Macca retires

Mercedes-Benz Australia’s spokesman for more than a decade, David McCarthy, has retired. It’s unusual for carsales to laud an industry exec, especially when he or she remains in rude good health, but ‘Macca’ is a larger than life character. The Australian auto industry is poorer for his departure – although we have more than a hint he’s not going all that far away.

On his retirement, perhaps Australia’s most respected automotive journalist, Peter Robinson, paid tribute to David’s contribution to the industry. We thought you might consider it well worth a read...

David and I met, almost 20-years ago, in late 1999...

It did not go well.

David, then working for Optus, turned up in his MX-5 at Holden’s Lang Lang proving ground on the Saturday of Wheels magazine’s Car of the Year. His American mate Bob Hall, father of the original MX-5 and then a Wheels staffer, had invited him along to see how our testing was conducted.

We exchanged brief pleasantries before Macca, apparently a long time Wheels reader, asked me if he could ride shotgun for a few hot laps, in one of the COTY contenders, on the Ride and Handling track.

My response was blunt: “No. I’m working. I need to concentrate and I don’t drive on the limit with a passenger”.

David was not impressed.

Later I took him around at nine-tenths, but I don’t think he has ever quite forgiven me.

Happily, this first contact didn’t get in the way of our developing a true friendship.

Along the way, I slowly discovered more about our comrade. How many of you know that Macca’s first car was an Austin Freeway? For that matter, how many people know the Freeway, BMC’s 1962 six-cylinder rival for Holden?

David bought his for $200 from a school teacher. The Freeway was a sales failure but, despite three years trying, David couldn’t kill his.

Macca, I learned, is also famous for his absolute dislike of physical exercise, a trait he claims to share with Winston Churchill, and his hero, Gough Whitlam. At one time David owned a Kew townhouse. Rather than walk the 100m to the shops for the newspapers, Macca always drove.

Such was David’s love of cars that growing up he wanted to be a motoring writer. He ignored this craving and graduated from Law at Melbourne University.

A variety of jobs followed, including a stint as head bean-counter at Nissan Australia.

After leaving Optus he worked for years as a freelance motoring journalist in radio, magazines, newspapers and TV and built a reputation as a formidable intellect... As somebody who was often politically incorrect... And as a bloke who liked a glass or three of red, especially at the bar after press launch dinners.

It was here that Macca developed enduring relationships with the heavies of the Australian motor industry. It was also during these late night bar sessions that David gained the respect and admiration of the senior Mercedes people: Horst von Sanden and Ernst Lieb, then CEO of Mercedes-Benz Australia. And Gerry Jenkins, then boss of Chrysler Australia, a part of Daimler-Chrysler.

In June 2006, when the incumbent resigned as head of Mercedes’ communications for the same job at BMW, the book on who would take over listed the usual suspects. Nobody, and I mean nobody, predicted McCarthy’s appointment.

David, opinionated and never, ever, afraid to express his views, was also overtly gay... Remember this is 12 years ago... He swore inappropriately... Sported a desperately distasteful (Mohawk) haircut and, surely the killer blow, had absolutely no PR experience.

Unless you count his time working as a repossession agent and debt collector.

On the other hand, David knew how the press, and specifically the motoring press worked, he instinctively understood crisis PR and over the years had absorbed an appreciation of the intricacies of the motor industry.

Supposedly conservative Mercedes-Benz Australia shattered all the conventional rules of employment in appointing David McCarthy as Senior Communications Manager. They would not regret it.

I’ll admit to being surprised when David told me of his new job in August 2006. We were on day two of a marathon 3300km test of the new VE Commodore.

It was dark and late, we were tired and hungry and, dodging kangaroos, we were halfway between Broken Hill and Mildura.

“I’ve got something I want to share with you”, he said.

David’s excitement was palpable and our discussion concerning the job, and its challenges and opportunities, guaranteed we remained wide-awake.

It didn’t take long before he impacted the world of automotive PR. From 2007 Mercedes’ communications department was always in the top three in Australia.

Perhaps more importantly, Mercedes-Benz ranked first in media coverage, a position it retains to this day. An astonishing achievement given the budgets of companies like Toyota and Mazda and, back then, Holden and Ford.

Under David, Mercedes made things happen. It ensured the press was given ready access to test cars; attended new model launches both locally and internationally and, significantly, established contact with high ranking [head office] engineers, designers and management. A trust developed between Mercedes-Benz and the Australian motoring writers.

David understood the importance of establishing a genuine rapport with the most senior Mercedes-Benz executives in Germany. CEO Dieter Zetsche, Thomas Weber, head of passenger car research and development; and a number of AMG chiefs including Tobias Moers, all came to know and befriend members of the Australian motoring press corps.

Helped by the “Stuttgart Sheilas”, as the women in the international press department in Germany came to be known, David and his deputy Jerry [Stamoulis] were quickly recognised as the serious players within Mercedes' global PR team.

Mercedes-Benz' Australian sales topped 18,000 in 2006. By 2017 they had doubled. Of course that wasn’t just a result of David and Jerry’s efforts; a steady, broader stream of new models played a huge part but great PR sure helped.

On any hard issues, like counterfeit spare parts and the Luxury Car Tax, David effectively became the mouthpiece for the Australian motor industry. The media could count on McCarthy providing the hard quotes on any significant automotive subject. As an aside, many of us were looking forward to David fiercely stirring the pot at the FCAI and among Canberra’s politicians.

Over the years, I gradually gained a deeper insight into a complicated character. Macca likes to say he isn’t a complex person, rather he deals in complexities.

Perhaps, but I’d suggest his life was so intricate he was forced to compartmentalise it. Mostly these boxes didn’t overlap: his consuming relationship at Mercedes-Benz in a job he loved; his popular Saturday Magazine program on JOY FM radio and his long standing association with management of the station; his ongoing involvement with Australia’s gay community; his commitment to his two nieces and their families; and, of course, his life with [partner] Jonathan.

And there is David’s profound sense of obligation to justice and his passion for social issues.

A fierce defender of the rights of minorities, David took on society’s hypocrites, the sexual predators, the homophobic, and called them out.

In a 2006 interview David was asked by a Gay American car website: “If you had one piece of advice to give to a gay person wanting to work in the auto industry, what would it be?

His reply: “Be proud of who and what you are. Stand up and be counted, invisibility does not help gain acceptance and understanding. Apart from being a very dark place, the closet is also a pretty lonely place.”

David, having learned this the hard way, remains proud... Proud of who he is and what he has achieved.

Macca... We want you to know this now because, well, you won’t be around to hear your eulogies.

David McCarthy: humane, ruthless, funny, brutal, clever, charming, intellectual, discrete, sarcastic, caring, tough, loyal, political, articulate, brave, generous and always passionate.

A bloke I’m proud to call my friend.

– This is an edited version of a speech given at Macca's farewell dinner