Automotive

CUSTOMER PROFILE: JIM PINKNEY

SYDNEY AUTOMOTIVE PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTOR/MECHANIC.

“Don’t compromise on your oil!”

Jim Pinkney’s journey began with a mechanic apprenticeship…followed by a season working for the giant Ampol corporation…and then owning a couple of service stations and automotive workshops on Sydney’s North Shore. He lectured on lubricants at the Ampol training school and said it was a great learning ground.

“I saw different brands of used engine oil being tested using Ampol’s spectrometer and the results were clear to me that top quality formulations were able to pass the original new oil specifications, whereas lower grade oils could not.”

This was the start of Jim’s unshakeable belief that in order to take care of your vehicle or equipment you must use premium grade lubricants. He shifted from the training school to become a rep’ on the road for Ampol – something he had always wanted to do – which enabled him to meet a lot of workshops across Sydney.

The next change was purchasing two service stations on the North Shore. He had a big workshop with five mechanics. The transition in the early Eighties saw the establishment of a mobile automotive parts delivery business based in the north of Sydney and an automotive workshop on the Northern Beaches from where Jim started selling Anglomoil products.

Jim was introduced to the family owned Anglomoil lubricants manufacturer when he met the founder, Bill Croasdale, who happened to be operating from a site near Jim’s warehouse.

“Bill was right near me and sometimes I would ask if I could borrow his Kombi to do my deliveries. He was an ex-Total tribologist and I liked his philosophy where quality came first rather than trying to flood the market with low quality products. Bill only used the best base oils from around the world and Lubrizol additives so I knew from the beginning that he was focused on producing high-quality oils.”

Every day Jim was on the road visiting mechanics from the beaches to Blacktown in the west. His ability to quickly provide quality products to workshops (“From being there in one hour to the next morning if I had to order it in”) saw the development of an amazingly successful business which generated almost seven figures each year from the back of a single van!

Jim operated from a number of vans over the years including diminutive models with tiny three cylinder engines.

“Anglomoil products worked so well in my own vehicles. I had a Mazda van that clocked up 400,000 kilometres. It was always fully loaded with stock so it had a hard life. Even at that age it went well and the oil would come out like it was still new. I bought several Suzuki vans. They had little 800cc to 1.3 litre engines. The back was full of stock and I also towed a trailer with four 44 gallon drums. I was on the road 12 hours a day and they always ran like clockwork. Nothing broke down, they were very reliable. When you looked inside the engines looked new inside. My wife has a car that has done 134,000 k’s and we have put Anglomoil synthetic oil in it the entire time and in the engine it looks like the day it came off the assembly line.”

A big car enthusiast, Jim has owned “Australian royalty” over the years including a Holden Torana GTR, Torana GTR XU1, Torana A9X and Ford Falcon GT.

Jim’s business ran for more than 25 years before he decided it was time to go fishing! He recalls the impact that the Anglomoil products had on his customers saying that so many times he would be talking to mechanics about engines that had sludged up, burnt the oil or clogged the filters and as soon as they changed to Anglomoil the problems would stop. They would remove the rocker covers which were usually covered with thick oil deposits and find them sparkling clean. The same occurred with automatic transmissions.

“When the mechanics that I serviced changed over to Anglomoil products their customers would call up saying ‘What did you do to my car it feels completely different. It idles smoother and changes gear better’.”

“It wasn’t just automotive mechanics who experienced the difference. I also delivered a lot of Anglomoil hydraulic fluids to earthmoving companies and they had the same results. The dramas stopped, everything worked faultlessly.”

“I continue to promote Anglomoil to this day even though I retired seven years ago. Unfortunately, mechanics are still the same as back when I started and keep putting poor quality oil in their customers’ vehicles. People don’t realise how important oil is, the job it does. They look at cheaper oil and if it has the right specifications for the vehicle they put it in with no thought to whether it will stay in-spec’ until the next service. By then it will have broken down and the internals of the car are being worn or are at risk of premature failure. Anglomoil lubricants stay above-spec’ or on-spec’ past the service time of the vehicle which is why when you drain the oil out it still looks like when it first went in. Using the right oil can be the difference between needing a new engine or not. In the very least a high performance oil will improve the economy and performance of a car which is good for your budget and the environment.”

“My whole career I told people you need to invest in the best oil for your vehicle or your equipment. Oil doesn’t just lubricate it also cleans the internals and keeps harmful contaminants in suspension so they don’t damage working parts. Don’t buy on price. I have seen it again and again, if you compromise on your oil you will pay for it and it will cost you far more than the difference between premium lubricants like Anglomoil and other products.”