Sandicliffe Motor Group, the East Midlands family-owned car retailer, has made one customer’s lifelong dream come true and created a real life “Penelope Pitstop” after spray painting Dr Elizabeth Hodds new Kia Sorento 2.5 CRDi XE in her favourite colour, pink. The car is thought to be unique in being the only bright pink Sorento in the UK.
Dr Hobbs from Rugby has been a GP in the area for 10 years and is known for cheering her patients up with her pink consultation room but she has always wanted a motor to match. After upgrading her Kia with the family-owned dealership and making her request, her dream has become a reality after picking up her newly sprayed motor.
The body shop worked with her to find the exact shade of pink she wanted, Bright Barbie Pink, she even wears the sample colour tag given to her round her neck on a chain as a memento.Her pink obsession also includes a pink stethoscope, pink mobile phone, pink camera and pink Crock shoes. She is also planning on a new pair of pink sunglasses for driving and some accessories to match her new car.
Dr Hodds said; “I have always wanted a pink car and cannot believe that I finally own one thanks to Sandicliffe Kia. As a child I always did everything I could to not conform and was never a girlie girl but as I became older my obsession with the colour pink began! I loved my Kia Sorento but it was time to upgrade and I knew they would give me a good deal. It turned out that the cost of the car plus the re-spray totalled the same amount being charged by other dealers for the car alone! I am finally driving the car of my dreams!”
“The sales team were so helpful, as were the body shop who worked with me to find the exact shade of pink that I wanted and I am absolutely delighted”, she added.
On this unusual request, Sandicliffe Leicester Kia Branch Manager Adey Allen, commented; ‘We have been asked for many things in our time but this definitely tops the list and is the first time a customer has ever asked for a car to be spray painted in such a vibrant colour.’
Sandicliffe Motor Group recently picked up three awards, Excellence in Customer Service, the inaugural award for Best Environmental Policy and Best Marketing at the AM awards in 2008 and was nominated for Best Retail Group and Best Training Programme. [Text: Kia Motors UK]
September 12th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
reminds me of an AUdi Q7 that was featured in wheels as it was the only yellow Q7 ever and it came with a certificate to prove. ANyway, I’ve sorted out my soul pix now.
September 12th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Fantastic story…I love it when people find just the car and color they want! That looks “different” on a Kia Sorento because of it’s large stature. Great story!
September 13th, 2008 at 1:03 am
i like it. it looks nice and i don’t really like the color pink. but she looks like a fun loving woman and thats a perfect car for her. great story.
September 13th, 2008 at 1:21 am
that’s very freak but cool xD!
September 13th, 2008 at 4:30 am
I put that article earlier in the week in one our local (Australian) 4WD sites and got hammered. I thought it was a bit of fun, maybe a lot of them are homo-phobic. So I promised never to put anything pink in again. They all thought I had turned.
September 13th, 2008 at 4:59 am
Wow, Ms Piggy got a Sorento to match her dress. Next time get the Picanto in your color it’s more your size.
September 14th, 2008 at 2:07 am
JTZ. You should like a really nice person. Way to put a sour note on a feel-good story. Creep.
September 14th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
What some people would do to get noticed…
September 14th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Khm, khm…While I fully support the freedom of speech at the blog, I also expect everyone to be polite. While debating and discussion is fine, I will not tolerate rudeness and insulting posts!
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In my opinion, Dr. Hodds deserves nothing but praise. With this move, she has created a lot of buzz in the UK. You can read many reports about her and her pink Kia Sorento.
Now, can you tell me a better way of advertising, that costs absolutely nothing? She has done a tremendous job and put Kia Motors (Sorento) at the top of the most interesting stories in the UK.
So, kudos to Elizabeth Hodds and here pinkish “obsession”!!
Just my 0,02$
September 15th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
great!!!! I would love to see this car on the street!!!!!
btw – why it’s so hard to buy pink car? 
As I remember Toyota has pink corolla, starlet and opel corsa was pink. someone else?
September 19th, 2008 at 3:12 am
very unique I’m glad people are expressing them selves they way many do in the kia brand. now im a guy so pink is not one of my favorite colors. but hey I’m a guy and its a girls sorento.
March 1st, 2009 at 11:45 pm
Dr Hodds is on e of my Mum`s doctors, she`s a very nice person. So what if she drives a pink car, it`s exactly what SHE wanted. How many of us can say we`ve got exactly what we wanted ? Go Liz !
March 6th, 2009 at 3:00 am
This is the car that Mark and myself,Darren painted at loughborough bodyshop.It was a massive job but turned out realy well. We even won an award for it!
shes got balls!
August 14th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
this is my sister- great car, great job of colour. not for me.
but she does cheer her patients up.
August 21st, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Liz is my sister too, I think her car is brill, I am going in her pink serento 6th Sept as we are doing the pink car rally and raising money for the little princess charity. Well done Liz.
September 7th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Just wanted to say that I was at the Pink Car Rally yesterday in aid of The Little Princess Trust, and Liz and here amazing Kia looked wonderful. As the owner of a pink Honda Jazz (and sporting a bright pink wig for the day!) that it is a wonderful and non-offensive way to stand out from the crowd, and express yourself. Good on you Liz, the car was brilliant! Hope to see you there next year!