thought some more----we used to test drive the cars & put 3 gl of gas right off the carrier -if we saw another test driver with the same body style of car we would play bumper car--as long as they matched bumpers--impalas were best-------------county police here ordered a fleet of cruisers about 81or82 all had to be test driven------need I say more????????????
My hodgepodge of stories: When my dad started in business he would do about anything for a buck. There was a Rambler dealer that would bring him used cars heading to the auction that needed a cheap "spruce-up". This is where all the leftover paint went. All the reds got mixed together in one can, all the greens in another, etc. Pity the poor sould that ever tried to match the color on one of those "specials". In '72 my father decided he really wanted a new El Camino. The local dealer didn't have any, apparently they were hard to get, but they found one a couple hours away. Dad went ahead and made the deal, sight unseen, and the salesman went to get it...never made it back. The Chevy was never prepped right, not enough grease in the rear, and it locked up on the highway. Took so long to get a replacement that dad had made 2 payments by the time he got to drive it. In '82 he bought a demo F150 from the local dealer, it was as nice a truck as you could buy that year, all the bells and whistles and a really good looking rig, too. Also the biggest lemon either of us every saw. When he left the lot with it he drove across the street to the supermarket, and promptly lost oil pressure. The 302/AOD combo was never good for over 8mpg. In trying to fix that the Ford dealer themselves gutted the converter. We were doing a lot of work with them at the time and the sales manager kept an eye out for something to trade. Maybe 1-1/2 years later a clean 82 Chevy comes in, so they make the deal. They had the C-10 sitting in the middle of the Ford garage doing final prep, Dad waves bye to the salesman, hops in, throws it in reverse---and the transmission went out. It was the first time he ever bought the extended warranty, and it was a good move. That truck ate no less than 7 700R4's. He ran it until '90 when the dealer got a clean 89 Dodge in; used car manager told dad to just leave the Chevy at our place, they'd be by to get it soon and haul it to the auction. That truck sat on our lot for just about a year, by which time the headliner was on the seat and the exhaust was on the ground. I saw plenty of things happen around that Ford dealer, and they just got worse as the place got bigger. I learned to never have anything done there except warranty work, as anything minor got handled by an assortment of grease monkeys that couldn't change a bicycle chain. Most memorable: guy was getting the oil changed during his lunchbreak, company car (late model Taurus), this shop had big old 6x6 beams between each stall. "Tech" managed to wipe out the whole side, we replaced the front bumper/left fender/both left doors/left quarter/rear bumper. They didn't fire him on the spot as they wanted to take it out of his pay, but thanks to the ribbing he got from the other guys he was gone in a couple weeks. Another: had a Ranger scheduled for some bodywork, customer said it was getting serviced at the dealer and could I pick it up? No problem. As I'm leaving their lot I notice a lot of shimmy in the front. I'm making mental notes to call the service writer when I get back...I slow down from 45 to 35 as it's getting worse. Just then, boop, the right front wheel comes off. I can still see the eyes on the old fellow in a K-car who stopped to help. One of their porters wasn't too far behind me, took me and him almost 10 minutes to find the wheel. Asphalt sure does a nice job of grinding a rotor flat! I get back to the dealership and tell the service manager; he just laughed and said "again?". No "thanks", no "glad you weren't hurt!", no, I had to beg to even get a ride back across town. Used to get calls at least monthly from some frantic manager, looking for a lost car. I hardly ever had what they were looking for. A couple ended up in a pond one day. Conversely, at one point a late model Caprice sat on their back service lot for about a year one time before anybody thought to ask about it. We had been trying to find a leak, rear floor of an Aerostar, it had been in a couple times before. They hired this new service manager and the guy was just undescribable. Best thing I can say is he was a mental case, you just never knew how to take him. Anyway, he pulls me aside and tells me that he knows just how to fix this van, he saw it done at his last dealership. A female factory rep fixed it herself, on her hands and knees in business attire. Strip it down to the floor, he says, and cover the whole thing with a thick layer of brush-on seam sealer. Well, we'd been in business for decades at that point but nobody here at ever even seen the stuff he was talking about but I call the jobber and they send me this quart can of 3M brushable seam sealer and we do a little spot. He looks at it and says "NO! I mean thick! 3/4" at least!" Nobody stocks much of it so it takes us 2 weeks to get enough to plaster this whole floor that thick. It was Friday before a long July 4th weekend, so we leave it all open until Tuesday, then put everything back together. Van sits on the service lot until Friday, customer comes to get it and gets all but knocked down by the fumes, won't take it. We then tried everything to clear it out/cover it up. Leaving it open, fans, deodorizer, coffee grounds. We tried painting over it (just bubbled up). Of course, it was all our fault, the service manager never said a word to the dealership owner as they swapped her into another Aerostar. Naturally, she was back in two weeks with a water leak... In one of his better moods one day, that service manager told me that the first person he fired when he started was a woman who worked in the back office. Seems she was turning tricks during lunch hour! They had a warranty clerk for many years who did a really, really great job...for the dealer. Double-billed everything, I'd submit a bill for fixing a dented fender on a Buick, she'd turn it into fixing a water leak on an Econoline. They didn't pay for a windshield for years, they were all "stress cracks". When an audit finally caught them, she got canned...though, of course, everyone else knew about it and encouraged it. There was one used car manager who we really got along with well, and old-time huckster, and a shyster. We fixed a bent frame on a Town Car one time, thing only took a few hours so I sent him a bill for maybe $150. He tells me he wants me to make some money on this job and to pad the bill. I really didn't want to but he keeps insisting, so I up it to $250. He calls me up, as mad as could be, "I said pad the bill!" So, what, $350? No, he got me $1150 for that job! I still feel kinda bad about it. We used to do about $5k a month with those guys, but they started to pay slower and slower, maybe only paying half of the invoices. I had this one set of tickets that I just kept making copies of, they clerk told me month after month she didn't have them. I started bringing her two copies at a time! When they owed me $20k I finally figured it out. The service manager really wanted his own body shop and wanted some figures to point at showing they were "spending" $20k/month on sublet bodywork. Yep, it worked, they built him a shop. The only way I got paid in full was to stop paying my parts bill.
I was working in a small claims court,and a guy comes in suing a shop,for the cost of a new motor,He claimed he had the shop change his oil and filter 28 days before his motor sized.His story was the shop had left the drain plug lose,and he lost all the oil wrecking the motor.He had pictures of the car from all sides and bottom.The judge that hared the case found for him and ordered the shop to pay for his new motor.Afterward I was talking to the judge and told him he had made a mistake.I pointed out that there was no sign of leaking oil in the pictures.If someone had driven for any length of time with a lose drain plug,there would be oil all over the underside of the car,and up the rear .I explained that the plug would have to unscrew itself and drop out when the car was sitting,for it to happen the way he said it did.He was the one that brought in the pictures of a car with no singes of oil on the undercarriage.A few days later the judge had both sides back in court and reversed his decision.
While working at a small Ford shop,A regular customer walks into the service area and asked if I knew where a fire extinguisher could be found.I told him and asked if there was a problem,his response was that his car was parked out front and on fire,I grabbed the extinguisher.and ran out to find his car burning .Never saw anyone so calm.
When working at the local Ford shop,a couple of farmers bought a new truck,It had the largest V8 gas motor, 5/3 trans setup,and double Axel rear ends,They had a custom built flat bed made for hauling hay.After a day or two in comes the truck,they said there was a bad vibration.I took it for a ride and at about 50 mph it would shake and growl enough to scare you.I check the drive line for u-joints,lose bolts,or anything else that could be seen.The service manager thought it was in one of the transmissions,both came out and apart,nothing wrong.then it was the front rear ends turn,pulled the pumpkin,nothing wrong.I was the tolled to pull the second pumpkin,What a job,working between the rears,on a creeper,using a floor jack to lift that heavy pumpkin out.Only to find nothing wrong.After getting the truck back together,went for a road test,and had the same problem.At this point Ford sent a truck service rep .We go for a ride and he has me get a protractor and check the drive line angle.The second rear end was 1 degree out.I made a shim and took the truck out for another road test,Vibration was gone,That was a lesson I will never forget.
Had a good customer bring in his 06 GTO one day for something, cant remember. Had one myself a year or so previous an had not driven one in while, and his was the 6.0 and a stick so I had to take it for a short cruise. The tech finished it up and I "just happend" to be in the shop, so I said i'd park it out front, but before I did I pulled out onto the access road and went up about a mile or so. Turned into a business and then back out towards the dealership, but there was a car coming, the way i was going to be going so I decided to wait for him to pass and get a ways up. Instead the car started slowing, and I figured he was going to turn in somewhere so I pulled out and romped on the GTO up to about 80 or so, then eased off and pulled into the dealership. As I park and am messing around enjoying myself from the rush that smae car pulls into the spot next to me and the GTO's owner gets out. I didnt know what to do....I sat there a bit trying desperately to come up with something but ended up just getting out and locking eyes with him...He looks at me and says, "things pretty fast isnt it".... I was as red as the car was, and couldnt say a word except.....yep.....and went inside. We went over everything we had done, took him to the cashier, shook his hand and he was cool as could be, still comes back....The only reason I could think of that he didnt kill me is he knew I had the same car as we talked about it several times, as opposed to being some asshole just ragging on his car.
I am suprised that dealers can make any money with all the shenanigans going on,I was given a ride to pick up a car in the back lot by a lot jockey with a new car that they had been using to run around in and proceded to lock up the parking brake and slide around and went into the fence so after I got out he went and hid the car. About a week later a salesman went looking for the car and found out it was damaged so they first came to me asking why I missed the damage thinking it came off the truck that way,I could not tell them I was in the car when the damage happened so I went back and looked at the mileage and it was over a hundred so I told them someone must have been driving it and whoever it was must have been the one to do it and nothing else was said.
Another story about the Chevy dealer I worked for... He had been in business since just after the end of World War II, so he was well-established and was personally a very nice man, so his reputation locally was quite good. Believe it or not, it was actually a fun place to work! His father began a tradition of selecting one new vehicle per model year to keep for his personal Chevy collection. Considering the oldest car in his collection was a black 1948 Aerosedan and went from there, he had some wonderful cars and pickups in the collection. When I started there, he had received a 1978 Corvette Pace car a week before that was destined for the collection. It literally went from the hauler to the shop, then to detail then to his on-premise warehouse. It might have had five miles on it. Before I left, he had just taken delivery of a new '79 Caprice Classic station wagon, loaded to the gills. Why that car? It was the first $10K Chevy the dealership had ever taken delivery of, other than a new Corvette! MSRP was $10,009.00. Most of the vehicles he had in there had no more than a hundred miles on each. In a way, it was neat to see such pristine, no-mileage cars in one place going back (then) 31 model years. Then again, it was sad to see such pristine cars not being driven on any kind of regular basis! Examples of what was in that collection - 1950 DeLuxe business coupe. 1955 BelAir ragtop. 1956 Cameo. 1957 Nomad wagon. 1962 Impala SS hartop with 409 4-speed. 1967 Camaro SS. 1969 Nova SS 427 auto. 1976 Impala ragtop 454 (supposedly the last 454 convertible). Just a cool Chevy collection that only a few people saw each year. He'd take a car out on occasion and run it in a parade, or just drive it for a few miles, then put it up again. The cars were always covered, jacked up off the floor to where the tires were just off the floor and with the suspensions in the normal position, and all could be ready to go with about 30 - 60 minutes of prep. And, the interiors all had the original delivery coverings on them, too, as well as all the pre-delivery cards and such that the prep guys would remove on all other cars. He died in the mid-'80s and the collection was dispersed. It was something that isn't seen these days, as far as I know of. It was cool.
Pet peeve in a dealership is making duplicate keys for customers. The manufacturer, state and dealership REQUIRE that we keep on file a copy of the title, registration and the driver's license, (all names must match) on permanent record. Every customer that loses their only set of keys and is told this has a million excuses why the do not have that information available and how we NEED to help them out. We as dealership employees have been told by the manufacturer and the dealership if we make keys without proper ID and something goes wrong we can be held criminally and civilly liable. Damn if I'm going to jail or be paying for someone's car into my retirement years. And the amount of people that drive a car with only ONE key, then lose it and now it becomes MY fault because they have to pay 35 dollars for one of the new security keys and or they have no documentation or that they now have to do a "hard" relearn of the key that will take a half hour of cycling the key on and off. I didn't lose their key, I didn't design the damn system, I didn't determine the key price, and I sure as hell don't want to go through all the paperwork B.S. because I want to look at their ugly D/L photo or get their address to stalk them.......that's life for them.......
It was a Friday night in 1969 and a friend and I decided to make our usual rounds to all the car dealerships to check out the new iron. In our town, you could walk a two block radius and see every brand. As you can imagine every muscle car out was on display and we were having the time of our lives. One particular car caught our eye. It was a white Dodge Charger. Equipped with a 440 Magnum and a 4 speed. The salesman saw our interest and came out. He introduced himself and said "How would you like to go out for a test ride?". Notice how he said test ride and not test drive! Anyway, we said "sure". So we climb in and he drives about three blocks down from the dealership. This particular section of road was straight and ran for around a half mile before you encountered a corner. He drops the stick back into first; looks both ways; and hammers it! The rear end went every which way but straight. I have no idea how fast we got up to because every time I tried to check it he would grab another gear and throw me back in the seat. He turns around and does the same thing coming back the other direction. We get back to the dealership and he backs the car into the parking slot and opens the hood (just the way it was when we walked up to it). We're standing there talking with him when this older salesman approaches and says "Hi fellas, how ya doin'?". He goes on to say "You know I was out on a test drive with another couple when this white blur went by us going the other direction, please excuse us". So my friend and I look at each other like what happened? As we stare into the windows of the dealership, this older guy was really ripping into the guy who took us for the ride. Never saw that young guy again and the car ended up in the maintenance shop. We figure for a quick check.
Most profound(hilarious) statement ever heard from used car salesman, "we lose a little on each sale but we make it up in volume". Math major for sure.
Anywaysssssss, a good story to get us back on track. BY FAR my favorite part of my job is dealing with all the old timers. I have so many cool old guys that come through here its a blast sometimes. A lot of crotchity ones at first, but can usually turn them. One of my pastimes is finding out if they were in the military, then getting them to tell me some stories, and ends with them signing one of two books I have on WWII. (i keep meaning to get korea and vietnam books as well, dammit!) I have one book on the Doolittle Raid/Pacific War and another on the European Campaign. I have about 40 signatures all together, with everything from tank commanders, pilots, cooks, file clerks, and on and on. Notables include Richard Cole, co-pilot of Gen Doolittle plane #1 off the carrier on Doolittle's Raid of Tokyo. Dude is cool as hell. I also have a WASP pilot sig, she is great as well. I want to expand on this a bit but I'll have to come back... Ok, so Mr Cole has been a customer of mine about 7 yrs, and the first two years I had no idea who he was as he never had anything that might tip me off like a hat or stick or DV license plate or anything, but one year the Raiders had their reunion in San Antonio and they mentioned him as one of the guys who would be there. I knew him well enough to call him up and ask, and then gave him grief for never mentioning who he was. He said "Well hell what'd ya want me to do come in with a parade or something?!" Fast forward 5 more years, dude is still fit as a fiddle at 98 yrs old btw. My wifes uncle is in the Air Force and is a WWII buff like myself, and just happend to have a painting of Doolittles plane above the Hornet depiciting the Raid, and actually has Doolittles signature on it. Long story short, I arrange a meet up at the dealership and Mr Cole signs it for Ray and takes a few pics to preserve the occasion.. Mr John Henry comes in, find out he is a former Sherman Tank commander. Landed at Normandy and fought all the way to Berlin in his tank. Good customer for years, one day calls me up and says "Hey, I found a guy up the road that restored a Sherman like mine, wanna go check it out with me!?" I said uhhh, is the pope catholic? It was the middle of the day at work and my boss said get out of here dude, thats a once in a lifetime thing so off we went. Dude literally opens his shop door and drives out a Sherman Tank, coolest thing I have ever done in my life was climbing around that thing with Mr Henry giving me all the details....BTW, the tank had a 500 Caddy engine with the rowdiest cam I have ever heard and no mufflers, it was so bad ass I cant even begin to describe it... I have a ton more stories like that, all customers that have come through the dealership I work at, and all get the super red carpet treatment, as they should for what they went through...
Duplicate keys of the new generation "Smart Key" varity can now run a cost of 3-$400. They aint cheap and customers expect us dealer to swallow the cost for them all the time.
I went to a two year "automotive school" right out of highschool(wast of time but thats another story) All the guys in the class obiously had automotive related side jobs. One of the guys got a job at the dealership right down the road changing oil and doing brakes,just the little stuff. Well after about 6 weeks on the job they let him start doing new car prep. This one day for some unknown reason they decide that one of there brand spankin' new chrysler 300m's needs an oil change. SO dude drains the oil lets it down off the lift.......then takes it out for a "test drive".......As he mats the throttle leaving the dealership all hell breaks loose.....ya,thats right the idiot never put oil back in it. less than 10 miles on this car and its gettin' a new motor.
1988-bought a new silver ford van. one of the high dollar ones-had a recall of faulty gas nossle-took it in for the 20 min repair-4hours latter after no responce, iwent into the service area to ask,just as repair man was pulling it outside- in a hurry he side swiped a large welding cart putting two deep creases the whole length of the passinger side- -then parked it tight against the garage-hiding the damage. when he came to the front I asked if there was anything he wanted to tell me"no,ready to go" saw the owner, went outsideto see damage with the two of them.they both said it was damaged when i brought it in.after 10 min of heavy verbal fire I was going to open a can of whio ass on both of them-when a lady came forward and say the entire thing. they agreed to fix my new van-with the worst paint match I ever saw. wow
We had a guy come in for an oil change one day in his Yukon. Good customer and was one of the few that insisted on Pennzoil oil, most people dont have an opinion. Anyway, did the oil change (relatively new lube tech) and about 15 minutes later he calls me saying his engine suddenly just blew up while he was on the highway and was on the side of the road. Of course we all did the "oh shit" scramble and call the wrecker to go get him. As it pulls up I hop up on the flat bed and pop the hood while the tech is checking the oil, the whole time he swore he filled it up. Sure enough, oil was in it. After tear down we found out a valve spring broken and dropped into the chamber and kaboom!! It destroyed the inside of the engine like you wouldnt believe. Holy hell! I would have probably gone to jail that day....
My daily driver is a '91 Mercury Colony Park wagon, with woodgrain, leather, and all. I have done business with the local Ford dealer before, and as a result, I get coupons for service and such about twice a month in my mailbox. It was time for an oil change, and with a coupon for just $9.99 with Motorcraft filter and oil, I wasn't gonna pass that up! I pull into the service writer's bay and get the car wrote up, and the porter pulls it into the shop. Hell, you'd thought I'd pulled up in a '50s car for all the attention that '91 got from the mechanics! It was just funny to me that these guys, whom most were probably still in diapers when the car was built, were all hovering around my big-ass station wagon!
Isn't that an early Smith-Miller toy truck in your avatar? I have several of the GMCs but none that early!
I worked as a mechanic at a Porsche/Audi dealer thru the 70s. Owner appointed his DA son as used car mgr. Remember the 914 series that had the removeable roof? Son bought a nice looking 914 one night from a guy that drove in looking to sell, not trade. Sent it thru the shop to be checked over the next day. I opened the hood to check the spare & saw different color paint.Raised the car up on lift & it had been clipped,front half was from a different car, not a decent job of welding them together either.I believe they sold the car to a dismantler at a large loss. Same DA son checked in a load of new cars & missed some damage on a new Porsche, tried to blame it on the tech who pulled the car into the shop from where it was unloaded for a PDI. Thankfully I saw the damaged fender as my buddy pulled into the shop, saving his butt.
I worked at a VW dealer 68-72. One day a VW came in for service w/ Calif. tags. White guy, black wife. Bear in mind this was the south,late 60s, you just didn't see this sort of thing. We were discussing this in the lunch room & one of the black mechanics said " Well she must have married him for his money,everybody knows you white folks can't f#**^"
I used to do body work for Ralph, a local Chrysler/Plymouth dealer who was squeezed out of his dealership and ended up with a small used car lot. An old customer of mine asks me to sell his recently deceased father's really nice, low, low milage, 4 door Chevrolet Citation (maybe 10 years old at the time). I take it by Ralph's lot that evening to see if he's interested. He is, sort of, but well, you know, it's a Citation. Nobody wants these things, they have a terrible reputation, they're junk, it's the wrong color, wrong equipment, etc. While we're in his office, a lady walks onto the lot. Ralph hustles out to meet her and immediately starts pitching the Citation. We haven't talked price, hell, he hasn't even looked at the car up close, much less driven it. He has some sort of intercom, it's on, and I'm listening to him BS this woman - he just took it on trade from a well to do, long time customer, and it's been thoroughly checked and serviced. He was going to put it on the front row at $2200.00, but he'll let it go tonight for $1700.00. She says she'll buy it (she hasn't driven it) and he brings her in and puts her in an empty office. Ralph comes out, tells me she's a single mother, a relative, down on her luck, desperate for transportation, only has $600.00 to spend. I told Ralph that his intercom had been on, and without missing a beat or a word of explanation, he breaks into a wide grin, says he needs to make $300.00 on the car and offers me $1400.00. Deal. Ralph just recently died. We were friends since the 1960's, and he was a pillar of the community. I don't think he considered it lying but more like sport. I miss him.
I worked at new car dealerships in parts, service and body for twenty five years. I could write a book on the things I have seen go down. This is one of my favorite stories mostly because the customer was a jerk. The customer bought a brand new black WS6 it was a beautiful car but he spent his life picking it a part and it was in the shop constantly along with his crappy attitude. One morning he brings his car into the service write up area. This area was two cars wide and ten cars deep. When he pulled in he pulled to far forward leaving the nose of the car under one of the overhead doors. As the service writer was writing the repair order with the customer the counter spring to the overhead door broke. The door came down on top of the hood the front fascia came off, both fenders were crushed, and the hood was destroyed. If the customer had not been such a jerk this would have been a tragedy, but it was actually pretty funny to the sixty some employees. When the body shop finished the car the customer returned a few weeks later. He brought the body shop manager out to the parking lot. He was yelling at the manager to look at the swirl marks in the hood. He could not see the imperfections that the the guy was yelling about. The manager came to my office so I went out with him the customer yelling at me to get on my hands and knees to look across the hood. This car had been color sanded in our shop to remove all the imperfections from the factory so it would match the new work done to the front. So I to saw nothing I looked at the body shop manager and shook my head. At that moment the body shop manager says "Oh I see it now" with that he spits on the guys hood rubs it out with his long sleeved shirt and walks away. The customer starts yelling at me that I would see him in court. Of course I never saw the guy again which was a huge bonus for all of us. I have to say that I have never seen the customers who treat the dealerships employees poorly ever come out ahead in the end. I think they call that Karma.
Dealer I worked for in the mid to late 80's had a son (refer to as #1 son) who came in one night with some of his buddies and took a conversion van off the lot. No dealer tag, oh, I almost forgot a little other fact, NO DRIVER'S LICENSE as it was suspended. The rocket surgeon rolls it, a total loss, fortunately no one seriously injured or killed. Daddy dealer is afraid to turn it in on the dealership insurance so he takes the loss and internally charges it off as company vehicle expense, which it was, but to all departments. This is per the comptroller, direct words from his mouth. Next month, daddy dealer in our monthly manager's meeting berates all of us managers as our vehicle expenses have jumped out of sight! I looked at our service director and rolled my eyes! As we are leaving we said simultaneously WTF? Obviously he had a short memory and obviously it was all our faults that this happened. Same son GAVE one of his friends a new vehicle takeout AM-FM Cassette Delco radio from my inventory without telling me anything. About a week after my last count of that bin (we did a perpetual bin audit combined with a yearly inventory so I knew my counts were dead on) is when I found the shortage. Asking my crew if anybody saw anything one of them said "Son #1 (leaving name out) and his buddy were carrying a box out and I asked him and he said it was just a empty box". Dealer's son had personal junk stashed upstairs in a corner of my department which was his right as daddy owns the place. So putting two and two together we figured out where the radio went. Reported this to my service director, we went to dealer as this was not the first time something like this happened. Dealer shrugged it off said "that's my son, what do you want me to do?" Yeah right, I had a suggestion but kept my mouth shut. Then write the radio off as departmental loss and take the hit to profit and my self esteem as this was on my watch a inventory shortage occurs. A couple of weeks later#1 son's buddy comes in with the radio and my assistant grabs me. We recognized the radio as it still had the masking tape with the VIN of the vehicle it was taken from. He is having problems getting it to hold stations and wants me to warranty it. I told him to go see son #1 as it was his problem, not mine. I finally had enough when daddy restructured all the manager's pay plans and lost one third of my compensation for being there six days a week twelve hours a day most days. Gave a month's notice. More than fair IMO. Last day turning in my key, daddy and #2 son were gone. Son #1 was there half trashed. Went to him to hand in my key and extended my hand to shake it as he said "You'll be back in six months begging for your job back". I threw my key at him with a few choice words and walked out. Daddy also stiffed me for my last commission, a real gentleman. And people wondered why I never went looking for a management job again... P.S., my FIRST replacement lasted three days, he went to lunch and never returned. My assistant called me a week later at my new job to let me know that there was an opening there........and was I interested?
I once bought a 1983 Hurst Olds that that been taken to a dealer near Detroit for an oil change and a tune-up. This year old car had about 16 thou on the clock. The dealer did the oil change and tune-up, one of the tecs was giving it a "road test" two lane road, good running Hurst with them funny shifters, this guy was having fun. Things quickly went down hill, he hit a bridge abuttment at about 90 mph with the right front corner,it put the wheel and tire right under the pass floor, luckly he wasn't hurt bad. Walked back to the dealer, reported the car stolen.....
No good deed goes unpunished....you've heard it before. I really felt bad for a lady. Scenario, Husband out of town, wife at home. Decided to surprise her husband by waxing his brand new 72 Impala Custom, you know big roof like a Caprice coupe had. Triple black, with vinyl top. Yep, waxed the whole damn thing including the vinyl top. She`comes in on the verge of tears asking what will remove wax from the top. I expect a small "slip up" with a maybe one inch wide stripe by the bottom at the belt line. Nope, the whole thing had GREEN wax on it! I stifled my urge to break out laughing, and it was hard, but this petite sweet lady was explaining this was the first new car that either of them owned and she wanted to do something special for her husband. Quick thinking I went to the mechanic's washroom and grabbed a small scrub brush, one of those nail brushes and rinsed it off. Went out and lightly brushed the top. Success! Showed her what to do, sent her to the nearby grocery store for a brush and told her good luck and next time use vinyl top dressing. At least after that the top had a nice shine.......
At one dealership we had a Corvette customer that we really wanted to go somewhere else. He was a nitpicker, even with his daily driver VEGA. He refused to buy a heater hose for that Vega once because it did not have the factory markings like the original. Anyway, one day by luck of the draw I ended up with him at the counter after one of his call ins. He wanted a 73-74 Corvette surround panel emblem as the guy buying his PERFECTLY RESTORED (his description) 68 Vette wanted that emblem on it, and he could not understand why. Well, when he called on it one of my countermen got the call. Customer asked if he would hold the emblem for him. Counterman answered back that we had "X" amount ( we were a big dealer so it was not uncommon to have maybe 20 on the shelf) and there was no need. He came in and bought it. Brought it back a couple hours later. As assistant manager I handled returns. He complained of pits (couple small ones, they all had them due to the finish. He DEMANDED that I bring all of them down so he could personally choose which one he wanted. He pulled this a year before on lower air deflectors with another counterman, I think he had to bring down fifteen or so for him to choose from. I told him that I would go and find him the best one. A sidebar, he and I went around about a year before as he DEMANDED I tell him how to bypass a emission system in his Vega, a Federal offense at that time. He actually wrote a letter complaining to the General Manager about this stating that I refused his request. I saw the rebuttal letter, it wasn't pretty. So I went upstairs, sat down for fifteen or twenty minutes, came down and handed him the same emblem and box and asked him if this one was satisfactory. He opened it, looked at it for a few minutes, said it was great, and left. Once the door closed, I lost it laughing. Everybody knew who he was, how much of a flake he was, and pretty much figured out what I was doing. We all had a good laugh over that one.
The Jalopy Journal
