Many franchised dealer bosses now talk about hiring for attitude. Whether that will work against former Vauxhall salesman Gary Brown after he called a customer a "moaning little c***" on Facebook will remain to be seen.

Brown has hit the headlines after he messaged Natalie James, who'd bought a Corsa from Go Vauxhall in Croydon last year, calling her a "moaning little c***" and a "complaining little sl**" and saying he'd missed out on his commission for the sale.

James then shared the message on Twitter.

Brown left Go Vauxhall in November 2013 and then worked at multi-franchise dealer Wilsons in Epsom, but was recently sacked from that job for emailing every member of staff with a list of the company's deficiencies, reports the Croydon Advertiser.

Brown told the newspaper he starts a new job in July and he hopes his behaviour will not affect that.

"What I said was silly, childish and I did it without thinking,” he said. “People have an image of car salesmen, which is often unjustified, but it’s things like what I’ve done which add to that image, which is obviously not good.”

“I’ve never sent messages like this to a customer before, it was a stupid one-off.

“I thought because I had left the dealership there wouldn’t be any repercussions, but I was wrong. I hope Natalie accepts my apology.”