Wheel Angel Sarah's Smashing Stereotypes

This Auckland Woman Is Sitting in the Driver's Seat.

- Ciara Pratt

For as long as she can remember, Sarah Kilburn’s life has revolved around cars. While many kids would walk out of their house to a green lawn, Sarah’s backyard was a car yard.

“Yes, I was pretty much born into the car industry,” Sarah (30) laughs. “The car yard office also doubled as our home. But even when we moved to another house, I would spend my school holidays at the yard washing cars for pocket money.”

Selling cars has been a family affair for the Kilburns ever since Sarah’s dad Brett decided to start his own business about 32 years ago. Keeping it in the family, Brett’s children followed in his footsteps helping sell cars at the family yard, when one day Sarah had an idea.

“At the yard at the time, we were beginning to have quite a few female staff members, and our customers were giving feedback about how unusual they thought it was and the difference it made when they were buying cars,” Sarah explains. “So I said to Dad as a joke, ‘I bet you the girls can outsell the guys,’ because there’s nothing wrong with a bit of friendly rivalry. And if we won, we could start our own car yard run by women. Dad is really open, so he said, ‘Go for it.’”