The Car Leasing Shop is part of Key Vehicle Solutions, a family business set up by me (Nick Venter) and my old man back in 1999. This is the story of how we got there and how the Car Leasing Shop was born...

When my father, Chris Venter, left school in the late 1950's, rather than follow his father's footsteps and become an accountant (well paid, but a bit dull!), he rather fancied a job in one of the flashy new garages (not so well paid - but lots of shiny new cars to play with).  This was because he'd discovered a natural talent for fixing grandad's 1938 Austin Ten, which like most cars of the era, regularly packed-up.

At the dawn of the swinging 60's the young Chris was an apprentice mechanic with a local garage selling new Hillman, Humber, Sunbeam and Singer cars.  Thanks to a better standard of living the early 60's were a boom time in the car business. With a new Austin Mini costing about £550 and a gallon of full-fat leaded petrol costing the equivalent of only 23p, garages couldn't sell cars fast enough.  This kept the workshops flat out where Chris found himself busy fitting exotic extras, such as heaters(!), in between doing routine 1,000 mile services, 5,000 de-cokes and fixing the numerous cars that broke-down.

Chris found that his new skills were also in great demand from friends and family, and soon had so many 'guvvie' jobs he had to rent a little workshop to handle the work (especially after grandma found him fixing an engine in his bedroom!!).  Eventually, he left his job and set up his first proper garage business, which was instantly busy servicing and repairing cars and later selling them.

About the time I came onto the scene the old man was well and truly into selling cars rather than fixing them.  He was also very much into driving racing cars.  With him first racing a Lotus Cortina and then an Escort Twincam, by the time I was 6 or 7, I must have visited just about every racetrack in the country!  Surrounded by so many cars in my formative years, it's hardly surprising that I've turned out to be a complete car nut with a complete Formula One obsession! (much to my wife's despair!)

Most of my school holidays were spent hanging around a garage.  By the time I was maybe 13 or 14 I considered it a great thrill to drive the cars around the garage and still remember the day I moved an old Rolls-Royce.  The smell of leather and walnut was intoxicating and despite moving the car only few yards - boy, did I brag about 'driving' a Rolls Royce back at school!

Naturally, when I left school all I wanted to do was work in the car business.  At first I worked for the old man, but feeling the grass was greener, moved on to seek my fortune elsewhere. Did I find it? - like hell - but I did have a great time working in different garages, selling and driving some of the finest cars in the world and meeting some really great people.

Fast forward to the late 1990's; the old man had sold his business and after a couple of jobs working for other people was winding down for retirement.  I meanwhile, had been offered a job by one of my then biggest customers - a car leasing company. Although I'd been selling cars for almost 15 years leasing was still a bit of a mystery.  I must admit, what really appealed about the job was the 5 day week! However, I quickly learnt that leasing had a lot more going for it than just sensible working hours!

I was really amazed that car leasing wasn't more popular.  It offered customers a low price, no hassle way of driving a new car. However, it quickly became apparent that the majority of people were confused by the various leasing and car finance schemes, after all, if I didn't really understand them - what chance did customers have, especially as the majority of car dealers didn't really (and still don't!) understand the different options.

On discussing this with the old man we saw an opportunity for a business to guide people through the various ways of buying and financing new cars.  We realised that a small efficient business, with low overheads, could do a better job at explaining the options such as Personal Leasing, Hire Purchase, Lease Purchase, Contract Hire, Contract Purchase, etc., etc., than many of the big established garages. Thus Key Vehicle Solutions was born in December 1999.

Key Vehicle Solutions was a great success and still is.  Customers ranging from private individuals and sole traders through to multi-million pound PLC's appreciate the straight forward, no nonsense advice and great deals that we offer.  Over the last couple of years however, we've seen one particular form of leasing come to prominence and have recognised that people enjoy the convenience of buying this over the internet - and that's Contract Hire.