When people from across the state started calling Tim and Burt Matthews' Chevron dealership looking for Freddy 4-Wheeler and Tony Turbo, the brothers knew it could be more than a service station.
The little plastic cars -- which also star in animated Chevron commercials -- were flying off the shelves in the convenience store and collectors weren't satisfied to have just one or two. They wanted the whole collection -- 17 toy cars to date. So the Matthews transformed their Chevron station in suburban Salt Lake City into a veritable toy palace, with a 12-foot race car dressed to look like Tony Turbo at the door and floor mats taped to resemble a road leading to a giant Chevron cars display.The gambit paid off: Besides pumping gas, the Mathews sold 9,300 toy cars in 1998 and pocketed a profit of $23,000.
Let Beanie Babies retire. The toy cars sold at Chevron stations across the country are creating a stir all their own. The cars, which sell for $6 to $7 and average about 6 inches long, have movable eyes, winning smiles and names like Patty Patrol and Pete Pick-Up. They get their own fan mail. They have their own Web site www.chevroncars.com. Kids sleep with them and determined parents have been known to ambush delivery trucks bearing shipments of the latest models.
Chevron Corp. began selling the toys in 1996, initially for $1 off with the purchase of eight gallons of gas. In 1997, it started granting the discount with any purchase in the convenience store.
To date, the company has sold 9,461,000 of the little cars, and it expects to sell another million of the five new models coming out in November alone. Chevron Co-Vice Chairman James N. Sullivan quipped at a recent company meeting that Chevron, the nation's third-largest oil company, sold more cars in the U.S. last year than Ford.
Though the cars turn a small profit for the company, their popularity has had only a modest effect on U.S. gasoline sales, which have shown only slight gains for three straight years. But convenience store sales surged 38 percent from 1996 to 1998 and another 39 percent for the first half of 1999. At Naveen Jaggi's Chevron in suburban Houston, in-store sales rise 15 percent to 18 percent for two to three weeks every time new cars are released.
Like Ty Inc.'s Beanie Babies, Chevron is boosting interest by keeping supplies limited. Chevron issues a handful of new cars about every six months and reproduces only small quantities of older models.
"We don't want this to be a fad, this year's good thing that people will talk about," says Glenn Weckerlin, manager of brand strategy. "We want the cars to be part of the brand on an ongoing basis for years to come. So we are keeping the appetite whetted."
The company does sell some cars directly on its Web site, but supplies are tight, and even Chevron dealers can't get as many as they would like. Earlier this summer, Mr. Jaggi called the company seeking to buy a few cases of Freddy 4-Wheeler, the most sought-after car, and managed to wangle only 48.
"They're almost impossible to get, but I've got to have them all," says Mr. Jaggi, who has even stooped to buying Freddy 4-Wheelers at retail from other Chevron stations and reselling them, sometimes with no mark-up at all.
The Matthews recognized the cars' popularity shortly after they opened their Chevron station in November 1997 and started stockpiling them early, even renting a storage unit to house their growing supply. Now, customers come from thousands of miles away to pay premium prices for older models. Sometimes they don't even buy gas.
"This has brought a bit of Disney to a very archaic and mature industry," says Tim Matthews, 33 years old.
Indeed, next year, animated Chevron cars will entertain people waiting in line at the revamped Autopia ride at Disneyland in California. Chevron cars will also be sold in the park, under a 13-year marketing partnership with Walt Disney Co. Though plans are still in the works, it is "highly unlikely" TV viewers will see Goofy or Donald Duck riding in a Chevron car anytime soon, says Jim Gordon, Chevron's manager for retail advertising.
Gas stations used to peddle collectibles such as glass tumblers and dinosaurs as a gimmick to spur sales. Then the phenomenon faded when rising gasoline prices made drivers more price sensitive instead. Texaco and Amerada Hess have sold die-cast and plastic oil trucks, usually during holidays, and some are worth thousands today to collectors.
The Chevron cars seem to have a broader following, appealing not just to boys but also to girls and grownups. Tony Gotcher, 42, buys the cars for his wife Tracy, who has devoted a bookshelf in her office to them. Mr. Gotcher has spent parts of business trips scouring Chevrons for cars she is missing. "It seems so addicting," says Mr. Gotcher, sales manager for a Houston-based plumbing manufacturer.
"They're just so cool," says Kari Mabe, 12, of Toledo, Oregon, who boasts she has all 17 cars. She would like to see a Monster Truck and a cartoon TV series.
The toys are an outgrowth of the most successful TV ad campaign in the San Francisco oil company's history. In 1995, Chevron was looking for a fresh approach to promote its new Techron gasoline additive. Charlie McQuilkin, a senior vice president for Chevron's longtime ad firm Young & Rubicam San Francisco, hit on the idea of making cars talk. He called on Aardman Animations, the British company that won two Academy Awards for short features starring the claymation-characters Wallace and Gromit.
The 30-second spots Aardman produces for Chevron feature nonactors providing the voices of the animated cars, which banter casually about subjects ranging from surfing to child rearing. A bike messenger, for example, became Freddy 4-Wheeler. A Texas cowboy who tagged along to a casting call with his girlfriend was transformed into Horace 'N Trailer.
Despite receiving thousands of suggestions from fans, Chevron has mostly let the commercials determine the identities of the new cars. That frustrates Kim Daniel of Jemison, Ala., whose son John Earl, 11, still rushes into Chevron stations hoping to see his "Vinnie Van" creation. Seven-year old George Shaughnessy of Houston has sent in 24 suggestions, and is still hoping that Chevron will make "Larry Limo."
No one has been more surprised at the cars' success than Chevron executives, including some who were initially skeptical of the cartoony TV campaign.
"The question we kept hearing was, 'Is this us?"' says Dave Smith, Chevron's vice president for marketing. "And the fact is, it wasn't us. But it has become us, to everybody's pleasure. We think we can ride this horse off to the end of the automotive era."