Oh, brother: The MacIvers will do almost anything on their crazy car commercials

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/02/2015 (3935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brothers Doug and Andrew MacIver are the owners of Ride Time, a family-run, used-car dealership whose madcap television commercials have turned the duo into arguably this city’s most recognizable pitchmen since Terry Balkan and — “You betcha!” — Brother Lou.

To date, the so-called Brothers of Bargains have hawked vehicles wearing genie getups, angel wings and — in a 30-second spot that carried the hashtag #crazynotdishonest — a low-cut prom dress. They are also the stars, along with their mother, sister and Doug’s wife, Meagan, of Bargain Brothers, a reality show that airs on Business News Network.

 

“When it comes to the car business, everyone is standing on top of their building screaming the same thing: ‘I’m going to get you the best deal possible!'” says Doug, dressed in more usual attire — jeans and a black polo shirt with the Ride Time logo emblazoned on the chest. “So the trick becomes how do you stand out from the crowd? The way we’re doing that — or at least trying to — is through humour.”

That’s all fine and good and amusing, but here’s a question: what would the guys’ late father, Doug MacIver Sr., Ride Time’s founder and a bruising nose tackle for the 1984 Grey Cup champion Winnipeg Blue Bombers, have said if he saw his youngest son on TV rocking a red, strapless gown?

“I think Dad would get the joke,” says Andrew, who looks to be about a size 16. “He told me a story once about the pope coming to Winnipeg (in 1984). My grandfather (Jack MacIver) owned Midway Chrysler on Portage Avenue, and because the pope’s parade route was supposed to go right by the dealership, my dad thought it would be funny to have a “holy sale,” where a guy dressed up like Father Guido Sarducci from Saturday Night Live would ‘bless’ the cars on the lot with different discounts.

“My grandfather didn’t share his enthusiasm, for lack of a better word.”

 

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Andrew, 30, was six years old when he announced he wanted to work at his father’s Dodge dealership in Toronto. Doug Sr. played along, telling Andrew he could accompany him to the showroom every Saturday and be the firm’s official greeter.

By the time Andrew had his driver’s licence, he was answering phones, washing cars, ferrying customers to and fro — pretty much anything he could do to help out. After graduating from high school, he enrolled in an automotive marketing management course at Georgian College in Barrie, Ont. He completed his final year of the four-year program in West Palm Beach, Fla., before moving to Winnipeg in 2007 to help his father establish CanadaWide Vehicle Finance Ltd., Ride Time’s predecessor.

Doug’s introduction to the car biz took a slightly different path.

Doug, 33, was a hard-nosed, right-hand-shooting defenseman when he left home at 16 to play for the Belleville Bulls of the Ontario Hockey League. He finished his junior career with the Kingston Frontenacs and spent the next seven winters lacing ’em up for 12 different clubs in the minors, including the Fresno Falcons, the Memphis Riverkings and the Louisiana Ice Gators, for whom he led the East Coast Hockey League with 326 penalty minutes during the 2004-05 campaign.

In 2007, Doug signed a contract with HYS The Hague, a squad in the Netherlands. He was all set to play a fourth season in Europe starting in September 2010, when he and Meagan flew to Winnipeg a few weeks before puck-drop to visit his family.

“I had signed a contract with a team in France even though my knee had been giving me problems for a year-and-a-half,” says Doug, who also attended training camps with the St. Louis Blues and Vancouver Canucks during his career. “I went to a doctor while I was here only to discover I didn’t have (a medial collateral ligament) anymore.

“We decided to stay (in Winnipeg), which turned out to be a blessing because if we’d gone back to Europe, I would have missed all that extra time I got to spend with my dad before he died (in January 2012).”

Andrew now occupies his dad’s former office at Ride Time’s Pembina Highway location. His father’s framed Blue Bombers jersey hangs on the wall above his desk and photos of the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame member dot the walls throughout the showroom. (Doug says one of the few times he ever heard his father cry was when he phoned home to tell him he was going to wear his old football number — 64 — for the Ice Gators.)

“It was really tough after his passing because he was such a big part of this place,” Andrew says. “Most people can go to their job and escape what’s going on in the rest of their life. But here there was no escaping; we would come to work, but work was so intertwined with him that it was a very difficult transition.”

Not only did the dealership not close during the period after their father’s death, but Andrew sold three cars the day after his dad died in his sleep.

“The biggest compliment I could have paid him was selling those three cars,” Andrew says. “He was a very competitive person on the field and off and closing was never an option and certainly not something my father would have condoned.”

These days, the Brothers of Bargains can hardly get to their seats at Jets games without being stopped to pose for pictures with a few of their admirers. Others chant their names when they’re in the concourse between periods, and last month, while Doug was in Toronto having lunch, a person popped by his table to say “Hi” and “Love your TV show.”

Of course, you can’t please all the people all the time. Doug keeps a collection of their “fan mail” in one of his drawers — tweets along the lines of, “Really starting to hate the #ridetime guys” and (we’re not quite sure what one has to do with the other) “I blacked out and dislocated my shoulder & I f hate those stupid @Ride_Time commercials.”

A few weeks ago when the whole Evander Kane, tracksuit-thing was going down, somebody on Twitter suggested a Kane deal that included the MacIvers in the mix.

“I always respond with a joke and nine times out of 10, they write back saying, ‘We were just kidding; we actually get a kick out of you guys,’ ” Doug says. “Thing is, when we started the ad campaign a few years ago, we figured we might not sell a lot of cars today, tomorrow or even four years from now. But we figured there would come a time when a bunch of guys were sitting around in the garage drinking beer when one of ’em goes, ‘My car just broke down’ and somebody else says, ‘Why don’t you go check out those funny guys we see on TV all the time?’

“We’re really starting to reap some of those benefits now.”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca