Family-owned Kettering garage takes on BYD franchise for electric and hybrid cars
When Franco Santoro left school at 15 to forge a career in the motor trade, he began by sweeping the forecourt of a garage in Kettering – now he owns the ‘most iconic building’ in town and has expanded to sell EVs (electric vehicles).
The Ferrari-loving son of Italian immigrants, Franco had a dream to work with cars, and that dream has come true with the evolution of his Chariots Specialist Cars business with a new challenge.
Already selling prestige and sports cars marques, the garage on Kettering Venture Park, off Pytchley Road, will shortly become a dealer for Chinese-made BYD cars.
Franco started work in 1985 at the Stamford Road branch of Corby Motors as a teenager – wanting to sell cars, he got his garage experience not behind the wheel but with a broom.
He said: “On my first day I was told to go outside and sweep all the cigarette butts off the forecourt. Then I moved inside cleaning. I then studied to be an auto electrician, working on cars for two years.”
From there he gradually rose up the ranks progressing to selling cars for local garages – Vauxhalls for W Grose and Forest Gate Motors.
In 1992, he became a salesman for the newly opened Peter Harris Mercedes in Kettering, the same building where he is now the boss.
Winning awards for his sales, he stayed at the business for 10 years until he was headhunted to run a Mercedes outlet in Milton Keynes.
In 2006, he founded his own company – Prestige Auto Select – working as a concierge service broker for a London property developer’s clients.
Back in Kettering, the Mercedes had moved out of the town, and the showroom was empty for three years and he was persuaded to return by Peter Harris.
He said: “I did that for six years, but I’d stayed friends with Peter. The showroom was empty, but in 2011, Peter got the building back and working with another partner we set up Chariots Specialist Cars. In January 2012, we started the business with just five members of staff.”
Selling part exchanged cars from another part of the business, sales were booming until Covid struck. 2020 saw Franco in hospital followed a year later by his partners pulling back from the company.
He said: “In Covid, I nearly passed away, I was one day away from being put on a ventilator.
"We retained our customers, then I was told my partners were going to sell their share of the business.”
Franco looked at his options and decided to take on the whole business and building, setting up the family firm – his sons Dino, 22, and 18-year-old Ayrton are now working alongside him.
He said: “I looked for a franchise and found the 30-year-old Chinese company BYD. We fell in love with this brand. The quality of cars is premium. BYD manufactures the whole thing in their factories apart from the tyres and the windscreens. I’m excited. Whether people like it or not we are going down this electric route. We are the first and currently the only family-run independent BYD dealership in the UK – and we are growing.”
The garage will still service cars and provide aftercare for customers.
Franco said: “When someone buys a car from us, they become a family member.”
The garage will trade under the name BYD Kettering and has already started taking orders from customers with the official handover on March 31.
He added: “We are honoured to be a family-owned garage in the most iconic building in the town.”