Dakar - South African crews dig deep as second week begins
The 2026 Dakar Rally roared back into action on Monday with Stage 8, a gruelling 481km loop around Wadi Ad Dawasir.
- Industry News
- 12 January 2026
How can automotive retailers set themselves apart from their peers in a highly competitive market? The answer is simple: by delivering exceptional customer experiences.
By Harm Stavast, Regional Sales Director, Keyloop
Today’s consumers demand to be in control of their own customer journey and, faced with so many choices when it comes to the car buying and ownership journey, are willing to pay more for a good experience. On the other hand, they are more likely than ever to look elsewhere if unsatisfied.
That’s why automotive retailers must lean into the power of technology to help transform their customer relationships and the effectiveness of their businesses. This will enable retailers to provide the same levels of exceptional service through every channel – no matter when, where or how the customer chooses to engage with them.
Automotive retailers need to reimagine their relationship with technology platforms. For Keyloop, this is represented through five key pillars:
In turn, Experience-First is both a blueprint and a technology platform created by Keyloop to help retailers deliver an exceptional customer experience – helping them to build trust and improve margins. To look under the hood of Experience-First, Keyloop has published a white paper written by our leadership team, titled Revolutionising automotive retail through technology,
If you would like to speak to us more about Experience-First, contact us via https://keyloop.com/en-za/contact.

The 2026 Dakar Rally roared back into action on Monday with Stage 8, a gruelling 481km loop around Wadi Ad Dawasir.
Over thirty firms from across the automotive supply chain have joined forces to advance open-source software development, aiming to create next-generation vehicles while driving down costs, Germany’s leading industry association announced recently.
The African Association of Automotive Manufacturers (AAAM) says 2026 will be a year of progressive development through collaboration.