So I was driving along today and got to thinking about old car dealers and some of the things they've seen over the years. Anyone here work at a car dealership and have interesting stories. Such as someone taking a test drive and totaling the car before being done with the test drive. There's got to be some really good stories out there.
Well., yes now that you ask. From 1976 onward I was a Datsun/Nissan dealer. About 1979 or 1980 this guy came in and was looking for car for his girl friend. Brought her back that evening and she was interested in the 200SX, a sporty little coupe. We put them into it, him driving, btw, it was a 5 speed, and sent them out for a test drive. A little while later they returned and stopped in front of the show room, but at a right angle to it, not pointed toward it. Suddenly the engine roared, the car leaped forward and glanced off three other new cars parked in front of the showroom, damaging the front ends of all three plus serious damage to the 200SX front and side. She got confused, floored the engine and sidestepped the clutch. Well, if that wasn't bad enough, they just hurried to their car and left. Worse, once I found out who her insurance company was, I learned a very valuable lesson. My reasoning was, she damaged my cars, she is liable, her insurance should pay the damages. Not so. The rule is, "the insuance follows the car". In other words, whoever owns the car and insures it, is on the hook for the damage, because the driver was doing so with the permission of the owner. Cost me quite a bit at the time, deductibles you know. Not to mention four previously undamaged new cars now with repairs that had to be disclosed to a purchaser and the 'discount' required to compensate them for the 'damage history'................... Oh yes, one other............about '82 or '83 I was also selling Chrysler products and had a new Gold 5th Avenue for a demo. Some people came in with a 'bustleback' Seville and wanted to test drive the 5th Ave. No problem........salesman put them in it and off they go. After about 45 minutes or so, I'm asking "where is my demo?"..........just as that conversation is taking place, we happen to look out in the street and here is the 5th Ave waiting to make a left turn into our driveway........great.........except the side is caved in! The people drive in next to the showroom, open the doors and trunk and start unloading grocery bags!! Grocery bags!! My head was about to explode and I go outside and say "what happened.....you went grocery shopping in my car!!??" The woman, a big rough cut broad says "we got hit in the parking lot. ..hey, it's insured"........they finish unloading/loading the groceries and leave. But, while they are unloading, I notice my 5th is parked perpendicular to their Caddy...........I'm thinking........"what a GREAT OPPORTUNITY" to drive the 5th into the side of their Caddy and say "hey, it's insured!!"........but I didn't.......to this day I soundly regret not doing that..............but my better judgement prevailed...........to my dying day I will wish I had a 'do over' on that one. What ever the cost or repercussions, it would have been worth it to see the look on their faces and tell the story the way it should have been. There are more stories...............but that will do for now. Ray
Back in 89 worked at a Buick/Dodge/BMW/Suzuki dealership. A transporter was unloading Suzuki Sidekicks. General managers crazy-assed wife hops in one, BEFORE it is signed in, and takes off around the parking lot. Yep, flips it. Gen Mgr had to write a check for it, 2 yrs later it was still sitting behind the body shop. peace
In college my dad and i both worked for a brief time for a large local Ford Dealer. We knew cars, built cars, painted cars and knew a bit more about that than any of the managers. We caught several wrecks that had been dolled up and the sales manager was ready to give a good trade in to. Easy catches like overspray and mismatched trimtape under the moldings. But the best one was about a 3 year old fullsize Bronco that came in off auction with several program cars. This was around the time of some Big Muddy Flooding, truck came from down south. Thing had some wierd electrical issues so I started looking at it one day. Within a couple minutes I found proof that it was prob sitting in 3-4 feet of water. The rear seat mounts were starting to corrode, wiring on top of the front inner fenders were as well. the sucker would not sell, so I got to drive it to college and proceded to take a 2 hour spot in front of teh Student Union all day while I was in class (not registered to me, yes I got a ticket) and then delivered it to the used car dealer that bought it and drove the lemon they were pawning off on us backl to the dealership............................
had a used car lot back in the late seventies. I get a call from my salesman saying he "thinks" he might have "lost" the Eldo ragtop. I asked "Lost in you set it down and now can't find it?" He says "No, more like a guy's been out in it for over an hour". Long story short. Guy apparently needed to get to the airport, so he decided to use the Eldo as his cab. Funny thing was he dropped it off at a detail shop with instructions to call my lot when they got it done. Cost me fifty bucks(but it did look good). Salesman was holding a bogus license. Cops told me there wasn't much I could do, since my salesman had "given" permission for test drive.
Once again, college job. Was Lot manager, that meant I was basically boy Friday. had to run an errand. Usually you just jump into whatever was close/not being test driven etc. I always took the less desireable stuff anyway but this day took a Porsche. Was heading to another one of our dealerships in town doing 60 in some S curves when I spotted two new car salesmen eating burgers in the park parking lot and smoking a doobie. I was busted but they were busted worse. I pulled up to them and popped the hood and asked them if they saw any smoke outta the car
I am going to look bad after all these posts but what the hell. Took a year old Dodge Dakota to our bodyshop to pick up a snowplow, shop guys loaded it up and as I was pulling out of the alley got cutoff...........the supports to teh plow hit the cab above my head and made two identical dents in it the when it lurched forward. truck sat a tad high, I dont think anyone ever looked or noticed
Last one. A pal in college was part of a family dealership in a small town in North Dakota. They would buy cars at teh Denver auto auction and a bunch of us idiots would do a banzai run of 24 hours from school down there and up to ND then back to Sd for $100 a pop. 6 cars travelling north in Wyoming at 100+ with radar detectors and CBs at Odark thirty. We almost lost 5 caddilacs in Speafish Canyon at sunup one time, herd of deer wandered out in front of us. Found out caffiene and NoDoz were not cool that trip.
The most unnerveing thing I ever witnessed happend in a Chevy dealership in the early 70's. The shop secretary ordered her college aged daughter a new Camaro. It came in midweek and I serviced it out, sounded good. Daughter cut Fri. classes and came in early the day before. Her and her mother took off for a town about 20 miles away, but were back in about 10 minutes with a rod knocking. Mother marched up to shop foreman and announced that she did not want a blankety blank patch job, she wanted a new motor. Shop foreman patted her on the shoulder and assured he would take care of it. She went back to the front office, and he pulled the Camaro over the wash pit and put it in park, and then held the throttle to the floor. I swear it seemed like an eternety before that 350 blew. Oil and coolant ran out from underneath it, and he calmly walked to the front and ordered a new shortblock. I did find a few bent valves and pushrods, but I never told her.
I've worked at a Ford dealership for almost 17 years now, started out right out of high school working as a lot attendant. That first summer I was working, one of the other lot guys and I had the task of getting all the rows of cars nice and straight for this big weekend sale coming up. Our front row was right on a main drag here in town and there were these chains that ran around the lot that hung in between these concrete pillars about 2 feet off the ground or so. So I jumped into this mid sized GM car, like a Corsica or something like that and started it to pull it forward a few feet. Put it into gear and my foot slipped off the brake. Thank god I wasn't right in front of one of those concrete pillars, but I did run the chain up the hood, over the windshield, across the entire top, down the back window, and almost all the way to back of the deck lid by the time my foot finally found the pedal again. The front tires ended up down off the sidewalk on the other side of the chain and all I could see was traffic heading right at me. Instead of just pulling it down off the sidewalk and driving it around the block back onto the lot, idiot 18 year old instincts kicked in real fast as I threw it into reverse, dragging the chain back across the deck lid, up the back window, across the roof, down the windshield, and back across the hood again, leaving the car with some "custom" body lines from front to back. We ended up running it back to our detail shop where the buffed it out, and we actually ended up selling it for full price that weekend.
Not really about the dealership where I worked but right beside the shop there is a train bridge going over the street out front.The street dips under the bridge for clearance. Since I live close by I was walking out the front door at noon to go home for lunch. Just then a tractor trailer was coming out from under the bridge with a load of Fords for another dealership in town. Guess the driver forgot to check his load height as the truck facing forwards on the top didn't clear the bridge. At the speed he was going the cab of the truck got torn right off and folded backwards into the box in the blink of an eye! Took the guy a block to get stopped. He got out ,looked up and shook his head then took off. The bridge gets hit all of the time.....http://www.vpike.com?e=45.344014,-80.026266:270.38:28%20bowes%20street%20parry%20sound%20ontario
We had a 5 speed equipped car sitting on the lot. I don't know if it's relevant or not but to make the story accurate, I'll note an Asian guy opens the door and sits in it with one foot n the car and one outside on the ground. For some reason he engages the clutch and starts it. He then decides to get out of the car. Once he removes his foot from the clutch, off it goes, right through one of the large showroom windows. Here's my favorite of all time. Young couple comes in. Very attractive young wife. Three of us are watching her wander the lot looking at cars. She stops at one car and leans over to look at something. One salesman says "I'd love to bend her over that car". What he couldn't see but the other two of us could was that her husband was sitting right around the corner from him. We had a guy come in saying that he was going to sue the manufacturer and dealer for selling him a defective truck. There was light damage on the front that he said was from him parking it and it jumping out of gear and rolling into a building, Service manager agree's to go out and look at the truck and notes around 20 beer cans in the bed. He tells the guy "I think right there is your problem" and walks back in leaving the guy standing there. He left. Most who have dealt with the public probably can tell stories all day.
In 65 I was walking past a GM dealership in Richmond Hill, Ontario and stopped to watch a customer drive his new Impala away. Just got the nose of it onto the street when he was T boned by a guy. He was unhurt, but not happy.
A friend was a mechanic at a GM dealership in Vancouver. He was working on a new Caddy Eldorado. He was told to hook it up to the scope to check it out. Don't touch anything, just trouble shoot it. He was doing an under load test with the car in reverse and the ebrake on. Next thing he sees is a Caddy in the reflection of the scope glass backing away at speed. Went toward the shop door with the driver door open and folded it into the front fender. Luckily it stopped, but had to make a quick trip to the body shop.
My buddy had taken his turbo sprint to the GM dealer to trade it in. Was looking at some kind of convert. Couldn't make a deal, so went to leave. In the meantime, someone at the dealership had run over his little car. They made him a good deal.
When I worked at a Mercury dealership in the late sixties our shop foreman took a new car out for a sticking throttle problem. He gunned it from the dealership, the throttle stuck and before he could get it under control he piled the car up. Guess the customer wasn't lying.
In the mid sixties I worked at a Chrysler dealer as the lot and detail guy. I was cleaning up a trade in 60 Pontiac 2-door post, 283-3spd standard. The owner walked by and said not to waste a lot of time on a hundred dollar car. I said really, it is a hundred dollar car, I'll take it. The sales manager couldn't figure out why the owner was selling me a 6 year old car for 100 bucks. Hey, he set the price. At least he stuck by it.
Not a dealership, but a garage. We stopped one night to see a friend working at a garage. I don't know who put the car on the hoist, but it had fallen off the hydraulic center post hoist and was stuck on its side between the wall and the hoist.
My buddy goes to the Chevy dealer to pick up his new Caprice wagon, this was in 1985 or so. It was special order so it took 6 weeks. At the dealer, they kept stalling him and finally he demanded to see the car. It was coming off the lift when he got into the shop, something was fishy so he looks the car over. He's a sharp guy, pops the hood and sees a fresh set of shiny fender shims at the cowl and paint chipped at the radiator support screws. To make a long story short, the car got damaged coming off the transporter and the dealer tried to dummy it up. He has a cow, promises to raise all sorts of hell and wants his deposit back NOW. The manager comes out and they strike a deal for a car off the lot with more goodies in it for the same price and some free maintenance thrown in as well. I'm not sure if he ever took them up on the maintenance part of the deal. Bob
Back in the nineties in Melbourne, Australia the only, just released Mercedes-Benz 600SEL in the state was taken for a test drive by a potential "buyer". It turned out he was a bank robber and used it as the getaway car from the bank robbery he did that day. He crashed into the back of some other car during the getaway and that was the last time that benz was ever seen.
One more. I'm in a local scrap yard when I was jerking junk cars for a living. They had a brand new Chevette sitting there with 1.9 miles on the odometer. The insurance guy from the dealer was there overseeing them torching out all the vin tags, which were given back to the insurance guy. He stayed to watch the car go into the crusher and left. All the yard did was take the tires and wheels off. The car fell off the transporter at the dealer and the roof was squashed on one side. As soon as the insurance guy left, the car came out of the crusher, went for a short ride on the forklift and had the new engine and transmission removed, then it got crushed for good. Bob
Was told this story when I was much younger by an uncle. You know the ones, been around a long time and they have ten million stories for every subject. MY uncle had a very clean XY Falcon back then (Early 80s), he came around one day and uncle Frank just happened to be there, it prompted this story. Way back in 72' (Year I was born) they had a brand spanking new GTHO Phase III Falcon on the floor. It was a big dollar car back then so they were careful with who test drove it. One day an older Mercedes pulled in and out steps a well kept middle aged gentleman. He came in to check out the Phase III, after a little while and a conversation with the sales man they let him take it out for a test drive. They stood there and watched it drive out the driveway, it was the last time they ever saw the car again! Once it became apparent that the car was gone they called the cops. They turned up and immediately took a lot of interest in the Mercedes. Turns out the Mercedes had been reported stolen from a second hand dealers earlier that day. I guess he wanted to look well to do so they would let him test drive the Phase III. Doc.
This one is a little lengthy, but 'll try to compress it.........I was working in a VW store in St. Louis in the early 70's. there were about 6 VW stores in the metro area, one of whom was notorious and a difficult competitor, about 6 miles away. One day a young guy comes in, wants to trade his Bug for a Karmann-Ghia. We make the deal, for delivery the next day. Wanting to prevent him from further 'shopping', we 'de-horsed' him, keeping his trade and putting him in one of our demos. Next morning, we come in and find our demo back, his trade gone........so, we figured pretty quick what had happened. He went to the 'competitor', they made him a deal, brought our demo back and took his Bug. But, WE had the title and a set of keys. So me and another guy grab a near new Monte Carlo from the used car lot and go to the other VW store and sure enough, there is the Bug, sitting up front across the service lanes from the showroom. So Clay jumps in the Bug and it won't start....we quickly check the distributor, the rotor is gone. No problem........it's a VW store, lots of them sitting around. We drive the Monte around back, find a like year Bug, pull the rotor, back up front, pop in the rotor and away we go. It was during the lunch hour, the place is kind of busy and no one notices! We go back to our store and call the customer and ask why he hasn't been in to pickup his new KG. His mom answers and says there must be some mistake. We say, no mistake as far as we know, we have his trade in and his new KG is ready for delivery. Would like to have been a fly on the wall when the other dealership got THE CALL from the customer..........and discovered the Bug was gone! Ray
I was working at Jack Ross Lincoln Mercury in the Tempe Autoplex as a lot boy in 89. I was told to drive a car out to Leisure World - it was an 89 Lincoln Continental. I get into Mesa and I hit a median. I get to a pay phone and call the owner to tell him what happened (no f'n way I am going to tell my boss). The owner came to get the car and myself with a tow truck (I was 17 and a bit nervous, leaving for the Army soon). The owner laughed with me for a while, an older gentleman (Leisure World is a retirement village). He brings me back to his place and I see a picture of John Wayne and this guy - then the name hit me who it was - Ben Johnson. When I was in the Army we used to write each other and when I got out of Ranger school he gave me one of his cowboy hats.
My Dad went with my sister and bought her a new 1976 Nova. Her first car. They special ordered it. It finally came in and the driver tore the bumper off and damaged the front fender on one side taking it off the truck. Dad told the salesman I dont want it. The salesman was pissed and tried everything to get my Dad to take the car. Dad just said no. The salesman said I will never sell you another car! My Dad said I will come down there today and make your boss make you sell me a car. Dad went to the dealer and came home with my sister a brand new 1976 comaro with a big price drop for all his shit. Dad worked for a company that owned about 10+ car lots and storage garages down town... well Dads company stored the cars for the lease companies, dealerships etc etc. My Dad was related to the owner. He could have screwed with them but he didnt.
I worked in a ford garage from 1968-1972 started out washing cars and ended as a tech.One of my jobs was preping new cars for delivery.I would check them over instal hubcaps, antenas,floor mats,check fulids,and take them for test drives.I would pick up my buddy and then go to a straight county road.Two young kids with brand new mustangs,torinos,cobra jets,and even a boss 302.Left a lot of rubber on that old road
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