We’re a nation of unloyal car buyers. No longer do we stick to a favourite car brand – today, most of us swap onto a new PCP every three years and simply go for a car that suits us best at that moment, no matter which manufacturer it’s from.
But Mrs Karin Wilson from York is different. She’s been driving Volkswagens for half a century – clocking up 16 different motors during that time.
It all started with a cream-coloured Volkswagen Beetle bought from North Riding Motors in 1967.
“I loved the Beetle right from the beginning,” said Mrs Wilson. “It was brand new and it cost £585, I remember other Beetle owners would wave at you as they drove past. We drove it to Austria and Germany on holiday. It was slow up the mountain passes, but we knew it would get us there and back.”
Other stand-out Volkswagens for Mrs Wilson include a Danbury Caravette Campervan. “It was a 1968 model and we bought it in the 1970s. We took it on quite a few holidays, my daughters really enjoyed it, too.”
But there’s one model Mrs Wilson always returns to: the humble Polo. She’s owned 10 of them, along with three Golfs and another Beetle. Her current car is a four-year-old Polo R-Line with a 1.2-litre TSI engine.
Mrs Wilson’s local dealer is JCT600 Volkswagen in York, where she was recently invited for coffee and cake to celebrate half a century with the brand. She also received gifts and a letter of thanks from the director of Volkswagen Passenger Cars in the UK, Alison Jones.
“We’ve obviously known Mrs Wilson for a long time and we wanted to celebrate her landmark,” said JCT600 Volkswagen York’s head of business. “We look forward to seeing her again in the future and I think this is a tremendous example of customer satisfaction. It really illustrates the value for money that we offer to our customers.”