NADIA ADAN: TURNING MOTOR TRADE TRADITION ON ITS HEAD

Nadia Adan, the owner of Ashford Motors in Wicklow, has turned all the tradition of the motor trade on its head. She sells top quality used cars through Instagram and TikTok videos that she presents herself.

The former equity analyst has taken the online art of selling high end used cars to a new level.

“I love cars, and I was always hearing about cars from guys I worked with, Porsches, Range Rovers, stuff like that… When I sold my first car in a car park on my lunch break, I actually made a nice profit,” says Nadia.

Just before Covid-19 arrived, Nadia set up her own “boutique car dealership”. While Covid-19 may have been a disaster for some businesses, the opposite was true for Ashford Motors.

“The pandemic was the best thing that could have happened to us,” says Nadia. “There was a huge demand for cars but no one was going anywhere. So that’s when we really started doubling down on our social media, and Instagram really became our flagship.”

Because her customers were unable to see and get a feel for Nadia’s cars for themselves, she decided to shoot her own “mini reviews” and post them to social media.

One of Nadia’s first sales was of a €60,000 Bentley. “When I sold that Bentley I realised there was something there, everything just started falling into place.