Service Manager
Padraig, also called Patrick by those who can’t pronounce his Irish name, has been with Eurocars since February 1991. He has been service manager of Mazdas for “something like 10-11 years.”
Though Padraig was born in and raised in Ireland, which he describes as “the second best country in the world,” he has lived in Australia since December 1990. “I’d be crazy if I lived in the second best country. I live in the best.”
He really enjoys working for Eurocars, Sydney Mazda dealer, especially the fact that it’s a family company rather than a conglomerate, where employees are treated as numbers:
“Business is people. If you’re just a number, you’ll never excel.”
He describes both John Garner, Eurocars owner and Tim Garner, Dealer Principle, as “great guys.” He actually helped train Tim when he was just getting to know the family business.
Padraig has some opinions on why Mazdas have increased so much in popularity of late:
“They’ve always been good cars. More recently, they’ve become really good looking cars. Now they’re both - good looking and good quality.”
The service division is incredibly busy, with 50-60 cars a day and 28 employees handling service, detailing and pre-delivery. They operate from 7am-5:30 (one of very few dealers to open this early), and Saturday mornings.
One of Padraig’s main aims in customer service is to ensure that all customers are well informed; his customers know what is being done for their car and why, and he wants to know if customers feel something hasn’t been done properly.
He has noticed that many customers who have tried other service centres come back to Eurocars - often with problems that need to be fixed. “If there’s some reason you want to go somewhere else, let us know and we’ll try to fix it. We just don’t want you to go to someone who won’t do it properly.”
After all, a Mazda is a big investment - it needs to be looked after.
