Alvis memories

Sir,

I was delightend to see in your June issue that Mr. Voghterr (you got his name wrong) is still capable of writing a pungent letter concerning his last Alvis car, which, if my memory serves me right, he collected from the Alvis works in April, 1954. I have no knowledge concerning the incident of the petrol but I would like to correct any false impression over subsequent events. Your readers will no doubt have realised that it would not be a Sales Manager who would turn out on a Sunday morning, it was in fact the long suffering Service Manager who had the task of facing the wrath of Mr. Voghterr and do his best to get the trouble put right. Incidentally I have never had the pleasure of visiting New Zealand and I may be misinformed, but I believe to obtain any service from a factory in New Zealand on a Sunday would be nothing short of a miracle.

I realise that the incident over the engine number must have aroused suspicion but restamping the number on the engine was the only way of correcting a production error which led to the wrong number having been used and in fact at one time, until this error was corrected, there were two engines bearing the same number. In fairness to Alvis I must say that this whole unfortunate incident arose out of an endeavour on their part to minimise the inconvenience to an overseas customer, the car allocated should have been ready when Mr. Voghterr arrived in this country but due to circumstances beyond the control of Alvis it was several weeks behind schedule and the completion of the car was rushed, which so often proves to be fatal and this was no exception.

In case I have given the impression that the life of a Service Manager is all complaints I do recall that there were compensations and I was the recipient of a very succulent New Zealand ham from this dissatisfied customer.

D. Michie – Kenilworth.