Run, Run, as Fast as you Can
A Life in the Motor Industry and Beyond - The Revised Version
Published on 12. February 2026
978-1-0492-6024-2 (ISBN)
Description
This interesting book about the motor industry was first published in 2009.
It traces Peter Cleary's career, starting as a trainee at Ford South Africa where he held positions in personnel, marketing and product planning and did three overseas postings to World Headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, the Dunton Research Centre of Ford of Europe in Kent, England and to Ford Asia-Pacific in Melbourne, Australia.
Cleary's second automotive employer was Mercedes-Benz of South Africa where he became Management Board Member for Marketing at the age of forty, holding that position for a decade.
At the age of fifty he decided to go on his own and started a new company called Inyanga Motors in the town of Empangeni in Kwazulu-Natal. This dealership held the franchise for Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Mitsubishi and Chrysler/Jeep vehicles and was the first of three motor dealerships he owned, eventually adding franchises for Hyundai and Renault vehicles. The dealerships eventually did well and won the coveted Dealer of the Year Award for every brand they represented.
Faced with the need to print more copies of Run, run, Cleary decided to add content to the book about his second career, writing and publishing books. His output has been rewarding, writing at least a book a year since 2009. This section of the book will be of interest to aspirant writers as it tells the back story to the books and the team that assists him to publish.
More details
Content
Part One: Ford Motor Company, Getting started, First test, Learning about organisations, First lessons in managing, Marketing strategy, Fairlane launch, Getting on the wrong side of powerful people, Market research, Car clinic in Sao Paulo, Detroit, My Africa, New car buyer surveys, Jack Givens, Regional office, Working with dealers, First (very short) time as a dealer, Running an advertising department, The last Cortina, Lessons in humility, Ford of Europe, The North Atlantic divide, Melbourne, Hiroshima, Product Planning in South Africa, Sales Operations, Disillusionment, Part Two: Mercedez-Benz, How not to change jobs, UCDD. (United Car and Diesel Distributors), A new culture, Advertising Mercedes-Benz, First success, Introducing Honda to South Africa, First visit to Stuttgart, Morris Shenker, The South African office at Daimler Benz, Safety, Launching new models, Jurgen Schrempp, Hong Kong, Meridian, Doing it my way, Christoph Kopke, New ways of distributing vehicles and parts, Cosmos, The war between Stuttgart and Munich, Providing leadership for growth, The right way to change jobs, Part Three: Inyanga Motors, The wine bottles, Inyanga, Starting from scratch, Political violence, road accidents and taxi wars, Building the brand Inyanga, The facility fiasco, Learning the hard way, Trying to grow our way out of trouble, Finding our soul, With a little help from my friends, Community affairs, Having fun, Alan Ross, Building trust and confidence, Dealer councils, A value driven organization, A winning formula, Dealer of the Year programmes, The Competitions Commission, The good and bad of the franchise system, Selling Inyanga Motors, Part Four: Tangawizi Motors, Part Five: Peter Cleary Books, and beyond, Adam Geard and the historical connection, Getting published, The spiritual connection, The important stuff, The birth of the mixed race people in South Africa, The path of destruction, The appeal of a tragic story, The presence of personal ghosts, When words weave their magic, Dangerous ground, Final
