Project Management Lesson #2 - Sometimes Plans Have To Change... Deal with it!

This isn't the post I imagined I'd be writing today. It’s been an ‘interesting’ few days… I collected the MX-5 from Rocketeer Cars on Friday night en-route to Harwich and everything was going really well until just south Koblenz when the brand new engine died…

That does make it sound more dramatic that the actuality. I was settled in for a longish drive down to Strasbourg, audiobook on and enjoying the thrum of the lovely V6 in front of me cruising at around 130kph only stopping for fuel, food and comfort breaks when I heard a tapping noise from the engine My first instinct was to stick my foot on the clutch, drop into neutral keeping my foot on the clutch and get the car on the hard shoulder (fortunately I was in the inside lane so didn't need any death defying manoeuvres).

I sat there for a minute, thinking 'I'm stuck in a very sick car on the side of a German autobahn and I don't speak German; this could get tricky...

The short version is that with the help of the Autobahnpolizei we were able to push the MX into the rest area and they called the ADAC (the German AA) who were able to recover the MX.

Then the real magic started. They say that what separates businesses who merely 'sell' products from those who want build long term relationships is how they deal with problems and boy did Bruce Southey at Rocketeer Cars deliver on his customer service promise.

I contacted Bruce via SMS once I knew that the car could be recovered (I had one bar of cellphone signal in the rest area) and he contacted Jan Spies at SPS Motorsport in Altendiez who are Rocketeers German partners and Jan and his partner Luisa turned out at 9:30pm on a Sunday night to meet a stranger (me) in trouble. Jan was able to take me to a local hotel overnight and provide me with a loan car to continue my journey. I cannot thank Bruce, Jan and Luisa enough. They rescued what could have been a nightmare and turned it into a success.

More to follow...

Alan

#rocketeercars #spsmotorsport #rescue #exceptionservice