Sir Peter Vardy is planning to achieve the seemingly impossible, the car salesman's "Holy Grail".

He wants to expand a car sales company past the 100 franchise mark - and keep it there. Apparently a select few have hit a century - before becoming victims of their own success and goiing into reverse.

The problem is that, unlike supermarkets and large electrical chains who can bully, bribe and cajole suppliers into providing bulk orders at massively reduced prices, motor manufacturers cannot slash prices for mass buyers because of the 2002 Vehicle Pricing Order.

Manufacturers such as Ford and Vauxhall are legally bound to sell a car to Joe Bloggs' village forecourt at the same or similar price as the thousands shipped out to Vardy garages across Britain. The result is an industry in which big is not necessarily beautiful.

Sir Peter says: "We have never had a company make a success of running over 100 dealerships. Everybody that's got there has fallen over, because with 100 dealerships you don't get the economies of purchasing that you would expect.

"It is all about each individual dealership standing on its own, servicing the local community and making a good return. What we have to do is get to 100 and make sure our business model pushes to 120, 140 and maybe get to 200 dealerships."

Standing between Sir Peter and this goal are a great many hurdles. The most important, he believes, is the issue of staff.

The short-term goal is to move Reg Vardy from its current position with 71 franchises to 100 by 2005. To do this, at least another 1,500 employees would be needed as well as the present 4,700. Each would need to adopt the Reg Vardy work ethic.

"The characteristic of Reg Vardy is passion," Sir Peter says. "Passion for the job, passion for the company and all of our aims and objectives. There should be a real drive for customer satisfaction, to deliver exactly what the customer is wanting.

"But today's customer delight is tomorrow's customer expectation. You consistently have to keep moving it on."

To achieve that aim, Sir Peter has brought in specialists iSky to conduct the biggest survey the motor industry has ever seen.

Initially, £750,000 a year will be pumped into checking that customers are happy. As the company increases its franchise base, that figure will rise to £1m a year.

"This is an industry that hasn't got the best of reputations," he adds. "We need to strive to overcome that every day. We need to make sure that every customer that comes through the door is absolutely delighted with the service they get from us."

Founded in 1923, Sir Peter took over Reg Vardy following the death of his father in 1976, and since then, staffing issues have been a priority. Now, the problem is the size and scope of the workforce, and the fact that one bad salesman can affect customers' impression of the business.

He says: "There is no shortage of customers, there is no shortage of businesses to be bought, there is no shortage of business from manufacturers.

"We have the strongest balance sheets in the business and cash is not a problem. The only thing which we need is good quality staff. You have to breed them or attract them to the business."

The motor industry is teetering on the brink of a new era. The old order will be swept aside on October 1. Greater competition will be offered up and the customer will benefit.

Shepherding in these changes are the block exemption laws. Effectively, car manufacturers will no longer have the whip hand.

Gone will be the days when the franchise to sell one particular marque was decided on the whim of the likes of Ford, Seat, Volkswagen and, the name that made Reg Vardy, Aston Martin.

Block exemption means that anyone who meets the established standard of a manufacturer can become an approved dealer. According to Sir Peter, what this means for the customer is greater choice and cheaper prices, not necessarily on the cost of new cars (which have already come down considerably in this country) but also in terms of cheaper servicing and more affordable parts.

From October, approved franchises will not be shackled to buying parts direct from the manufacturer. They can source generic parts, and with it keep the cost down for the motorist.

Reg Vardy has already picked up a handful of Scottish outlets from Arriva plc because of this.

Sir Peter says: "A lot of work is going on at the moment making sure that the dealers the manufacturers have on October 1 are the dealers they want for the coming years."