Kinda on the other side of the story, My grandfather told me about a 52 Chevy he traded in, in 1958. Said the rings and tranny were bad, so he put sawdust in the tranny, drained the radiator and drove it onto the lot, and got a good trade in on a Plymouth wagon. Said he never went back to that lot again.
My father was at a Rotary club luncheon; a fellow Rotarian had just purchased a new Cadillac, early 1960s, like he did every couple of years from the same local dealer. He drove it home the previous afternoon, then went to go out in the evening. Couldn't get any lights to work. Brought it to the dealer the next morning figuring a blown fuse. Turns out there wasn't a bulb in the whole car. Must've been made on a Monday morning or Friday afternoon.....so much for dealer prep.
During the "gas crisis" of 73-74 I had a customer request parts to put a 250 six cylinder in his Corvette, IIRC a 68 or 69. Sold him what I thought would work and apparently it worked. He came back in to show us his handiwork and to buy some 250 emblems to add to his car as he was proud of his "accomplishment". He was more than willing to show it off, I feigned off as being too busy. Just didn't think I could take the indignity of it....
Back in the '70's I worked for a British car dealer. One day a raggedy-dressed old guy came in with a briefcase full of cash and said he wanted the new Rolls-Royce in the showroom, and he wanted to meet with the bodyshop foreman. Turns out he was a wealthy potato farmer from Idaho, and somehow knew the bodyman was also a custom car builder who used to work with George Barris. So he gave the bodyman a drawing he had done of his dream - a Rolls pickup. This was just what the bodyman loved, a chance to chop up a new Rolls. Anyway, after a few months of work, it was done and looked as good as a Rolls pickup could. The customer took delivery and wasn't seen again for about a year. One day he showed up with the pickup and it was trashed. Every part of the body dented and scraped and had gravel rash up to the door handles. He also had he load of camping gear, gas cans, spare wheels and assorted junk piled up in it. Apparently he had driven up the Alcan highway and toured around Alaska and the Yukon. The body shop fixed it up and re-painted it. I've always wondered whatever became of it.
Another out west story. At the first dealership I worked at out west one of our customers was a rancher dressed like a old farmer, bib overalls and flannel shirts in cooler weather. Anyway, when the first dealership I worked at closed, I took a job as parts manager 45 miles away. One late afternoon the service writer called me and said that some old guy in the service drive wanted me to give him a ride home. So I went to the service department and there was Dean, the rancher. We greeted each other and he asked for a ride home. I agreed and took him over to my department to wrap up my daily paperwork and to leave a bit early so he would not have to wait for my usual work day to end in about two hours. The writer called me and made a remark that he didn't want to rent a car, and he probably spent all his money buying his Park Avenue (Buick) anbd could not afford to do so. I asked the writer if he had ever heard of so and so bank. He answered, of course he had was the reply. I suggested that he look at the list of the Board of Directors as he MIGHT recognize the name. Not to mention the car was written up as so and so Ranch, a pretty decent size spread. That one I gave him a pass on as he probably never heard of the ranch. Dean passed away a year or so after, his wife a few years back. The ranch still exists, IIRC a family member got it and also runs a B and B from it. Goes to show you cannot judge by outward appearances.
The 1st '97 F150 we worked on was brand new, the carrier driver backed it off the truck and right into a pole. Put a new quarter on it. Not long after that they had a truck show up real early and the driver was impatient for them to open the gate; it swung shut as he drove through and poked one heckuva hole in the quarter of a new Mustang, enough to wrinkle the trunk floor. They sent that one back to Ford. The guy who was doing PDI's was a little over cautious. Once we had a whole carrier load of brand new Explorers show up at the shop. Seems they had "damage" on the roof rails, both sides. A quick check confirmed that every mid-90s Explorer had that "defect" where the door aperature and quarter joined. Still, we got to fix 6 of them before management reigned him in. This dealer had an excellent parts dept, a very good manager, but he wasn't making enough money for the owner so they replaced him. At one point they had 2 parts managers, and I could never figure out who was in charge. The one guy seemed to spend all of his time standing in the parking lot smoking; his big accomplishment was getting Ford to take back truckloads of NOS parts, which he told me were going straight in a dumpster when they got back to FoMoCo. I remember one particular NIB bumper cover for some special edition 80s T-bird, that somebody is probably looking for today. Why were they working so hard to get rid of that stuff? Because the other parts manager was working overtime driving all of the wholesale customers away. I was doing most of their bodywork at the time so naturally bought a lot of stuff from them...I asked him one day why he was putting all of my orders, even stuff I needed "yesterday" on the stock order (which usually meant a week or two, or worse), "don't you want to sell me parts?" All he said was , "No, I don't!" That was the sloppiest run parts dept I've encounterered. Several times I'd get the wrong part, they'd credit me for it and send me the right one and tell me just to keep the first one. I still have some body panels and bumpers from the late 90s thanks to that. Interesting to watch the inter-office politics. Nobody offered discounts to other departments, at least not in the later years when all the boss cared about was the bottom line. So, sales had to pay 125% list for parts; parts drove around in a rusted truck (300k on the clock), I once had a state inspection done in the service dept which, at the time should have cost $35...the bill was $75. The writer apologized, seems he had charged me the rate for the sales dept. So, that's how you boost service/parts "profits" when you have managed to drive away all the outside customers!
One dealership ordered a 77 Camaro for one of the higher ups in the corporation. Bright yellow (Tweety Bird Yellow) with a Firethorn (Red) interior. Yep, Mustard and Ketchup. That order took some overriding by the zone to go through. The manager loved it, don't know how the dealership got rid of it after it came out of demo service. Color blind buyer maybe? Another screwup there but my wife stopped me from buying it. They ordered two instead of one 79 Nova 4 door sedans. Triple black, vinyl interior, 350 4bbl, rubber floor mats instead of carpet. Nowhere to put the radio though. Gauge cluster in place of radio. Yep, a brand new unthrashed police car. Only thing it needed was a light bar and door decals, even spotlights were factory installed. They were trying everything possible to get me to buy it once the new car manager found out I had even the slightest interest in it. I even offered my wife my 77 El Camino which she loved if we bought the Nova. She hated it, wanted to keep her Pinto............she said "I'm not riding in a cop car"
Here's a few from the Tucson Area: My grandfather (Roy H. Senior) got a job in 1951 with Oreily Chevrolet in Tucson. The first Chevrolet he bought was a 1951 Four Door Sedan, black and yellow. My grandfather owned it for two months before it was stolen. A year later they were down in Nogales Mexico, and my gradfather spotted the car parked next to a saloon near the border gate. My grandpa was the type that kept keys to everything, and just to make sure, tried his old key in the lock, and it unlocked. Not wanting to draw attention to themselves, nor face the federales, he left the car alone and left the issue alone. Grandpa used to tell stories of how a lot of the rich Mexican ranchers used to come in to the dealership to buy new cars and trucks with cash (well into the 1970's) with OLD American money. My grandfather used to swap out the older silver coins with newer American bills. By the time he retired in 1972 he had several boxes of old money (still have most of it). My dad used this source to complete his coin collections. Grandpa also remembered well when Tucson got one of it's first Sting Ray corvettes in 63. The shop manager was a good friend of his and called my grandpa down to the floor. The manager wanted to take it for a spin, so grandpa and him head out. They got up to about 90 miles an hour before they were pulled over by the local cop. Cop: "Whatcha boys going so fast for!?" Manager: "Just tuning the carbs..." (fuel injected) Cop: "Well be careful!" Story of my own - somewhat dealership related. I worked the counter at a service station that had an agreement with the local dealership for gas-fill ups and tire repairs. One Friday night this big new model Lincoln pulls in and blocks the pumps and an older couple come in. Later I would find out their mechanic didn't want to deal with this particular problem as he was closing shop on a Friday night. He assured the couple we could get him on the road so he could get home. With a HUGELY thick Russian accent the old guy says "Dealership send me here. Car broke, you fix, call 'A' 'A' 'A'." (he really said "A" "A" "A" ). A little dumbfounded that he's blocking two fuel lanes "Uh sir, you are going to need to move the car." "Can't. Car broke, you fix. Call 'A' 'A' 'A'." So since it's kinda slow, and 9pm, I lock the doors and go out to the car. When he turns the key. Nothing. Probably something computer related. "Sir, we'll have to get your service folks to tow you." "Ok!" So we go into the shop, I get the phone and call his "service company" and hand him the receiver. This is what I hear. "Hallo - my name is <thick Russian sounding name> my car is broke. You fix!" *pause* "Hallo - my name is <thick Russian sounding name> my car is broke. You fix!" *pause* "Hallo - my name is <thick Russian sounding name> my car is....huh? Da." He hands the phone to me. "Man talk to you." Me: "Hello?" voice laughing on the other side "What the heck is he SAYING?" So since I have a good friend who was a refugee of the coup I listen to the accent and "translate" for a half hour. Finally the service provider sends a truck. The truck shows up and the guy tries to jump the car to no avail. At this point it's 10pm and I'm busy. Finally things quiet down around 10:45 or so and I'm getting ready to close. When I hear the Lincoln fire up. The old Russian guy is ecstatic and does a little jig. The mechanic comes over talk to me. "Make sure you tell them not to shut it down, I can't fix it but I was able to get it running....and make certain they sign this..." He trails off looking over my shoulder. The old guy walks over, and shuts the Lincoln down and wants to shake hands with the driver. The look on the tow truck driver was priceless. He looks about ready to pull his hair out. "Ah! He just....he just shut it off!!!! That took me a half hour to get started! F#ck this, I'm towing them to the dealer!" The Russian guy looks confused as does his wife. I quietly explain to them what happened as the tow truck driver is loading the Lincoln up to go one block down the road to the dealership. The old man was understanding and philosophical about it. "Da, I see. Thank you for your time sir." He puts a $50 bill in my shirt pocket. "I can't take this, all I did was talk on a phone!" "But you were, how you say, kind." In an odd way, it was one of the best nights on the job I ever had. The next Monday one of the mechanics from the dealership came over and was trying to tell me about some old Russian guy and his Lincoln. "let me tell you about the NIGHT I had thanks to you guys...."
This story ended with one man institutionalized in a mental hospital, two salesmen brought up on theft and money laundering and others with drug dealing. And, by the way, it is a true story. Something a hollywood movie could be based on. The real sad part is the gentleman who started the dealership and built it into a very reputabile business handed the responsibility over to his two sons and the dealership is no longer around. Here's the link: http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2003563972_huling09m.html
I started driving the courtesy car at a Lincoln-Mercury dealer in 1970 after graduation from high school. Whenever a car needed to go to the undercoat shop, radio shop, upholstery shop, etc I got to drive it there. As an 18 year old kid, I drove 429scj Cougars, Panteras, 428 XR7 Cougars all over town. Drove some of the most fantastic cars around. Usually I had to wait for the car if it wasnt a long repair. Service mgr could never figure out why it might take all morning to get it done, cuz I was usually out joy riding. BEST JOB I EVER HAD!!!!!!!!
I checked in the new vehicles so I had access to the key codes so if a fellow employee bought a new vehicle I passed out sets of keys and we would move it around in the parking lot until they caught on.
I wrenched at a dealership for a few years. One day a kid brought in a fairly new s10 to trade in on a new one, the owner of the shop took it for a test drive to give him a price and got ass packed. Needless to say the kid was PISSED and didnt buy anything.
Most dealers are on main highways or service roads. You see a lot of stuff when you drive the same path everyday. The dealer I worked in was in the not so nice area in bay shore. They have cleaned it up quite a bit since then but there always were some illegal doings near by. You would always see the same two girls hitch hiking up and down the same five miles of highway for two or three days and disappear for a day or two then come back. One day my buddy John runs out of gas a few miles up the road in a new starion. I get a can and run out to get him,two or three in the afternoon. He managed to coast into a parking lot that had a colder sac in the corner. While I am filling up I see a guy hunched over his steering wheel looking like he was in agony,I say to John. Hey do you think that guy is alright? He was twitching about parked all by him self. I was going to ask if he was ok after I finished emptying the gas can in the car but soon as I did another head popped up from under the dash and there was the hitch hiker. I looked at John and said I think he is fine now.
Speaking of which....tire blow outs on 18 wheelers, I hope I am never next to one when that happens. Car crashes galore, not so many bad ones since they put up the cables in the medians, but once a month someone would come across the median and hit someone head one. Couple of times they came into the dealerships and smashed into the front row of vehicles. (there are 4 dealers side by side where I am at). Of course anytime there is one in front everyone that works there is rubbernecking out front. Police chases all the time. The last one was this dude on a bike with about 20 police behind him going 30mph, he had threated to kill himself or anyone who tried to stop him. He came all the way from the big city out to where we are and stopped about 5 miles past the dealership. Got off his bike and turned around with the gun and about 10 cops opened fire on him. I was coming in to work and going across the bridge when the whole parade passed under me, had no idea what was going on so instead of going to work I turned up the access road and followed along, ended up seeing the take down....wont forget that one.... People with all kinds of traveling drama, most end up working out good but sometimes you have people that are assholes with POS cars that we dont service that act like it is our fault they are brokeasses and dont take care of their cars before traveling cross country. Also, lot of crazy airplane stories for some reason. There was this little jet, looked like maybe a Korean war era f-84 or T-33 that would rip past following the interstate. You would hear it coming and it would be past the shop before you could run out to see wtf. One time he did a sharp 180 about a mile up and came blasting back, couldn't have been more that 250ft up. Did that once a week for a month or so, haven't seen him since. Choppers of all sorts 100ft off the ground, one time a group of Blackhawks came by, thought there was something going on since there was 5-6 all hauling ass. C-5's and 17's lining up for Lackland with their brakes on waking up the neighborhood, and the best is when its airshow time and all the war birds and bombers are all about.
my uncle Steve worked as a car salesman in the 80's at a large ford dealer. he had been an operating engineer but the excavating co. he worked for had gone out of business and he was desperate for work. he always had a gift for gab so he did quite well as a salesman. he said he liked to sell used cars more than new cars as the profit for him was higher . one day he spotted a man walking around the used car area and hot footed it out to see if he could help him. the guy said he was looking for a used Monte carlo, steve said that they had no monte's but did have a Cutlass and did he want to look at that. after looking at it the guy says he wants to test drive so steve gets some plates and keys for a drive. the guy asks steve to drive first and he would ride. steve thought this was odd but did it anyway. after a few miles he pulled into a dead end street, parked and asked if the guy was ready to drive? he said yes and got in the dr side while steve buckled into the pass side. he said the guy took forever adjusting the seats, mirrors and etc. then looked over at him and said "are you ready?" with that the guy put the car in drive and floored the gas! at the end of the street he jumped the curb and headed straight for a house never steering at all! steve said he saw that the were going to hit a tree so he grabbed the wheel and yanked it into a turn to miss the tree and then got his left foot over the trans hump and kicked the guys foot off the accelerator just before he hit the house. after it was all over he found out that the guy was mentally challenged and had never driven a car before. he had been living in a group home near the dealership and was going to buy a car( don't know where he planed to get the $) and drive to California to see his mother. steve said he learned his lesson and never went on a test drive without seeing the drivers license after that!
2 brothers I know took a eagle talon for "weekend test drive". Pulled the motor and put it in their Talon rally car for a race..Placed in the top 10 and then pulled the motor back out,,into the "test drive car" and returned to dealer...amazingly they have no sponsor.
Gee, too many stories. Worked in the paint shop at a Lincoln/ Mercury dealer in the 70's. Watched a new Town Car fall off the top of a transport when one ramp gave out. Landed on the back corner, I thought it was going to roll on over. They had a tough time getting it off. Looked out into the body shop one day to see a bodyman welding a new 1/4 on a Couger. He's welding away, didn't notice the whole headliner was ablaze and dropping flaming chunks onto the seats. That got exciting for a bit, luckly we got the fire out with extingisers before the whole shop went up. Had the used car manager tell me they just traded for this "goofy looking Torino, must be Canadian or something". I go check it out and here sits a Talladaga, 429/ 4 speed car. I ask what they are going to do with it, he told me if I wanted it just give them the $400 they have in it, he thought they could never sell that big motor (gas crunch days). By the time I got back from going to the bank on my lunch hour the dealer's owner, a car collector, had seen it and claimed it for himself. Few year later at a Chevy dealership we had a new bodyman that claimed he knew how to use a frame rack. In the process of doing a "light" pull on an almost new Citation he managed to rip the front frame rail off the floorpan. The whole front clip, engine and all spun around and landed on the floor next to the rack. He didn't come back the next day and that Citation was still sitting in 2 pieces behind the shop when I left ther a year later. Last one for now involved my older brother. 1962, his high school buddy's dad was a sales manager for the Dodge dealership. He had sold a fleet of new Dodge police cars to the city of Santa Fe and had to deliver them (60 miles from Albuquerque). He hired my brother and 3 of his buddies to drive them up and then come back with his son who drove his new demo up to bring them back. Who in their right mind would put high school guys in big block police cruiser and send them on thier way? All was fine, my brother said they were having a good time cruising along around 100 mph or so till they came up on a tractor putting along being followed by a 50ish Chevy coupe. Assuming the Chevy was escorting the tractor the didn't expect it to pull out to pass just as the got there. Luckily they manage not to hit either the tractor or the little lady in the Chevy but it shook them up preety good. By the time they got back to Albuquerque, Santa Fe had called demanding new tires, seemed all 4 new cars had 4 flat spotted tires each from being lock up. Needless to say, they all lost their part time driving gig.
I'm kinda outta them for the moment but give me a day to recollect some past adventures in our dealerships please.
Back in the day I was selling VW/Audi's. My friend,Dave the other, car salesman waited on a young man with his buddy. They were interested in a used SS Chevelle and since Dave was alone that day he let the young man test drive the car without him along. While the two were on their test drive a friend of Dave's called him and asked if he had someone out test driving the Chevelle? Dave said he did and the caller said he saw a couple young guys beating the shit out of the car. When the the driver got back and pulled up and got outa the car Dave walked over and knocked him right on his ass and threatened to do the same to his pal. He didn't buy the car??
Good thread, I grew up with a used car dealership in the family.. I remember a young man having a 2 year old Cadillac towed in that wouldn't turn over. He had borrowed the car from his father (who had purchased the car earlier that week) to take some girl on a date. He had stopped at a service station for some gas and the attendant checked the oil and told him it was low.. He drove the car to the local parts store, purchased oil and proceeded to fill the car with oil in the parking lot of the store (Canadian Tire) after filling it up the car would not turn over. When we pulled the dipstick the oil kind of guysered out. Turned out he had filled the oil until he could see it inside the valve cover.. Must've cost him a small fortune.. And hydro-locked the engine. An apprentice tech was working on his recently acquired 1970 Mustang Mach 1, now being that it was a 30 year old Canadian car she was a little on the rough side.. He had her on the hoist and was welding up a custom exhaust he had spent all day fabricating.. When he was finishing the final weld on the H pipe he could smell burning.. Looked up to see the roof of the shop filling with smoke.. Dropped the car off the hoist and pushed it outside to let it burn to the ground and save the shop.. Turns out there was a hole in the floor with exposed carpet matting right above the H pipe.. If he was smarter he would have grabbed the outdoor garden hose (which actually had melted from the fire because it was so close to the car) and saved the car! I hate Fords so I went out and got me a Merc..
I sold cars for a number of years at Ford Dealerships back in the 80's. One memorable test drive was with a kid who did not know how to drive a stick. Luckily got back to dealership unharmed but needing a change of underwear. We had a guy trade in a Chevy diesel pickup on a new Ford Diesel. We never figured out how the guy made it into the Dealership because the truck never ran while we had it. We delivered a truck to a guy on his good credit. We could not get him financed. Turns out he had several social security numbers in the system. One of his referenced residences turned out to be a show home in a neighboring town. And one of his references turned up on his credit report - referencing himself with a different name. I had to go looking for the truck with no luck. We finally talked to the guy's wife and had to threaten him with grand theft auto. He brought the truck back. I sold a VW convertible to a friend of mine. After the deal was done we walked out to the car and pulled up the carpet in the back seat. There was no floor! He still took the car because he was going to resell it anyway. We took in a 73 Grand Torino Sport Fastback that I bought off the back lot for $300. Turns out it was a 4-speed with factory Hurst shifter, 351 Q-code motor, buckets, console, A/C, Traction-loc, etc. It had well over 260,000 miles on it when I got rid of it and had never been apart. Smoked and used oil but would still burn the tires up into 3rd gear. Wonder what that car would be worth today. I once took a test drive in a truck and by the time I got back to the Dealership, every light on the dash was on that could go on. I didn't buy the truck. I once sold a car off the Dealership lot to a guy waiting for a bus. There was a girl who would flash us every time she walked by the Dealership. We had a guy bring his truck in to get warrenty work. Seems the truck was bowed in the middle. The guy claimed the frame just bent. The Ford Rep said no way because it appeared he had been doing some hill climbing and jumping. Guess it is still bent.
Father had a Subaru wagon back in the 80's and was anal about the dealer doing all the oil changes and such. The only Subaru dealer in town was also a Mercedes dealer. One Saturday morning my brother and I were waiting for the wagon to be finished when a guy in a suit walks in. He looks like death warmed over and hung over as hell. The Sales guys push the rookie out to deal with him. Hung-over-suit guy looks at the Mercedes Convertable 450 SL (or something like that) and asks how much. SThe Rookie shoots him a quote (don't recall the $$ but it was a lot to us). Hung-over-suit guy barely bats an eye and says... "F%$#... give me one in silver and one in white...Can't buy my daughter a car without get'n one for the F%$# wife now can I ???... even if it is her F'n graduation !!" He writes a cheque on the hood of the car and mumbles something about the dealership eating the "bullshit" charges. Hands the cheque to the Rookie and collapses into one of the chairs with the warning... don't take all "F'n day" You should have seen the look on the Rookie's face when he came out of the Sales Manager's office... We did ... and I'm guessing the bank cleared the cheque...
Back in 1969, I work for a Chevy garage in York, Maine, doing body work. since I was the lowest paid, I got all of the overtime and did most of the body work on the cars traded in. I was working all day on a green Nova, 396, 4 speed, and was told to stick with it until it was done. Well it was Wed. night, and that was the night that New England Dragway was running. Got the car done, called my buddy and took the car to see what it could do. No issues, the car ran OK, and we got the car back in time. The next day, a guy came in to look at it, and the salesmen wanted to know if he wanted to take a test drive. The guy said, "no, I already seen it run" I was drafted two weeks later, in payment for my sins.
My friend's father worked at the Chevy dealership in Austin (still does) in the early 70's. He said he remembered a couple of the L-88 (I think) Corvettes come in and instantly were returned to the service shop by customers who complained the cars would barely idle. He stood there with the manager and explained the idle was as good as it got for those cars. Anyhow, they were downtown then and had a problem with people stealing Corvettes at night. They'd just cut the chains on the gates and drive them out. So they started parking a couple cars - usually Impalas - in front of the gates. So the thieves would first steal a Dually, use it to smash through the Impalas, then drive the Corvettes out. It was decided that at night all the Corvettes would be parked inside the showroom and service bays. That pretty much stopped the thieves. The service bays used the old single post lifts, which were air-over-hyraulic powered and sunk into the floor. Each night, the service manager would shut down the operations and kill all the air compressors, then pull the air bleed to let the water out of the lines. Because there were often more Corvettes than bays, they would pull one over each side of the lift, then in the morning they would pull them back out before using the lifts. One lift, a Corvette half on and half off each side. No one is sure how, but one morning the lever that raised the lift was nudged over. When the service manage came in, he turned on the compressors, closed the air bleed, and went to start the coffee pot. A while later, he heard the two Corvettes come crashing down, one of which tumbled into a third parked Corvette.
The Jalopy Journal
