For more years that I care to remember we went thru times where aftermarket radio face plates were being stolen off unlocked freshly traded units in the back line of our To*&@a dealership. Hardly ever did we lose an entire radio but those freakin' face plates never stayed in a car for more than a day. After maybe 5 years of this nonsense I got a call from the GM dealer next door and he's telling me he's had the same on-going problem for two or three years. We both set up camers, baited cars but never could catch the thief. One day months later I'm at the stereo shop a block behind us and I'm buying some HID lights from him to replace a set that were swiped out of an in stock used hi line sedan when I spy in the office a huge glass cabinet stuffed (as in overflowing with) aftermarket face plates. I ask him where he gets them from and he tells me he buys them from "Mike". "You mean Mike, my lot man?" I ask. He responds "Yes, he tells me you just throw them out when a vehicle with an aftermarket radio gets traded in" I was dumbfounded! One of my own, most trusted employees was robbing these from me, selling them to this shop right behind me for fifty bucks or so then thru a chain I had been purchasing back same said "replacement" face plates for 100 - $125. And yes.........Mikes close buddy Edgar, the lot man at the GM store, was in the deal too, stealing from his employer and selling the hot face plates. I felt so stupid and betrayed to have this going on right under my watch and involving a trusted person who worked under my command. We fired Mike that afternoon and in the 5 years since I think only 2 face-plates have walked out of our dealership. The past two years the new problem is catalytic converters being robbed off some of our new trucks. The price of rare metal is up, steel is up, and a small agile person with a fully charged power saw can slither under a parked 4x4 and have it off in 90 seconds. To replace a sawed off cat. and exhaust system can run me from $1500 to over $4500 in some cases. Earlier this summer in one night they circumcised 5 new 4x4 trucks. A 6th one was found with the blade still suck in the pipe but the system was still partially intact. His battery must have died on that last truck he touched.
dammit, we don't need such serious stories. we want the humorous ones. but that last story is a sad one. Lots of convertors being stolen these days.
I'll work up some humor after a couple of aspirins and some beauty sleep I need tonight. It's been a grind this week! I'll have to relay the story too you about the tall attractive brunette that came into the dealership to sell me her Vega Kamback ( remember those?) some years ago.
A girl phones me at the used car lot one afternoon to tell me she want to sell me her car, a Vega Kamback. I really don't want a Vega, but to help her out I say bring it down so I can see it as it's been a long time since I last saw it plus it's probably been 2 years since I last saw her. She's like sorta okay looking, pretty good shape, so-so face, she used to chase me all over the auction when she worked there, kind of on the prowl type girl. She comes in the door about 7:00 PM that evening covered from neck to toe in a tight green raincoat. She looks pretty good these days I'm thinking. I don't see her Vega parked out front of the dealership though. I ask her where her car is. She tells me she parked at the store beside us and walked over to see if I was alone or busy with someone. I ask her politely to go get the car as I have to stay near the phones and desk as I'm all alone tonight at the dealership this quiet spring night. As she walks out the door I'm thinking how odd it is she wore this tight fitting foxy raincoat on a clear night without a rain cloud in sight. She's back soon with the Vega and I can tell it's a gem. Wicked straight, very low miles, auto. trans and it even has factory air. It would make for a nice sbc conversion. After negotiating she closes me on a proposition she would like to make. She hops up on the desk behind mine , drops the raincoat and all she's wearing is a smile! She kneels down on the desk and starts rocking and gyrating in front of me. Next she grabs her left leg and screams real loud. I'm shaking and confused now and thinking maybe I'd better call my wife and ask for a permission slip on what's about to unfold. The chick is holding her leg and blood is running out of a cut just below her knee. Seems my brother left a bunch of razer blades there after detailing some car and she landed on them. If the swelling (and bleeding) doesn't stop in 4 hours call your doctor. After a trip to the emergency room and I tidyed my brother's desk the world was okay again. I sold her Vega cheap and quickly just to put the whole matter out of my mind. Very strange transaction.
wow, that is a story to remember. Your brother needed a kick in the butt for ruining the rest of the show due to his lack of organization. Did you tell your wife?
Although I am a dealer myself and could have some stories for this thread, I rather tell you about a buddy of mine. My buddy sells cheap cars.... really cheap! He is selling a '91 Chevy Geo Metro for 900 bucks with a New York State Inspection and a 30 day warranty. Now you guys know what a Metro is.... It's one of those little 3 cylinder shitboxes that would fit in the bed of your Super Duty pickup. Well this thing was your typical NY rotted shitboxes and it was only 900 bucks. Well my buddy had some ditsy broad that was interested in it and what do you think she asked him????? Do you have a Carfax on it!!!!!! Did I mention it was a 900 dollar Geo Metro shitbox?!?!
not a dealer story but.......a neighbor 3 years older then I was came home on leave from Vietnam and had a special deal from a traveling Ford show at the military bases and bought a new 1969 Mustang Mach 1, 390, 4 speed, bright red, jewel of a car. He goes back to 'nam for anouther year and his brother in law religiously drives car 20-25 miles once a week to keep car "fresh". Guy comes home to perfect car, meets girl and within a week wraps it around a power pole while getting a "BJ" while driving ('70's equal of texting? <grin>) from new squeeze.
Somone rented the car and swapped out the wheels and tires to thier car![/QUOTE] I worked with a "weekend minister" who did this on a regular basis, he even rented a pontiac with a V6 like his and swapped coils and plugs, he said there was nothing wrong with screwing car dealers and rental agents as they were "thieves".
One summer afternoon around 1978 at the conclusion of the dealer auction in Concord Mass a fellow dealer offered me a ride back to my dad's used car lot as I had sold out and bought nothing for the ride home. He tells me to wait by the check-in shack and he'll come over and pick me up in a few minutes. Around the corner he appears in a gorgeous Firethorn Red '76 Coupe De Ville with the half white roof and white leather interior. Car looked fantastic, just dripping in pimp elegance. For a few miles were running route 2 toward Boston direction when after crossing some washboard road surface I notice daylight appearing around the right hand windshield and the A pillar. A few minutes later he sees more daylight appearing around his driver's side of the entire windshield and roof area. By the time we hit my dad's lot the windshield is ready to take an exit plus the roof and A pillars are covered in enormous cracks. Back to the auction he went with the Caddy to arbitrate it. It had been clipped from the cowl forward and they found significant Bondo and fish plating in the front frame. At least he was told later that the 4500 mile were correct and accurate. It spent most of it's life dormant in a body shop. Got his check back the next day.
This is more spooky than funny... As I mentioned in a previous post, I worked for a Chry-Ply-FIAT dealership in 1978-79. Three years previously, a terrific friend I knew in high school got killed in an accident involving his new 1976 FIAT X1/9 and a '76 Plymouth Fury, where the Fury hit him and essentially used his car as a ramp. Killed him on the spot, and the Fury driver was in a coma for a few months. The X1/9 was trashed in the front, but surprisingly intact from the seats back. The engine and transaxle were untouched because of their location - in back. Fast forward to late 1978... One day, we had three X1/9s in the dealership. One had a blown-up engine, one had a bad transaxle, and the other had rear body damage. The manager knew about my friend's car, which was at a local salvage yard and hid away for a future build. The dealer bought the car from the salvage and proceeded to part the car out to the three cars in need of repair at the shop. The day they brought the car in, I saw the car and immediately knew whose car it had been, and wanted nothing to do with it! I wouldn't get within ten feet of it; hell, my friend died in that car! So, the parting begins... It's on the service department floor, where the mechanic is getting ready to pull the engine and transaxle. A stand slips and the car lands on his ankle, crushing it! The guy finishing the removal after that, gets a finger crushed that same day, by that same car. On to the body shop, where the rear half is getting cut off to repair the car with body damage. The body guy sets fire to the car in the process, but saves the rear clip before things get stupid. So, the engine goes in one car, the trans goes in a second, and the rear clip goes on a third. All is well, right? Nope...The body repaired-car gets in a wreck not a mile from the dealership. The engine transplant car catches fire inside the owner's garage, and burns the house up (he survived!). The car that got the trans didn't last a month before it, too, suffered a tragic fate when it got rear-ended. In front of the dealership! Now, the kicker...the scrap guy that picked up the remains of my friend's car, ALSO got in a wreck on the way to the scrappers and totalled his truck out. And they wondered why I would not get near that X1/9! Christine's hot little Italian cousin, I figure.
Last winter one of my own sales people expressed interest in leasing a new Rav4 Sport and wanted to trade in his 8 year old Honda CRV. Normally I'm all over used CRV's being they are hot export models. As we say in the trade "They Ship". We gave him the new Rav4 for net net and then a little more off to help him. I appraised his old CRV for a lot of money and considering the CRV he owned was a stick, I had my doubts that shippers would buy it I went out the back door, walked around it once, hopped in and released the emergency brake, fired it up and drove it a short distance. Being near zero degrees that night when I returned to his parking spot I left the car in first gear as I didnt want to ice up the emergency brake and have it frozen in that spot by the time he would leave. I killed the engine, locked the car up and went inside to finish his deal. Everything is all set and Manny agrees to drive home the new car the next afternoon. Manny meets me in my office first thing next morning to tell me I wrecked his car. "What, how !!??" I ask. When he left work the prior night after I parked his car he hit the auto start to warm it up for his ride home. See where this is going now? Engine starts (in gear) and across the yard the little CRV scoots crushing it's front bumper and light assembly. Nobody got hurt, I took another $600 off the price of his deal and we laughed and shook hands on it. I never saw a standard transmission car with an auto-start before and now I know why. Yes.........I did get my ass handed to me when I wholesaled Manny's CRV at the auction. Sticks with damage are hard sellers.
I worked at Lincoln dealership in the early 70's. Tecnican next to me was prepping several of them for delivery one after another and got a little careless about checking the 2 post lift. Came in the stall in a black Town Coupe and hit the front carriage spinning it 90 degrees to the control arms. When he lifted the car it came up about 4' before it came sideways off the lift and crashed into all kinds of stuff. The new owner who was sitting watching from the service window went into the owners office and had them find him another new coupe. We ended up fixing that one and put it in the showroom.
Cracked up a good customers late model Accord once while driving it out to the back yard to inspect it. A fellow employee came flying thru the display area in his spiffy shiny Saab convertible like his ass was on fire and crashed right into the right 3/4 nose of Mr. Customer's nice late model Accord. I had to walk back to the showroom, with tail between my legs, and tell the customer I just wrecked his car. Funny thing was when the customer asked me could he still get the same deal with his car wrecked or was I going to charge him more. I bettered the figure, sold him the Camry for less than cost and earned a customer for life. I had to swallow a lot of pride and lost dollars.
I had a distant relative who back in the day would test drive four new cars in one day . Each car would come back after the test drive with the spare tire missing. His car would then have a new set of tires.
This is exactly why I went with my customers on every test drive. To those of you that "claim" that the dealer is the one that is the crook, you people need to know what the customer is really like. I've seen these bastards (the customer) purposely blow up an engine and/or transmission on the last week of their warranty just so they can (try) and get a new one. Fortunately for me (unfortunately for them) this can easily be proven in a court of law. Sucks to be them!
Buick car dealer.....Buffalo....winter...snow......Another tech just pulled a car off of the front end alignment pit. I pulled on a used Buick and slid off the end of the rack and almost hit the tower. The previous tech had not cleaned off the slush and snow...needless to say the next day there was a large sign regarding cleaning off the snow and slush before pulling a car on the rack... Chevy dealer...Lot boy pulls used Buick into service bay at night after the compressors had been shut down. He must of pulled and locked the handle for the lift and realized there was no air. We came in and found the Buick sitting nose up because only two of the lift arms were under it. Very little damage to the rear bumper. New car delivery....Came in early....all the cars were off of the truck except for a Chevette on the top. The driver said it would not move in reverse. It took about 4 hours to get the car off of the trailer. We called a tow truck and used sand on the ramps and dragged it off...very slowly. On a lift I determined it was due to a tranmission problem. Upon disassembly I found the reverse spag (one way clutch) had been installed upside down....locked up in reverse. About 3 months later ther was a TSB on how put the sprag in properly..... Buick dealer.....another tech was tuning up a car and setting the idle speed. Instead of putting the shifter in drive and locking down the parking brake, he reached down to the base of the column in the engine compartment and moved the linkage to the drive position.......It rolled onto his foot. Now he could not reach down to put in reverse. EVERYONE in the dealer came down and stood around the car, pointing and laughing....130 MPH Corvette races down the main street......Camaro races through the park.....Banzai runs from Lockport to PA in used cars for the auction....
^ ^ ^ Much of this ^ ^ ^ doesn't sound any different around here today. Was that Buick dealer Paul Batt or Bartlett?
This happened before I went to work at a Ford Dealership. When David Pearson drove the number 21 Woods brothers Mercury Montego, a customer tested a Montego to copy the Woods car. He was driving it fast on a straight a way and hit a boy on a bicycle and killed him. The court ruled the boy was at fault.
When i worked at a caddy dealer back in the mid 80's they hired a driveabilty "expert" I think he was in his mid 30's and i was 22.The guy was a laff a minute to watch.He came and got me for everything,how to install mudguards which i explained to him you put one on then mirror it on the other side well when i looked over it was installed excatly the same as the other side not mirroring it.He couldn't use a torch,didnt know how to do drum brakes etc.He bought a used car from the dealership on payments well he wasnt making the payments on it and then they decided to fire him.He loaded up his tool box in the car to take it home and They sent the wash rack guy with him to bring back the car. The wash rack guy came walking back about 20 mins later.The expert had pulled over 10 blocks away and told the wash guy to get the hell out of his car.We never did get the car back.
It was around 1977 and I was working in this big shop doing brake jobs and alignments. We had this one guy who worked the stock room who was famous for coming in after 10 AM and being totally useless and hung over. But he was my drinking buddy at the time. I'm getting ready to put this '65 Nova up in the air for a brake job. He comes stumbling up and asks if he can crash in the back seat of the car for a while. I say sure and then hoist the car up. Totally forgot he was alseep in the back seat and proceed to finish the brake job and was road testing the car. All of a sudden.. my 6'6" buddy sits up in the back seat. It was all I could do to not wreck the car. After my heart got back in my chest, we had a good laugh. Bob
I worked in another place where everyone was stealing everything. It was against my nature, so I never got in on it. In the service area, on cash invoices, the girl on the register would tear up the job ticket and "cancel" it off the job sheet, of course pocketing the cash. The place was so busy, nobody caught on. This one guy was long suspected of stealing car stereos and speakers from a locked stock room. They watched him for a long time and finally gave up. It turns out he copied the key (hung in the office), would remove what he wanted from the stock room, take it out with him when he road tested customer's cars and drop the goods off at home, which was close by. Bob
When I was 23, I was the service and parts manager for the local Dodge/AMC/Jeep dealership. Had a lady customer bring in her bosses new Wagoneer one day for service. We had traded for a fairly new dirt bike that was on the showroom floor and the lady was interested in the bike for her kid. She asked if I could get it out and ride it for her. I rolled it off the floor back into the shop. It hadn't been started in a while and I cranked and cranked before finally getting it running. I revved it up, poped the clutch, and the throttle hung wide open. Rode a wheelie out the shop door, laid the bike down on the lot, and slid into a brand new 78 Dodge Challenger (the little Mitsubishi model). Damn near tore the driver door off the car. Somehow my shirt got torn to shreads, one pant leg nearly torn off and skint the crap out of everything exposed. I stumbled into the shop with my shreaded clothes and bleeding everywhere to roars of laughter from everybody in the shop. One of the owners came running up and asked if I was OK. "Hell no I ain't OK----Do I LOOK OK????", I said. The principal owner came back, too one look at me, and about went into hysterics laughing. Laughed all the way back up front, when the office manager asked if he saw the car I hit. He walked back out on the lot, looked at the car (which incidentely had sat on the lot for over a year) and was not amused. One of the old guys who sold cars came back and told me, "Damn Evel Knevel---Next time you get ready to jump cars you might want to open the doors where you can just drive through when you miss".
Exactly---After 35 years of doing business with car dealers, I can tell you there are a LOT more crooked individuals than crooked car dealers. A little funny to me that with a dealers license, if I even make a paperwork mistake, all the customer has to do is call the dealer division of the state police and they will pay me a visit. Individual does something crooked and the state will tell you to hire a lawyer and file a civil case. I have seen customers steal spare tires, jacks, batteries, and even swap engines after making a trade. Yet, all car dealers are crooks---yeah right.
A lady traded a car into me. In the center console glovebox there was over 4 dollars in change, 1 real pearl necklace, another necklace which was unknown, and 3 rings one of which was obviously diamond. I found and scooped up all the jewelry, put it in a box, drove over to her house and handed it to her. What did I get out of it? Nothing, not even a thank you, but a week later I got a call from her screaming at me that she got a flat tire. A flat tire!!!! She wanted to know what I was going to do about it! I politely told her that even on a NEW car tires weren't covered. 3 days later I recieved a letter in the mail basically calling me thieving bastard and how she would never buy another car from me. I wrote her back telling her to see if any other "thieving bastard" car dealers would give her back several hundred dollars worth of jewelry SHE left in a car. I signed the letter Sincerely, The Crook
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