I see several stories in this thread relating to sticky throttles. I work in a Toyota agency. People come in on the recent recall, say they hear their pedal might stick. We service 70 - 80 a day on the sticky pedal recall. I haven't seen one case yet where one is really sticking. I'm not trying to defend anyone or take sides here but we didn't build 'em, we only fix 'em. But what's really going on here. Is something really broken here?????????
Took in a celebrity's Cadillac once. A wholesaler from Rhode Island phoned us back in the mid 70's and told us he was sending a late model Sedan De Ville by for us to view and possibly buy it if we liked it. His driver showed up with several cars to view and among them was a beautiful dark blue with a white vinyl roof and white leather interior '73 Caddy Sedan De ville. Car was as described.....Perfect! I phoned him back, said I'd take it and I would give a check to the drivers and send them back to Providence right away. Mr.Ronzio told me a celebrity's name was on the title and I would really love this one. I got the title a couple of days later and on on the front was typed the owners name and address. Doc Severinsen, Broadway, NYC, N.Y. Car resold in a heartbeat! I was VERY into music, thought that was cool back then. Another time, a cool looking dude came in to by a white on white on white Eldorado we had on the front line. The lot man recognized him. He had a complete meltdown when he asked me if I knew the dude I was talking to. I said no, I don't know him. It was Steven Tyler. His band Aerosmith used to practice in the warehouse behind us. Very cool people once we got to know them. Bill Colby, while he played with Jay and the Americans, was also a great customer and later a very good friend.
Yes, more stories please. I'm really enjoying this thread; the gas station thread; and the what have you found in your car threads.
I work for 4 dealers two chevy a suzuki and a kia. see alot of great mishaps. im usually the guy who has to fix them too! best was the service tech crossing the highway from kia to chevy and the chevy tech crossing to kia hit head on in customer cars in the middle of rush hour. cars were stuck together for about an hour. Homeboy with his new 40 inch rims on a new charger from the dealership down the road loses the front tire and takes out the whole front row of new kia's reason number one i dont take my car to dealerships is they can damage your car pretty bad in the morning and have it painted before the afternoon and you'll never know until 3 months later clearcoat is coming of in sheets and they wont warranty it because its been redone.
13 years at a Caddy dealer. I seen a lot of crazy shit. Guy walks into the service shop at lunch time. He gets into a new Escalade. Starts it up and asks the car washers for some paper towels so he could clean a couple spots off the windshield, which they give him. He pulls out the door and waves to the sales manager as he pulls away onto the highway. Yep, he stole it. Found it a week later with the key in it 20 miles away with the Onstar disconnected. It was out of gas but no other damage. I watched a mechanic lower another employees car off the lift with a dead man jack still under it. He flipped the handle and went out the door for a smoke. Bang! I turned just in time to see the dead man jack bend into a "u" and shoot through the car window next to it. Then the car slid off the r/s post (2 post in ground lift) and balanced itself on the l/s post where a bunch of the other guys actually ran up and held it in place while a few other of us chained it to the post to get it down. We had a salesman and a manager "steal" 10 escalades by getting someone else to steal identities and come in with fake co-signers who's credit was good. These people all used their real names as the primary buyer. Of course they all defaulted and when the co-signers were called they had no idea what was going on. The cops didn't need long to look at the papers and see they were all sold by the same salesman and manager. Only one guy was smart enough to use a fake name and not park in his own driveway. Ok, what's so funny here? They acted like they really owned these things. Brought them in for service and complained about squeaks and shit. Unreal. I still have pictures of them on vacation from one we got back. They had fun at Wet and Wild. I've seen cars left outside running from sat till mon morning with the window open. I saw the aftermath of a salesman over shooting one of those car display stands they put out front. I watched a salesman drive his demo through 4' of water as we all tried to wave him to stop. That one was expensive to fix. We caught a guy trying to steal keys from our night drop box with a coat hanger in broad daylight at 6AM. He swore he was trying to push them in farther so no one else would steal them. Had I don't know how many cars stolen off the lot, driven through the gates, driven through the doors. Came in one day and they stole 20 sets of wheels and tires. Another time it was all the Escalade headlamps. I watched techs use impact guns to put heads on in an aluminum engine. I can't tell you how many wheels fall off of cars after they leave. I watched a guy use a shop vac to suck the fumes out of a trunk while he was in it changing a sending unit in a fuel tank. I mean he had the nozzle right there at the hole. Why won't god punish the dumb? No fireworks on that but c'mon. I saw a tech choke a detailer nearly to death for blocking his bay with another car by accident. Saw a salesman punch a service writer right in the nose (he earned it). Watched a parts guy light himself on fire with washer fluid cause he didn't believe the warning on the bottle about it being flammable. The list of stupidity can go on for years. If you like a little laughter in your day, work at a dealer.
WE had an incident where a guy attempted to use a shop-vac to clean-up a gasoline spill in his garage.I guess he didn't realize that electric motors create sparks that can ignite gas fumes! Guy was burned pretty badly!
Don't know if any of you ever saw this column by Dave Barry. Mention of the shop vac sucking gas fumes brought this to mind. http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/nvce/VacuumCleanerContest.html I actually have seen the video of this, unfortunately, it is not on utube.
Originally Posted by swi66 Don't know if any of you ever saw this column by Dave Barry. Mention of the shop vac sucking gas fumes brought this to mind. http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/...erContest.html I actually have seen the video of this, unfortunately, it is not on utube. It is on VHS tape, in possession of the Chicagoland Corvair Enthusiasts. They have always been meaning to get it on DVD form, to make copies. It is legendary after Dave Barry wrote about it years ago. I saw it at a Corvair convention in Chicago, years ago. I was told they sent it to America's Funniest Videos and got a reject letter. Too dangerous for them to show it.........go figure?
There's an old drunk farmboy from my hometown who is infamous for a midnight monster truck run at the Chevrolet dealership. He took his huge truck and ran over almost every car on the lot. He still pays restitution and everybody still talks about it. Last year I was looking at Pontiac G8 GT's so Dad and I went over to the dealership and found the youngest salesman we could and asked for a demo. We made sure to ask if he cared if we could find out what it would do. "hell no, I love these cars" was his response. Well I get in and go down fast down the highway, find a nice wide empty boulevard do a couple of starts, stops and some general tomfoolery. The dang torque management just left me disappointed though. Saleman is a bit white knuckled and glad when I pull over. Dad says it's his turn and calmy gets in the driver's seat, buckles up pretends to adjust every mirror, radio and everything else then cuts the wheel all the way left. While the salesman is relaxing and still talking to me thinking we're going to put back, Dad punches it and does a 360 and pulls out of it with the tires still smoking and proceeds up the highway ramp. We hit the governer just past the end of the ramp. Dad's ornery but doesn't look it which makes it that much more fun. Couple of years ago down in Miami, my buddy is buying a new silverado and sitting waiting on the financing to finish up. He said this slick dude with a hot chick on his arm walks in and the place goes nuts. The chick decides she likes a Z06 'vette in the showroom, slick dude nods at the manager and says he'll be back in 1 hr and they better have it prepped. My buddy asks what's going on and they tell him the dude will be back in 1 hr with cash no question. Sure enough he comes back, plops his stacks of cash up on the counter, makes them count it and they take off in the vette. They said he does it every few months with a different chick.
I can relate to that one, when I was at Mercedes we had a guy nicknamed Dangerous Doug - one day he grabbed his open end wrench and proceeded to crack open an A/C line on a car that had not been evacuated yet and - BOOM - the guys in bays around him dropped what they were doing and took off running - run first ask questions later - I was on the other side of the shop and a few of us were laughing so hard - it was a toss up between the expression on Dangerous Dougs face & the look of sheer panic on the others guys faces that took off running. I have other stories I'll post in a while.
When my dad had his used car lot in Minneapolis back in the early 70's (Royce Motors 501 W. Lake St) ; I remember the car was a 67 or 68 Pontiac Firebird. It was a decent car but it did not have a backseat in it - somewhere along the line it went m.i.a. Anyway, this guy was looking at and really liked it except for, as he said at the time "It aint got no backseat" and my dad without wasting a second said "well your not going to sit back there and drive it are you?" The guy was quite for a moment and laughed and bought the car.
Back in 1996, I was looking to buy a new Dodge Ram pickup. This would be my first NEW vehicle, all others previous were well used. I had in my mind what I wanted, either a Ram Sport Black or Red, or the Indy Ram pace truck. Stopped at the dealer in Lockport, salesman was at my door as I got out. Looked around and said. Where you hiding the Ram pickups? He took me out back where they had 2 plain jane stripper models, and rows of Dakota's. I asked if they had any Ram Sport pickups. He tried to sell me on a dakota Sport. I said, no not interested in a Dakota, I want a Ram. This guy said let's take one of these Rams for a test drive. So going down the road, I'm telling him I want a Sport with a 360 and a sure grip rearend. He's going on and on about sometimes you have to "settle" for what's available, and the 318 was a better motor than the 360, and "What do you need a sure grip for"? Stopped the truck in the middle of the street, and nailed it! Right rear wheel started going up in smoke and wheel hopping. I said "that's why"! Now the guy was going to punish me for not buying this truck, or settling on a Dakota. Went inside and he filled out the order form for a Ram Sport. Wrote down all the options individually instead of as package prices, and came up with $28,000 for the truck. He told me to sign here and I would have the truck in 6 months. I looked at the paper, folded it and got up to leave. I said, well, you quoted me your price, now I'm going to the other dealerships and see what kind of price they will quote me. He starts going on about I can't take that paper as it is their property. I MF'd him up one side and down the other, said now I'm going across the street and buying a Ford. I almost did too! They had a really nice truck I could have taken that day for $16 grand. And they offered to order the posi and put it in for free later. But I really wanted that Ram. A week later, my wife and I were on our way somewhere and running late. Passed another Dodge dealership[ that had 4 Indy Rams out front. A couple days later my wife passed Transitown Dodge and saw an Indy Ram out front. She pulled in and had a salesman at her car as she pulled behind the Indy Ram. Right away he's on the hard sell, she looks at the sticker, something like 24 grand. She says, "So what will you take for this". Salesman says, it's the only one in the area, We're selling it to the highest bidder, do you want to make a bid". She tells him "If this is the only one in the area, why does Walden Dodge have 4 of them"? "I won't deal with people that lie to me." We've never been back to either of those places. Wife spotted a Black Ram Sport for sale at Hawley motors in Batavia. Calls me at work and says to head over there after work. Get there and see the Black Sport, but it's a 4 x 4, and I didn't want that. Inside though was an Indy Ram. Went inside, looked it over, got inside it, 7 tenths of a mile on it. open the hood, and actually crawl underneath on the hardwood floors. Then the salesman appears. Want to take it for a test drive? I say hell yes! He backs it out of the showroom to the street, standing next to the door he says have fun! He never even asked my name! I put a few hard miles on it and headed back. Parked it outside the door, and looked at the sticker. $19,999! Turns out the dealership had everything marked down as their 75th anniversary as a Dodge dealership. Turns out Hawley's was a Dodge dealership back before Chrysler Corp bought Dodge from the Dodge Brothers. Salesman was on the phone talking on the phone and laughing when I walked back into the showroom. He was on the phone to my wife! She had just called to see if I was there to check out the Sport. He told her what I was test driving. She said to him, not to let me leave without getting it. My wife hated my Ranchero, with the body mounts in the back broken and the piece of plywood for a bed floor. At that time it was a deal too good to pass up. Still got that Indy truck too, almost 100,000 on it. Just told this tale to illustrate, some salesmen are arrogant, and only want to sell and don't listen to the customer. This guy was nice as could be, and let me take the lead on the deal. Let me test drive by myself, and gave no pressure. Price was non-negotiable. I checked around, and no one sold an Indy Ram for that price. But I did get a bed liner tossed in, and he agreed to sell me the ground effeects kit at "cost", and that saved me $150 bucks or so on that.
Back in the early 80's a mate owned a Peugot dealership, about the time these new fangled 'computers' started appearing in car wiring harnesses. They got an almost new car back into the service bay with ignition problems, and the workshop manual said to 'replace the computer chip' to fix the problem. They dug the box of replacement chips ($1200 each) out of the service department, whipped out the old chip and stuck in a new one... 'Pfttt' and the brand new chip went up in a $1200 puff of smoke. OK, so pull that one out and put in another one... Same result, the instant the new chip went in, it blew, at $1200 each remember. After something like 7 or 8 new chips blowing up on them, they decided to resort to 'reading the instructions' for the job. On the top of the box in big red letters... WARNING, REMOVE BATTERY FROM VEHICLE BEFORE REMOVING OR REPLACING COMPUTER CHIP. FAILURE TO DO SO WILL DAMAGE OR DESTROY CHIP. Cheers, Glen.
2 manyprojects' story reminds me of a similar one... I used to help a bloke out lugging antique furniture he'd restored. His shop was on the 'north shore' of Sydney, so Big Bucks Central. This was late 60's early 70's. He decided he needed a new work 'ute' to haul antiques in, so we headed up to the local new Ford Dealer. He's a furniture restorer, right, and I'm a furniture lifter, so we're both in scruffy jeans, T shirts, boots. We walk into the dealership and everyone ignores us... Completely. We look in all the cars on display, including one of the legendary GTHO Falcons they've got on the showroom floor. One of the salesmen approaches, probably watching to make sure we don't pinch the cigarette lighter. "I want to buy a ute." says Karl. "Oh, OK" says the salesman, 'we've got some out the back, what colour?" "Not one of those" says Karl, "I want one of these!" and points at the GTHO. "And how are you going to pay for it?" asks the salesman. Karl pulls his company cheque book out of his pocket and says "How much?" They took the order, and 6 weeks later, a black on black Falcon ute, 351 V8, 4 speed, full GT dash, seats, hoodlining, suspension, 'Superoo' badging, shaker on the bonnet, the works, rolls off the production line. I have no idea how much it cost, but it would have been as expensive as the genuine GTHO sedan probably. And most people refuse to believe it happened! Cheers, Glen.
Got a call at the house one early Christmas morning from the boss about 10 years ago. He tells me the police just phoned him and wanted to meet him and I at the dealership a.s.a.p. "What's the deal on Christmas morning?" I ask him. He replies "They tell me we just got hit." WTF? Hit? What's that mean? We unwrap presents and out the door I go to see what's up. HIT !!!!! We got hit "literally" I found out when I got there. Some jack-ass went straight thru the S bend on our highway hit a curb and launched his Accord at about 70 MPH airborne, then dropped down on top of the front 2 rows of display cars. The inebriated party goer demolished 11 cars and seriously damaged 4 more on his drunken merry way home at 4:00 AM. His insurance company paid us retail values for every one of them plus they payed for a new front lawn and fencing. Merry Christmas!
Same drill again about 5 years ago. I'm out in the garage one Saturday morning taking a break from working on the roadster when I spot a familiar shape on the TV over in the corner. It's the front of our dealership (TRASHED) on the morning local cable station. I drop everything, hop in my daily and shoot over to the dealership. Another drunk and his passenger who both lived to deny any wrongdoing hit the same curve and launched his new 3 week old (uninsured) Acura TL into the front line, barrel rolled it ,and slid across 16 used cars in the double row front line. Crushed the snot out of everything they came in contact with. They landed upside down and according to witnesses and fell out the open passengers door. Both denied driving the Acura, he had no drivers license and she claimed not to know him. (?????) That was a tough battle with the insurance company but finally her insurance company paid up as a contributing driver/passenger type deal. 14 cars got totalled and 2 we had to sell of as repairable salvage cars. We still dropped close to 90 grand in losses, deductibles and other expenses on that fiasco.
worked in a detail accesory shop the first year pontiac fiero's came out, the dealer brought it in for a sun roof to be installed at the new owners request. the installer cut the hole in the roof in the wrong location. no problem i will weld in a patch like i always do? until he found out the fiero had the new plastic body panels. not sure of the our but the ponty dealer was looking for a new roof panel for us and real fast
In about 1985 I traded in a early 80s import for a new Pontiac. After signing the papers I was standing there talking to the salesman when a guy backed out of the car wash right into the side of the import that I had owned until just minutes before.. They spent months and many paint attempts trying to match the metallic paint and finally ended up repainting the whole car.
In the early 60's at my dads used car lot a local fellow traded in a sharp medium blue metallic '62 Impala coupe. The car sat on the lot for a few weeks with no activity on it. One morning he directed me to drive it around the corner to the body shop to get the hood repainted. His complaint was the paint was cracking and lifting around the center of it. I was just 16 years old, read all the magazines, loved old hot rods and got totally off on the big engine S/S cars coming out of Detroit, but I still didn't know shit! The body man calls back the next morning and tells me to tell dad that he's going to have to spend additional time on this car because the hood is all aluminum and will require extra finessing. In fact he tells us the whole nose was aluminum! W.T.F.!!!!!!!!!!!! Aluminum nose???? I wish I knew then what we all know today about those aluminum nose car$. Should have kept that one.
When the Acura RSX type s came out I went to take one for a test drive. My GF at the time wanted to buy a new car. anyway when we got back to the dealership we went in to talk numbers with the sales guy. The rest of the story was told to me from a friend of mine who is a tec at the dealership. I guess when I parked the car i did not pull the e brake up enough. He told me the car ended up rolling down the long slope lot it was parked in and crashed into and totaling a new TL. She did not buy a car from the guy.
Back in the early 70's my brother was hurt pretty bad at his work and was in the hospital for a few months and then rehab for a few more months. He was 18 at the time. When he was about 20 he finally got a settlement and went to the Chevy dealer because he always wanted a Corvette. He went with CASH in his pocket, picked out the Vette he wanted and when the salesman asked how a kid like him was going to pay, he responded "with cash". The salesman told him to quit wasting his time, so my brother found the manager, told him what he wanted and proceeded to pull out the cash and tell him the salesman would not help him. Needless to say, the salesman was let go that day. He never did get the Vette, ended up buying a new Monte Carlo. 35 years later, he still wants a Vette.......He has all the money you could want and still has never got one.
Wow............good story and it probably happens more often than we like to see. I hope your brother finds his dream 'Vette some day soon.
I have a storey, but its on an off topic new car.... I went to the local Chrysler/Dodge dealship to buy a new Challenger R/T Classic - ordered it exactly like I wanted it and they told me 6 week wait to get it. I ordered it through this young guy who was new to the dealership right out of college, but you could tell he really loved the performance cars. It was ordered black on black, with a red R/T stripe, 6 speed, and the super track pack- I got a pretty good deal at right around 30grand for the car. After 6 weeks, they call me back and tell me they are refunding my money because they can't get the car. I get there to get my check back during lunch- and what do I see rolling into the detail bay, but my black on black, six speed with red R/T stripe Challenger R/T Classic, with a window sticker of $42K. I go and talk to the detail guy and he told me the car was already sold to a personal friend of the sales manager. Needless to say I was more than a little pissed off and went in there and raised hell in the middle of the showroom until the owner came down and I showed him how they had sold my special ordered car to someone else, after I had waited six weeks for it! I told him I want $42K since they sold my car for that much. The owner found out the car was indeed the car that had been ordered for me, and had been sold to someone else with a big markup. I had all my paperwork, including the email from the sales manager saying they couldn't get my car, and the faxes cancelling my purchase order. The sales manager came back from lunch with his friend he had just sold the car to - and quickly clued in that there was a big problem when he saw me standing there with a very angry owner! It turns out that by killing the sale with me and selling it himself to his friend, the sales manager stole the original sales guys commission. It also turned out that the original sales guy was the owners nephew - from his wifes side of the family so the last name was different. It got even better when the sales managers friend who is standing there found out that it was marked up $12K more than when I was buying the car! To make a long storey short - I didn't get the car since they had already sent the information to the MTO and the car was in the other guys name. The sales manager is looking for a new career, and they told me they will sell me whatever I want at dealer cost. The entire thing has pissed me off, so I still am driving my 10 year old Ford for now.
The Jalopy Journal
