Stead-e-Bear

When everyone was given a ‘free gift’ as a thank you for purchasing a new car, Eric Stead

wanted something that was a little more personal. We tried a number of corporate gifts,

but nothing reflected the bond that we felt that we had with our customers.

Then in 1999, our first Stead E Bear was born. Every customer who bought a new car was given an additional little passenger in the form of a Stead E Bear to take home with them. He was an instant and lasting success.

However, we soon found that many of our loyal customers had a growing number of Stead E Bears! We decided that it was time for Stead E to settle down and possibly start a family. So we put it to our customers in 2008 to come up with a name for a companion for Stead E.

They responded magnificently and, after some deliberation, the name that was chosen was Stead E Girlfriend. Customers who now had a Stead E Bear could chose to take his new companion with them on the purchase of their next new car.

Soon we were receiving photos and postcards from all over the world of our Stead E couple,

showing that eight paws are certainly better than four...