Faye Hatton: I used to play 'guess the car' walking to school. Ford Sierra, Mercedes SL, S5E8

We're joined by Faye Hatton, an Automotive PR specialist who just so happened to answer a social media post by Jonny Smith with a memory of her parents cars.
Naturally, we hijacked that post and got in touch, and shortly afterward had this chat.

Faye’s earliest memories are of the cars she used to walk past on her way to and from school. Not a long walk, 300 yards, as she lives next door! But she would test herself on recognising headlamps and badges from a distance.

The first car she recalls her parents driving was a silver Sierra hatchback. They never had ‘posh’ cars when she was growing up, and unusually due her Dads working schedule, most journeys were made with her Mum at the wheel.

Look her up on Instagram here: Faye Hatton (@faye_hatton_pr) • Instagram photos and videos
And find her website here: Automotive and motorsport PR by Faye Hatton. A one-woman press office.

Transcript

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>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Enjoy.

>> Andy: 0:12

Welcome to My Dad's Car. A podcast discussing our personal relationship with automotive nostalgia. And you know what? It doesn't even have to be about your dad's car. It can be your mom's, your grand, your parents, guardians or even a neighbours if it made an impression. Let's talk about it. Hi, Faye.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Yeah, and you. Thank you for joining us. We're just waiting for John, who I do the podcast with, who will be with us very shortly and then, get underway.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Oh, really?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Do you listen to podcasts?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy In a second we'll do an intro and get your earliest car memory and we'll see where he leads us.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Afternoon. How'd you do?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Yeah, not too Beth, thanks.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Andy. Yeah, we're good, yeah. Sorry it was s. A bit late. One of my headphones, the earbuds fell off one of the ears. I didn't want to be in discomfort for the entire recording.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy John? Relatively, yeah. I'm never really that comfortable, to be honest. No. Okay. welcome along. Fay And I think I came across what you get up to, I think as a comment on Johnny Smith's host recently. it was a sort of a deeper meaningful, wasn't it? I think he put up at about kind of cars you remember from your childhood, which is obviously massively in my ballpark, or our ballpark even. And we won't give the game away yet, but I reached out to you and said this sounds like, it could be up your street. Unfortunately you said yes, it would be. So do you want to introduce yourself quickly? You can give yourself a plug if you like as to what you get up to.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy am a freelance PR manager. I've worked in automotive for 20 years, so you could say that that's kind of my niche. so yeah, I help brands and businesses tell their stories and get their messages across. I love it. I've only worked for myself for four and a half years. I've been in house at ah, JLR and Aston Martin. But I really love working for myself and working for medium sized kind of British businesses because people think that what they do day in, day out isn't that interesting. But it really, really is. And there's so many wonderful automotive businesses in this country that are experts. They do and lead the way for the rest of the world. So, yeah, I get to work with really wonderful people every week. Nice. Fantastic. that's sort of what I do as a day job. We won't kind of go too far down that.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy But I work in marketing for a car part supplier. Classic car part supply.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy So, yeah, I'll pick your professional brains at some point.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Everyone's got a story, right? I cut grass, for the record.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy me want to ask you a million questions. You've got a bit of a gardener' jumper on there, actually.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy colour as my children's school uniform. So when I wear it, they think that I'm trying to get into the school and I couldn't think of anything worse, to be honest. So, no, drop them off and leave them to it and literally run away. I run away, drop them off, run away. Okay. Yeah. What's your earliest car memory?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy memory of being in a car, it's a memory of walking home from school. And it's not just one memory, to be honest. Probably days and weeks and months of my childhood where we live next door to the school that I went to. So it was probably a 300 metre walk. And I can picture it now where I would walk home and I must have been 4, 5, 6. And I would look at a few cards. They were all parked up, you know, outside schools. It's terrible. People all park up. not on the yellow lines, I hear.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy bus stops. It was like a little lay bite. So they were all parked and all lined up and every day I would look a few cars down and look at the shape and try and remember and identify the brand. And as I would get closer, I would think, yes, I knew that was a Ford, yes, I knew that was a Vauxhall. And I don't think I even realised I was doing it or perhaps that it was an unusual thing to do until much later in life. But I've always had this thing about car design and how the shape and the stance and these kind of signature lines that these brands use to identify their cars, and how that makes certain m people feel and how it evokes brand loyalty and how when you choose a car, so much of it is, is whether you like how the way it looks. Right, yeah. and so that's my earliest car memory of probably identifying brands and logos on the back of cars in the five minute walk that I used to do from school every day. So was there, was there a reason you were kind of alerted to cars? Either of your parents kind of into cars or.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy always run his own business and my mum was a stay at home mum. she worked in a school for a bit but there's no, my great uncle who my dad grew up with was a mechanic. Ok.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy brother started carting when he was a/y and it's one of the stories really that makes up my life. But I got into motorsport PR because of that. Oay.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy to some of your podcasts and you know, a work in the field and so many people say that their childhood memories are of either their dad being heavily involved in cars or you know, the corporate jobs where they always specced up the latest Audi and you know, your dad had a corporate job or your mum. Although I grew up in the 80s and 90s so less so. But yeah, it was neither of those things for me. I think cars found me. I'm so grateful. I love them. It's good to hear.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy was more of like a statement from my dad's part rather than being a true petrol head. So what's the earliest vehicle you remember your parents having?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy You mentioned you've got siblings. Is your brother older or younger than you?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Okay.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy middle, always, always in the middle seat in the back. I hope people can relate to me. On the lap belt.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy oldest and always being in the middle because the other two would kick up such a fuss. I was like, oh, okay, I'll go in the middle. knees squished up around your waist.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Supposedly. You had a bit more knee room there, didn't you?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy wear. You basically putting a leg either side of, you know, the bit in the middle. The tunnel. Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy and then they could lean their heads against the windows and fall asleep. And that was never an Option for me. You've got nowhere for your arms, have you? No, no need to do the old cinema trick. The old. Not that I have. For the benefit of the tape.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy we'd like put barriers between us. No, your. That's the line. You're over my line. So, yeah, always three in the back. Although to be honest, and I think this is quite an important point, as a child we spent a lot more time in the car with my mum than we did my dad. You know, she would cart us around two all of our trips. So one of us would get to sit in the front. Ah, actually here you go. It's probably a perk of being the oldest. When I was old enough, I got to sit in the front more than the other two. Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy with dad. If we went on any road trips and dad drove, that would be unusual. Interesting. so, yeah, my earliest car memories of just things like being in the car with mum, going swimming to swimming club or picking my brother up one of his friends. And we had some good conversations. It was always quite. It was always quite car being one of three. You know, the house was busy with the dog and actually being in the car with mum was probably quite calm and peaceful, relatively. It was nice. She was a good driver. Much better driver than my dad. What colour was the Sierra? Do you know? Remember?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy mechanical problems. So, being a goldsmith, everyone assumes that you have a lot of money, but, we didn't. It was very up and down. My parents went bankrupt I think in the early 90s. Okay.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy we'd go to some friends houses who you know, were, were wealthy and we'd leave and there'd been oil spill on the drive when it was just constant. Always slightly under delivering compared to my parents friends. Always slightly embarrassing but. But fun. my dad loved driving but, you know, he's not a very good driver. He never really concentrated. There are a few near misses. Oh, know.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Aate or. No, hatchback. Hatchback, yeah. So when your mum was driving you around, Fay, presumably your dad was a passenger. Was. Would he take up like the navigator role?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy O. Okay.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Right.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy don't you? And he, he was in retail. He grew his business from nothing. so he worked six days a week. All through my childhood, I used to put on the football on a Saturday afternoon and know that when the final scores were coming in, that's when dad would nearly be home. So he drove when we went as a family. Ye.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy family. Did you have music on in the car radio or.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy What were you listening to?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy from the Christians. he loves Lisa Stansfield and me and my sister were talking about this podcast the other week. I said I was coming on and we were absolutely cracking up because, you know the song, I'm not going to sing. Nobody hears that. But I been around the world and I can't find my baby. So, unbeknownst to us, we both in the same car at the same time. We're listening to the lyrics of that song. It only transpires now because we spoke about it. Well, you were thinking, but how can you lose a baby? How is she going to find her? Because that song was. It was played so much, it was one of my dad's favourites. And there's another song that really stands out in my mind and I'm not sure the car we had at this point, it might have been the Carlton. But, we went skiing one year and we drove and I'm not joking, I think my dad put the Backstreet Boys album on loop the whole way. Was that for his enjoyment or for.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Oh, wow. He wanted it that way.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Right. And, U. Yeah, too much. One album on Repeat for like 36 hours. It's just too intense. Just trying to show that he was in tune with, With Modern Withids.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy six. You know, the six disc. O. Nice.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy it was not, with my children. I don't know about you guys, but, we take it in turn. So I'll put Spotify on, Appleay and we'll take it in turns to be the DJ and we'll have a request. But it was not like that when I was a kid. You just had to listen to what was on. Absolutely, yeah. Ah, how it should be. You will suffer. Listen to this.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Did you guys ever listen to the radio? Because I think my dad used to listen to, ah, Talk Sport or the equivalent or Radio 5 live, which was just White noise to me. Yeah, we've discussed this before. We previous guest Sandy sort of cricket in the car was quite a common one among a lot of parents but where we used to live I think we used to try and pick up like ha Capital FM for the football the Saturday O and it would have like a really strong hiss like but you could just about make out the commentary so it just kind of did the job. Yeah, my parents never really listened to sport on the radio and we weren't kind of a big footbally family or cricket or something so yeah, I didn't really have to endure that too much. What were you doing? What were we doing? I played a little bit of football as a kid but yeah, we didn't kind of have a team or anything. We didn't all sit down to watch ma. We'd watch like England games but yeah, yeah that was kind of it. I would watched a bit of rugby actually. My stepdad was a, was a PE teacher so he was kind of into that sort of thing. So Yeteah not car related. Remember watching kind of Six nations on a small black and white tey upstairs on my parents bed years and years and years ago.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Not good for the snower. Black and white.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy sport on the radio if he was teaching kids all week and yeah, probably had enough of it. Yeah, I guess not. But yeah, I find that kind of quite boring really just listening to sport. I like watching it but yeah, yeah especially with the hisses that you get on the old long wave or you.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy you didn't have dab. You kind of found your favourites, didn't you? Favourite cd, favourite radio station. That was it. Off you went. This is what you've got. My memory of Saturday afternoon would be in the house radio on with the commentary and then CFAX would be on just with the scores. Yeah. Ah like three pages just waiting for something to happen.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Crazy isn't it? If you told someone that's what we used to do. I do remember journeys where you'd go through kind of like a valley or something. You'd have to change the radio, you know like when you around that corner you's like oh yeah, we'gotta adjust that because otherwise you're just gonna have a hiss.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Or you have a long tunnel and you just have white knives for a minute. You like?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy a tunnel. Did you hold your breaths in the car? You. When you went through a tunnel when. You were kids, got a friend that used to do that and I always wondered why you did it.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Is there a reason behind that?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy for fun. Okay. Dangerous. Gu. Presumably you don't do it in the.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Dartford Tunnel. That's also a bit too far, I. Would say, if you can get through that one. Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy know, just in case you get a bit. Bit lightheaded. But y. no fun. We used to go, Yeah. On a journey and u used to go down a really big dip and then you'kind of come up the other side and my mum used to get us to flap as if we were going to take off. I think she kind of used to do that route as a kid and that's kind of what they used to do in their family car. And then. Yeah, we don't do it very often with the kids. But yeah, if we do go that. Way, there's a section when we go to visit my mum and it does that bit sort of up and down. and if there's no one in front of you, you can get decent sort of pace up.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy And the girls in the back, they always do sort of make like roller coaster noises. We're going up and down.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy if you go over a certain bump. Oh, yeah, I hate that. Yeah, that's exactly what it does. Yeah. And the ear as well.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Sort of play havoc with your ears going up and down sometimes. What it does with me.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy time. We don't think of it as. And I think. I think I've got actually some really creative ideas in my head I think some big brands should implement. Because, you know, as a family, the time that you spend in the car, you don't really care what it looks like from the outside. You. You shut the world in, don't you? And it seems like dead time, but even just talking to you now, it's not. It forms that, core memories of. Actually probably no drama, no. No stress, but that peaceful time where maybe you might bicker over your legs too far over mine or you've run out of sweets or someone feels a bit sick. But that to me is the basis of family life. And as a parent now, you know, the car trips where we chat or one of the kids, I can tell by the way that they sit, if they've got something on their mind. And there's research, isn't there, that's shown that it's an incredibly, positive place to have important conversations as a family because you're not looking at each other face to face and you're also concentrating on driving, you're concentrating on where you're going. So it's a really neutral, sedate, environment to have important conversation. I think there's something in that. And even the journeys where you don't have a big conversation, they do form part of your childhood and that's part of the magic of cars for me. I think you can. Yeah. There's lots of things I remember kind of sitting in the back of the car on motorways. Kind of the first time you see something that goes past kind of what I remember seeing XJSS going past on the motorway.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy And like, wow. Or we've talked about new registrations and things. You kind of spot the first registration on like that first day.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy And do you remember your friends having interesting cars kind of back at school, kind of parents having either interesting or massively dull. or teachers. If you were re next to the. School, presumably you had the sort of best vantage point of the school drop.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Being next door to the. And the embarrassing ones around the corner. That's me.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy dad had a Volvo Estate and I've got a soft spot for those now. Yeah, I think that's a solid choice. And I used to work with them, Ian Callum at Jaguar and he always spoke so fondly of They did those in the touring cars, didn't they? Ye. Because they're actually incredibly, aerodynamically efficient. So whenever I see a Volvoate, it makes me laugh and I think I want an Estate as my next car. I think I'm 40 now, I've got three kids. I think I'm a proper grown up and in my lifetime I want to own an estate. So I really like the new Peugeot 308 estate. But, I digress. One of the memories that I've got is my friends parents, they were both quite corporate. They had good jobs and they got a new Passat. Okay.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy like an aeroplane and it was new. So we never had new cars as kids ever as a family. We never brought a new car and this was new. And I just thought, whoa. All the lights, all the kind of I mean compared to what it is now, it was, it was, it was nothing. But the interior'the first time I think I'd appreciated an interior of a car and maybe technology on a car rather than exterior design. And another thing, this is definitely related. I love classic Mercedes sls and the reason I do is because I remember once my parents friends pulled up they think they'd rented one for a weekend. I couldn't tell you what year it was. Forgive me but it's probably a 70s or 80s one and it was red, bright red convertible with a cream interior. And they were off for a weekend and I've never seen anything so sexy and glamorous as that car in my whole life. I just couldn't believe that something that looked like that existed. And off they went for a romantic weekend. So I also need to own one of those one day. Sounds like the Beverly Hills Cop original where Axel FY1. I think he's on the bonnet of it in the poster for it. Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. Belong to the lady at the art gallery. Can't remember her name. Jenny. Jenny, that's the one. Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy brand that I saw the most. My grandparents always had Ford Focuses or Fiestass. I live in a town called St N's and there's a Ford garage there. It's been there forever so they're always quite popular choice. Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy to sensible Fords to a classic Mercedes SL. Nice. My nan had a run I guess of new cars or very nearly new and my biggest memory from those is how hard the back seats were and whether just because we had sort of weathered second hand cars and you got into them a bit like kind of.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Yeah, just sort of bump into it and yeah, they were just kind of really firm. And I think my earliest car memory I think is a golf tour my nan and grandad had. I don't know how old I was, you know, seven or eight maybe. But yeah, I remember that. Just them kind of coming around it just being very upright and stiff. And then they had ye Toyotas as well and those back seats were just really kind of was like why isn't there no giving these? Because no one's ever sat in them. we had leggy Montegos and they're all kind of a bit baggy. I remember I used to get a lift home from school vi a friend's parent and occasion when that friend couldn't do it, they sort of rope someone else in to do it. And they had a brand new, I think it's like one of the first MPV Toyotas. Okay. I like the Previa or something, wasn't it? Yeah, something like that.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy called it. Yeah, I think it was that sort of thing. And we just get like the sliding doors and you'd get in, like getting into a van with sort of seats. I remember sort of rolling around in it on the way home and you just sort of thought, this is like nothing else I've experienced before. It's bizarre.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy This one was navy blue as well.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy it was massive. We had that for a long time when we all became teenagers and, you know, my parents were traips in, mates around, parties. That's when we got the Previer and we had that for a long time. We all really enjoyed that car. It was great. Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy everything you could want, really. I think. And, yeah, if I see one now, it makes me smile. You don't see many though, anymore, do you? No.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy It's funny that at the time, obviously that was a bit of a sort of groundbreaking thing, wasn't it? But it's so obvious, like you need to ferry your kids and all the stuff around that goes with it. Just. Just have a van with seats in. Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy I guess it sort of leads from probably the old Volkswagen, I imagine, and then kind of like the Bedford comma van type thing. And then I think the ASAs was probably the first of the SUV T or MPV or whatever they called them. M. I think they came out in what, 88, something like that. Still a feel of those floating around, isn't there? See them occasionally. Original as spath on a driveway or something like that.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy SUVs, which are five seats. And then you get the kind of big, you know, the, VW camper vans. And that kind of bit in the middle's gone. Yeah. Ford Galaxies pop up. We had a Galaxy for a while. You've got a Picasson't, you, John? I'm involved with a Grand Picasso, yeah. Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy The wife Likes them.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy And to be honest, so what we need it for is really good. It's of ticks all the boxes in terms of, you know, the kids just trash it and yeah, it's pretty good on fuel. Well, it's very good on fuel actually.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy M. Do you feel constant conflict like I do? You know when people say what would your dream car be? I mean I could list probably five including a 911 decr classic SL. I love the Aston Martin 177. And you'll note that all of them, are not compatible with a family. So then I go, well. And then I have to. I like, well, do you want my answer based on what my heart desires or do you want a much more realistic answer? in terms of what a vehicle needs to provide me with the life? Because they are entirely different ends of the spectrum. Do you feel that what my heart desires and what my head would choose a very, very, very different thing? Yeah, yeah. I mean I did have an old ish BMW saloon, but because of the UA expansion it kind of forced our hand into moving that on and then we did actually have two cars at one point, an older Picasso and that BMW. But then we went to just the BMW and obviously that had to go. So my wife sort of favoured a Picasso. so I couldn't really justify getting another sort of classicy type car. And to be honest, I just haven't got the space to store a classic at the moment, much as I would like to. I don't think I would go too extreme in terms of price of an old Classie. I'd probably get something quite run on the mill when cheap. I spoke about old beetles before. I know they tend to be quite rusty, don't they Andy? But something like that appeals to me I think rather than like a super duper.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy and tax and whatnot. I had a Mark 1 TT. Okay, cool.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy to sell that last year because we moved county and I needed to raise a little bit of money so I sold that, which I don't think I regret, but I do miss. It M I think they're one to watch them at 1ct, aren't they?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy it. There's some very cheap ones out there. Rock bottom at the moment perhaps, aren't they? Probably a headache, but yeah, yeah, for a few grands you can get a nice one.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy I mean, you can't see that and not recognise what it is. Like the Beetle. Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Now, now, recently, perhaps, I feel like the TT has been bumped off. Don't know.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Yeah. Because I think They've got the A5. I guess it's like a bigger coupe, isn't it, compared to the tc.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy But I'COMPLETELY out of touch of modern cars.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy No.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy for some big brands, the teams, and I was very much part of this. You live in this world where you go from car launch to car launch and you think that everyone has no. That the grill on your latest model is slightly wiredider or, you know, the waistline of the car is higher than it was. Or the. We call it a do that. The daylight opening, which is the shape of the windows. But in reality, and I experienced this, I took eight years out to bring up my children. People don't notice and they don't really care. And I think the automotive industry would do better to kind of. Rather than expect people to come to their party, why don't you just get a bit more involved in the everyday lives of people? And yes, there's certain brands that don't need to do that because they are millionaires and they buy the cars that they want and they do care about this, like Chang in the grille design. But for the vast majority of us, and any brand trying to, I think, appeal to women, it's about how it fulfils your needs in life. And for some women that's transporting children. For some women that's going from business meeting to business meeting, you find a card that's fit for purpose for you rather than, perhaps reading the car titles and choosing the newest one. I think that's why the Picasso appealed to my wife, because it's spacious inside, but it's not. It doesn't feel big when you're driving it. Whereas we had a Volvo XC90 a few years ago and that was big Y in and out. It felt like you were driving a huge vehicle. And also it was the most thirsty car I've ever experienced in my lifetime, really.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy yeah, yeah, yeah, she would, yeah. Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy that so many people these days are buying Online without any interaction with a dealer. Yeah, it's amazing, isn't it?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy I guess Covid's sort of driven that harder. Isn't it? Like the whole buy online, get, get delivered. Yeah, it's just an extension of Amazon shopping, isn't it? It's kind of gone from batteries through to buying a car. It's Jeff selling cars yet. I don't think he's got those yet as he. He won't be far off. What he be on there tomorrow. Now I've mentioned it. Little subcategory hastchbacks. how did your brother get into carting? Was he into cars as well?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy he just decided to do it for an afternoon and was really good. Okay.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy children go kartting just in case they show some promise. And then. Yeah, I mean he was really good and he really loved it. I took my daughter, earlier in the year they did. There was an incentive to get girls into motorsport that team sport were doing.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy And I met Karen Shundu actually from F1. He was there. They filmed some stuff a sky.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy And she had a go and she'd never done it before and they gave her kind of most improved driver of the day. But I've not got the bank balance to get her into it. Unfortunately. She's not ultra competitive.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy So she's happy to kind of have a go at stuff for fun. But yeah, I've got a friend who both his kids are it and I was chatting to some other people and it could bankrupt you very easily, even at go kartting level.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy I'STICK to the soft play.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy The park. Ye true.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy a place on a, ah, Formula BMW. Okay.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy that's how I ended up doing pr. Actually. There was a press officer there, a lady called Anne Bradshaw, who is an icon in motorsport. PR's in her 70s and she's still travelling to all the races. Oh, wow.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy PR manager for that series. And I remember watching her, I didn't really know what PR was and I remember watching her in the paddock and everybody knew her. She was connecting the dot. She was connecting People talking to everyone. She had such an energy about her. And I thought, whatever that lady's doing is what I want to do with my career. That's what I want to do. And she was incredibly kind and generous and gave me an afternoon of her time a few weeks later because I said, what do you do and how do I do it? How you do it?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy of hers was looking for an assistant. it was when the, European Touring Car Championship got world status, so it became the World Touring Car Championship. Okay.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy through Ann, and I got to go to all of the races at the age of 21. Awesome. Nice.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy travelling with the World Touring Car Championship. So I just have so much to be thankful for. I did better out of it than he did, to be honest. but I, was exposed to the world of motorsport and the smell in the paddock and the noise and the camaraderie. It really sent me on my journey. my love of cars, but also my love of my career. So I was incredibly fortunate to be exposed to that. Yeah. Did you study pr? Were you doing something completely different?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy studying philosophy. I don't know why, guys, I don't know why. So I did a year. I was so miserable. I feel quite passionately, I think young people maybe less though, these days. But I felt the pressure to go to university and it was too soon. It wasn't right for me. So I left. And then I had the job interview for the motorsport role. I thought, I'm not going to get it. They won't want. I went to Australia. I was going to stay there for a year, but I did get the job and I came back and at the same time I applied for PR degree. it all kind of just aligned at the same time. And I went to Birmingham City University to do a media degree, which gets a lot of flat, doesn't it? Like, it's like a Mickey Mouse degree. But it was wonderful because we had pr, we had TV specialists, radio specialists, and if you did pr, you had to study journalism as well. And that's so important because when you work in pr, your customer is effectively the journalist, the media. And I had an Astra when I was at university, a purple Astra. That was, that was fun. Did your parents teach you to drive or did you?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy called Sally locally, but My dad would take me out every now and then. The first time I drove was in an IKEA car park in a VW Polo with a family friend who was like my big sister. And, I went to stay with her. She was at university in Brist. And she gave me my first driving lesson and it was amazing. It was an empty car park on a Sunday in Ikea. and then, yeah, proper lessons. But I, I don't think I was the best student. I am really bossy and I do think I know everything all the time. And I found learning to drive so frustrated because I just wanted to be able to do it. Yeah, I know what you mean.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy difficult to learn, but it took ages. There's a lot to think about over and over again. It's not like you've got it into gear and off you go.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy think the lessons with my parents were enjoyable for them at all. I remember coming up a hill once and, dropping it down. I think I needed to drop it into third, but I went into first. And you can imagine, like, my dad was not happy. And this was in myes. Very, very, very lucky. And I got a car, for my 17th. It was a Rover Metro 1.1. Nice.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Yeah. Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy to pass my test. So I would do the school run with everyone and it took so long for the car to warm up. We were at school by the time, you know, it had defrosted, but that just wasn't the point. We, we were living our best lives. It was incred. How long did you have the Metro for?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy to hand cars down through my family because I think I went to university and my sister had it. I think it was in the family for probably six, seven years. Okay.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Glia. I don't name my cars anymore. What do you think about naming cars? Not for me, no. I don't have sensible names. I had a Polo for years. the registration was nly and it was a project and I called it Nearly, but I wouldn't go, oh, I'm going for a Dr. In Nearly. It was just like. Well, that's kind of sums up the whole vehicle. my kids have always done it just by colour.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Or if It's a newish car. Just call it the new car and it'd be the new car forever. But now it's just the grey car.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Yeah. Yeah. I'll tell you what we did have go on Baraka Bora. We had a VW Bora, which we call Barako Bora. I thought that was a great pun. Whatever.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy I don't know if I'd name my cars now. I don't know why. I don't know why I wouldn't. Yeah. I think there's a time and I play. I think if you don't take it too seriously, it's fine. I think if you probably start making bunting with its name on and hanging it from the rear view mirror or something, you've probably gone a little bit too far.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy You know, if it's old and a bit battered. M giving it a names. Okay. Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy a name. I don't know. I. Yeah, that's questionable, isn't it? Questionable. I'll remember that for when I. Yeah, you.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy name it. I remember one of my old 5 series, the num play was G807ttyY and it looked a bit like grotty, so my wife used to call it Grotty now and again.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Which is, a bit unkind, I thought.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy on a car's identity? Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy I had a, VW Jeta with Y R on it and I used to think that stood for young persons S rail carard.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy student bank account. That was a good little car actually. As of the days. Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy are critical to a car's credibility, I d say, would you not. Buy a car off its number plate? I guess you could put a personal plate on it. But if it said something and you.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy make a joke about it. A lot of the sort of naughty ones or the inappropriate ones are taken out of circulation, aren't they?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy I saw one recently and it had three K's on The end of the number plate. I thought that's surely not.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy it's family friendly, but one that I remember read never got made was B A 11 and then I think it was B A was one the list of ones that never got made, which I think such a shame, but I get it. That's a shame, isn't it? Yeah. Imagine if someonesuspecting old lady got that on their new Kia Picanto or something. They should all be allowed in circulation. Those ones in some sort of like dark web equivalent, like a dark road equivalent where they can just drive around and admire the.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy would you put that on? What's the best car that you would see that on? Hash car, I think a Ford ka. That would have been quite funny. I know they don't make them anymore, so that wouldn't have existed, but a tiny little thing, I think yellow pecanto or. Yeah. Like a really aggressive Audi or, an M2 or something. Yeah, that's more likely, isn't it? Sort of young lad just puts it, on because it'be funny or why.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy these cars. I'm not judging you. This is the thing, we all make our choices and it's an extension of who we are and it is a statement when one way or another. and I think that is brilliant and I want to stop everybody and ask them why they chose that car. And sometimes it's because, well, that's all I could afford and sometimes it's because I just love the colour and my parents had one that, you know, everybody's got a story about their car and it's magic. Do m you recall grandparents vehicles?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy and they probably drove less than a thousand miles a year. But, they did love a Ford, a Ford Fiesta. Fair enough.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy lives. and so new car day or going to look at a car, choosing a car. I don't know if they got new ones or sort of X demo or ever, but it was always the Ford and it was a big deal. Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy it was a. It was a big purchase, it was a financial purchase, but a really emotional, emotive one. Yeah. And one with pride. They didn't always have New cars or nice cars. So as they got older it or something they took pride in. I think some people, I guess they would get a new car or replace their vehicle on a three, year, four year cycle audit. And then they. I guess you've got other people who literally just run it into the ground and you've got to get a new one when the old one just stops working.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy So my parents were in the second category there and you have to make that decision of, do we spend x hundred of pound fixing it in the hope that it keeps going or do we replace it? It's a real gamble, isn't it? How much more can we put into this car? And if you've got a family or, you know, you commute to work and you've only got one car, you need it. So, yeah, it's a big deal. Yeah, I think I'm in the latter now.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy But I don't sort of abuse it. I try and, you know, keep it going for as long as possible by just doing the fundamentals, you know, servicing that sort of thing. But, yeah, it's definitely a case of if it gets to a really expensive fix, you do sort of think, what do we do? But then you also get to that point of, I've spent so much fixing it in the past, I just don. Want to. I don't want to stop now, I just want to keep going on it. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Do you think, there's any cars from your past that have influenced vehicles you've bought? o. You mentioned the. Obviously the sl. Yeah, that's kind of the sort of the dream car in the future.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy so I think I'm an Audi fan because I had an Audi tt. I don't know why. I think I just like the styling. I like how they drive. Is there an era of vehicle that you kind of. You're drawn to? Are you drawn to the cars which you grew up with, kind of as a kid?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Do you prefer sort of modern with sort of mod cons?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy about brands rather than era, so I love looking at how brands have evolved. So Aston Martin, for example, you know, the DB5 is just one of my favourite cars. I do really love classic cards. I think I'm a sucker for brand loyalty. I'm a marketeer'dream because I buy into the story. And I think, yes, the designers have come and gone through the years, but how that brand makes you feel probably is the same. no, there's not an era. Maybe. Maybe I'm a bit fickle. I don't know. It's the story, it's how it makes you feel. Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy that turn my head now are different to when I was younger and I'm sure in 20 years time will be different again. Personal taste and preference shifts with who you are at that time and what's going on in the world. So I could probably tell you something I like about every single car brand, but I couldn't say to you. No, my favourite era was the 70s. No, I'm here, there and everywhere. Yeah, yeah. They. If you watched that new programme, Rivals, that's doing the rounds at the moment. No, no, I think it's on Disney. That's worth the watch. Set in 1986, which is just excellent for sort of seeing old cars and stuff like that. Yeah. Have a look. It's got a really impressive car.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Sal on pre this year because they had a Ford Escort as a classic car. It was beautiful. It'd been all renovated and it was brown. But I can't believe that is now in the classic car. What year? ESC school.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy it was around 83 time. Okay. That's 40 plus, isn't it?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Yeah, it's older than me. Just.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy I was 40 a few weeks ago.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Oh, really?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Oh, there you go.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Same. Yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy the CAs you grew up with are now classic, bars. How has that happened? Yeah, that's like when I say the. What's the ugly Fiesta? that's, the Snoopy front one. M Mark Bo. Yeah, yeah.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy And a lot of those were in purple, weren't they? Yeah, People were trying to sort of tout that as a future classic. I just can't see it. But I guess it will be because it's old and it's a for so. And it looked horrible. So everyone scrapped them. Yeah. So it's got a rarity value too. Two left.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Thoughts on the Probe Probe. No, that's a huge flop, wasn't it?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy That was the Capri replacement, wasn't it, at the time?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy yeah. Dreadful. That's not a Capri, is't it? Dreadful.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy They've killed two legendary names, haven't they, with. Was it Mustang and they did Mack.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy car. You know, Johnnny Smith was saying that it's, as electric cars go, it'you could do a lot worse. I'll take his word for it. Do people still buy Fords? I guess they must do because we're. Saying about sort of grandparents. They're kind of very loyal to the Ford brand, aren't they? I've got neighbours across the road and you can tell that they've had, you know, like a Focus or a Fiesta before that and they just continue it all the time. But you sort of think when these people pass on, you know who's going to be buying small Fords? Driving instructors maybe? Not sure.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy They've stopped the Fiesta and the KA. Is gone, you're saying?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy uncertain future. and you know they have factories. When you make a car, it's at least a four year cycle. Everything's planned four years in advance. So to be making those strategic business decisions now with such an uncertain future in terms of is it going to be fully electric, what's the infrastructure going to look like? It varies from market to market around the world. I wouldn't want to be making those decisions. With thousands of jobs at stake, it's tough. Suppose in terms of smaller cars, it's a different world now in terms of like if parents looking to go and buy a brand new car for their child, it's hard to just go and spend. I don't even know what a small car would be now. What, 20, 25, something like that?>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy People still do that? I don't really know.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy on top. I've heard. I mean, my children are too young for me to have this problem yet. But it's the insurance that you have to factor in thousands and thousands of pounds. It's very prohibitive. Yeah, it's a really good question. You know, I guess there's the Golf. Golf will always be a classic Polo I think the Renault that they're new so they won't be cheap but Renaultts bringing out some really nice stuff. The new Renault 5M that's going to do really well I think. But the kids that are starting to learn to drive, it's an interesting time, isn't it? Because you've got some old bangers. It's probably more a cost effective to get a cheap one on like a three year lease or whatever. I don't know. Cross that bridge. When I come to it, my kids. Are going to be driving old cars.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Tax exempt. Tim o exempt. That'be it. That's what you're having.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy gearbox? Mine will, yeah. Min will. But not many do, do they? I don't think there isn't an automatic. I don't know what you mean. Yeah. If you take your test in an ev you must be able to. But if you'pass in an ev that should mean you can only drive an ev. That's like a Dodgem Ye. No offence to people who only drive automatics but that's kind of even easier than automatic, isn't it? You just put your put down.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy you think your listeners are also manual transmission fundans? no such thing is bad publicity. Yeah, well, we'll take anything. Day one automotive PR course.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy say that all the best drivers drive manual cars. I mean then you get the paddle shift thing, don't you? Is that truly manual? What do you think? That's what I've got in the Picasso.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Yeah. yeah, Racing Picasso. She doesn't use it. I use it all the time.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy or. Yeah, no, it's instant but as in.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Does it override? u no, it doesn't override.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy You can bounce it off the limiter.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Go in the red, you've got D mode and then you put it into M M Then it goes into manual.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy But I realised quite early on that even when you're in D mode you can just use the paddles. Anyway, I'm assuming that's just something sort of citron fault.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy I think they market them as. Yeah, but no, it does work t.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy you ever go down two to one guy? Well, it's a diesel so there's not really much point in terms of the engine note it gets quite noisy.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy I've missed my cooling. Shame. Fantast. Fantastic. Thank you very much, Faye.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Yes, it's been good fun and yeah, hopefully you enjoyed it too. Your first podcasting experience.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy It's great, great fun. Very kind of you. Nice to meet you, Fay.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy Here we go. Very good. Yeah, it was good fun, wasn't it? Yeah, really good. Yeah. I think obviously given what she does, be kind of interesting just to chat with her for hours and hours anyway. But probably not necessari about dad's cars. But M. Yeah, nice to have her on. And we kicked off with Sierras, didn't we? Which similar age to us as well. Common theme. Yeah. For 80s children, isn't it? Yeah. I wanted to delve deeper into what it's like living next to school and did her parents get riled up with the constant. The parking? Because I don't live in a school road so we always park sort of far enough away just so we're not sort of encroaching all that sort of stuff. Yeah, but it's incredible. I find like the amount of parents that do just drive into the road. So it's a through road where the school is and it's not really got any parking. It's kind of one of those ones where all the curbs have been dropped for drives and people kind of park over a drive. There's a skip there, maybe that sort of thing. But yeah, yeah, it just blows my mind not how people just can't park, you know, two minutes away rather than. Yeah, it's the, the urgency, isn't it, of. Of just needing to do everything instant. Yeah, yeah it is. Ah. And parking on the yellow zigzags and. Even not it's raining at the moment actually. But Yeah, when it's kind of throwing it down, it's probably a 15 minute walk to kids school. But it's got to be something kind of astronomic for us to kind of get the car out because actually at the other end you've still got a park five minutes away. If it's sideways rain, you're going to get Soaked. Anyway, yeah. That we'just dress them up. Wellies and umbrellas and. Yeah, off you go. Yeah. And hopefully, yeah, in the future that didn't just mean that. Yeah. They don't just grow up to be wimps who don't want to go outside. Slobs Y slobs. That's probably going to get to more people than the manual automatic gearbox debate. We're not calling anyone's child of slob. I listen to your podcast. I drive a Tesla automatic and I park on the yellow Zigag U. So, yeah, that was that. hilariously, actually, the car that she mentioned to Johnny Smith was a Vauxhall carton and I don't think we even spoke about it. I know, but It's a shame. Yeah. IH well, big old things. Yeah. It's funny, when she mentioned it, my ears sort of pricked up a bit and then obviously the conversation went away with itself somewhere else, so it kind of got forgotten. It's funy. Yeah, it's funny, isn't it? Yeah. Maybe we should get her on again. That carton small. My friend's dad had a Carlton actually and yeah, it was one of those cars where it was always sort of full of coffee cups and frag packets that type of. Was he cid? He probably was when he. No, he was a solicitor, I think. My friend's dad had the Senator which did that replace the Carlton or it. Was the Opal Senator or the Vauxhall Carlton, wasn't it? I think. I don't know whether you could buy the Opal over here at the time, but, Yeah, it was definitely a Vauxhalloall Senator. I'm sure it's a Vauxhall Senator. Yeah, it might have been. I don't think it many. I think it's a three litre, V6 maybe. M what a nice thing. Guess maybe that top of the scale of the company car. Yeah, maybe. I think they were very similar. Maybe the Senator wasn't a saloon. Maybe the Senator was only a. Ah, state or a hatchback or something. I'm sure it was a saloon. This one that I'm thinking of about, Have to have a little look at that. Yes. Okie dokeie. Thank you very much, John. That's mate, we'll wrap this up, roll the credits.>> Faye Hatton Andy: Andy I hope you enjoyed the show. Please support us. Buy a coffee and subscribe and tell all your friends. Bye.