Never in a million years did I think I'd be writing an automotive blog. A car was always just something that helped me get to Point A to Point B.
My first car was a hand-me-down Pontiac Grand AM from my mom and my second car was "Tibby" the car I bought in college. But things changed when I was ready for my third car.
Pete, my husband, is a car fanatic. He uses words like "GTO," "torque," and "hemi" in his everyday vocab (they sounded like terminal illnesses to me). He would have been great to take along car shopping, but we have opposite schedules (and I was too proud/independent to admit I wanted help shopping) so I went alone to shop for my next car.
They could have told me these cars popped magical golden popcorn in the glove box and I would have believed them. So many too-good-to-be-true offers, act-now deals and confusing figures and stats. I was so dazed and confused - and honestly scared. I hated feeling that way, so I decided - whether I liked it or not - it was time I learned more about cars.
Instead of acting like I had better things to do, I started to go to car events and watch car shows on TV with Pete. We now go to the Ault Park Concours d'Elegance every year, we watch the Discovery Channel's Mecum Auto Auctions live, we've seen just about every episode of Wayne Carini's "Chasing Classic Cars" show, and we've traveled to various cities to view private car collections.
I was starting to feel a lot more confident about cars.
Then, about a year and a half ago, I attended a Bacchanalian Society event and Lexus RiverCenter was the main sponsor. I got to talking with one of the sales reps there, and he said their General Manager, Lisa Bernstein, is one of the only female GMs in the nation. I had to meet her.
She was super nice and we chatted for quite a while... about cars (yes, cars!), food, wine, travel... did I mention I carried a meaningful conversation about cars? I was so proud of myself!
Long story short, this blossomed into a great friendship. I actually ended up buying "Lexi" my car, an IS350, from Lisa. It was an empowering accomplishment for me. I researched, found the car I liked, found it pre-owned on their website, I stalked it until the price decreased to where I needed it to be and I pounced! I came home with it and completely shocked Pete!
Lisa ended up sponsoring Cincy Chic events, which is what I do for a living, to target the niche of women who would relate well with a female-run dealership.
Lisa and I worked on about 10 Cincy Chic events together and when things came up for renewal, she suggested we expand the relationship and bring in Performance Lexus. I thought it was a great idea because that dealership has a female service manager, Whitney Binski.
I love seeing our Cincy Chic readers at events when they talk with these car-savvy women. You can tell they feel at ease and more confident when they hear information about cars from another woman. I got to thinking... what if I did this on a larger scale without geographical or physical boundaries... reaching women where ever and when ever they might be looking for helpful automotive info.
Whitney and Lisa loved the idea and asked Lexus corporate to fund the blog to compensate for my time. But the objective of this blog isn't to be a big ad for Lexus. Sure, I'll review new cars when they get to the dealerships, but they'll be objective reviews. They'll be what I genuinely think of the car, in a language you'll understand.
Lisa and Whitney will also chime in and provide helpful info you can use no matter what car you drive, like "What to know before you buy?" , "How do you know if buying or leasing is right for you" , "winter weather driving tips" , "how to inexpensively enhance the value of your car" ... things like that that'll give you good-to-know woman-to-woman automotive info.
If you have a question you'd like answered, contact me and I'll be sure to find an answer for you!
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