coolant lines, (as regular readers of Chris Horton will know) are also vulnerable: simply replacing coolant, hoses and clips on a 987 costs £600. Clearly on the newest Porsches you don’t spend anything like that, but that also means that base 996s which all need attention because they are old cars now are usually not worth that kind of
“We probably average ” £3–£4000 preparation costs per car
investment – we wouldn’t get our money back. Many 996s tend to be unloved, but a good one is a very reasonable car and at £20,000 still represents value for a 911. We look for them, but good, older Porsches are hard to find.”
These rare beasts do exist though and the company recently sold an ostensibly flawless 2003 996 Cabrio priced at £23,000, a 47,000 mile Tiptronic car with a full set of options – a typical Cridfords older 911. The occasional other premium marque does appear, too, for example sitting among the 911s and 987s was a convertible M3 auto, a 2008 V8 model taken in part exchange. For the diehard Porsche fan there would be no contest, but offered at £8000 less than the older 996 Cabrio, a punter whose object was simply a classy open car would be tempted.
“For many people buying a Porsche is a lifetime achievement,” says Jonathan Leach, “so the experience has to be above all pleasurable, never stressful. We like to feel we are giving advice, guiding the customer to a decision he or she has probably already made rather than hard selling. I believe we succeed too given the number of repeat customers. They also appreciate access to the workshop.”
He is understandably proud of Cridfords’ workshop in which he has always invested heavily. Beside the four hoists and shining tool racks is a new addition, Porsche’s latest PIWIS diagnostic set. “Considering what you get is basically dedicated laptops it’s a very expensive piece of software indeed, but if you are going to work on the latest cars it’s essential. You can get so far with older diagnostic tools, but that leaves you with up to 30% of post-2016 cars’ electronics that you can’t reach.” Cridfords says it is one of only three Porsche independents current using this tool.
The market, he says, has been strong in 2018: “The Porsche I would really like to sell more of is the Macan and now values are coming down we buy as many as we can. I am absolutely sold on that car. I’m a traditionalist and I was very unhappy when Porsche went the SUV route, until I actually drove a Cayenne and found it went and above all steered like a Porsche. The Macan does the same thing in a smaller, lither car. On the subject of turbocharging, I wanted to hate the 991.2, but I can’t: Porsche has done it again – yet another Porsche where you can really wring it out to get the best from it.”
After more than thirty years Jonathan’s enthusiasm is undiminished. His favourite model he says is the white 3.2 Targa which has pride of place in his showroom: “I love the eighties cars – crude, hard work, but marvellous. I bought the Targa to sell it, but in the end I didn’t really want to part with it, hence the (£99,995) price sticker.” At the back of the workshop is a 1975 2.7 coupé sitting on cookie cutter wheels. “I bought this for a modest sum: it fired up with a little fettling though it hadn’t run for ten years, but we’ve taken it to bits and restored it properly and we’ll repaint it Viper Green. It will look fantastic though the effort involved doesn’t justify the cost, but that isn’t the point. I love what I’m doing. We have a good team, we run a disciplined business yet at the same time we can have fun.
“If you like sports cars, you are very spoilt with a Porsche. Even now after 30 years, when I get into one it’s always a sense of occasion.”
There speaks a man who is very happy in his work. PW
“” For many people buying a Porsche is a lifetime achievement