EUROCAR general manager Richard Davidge once paid out for a new Renault car to be flown from Paris to New York to ensure his customer received the vehicle as soon as possible.

That decision was an example of Mr. Davidge's business philosophy: Go the extra mile to keep your customers happy and your business has a good chance of being successful.

"The car had already been delayed and I felt that to be two months late was unacceptable," Mr. Davidge said. "So I had it flown to New York to save two weeks of shipping time. It wasn't cheap.

"We always try to show our customers we appreciate them and they tend to be very loyal to us. Word of mouth is a big factor in our small community.

"It's a package deal when a customer buys a car. As well as the vehicle, they're getting the after-sales service and parts supply. We see it as a lifetime of commitment between us and the customer.

"Another thing we did for the customers was to bring in a Renault Formula One car. We showed it over a weekend at BAA and on the first day, people had to have a Renault key for admission. That day we got between 80 and 85 per cent of our customers and their children. It was a great day."

Mr. Davidge has been the running the Renault dealers, with a showroom in Woodlands Road and a workshop and storage area in Market Lane, for the past nine years. Eurocar started out selling Spanish-made Seat cars.

"Seats were simply too expensive," Mr. Davidge said. "In 1998, we went to Paris, knocked on Renault's door and asked if we could be their Bermuda representatives.

"Tim Astley (Eurocar's after-sales manager) has been working on Renaults for 20-odd years and he was convinced they would be good in Bermuda's atmosphere and conditions."

And so Eurocar started selling Renaults in June 1999. Mr. Davidge said Renault's rules for its dealers around the world were very stringent.

Eurocar has to show the manufacturer it has an adequate inventory of parts to supply its market. It must also have technicians adequately trained to service modern, computer-based cars.

Mr. Davidge said his top technician, Simon Earnshaw, had won industry accolades and all mechanics were sent overseas at least once a year to undergo training with Renault, while trainers from the French company had also visited Bermuda.

"You have to have technicians rather than mechanics these days," Mr. Davidge said.

"It's no good having Joe Blow who can change the oil, working on modern, sophisticated cars. Without having the right diagnostic equipment, it's not possible to service them properly.

"If the customer takes a sophisticated car to a non-sophisticated mechanic, who used to service his old car, to save $50, it's a false economy.

"The manufacturer can't be responsible for the car if someone else is looking after it. Sometimes people bring in a car that we haven't seen for three years and it is clear it's not been serviced properly."

Mr. Davidge has long had a passion for cars, since well before he started Eurocar.

"I used to have a Ford Escort," he said.

"I did up the bodywork and I even rebuilt the engine. Nowadays, I wouldn't know where to start. You need IT-qualified people to do it now."

BEFORE Eurocar, he ran Triangle Press, a company he is still involved with.

Mr. Davidge has no time to get bored.

"I rarely have a lunch hour," he said. "I'm either talking with customers, liaising between sales and service departments, getting TCD paperwork done, or collecting cars off the dock."

Sometimes Mr. Davidge himself removes the wax coating that protects the bodywork of new vehicles while they are being shipped. Using de-waxer and hot water, the job takes about 60 to 90 minutes, something he occasionally does at the end of a working day.

Adding to the workload, every month Eurocar has to produce reports for Renault, giving projected sales figures of cars for two years ahead, sometimes cars that have not even been built yet.

Details they have to give include choice of colour, gearbox and extras.

"Starting from scratch to when the first car comes off the production line takes about two years at Renault," Mr. Davidge said.

"It used to take seven years, but now the operation is very high-tech.

"So they need to know well in advance what the demand is going to be like.

"When we estimate, we look at history, what kind of thing Bermudians have bought in the past.

"It's not too difficult, because we know 95 per cent of our customers like an automatic gearbox, for example. And Bermudians like having all the extras."

EUROCAR is a genuine family business. Mr. Davidge's wife Stephanie gave up her job as a teacher to work at the business, while sons Ryan and Stephen, who are both students at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada, often help out by doing jobs like de-waxing vehicles that have just arrived. Even his 16-year-old daughter Katherine, a Saltus Grammar School student, sometimes helps out.

Eurocar employs 15 full-time staff, as well as taking two Bermuda College students on a day release basis.

"It's an advantage for a company to have local talent and there is a need for Bermudians in this industry," Mr. Davidge said.

"We don't have the resources to train people in Bermuda, nor do we have the large pool of young people available to go into the industry. But the City & Guilds courses have been proved to work for years.

"Once you have passed Level Three, you have the ability to manage the mechanic requirements.

"The experience of working here is great for the students, as they are around well-trained people like Tim and Simon, who have 50 years of experience in the industry between them. They have a lot of knowledge to impart."

One of the biggest challenges for Mr. Davidge in recent years has been the weakening of the dollar against the euro. The result has been a hefty increase in the cost price of cars, an increase that he has had to pass on to customers.

COUPLED with the enormous duties that Bermuda car dealers have to pay, it puts a strong upward pressure on showroom prices.

"People say cars are expensive in Bermuda. But the euro has gone up from about 85 cents to, at one point, $1.36," Mr. Davidge said.

"You can imagine what that means as a percentage.

"Also when you bring a vehicle in, you have to pay 75 per cent duty on the first $12,000 cost price and 150 per cent on every dollar over $12,000.

"If you include freight and insurance, it costs a dealer a minimum of $25,000 to just get the car to the showroom."

And there is another challenge.

"Bermuda is the only country in the world to have size restrictions for cars," Mr. Davidge said.

"Last year, I was only able to sell two kinds of car because other models were too big. Now the law has changed and allows for bigger cars, I can sell seven. That is a great help."

As a result, new models to arrive at Eurocar this year will include the new Megane (the number four seller in the UK), the new Scenic four-door multi-purpose vehicle and the Megane Cabriolet, the world's first glass-roofed convertible.