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| Charles Pratt with the only computer he can use. |
ONE of Pietermaritzburg’s most influential car salesmen retired
this month after 50 years in the business — and he says he has yet to sell a
car.
Charles Pratt told Wheels
he does not sell cars, he just helps people choose the right wheels.
He said this retirement — his third — looks to be permanent. “I
have four children and nine grandchildren and all my family are still in town.
It is something I am really, really chuffed about and I look forward to enjoying
them,” Pratt said.
A top footballer who played semi-pro for the MFC, Pratt worked his
way up from salesman at Collins Motors to later become a manager first at
Forsdicks BMW, followed by McCarthy before he established Peugeot in KZN. But he
was best known among the racing fraternity as the Clerk of the Course at the Roy
Hesketh race track, where he spent 20 years of his life and helped organise the
first international Springbok Series of three-hour races. These races were major
events right up to the first fuel crisis in the 1970s.
Dealers from the 1980s will however remember Pratt for organising a
relay run from Johannesburg to Pietermaritzburg to raise funds for charity.
Fourteen dealers piled into a combi and each ran about two kilometres. “I
thought we could show we also have heart,” he said.
He recalled the easiest cars to sell were Datsun 1400 bakkies and
Peugeot 404s and, these days, Subarus. “We don’t sell Subarus, people come to
buy them,” Pratt said, adding eight in 10 people are repeat buyers.
As for his third retirement, Pratt said it may
be the end of the tarmac, but the road goes on! — Wheels Reporters.
