Join us as we take a peek behind the curtain and reveal the most intriguing stories of the talented individuals who make up the Driveline team and keep this company running.
Some say that every time he starts a new venture, financial markets get the collywobbles. All we know is he’s called Colly Wobs.
Meet Colin Bower, Driveline’s Bay of Plenty business manager. From grooming cars as a teen to running automotive dealerships and now serving SMEs, Colin Bower’s passion for all things auto has driven his career across the motoring landscape.
Colin Bower’s need for speed
Colin’s passion for all things automotive were ignited early, growing up immersed in petrolhead culture. With three [much] older brothers who were all obsessed with cars and racing, a young Colin was destined to catch the bug.
He fondly recalls his brother picking him up from school in a flashy 1952 Buick convertible.
“I remember my brother rocking up the driveway in his Buick convertible with electric hood and electric everything. My three brothers were into motor racing, speedway, observed trials, all that sort of thing, so it was natural that I ended up following them,” Colin shares.
This early exposure spurred a lifelong enthusiasm for all things auto. At 13, Colin began working after school at his brother’s car dealership in Christchurch, grooming vehicles and learning the ropes.
“I used to get on my pushbike after school and bike to my brother’s car dealership, which was in the centre of the city, and checked cars over – oil and water and grooming, all that sort of thing – and then I biked home.”
Colin Bower’s early work ethic
Colin got his driver’s license the week he turned 15 and then ended up working three jobs to finance his vehicles. He peeled potatoes in a fish and chip shop, waitered in a restaurant, and groomed cars for his brother at Manchester Fiat.
Motorbikes
Colin chronicles his long list of early motorbikes…
“I was such a petrolhead that when I was 15 I was the first kid at school with a vehicle on my Rabbit 125cc scooter. That didn’t last too long. I thrashed it to death in pretty quick order.”
Colin’s Mum wouldn’t let him have a motorbike, so his next steed was a Triumph Tigress 250cc scooter.
“It was just a little scooter but the thing did 70-odd miles per hour and I used to be able to wheel stand it! It only lasted six months,” laments Colin. “I went from there to an AJS 500, and then to a Matchless 650 and then I got my first car, a Microplas Mistral kit car with a Mk II Zephyr motor.”
Capturing attention
Colin got a lot of attention when he took the Mistral to the beach over the summer holidays.
“It was the first car I took to Kaiteriteri and it was a bit of a hit. That’s how I met my wife because she was waitressing in Motueka, just down the road from Kaiteriteri.”
Brisbane beckoned
Colin spent 18 months in Australia, kicking around and having fun. When money got tight he walked into UK Motors in Brisbane and asked if they had any jobs.
“The boss told me his groomer was overdue for holidays and asked if I could groom cars, and I said, ‘Can I what, I’m an expert!’ I got the job for two weeks while his groomer was away.
“It worked out so well they asked me to come on full time as their workshop controller. My job was to allocate the jobs to the techs and the electricians. It was a BMC and Rolls-Royce dealership, so that’s where I first learnt about how dealerships ran.”
Back for his 21st
Colin returned to New Zealand for his 21st birthday and walked straight into a job as a costing clerk for Blackwell Motors.
“I hassled my boss because I just wanted to get into the sales area and he eventually relented. So I moved from being a costing clerk to a sales cadet and from there I worked my way all the way up to assistant sales manager.”
Colin’s next move was to Wrightcars in Nelson, a Holden dealership, where he became sales manager.
Colin Bower’s need for speed – Part 2
Beyond automotive dealerships, Colin’s love for motorsports saw him compete in motocross, road racing and other adrenaline-pumping pursuits.
At that stage he was seriously into motorcycle racing. He started in motorcycle trials, then bought himself a Honda CR250 and got into motocross, which became all-encompassing.
Colin got hooked on motocross, and was so disappointed in the level of service he was getting from the Honda dealer in Nelson that he complained about it to one of the guys he raced with, who happened to be Honda’s South Island manager.
“And he said, if you think you can do a better job, why don’t you buy them out? And so instead of buying them out, I started up a new Honda dealership called Bower Honda. I did that for 10 years until finally the injuries caught up with me and I had to retire from motor cycle racing.”
During his time with Bower Honda, Colin ran a 12-man team supporting young riders. But eventually injuries caught up, compelling him to retire from racing.
“I snapped my knee ligaments doing a TV commercial of all things,” he laughs.
Though hanging up his helmet was difficult, Colin filled the gap with a bit of motor racing and competing in the Jet Ski Marathon series.
Back to cars
Colin found solace in channeling his drive into business. And cars still captured his imagination, just at a slower speed.
He sold Bower Honda to a fellow enthusiast and moved back into cars, working for Bowater Motors as sales manager of Bowater City. During his time there he became a qualified dealer principal, which was quite a significant thing in those days.
Collywobbles #1
One of the Bowater sons was running the Gulf Mazda & Audi dealership in Auckland and made Colin an offer he couldn’t refuse. So Colin sold his house, packed his bags and drove to Auckland’s North Shore to become the new dealer principal of Gulf Mazda & Audi.
He rocked up to the dealership to start his job on the Saturday he arrived in Auckland, mere days after the 1987 stock market crash hit.
“I remember it well. The doors were locked and there was a big meeting going on inside. I banged on the door and the receptionist came to the door and said, Yes? I said, I’m here reporting as the dealer principle, and she said, There’s nothing to report to, the dealerships gone into receivership.”
Fortunately the receivers took Colin on because they needed someone with a license to operate as dealer principal while they wound the company up and sold it.
Paper napkin, deal done!
Colin bumped into a guy who had been the service manager at Bowater Motors in Nelson and was now service manager at Kirk Motors, the Mitsubishi dealers.
He said to Colin, “You need to come and talk to my boss because they’re a fantastic company to work for and I think it’s something you’d really enjoy doing.”
Colin had coffee with the managing director who promptly wrote out a deal on a napkin for Colin to become branch manager at Kirks North Shore, which Colin signed, and he was there for the next 10 years.
Jeremy Corbett coins “Colly Wobs”
While at Kirks, Colin used to do a lot of promotional work on the radio. He became quite well known for his “Thought of the day” radio spot.
More FM’s breakfast co-host Jeremy Corbett, being the comedian he is, started calling Colin “Colly Wobs”, a moniker that not only stuck but proved prescient too!
Colin Bower’s rush of blood
Colin says, “Kirk Motors was fantastic, it was a great company to work for. And then one day I had a rush of blood to the head.”
“This guy rolled into the dealership and asked to see me. He had something outside he wanted to show me. I didn’t know who he was, but he seemed pretty confident. So he showed me this 4×4 I’d never seen before, called a Kia Sportage.
“And I said, What’s the deal, what are you thinking? And he said, we’re looking for somebody to set up as a Kia dealer and we think you might be the man to do it.”
They had a 4WD course set up and Colin drove the vehicle and was mightily impressed with it. So in a rush of blood, Colin took on the challenge and set up Colin Bower Cars – Kia and Daihatsu on the North Shore.
Collywobbles #2
A very short time after that the 1997 Asian financial crisis hit, and the automotive industry did not go unscathed. Daihatsu got taken over by Toyota and Kia got taken over by a new distributor in New Zealand, as a result of which Colin lost both franchises.
Kia – Part 2
Colin then joined Kia Motors to help them set up the new dealer network. During his three years there, one of the dealers he set up established the Bay of Plenty franchise and a second one in Te Puke.
Kia – Part 3
He offered Colin a job as sales manager for the Te Puke dealership, and Colin was ready for a change in lifestyle, so he accepted.
Kiwifruit collywobbles
Colin and his wife also had a small kiwifruit orchard that they thought would be a nice income-producing retirement hobby.
Unfortunately this was not long before the PSA virus ravaged the Bay of Plenty kiwifruit industry, and once again Colin was caught in the eye of the storm.
Financial market collywobbles #3
In 2007 Colin became a business manager for a finance company, one year before the Global Financial Crisis wiped out many of New Zealand’s finance companies. Once again, Colin was caught in the eye of the storm.
Colin Bower predicts financial disasters!
It seems that whenever Colin makes a major move, something happens in the economy. Some would say he’s a good predictor of financial disasters!
Ever the optimist
Colin has ridden every change with undiminished optimism and a delightful sense of humour. He says that every change has created an opportunity in its own right, and quotes one of his favourite thoughts of the day…
“There are no problems; only opportunities. And I came to be the living embodiment of it,” he says laughing.
Colin describes stepping into lots of interesting opportunities that were just put in front of him, and says he can’t complain about that because it comes down to gaining experience and meeting a lot of interesting people.
Driveline
Ten years ago, Driveline director Paul Tobin approached Colin for the second time with an offer, this time for Colin to become Driveline’s Bay of Plenty manager.
The first time was back when Paul Tobin was working for Kia and convinced Colin to set up Colin Bower Cars – Kia and Daihatsu. It’s a small world!
It’s all about the clients
Colin enjoys anything to do with vehicles and the sort of people you meet, particularly Driveline’s clients he says.
“A lot of them are SME guys that have battled away like I have, through the ups and downs, so I understand and relate to what they’re doing.”
Start-ups and SMEs
When asked about his typical clients, Colin says he deals with a lot of startups, people that have been working for larger firms and have decided to give it a crack themselves.
Many have lost their jobs or have decided to jump before something happens, and want a degree of control over their future.
The other big category is tradespeople, builders, farmers, electricians, engineering firms, the hard working people who get their hands dirty making things happen.
Repeat business – the lifeblood
Colin is just wrapping up a lease for a new Kia EV6 Long Range as this interview takes place. It’s replacing a Subaru, which Colin also financed several years ago.
The client has leased several Ford Rangers through Colin, and was originally referred to Colin by a management consultant who has also leased vehicles through Colin.
Another recent job is for somebody with a small horticultural business, and she’s just ordered her third Kia Sorento from Colin.
And that’s the way his business tends to work. Colin looks after people and they in turn become repeat customers and refer their friends and colleagues to him.
Being his own boss
Colin values the tight knit team and being “given latitude to be your own boss.” When asked what he particularly likes about working for Driveline, he is quick with the praise…
“You feel that people have got your back. It’s pretty hard to get Lance or Paul rattled.
“Lance has a real good handle on his marketing. The website is brilliant because clients can go to driveline.co.nz and get a monthly cost on nearly any vehicle available for sale in New Zealand.
“And they’re real prices that include 100% of the lease company fleet discount. We pass on the full fleet discount to our clients; the entitlement can be quite significant.
“There’s a number of things that we do differently to the big boys and it pays off in terms of repeat business.”
Unbiased
Colin compares Driveline’s lack of bias with regard to vehicle makes and models with his experience in franchised dealerships…
“Dealers work on awfully fine margins and they’re terribly biased because they’ve got no alternatives. They have a franchise to sell so they’ve got to somehow convince the punter that their car is the best possible vehicle they can buy, whether it is or not.”
Colin says that Driveline, on the other hand, is in the unique position of pretty much having access to any make and model on the market. If you’re looking for some feedback on a particular brand or model and you ask a specific question, you’ll get a specific and unbiased answer from Colin.
Final thoughts
Whether expanding into new territories or steering through downturns, Colin’s adaptability and cool-headed problem solving kept him rolling. He shifted gears when needed while staying true to his passion.
Today Colin puts his extensive auto expertise to work at Driveline, helping SMEs source and finance vehicles.
Understanding clients’ needs is Colin’s superpower. He stresses responsiveness and spending time to guide first-timers. “You’ve got to have the patience to talk them through the pros and cons,” he says.
Colin also leverages his industry connections to find Kiwi businesses the best deals, and credits Driveline’s transparent, client-centric approach for his success.
These days Colin indulges his passion watching F1 with his enthusiastic granddaughter. And with decades in the motor trade, he won’t be shifting gears anytime soon. Colin is happy cruising in the driver’s seat, doing what he loves.