Well Seasoned Fool‘s stories of car sales reminded me of a car story out of my past, from the buyer’s side…
Back in 1988, I’d just transferred back to Kalifornia for duty. I needed a bigger car since I was going to be getting the kids on the occasional weekend and for a few road trips, and would be commuting a couple of hours each way to get them.
So… I go down to the local Ford dealer, after having perused the local Chevy dealer’s lot and not seeing anything of interest. It’s the end of the month, and I got pounced on like a piece of free cheese in a rat’s maze…
I was serious about getting a new ride, as the following weekend I had to go get the kids, and bring them back to my base, so I gave the ‘salesman’ my keys to let him get the car appraised for a trade in. We walked the lot, and I liked a Taurus I saw, so we started the negotiations.
I knew what I could afford, to the penny, as I’d done my research with Navy Fed, including what my trade-in was worth. Needless to say, we were a good bit of $$$ apart. During one of his trips to talk to the ‘boss’, I saw a vaguely familiar face walk through the showroom, and around the corner to some offices (I had bought another car there in 1977), so I knew that was where the real managers were.
The salesman came back with another offer, still not satisfactory, and I told him my final offer was good for the next thirty minutes or I was walking. He gave me the sob story, and said words to the effect, “I don’t think the boss will go for this, but I’ll take it back to him.”
This time I turned to watch him walk off, and realized he was going toward the coffee pot/break room, NOT the manager’s area…
At this point I was a little pissed, so I got up and went looking for the ‘face’ I’d recognized…
I wander down the hallway, and finally see the guy sitting at a desk in an office, so I knock on the door, he looks up, puzzled, and asked if he could help me. When I heard the voice, it connected that this was the guy I’d bought the Mustang from in 1977. I gave him the song and dance about buying a car from him in 1977, etc.
He didn’t remember me, until I told him about bringing my fiance in, and he laughed, saying he’d thought I was stupid to buy a car for ‘her’, before I married her. He asked what I was doing and I told him trying to buy a car, but the salesman was pulling a bunch of BS moves, and I was about to walk. I figured what the hell at this point.
He cocked his head, asked which Taurus I was interested in, and I told him. He asked me if I still liked fast cars, and I told him of course, but I needed four seats!
I remember he laughed, and walked me out into the shop area. Way in the back sat a black Taurus, but it looked a little different. It was lower, and when he opened the door, I saw bucket seats and a stick! He got in and started it, and it sure as hell didn’t sound like the Taurus I’d started on the lot and driven!
Regretfully, I told him it was nice, but… The salesman, and I was going to go get my keys and go somewhere else. He walked me back into his office, and I saw the top of the door frame, labeled with General Manager.
He sat me down, asked me what I was trading in, did some figuring, and said something like, “Okay, I can let you have that car for $20,000. With your trade in, you’d have to finance $7000, but if you do four years instead of two years, the payments would be the same.”
I remember asking him why it was used, since it was a brand new car. It turned out the owner had gotten the car for his son, modified it with a free flow exhaust, an Eibach suspension, rolled the fender wells, and gone to larger tires on Sendel Racing rims. The son had gotten in ‘legal’ trouble of some type, and daddy was getting rid of the car.
That peaked my interest, and I decided screw it…
So he called some lady who came in and handed me a bunch of papers, I signed them and he told me to take them to Navy Fed and get them to cut Ford a check. He handed me the keys, and said have fun.
I walked back out front with him, finally saw the ‘salesman’ I had been going around and around with, and asked for my keys back. He started a line of BS, and the GM told him to shut up, get my keys and report to his office.
The look on the salesman’s face was priceless, and well worth the ass chewing I know he got. 🙂
Did I make out? Kinda… Did I put one over on them? Probably not. But to this day I cherish that salesman’s face when I walked back out with the GM!
It wasn’t until I got a copy of Car and Driver, and found out the list on the SHO was $27,000!!!
You really got the Golden Ticket on THAT deal!
Since I never got a Golden Ticket, I stopped buying new cars some 40+ years ago. That restriction doesn’t really apply to new motorcycles, although I favor a clean, FAIRLY-new model.
Or to new guns, although my gun cabinet is mostly filled with surplus.
It does, however, apply to new wives. Not EVER gonna trade in the model I have now!
Thumbs high! Well done, sir!
Now tell us the tales of how much trouble YOU got into with that car.
C’mon, fess up. ’88 was only 4 years after Sammy Hagar released “VOA” which had “I Can’t Drive 55” on it. 😉
How did the car work out? Was it a good ride?
I’m with Houston — how did the car work out for you? From the description, it sounds like a sweet ride!
Bob G
Interesting story , cool car , glad you made out well on the deal . I feel Ya on the getting swarmed by salesmen and the back and forth on forging a deal . I dislike going to dealerships and these new cars are waaaaaay overpriced and loaded with stuff I don’t need or want . But I see the new models going down the road everyday , somebody’s buying them . Me and my wife survive on four older cars , not quite “beaters” but old nonetheless . Vacations we just rent a vehicle .
I had a 91 SHO. I loved that car. My wife wrecked it. I put it back together and sold it. I miss it frequently. But the truth is, I could have that car or I could have a license but I can’t have both.
Sometimes you can do alright at a stealership….but it is the exception.
Fun discussion over at Kim’s place.
https://www.kimdutoit.com/2026/07/30/the-ultimate-q-ship/#comment-81563
I love a story with a happy ending.
We’ve done Taurii for the last 30 years.
Sorry to see them go away.
Don’t know what I’ll get to replace this one.
About that same time, my wife and I were looking at a Taurus at a Ford dealer in Florida. Like you, I gave them the keys to our Honda. We got the same runaround, to the point I told him we obviously weren’t going to make a deal and for him to give me our keys back. After a few more go around, I asked to borrow his phone. When he asked why, I told him I was calling the cops; and were were leaving in our car, or he was leaving in handcuff for theft. He said “You don’t have to do that.” And I said “Obviously I do since I asked you for my keys several times, and you haven’t given them back.” I got my keys then. A week later we bought a Buick at a dealership down the street.
I read the engine in the SHO was a V6 built by Yamaha? This is the first I have read of Yamaha building car engines. I’m sure there are other things I’ve not heard.
Did Yamaha ever build car engines for other models of cars?
Test drove both a SHO and a Mitsubishi Galant VR-4. Loved the SHO power but didn’t like the torque steer. The Galant with the VR-4 engine and drivetrain was much more subtle.
In the long run, couldn’t afford either one…
All- Interesting stories! Yes, I loved the SHO once I got used to the ‘torque’ steer if you launched it hard! And yes, the engine was a Yamaha six, originally built for boat racing. 12K RPM with no accessory pack, 600 hp in racing trim. My biggest problem with it, and I kept it for 7 years, was clutches and syncros. I had a ‘stage 3’ chip, so 450 hp. Houston, that was the only ‘car’ I’m aware of they put an engine in.
Mike- You did the right thing! Once they ‘think’ the cops are being called, they get awfully cooperative…
WN- I didn’t ‘fit’ in the Galant… sigh…
Hey Old NFO,
That is really cool, My assembly Plant built THAT car, that car would slaughter beemers and anything else that cost twice as much. She was a sleeper. It killed me when FOrd quit making the SHO for the 2000 model year until they(Really) brought the Taurus SHO back in 2010.
Newly released diary entries reveal that Dr. Anthony Fauci became increasingly fixated on his newfound celebrity, while he caused millions to die and he loved the attention he was getting.
What a disgusting excuse for a human that disgusting piece of flesh is .
That was the entire plan, make covid appear to be Super Deadly, even with housing the elderly together with covid patients so they would die along with them…. they reported the deaths from everything illness related as Covid Related… it was a classic scare the people into blaming the Chinese for the Commie tactic, and people ought to hang for it. Starting with Dr. Fauci.
Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul released the journals chronicle on Fauci’s day-to-day role during the COVID-19 crisis through conversations with President Donald Trump, Governors and other World Leaders, the Media Appearances, and his personal observations as the Covid pandemic unfolded.
The surprising recurring theme throughout the diaries is Fauci’s growing awareness of his own public profile during the most intense months of the covid pandemic, which ultimately claimed more than 7 Million officially reported lives worldwide, including roughly 1.2 Million in the United States alone..
In the COVID days, you have to wear a masks to trap the COVID virus. Even Children had to wear a Mask in school, until even Schools were stopped, and the Children were forced to school themselves at home.
By May 21, after recording the latest pandemic figures — nearly 98,000 global deaths and more than 27,000 U.S. deaths — and documenting the day’s White House coronavirus task force meetings, Fauci wrote that his “national and international fame is explosive and really unimaginable” and that it was “not hyperbole” to say he was “the most famous and talked about person in the country.”
Fauci added that Trump “seems to be enamored of me even though I was taking the spotlight away from him,” Fauci also noted that Secret Service agents had become so familiar with him they often waved to him through White House security without checking his identification.
As the attention continued to grow, the diary increasingly documented how Fauci’s prominence had expanded beyond public health. A month later, as the United States recorded what Fauci described as a record 40,000 new COVID-19 cases in a single day, he wrote in his diary that he had even been invited to appear on “Dancing with the Stars.” Thats how popular he became.
The diaries also document Fauci’s growing frustration with the Trump White House. On July 2, 2020, after warning that the country could be entering an “exponential” increase in COVID-19 cases heading into the Fourth of July weekend, Fauci wrote, “POTUS and his people have essentially dropped out and do not even recognize that an outbreak is ongoing.”
He also complained that the Trump White House was denying requests for him to appear on major television programs. Across multiple entries, Fauci criticized White House communications officials for restricting his television appearances, questioned the administration’s public messaging and expressed frustration that media coverage increasingly portrayed him as being at odds with Trump. Fauci also repeatedly defended himself against what he described as the “countless” articas written about him. He wrote that White House officials were upset because the coverage made it appear he was becoming “a Star that outshines” the President.”
Then people began to use cloth masks, the majority of people used them because they were cheap and could be made at home because most could not afford buying surgical masks. Problem is, cloth masks do NOTHING to protect you from a virus.Nothing.
Yet these people were being compliant for the mask mandate anyway and others who did not have a mask or refused to wear a mask were Denied Access to Stores, Work, and or School Because They Did Not Have a Mask People were even Fired from their jobs if they refused to Mask Up.
Great story!