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 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 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!!!
