Our German Green Pads At ProperAutoCare

This place is a used car dealership. I guess that justifies sweeping off a black paint job with the same broom they use to clear the sidewalks... Hey, maybe this broom isn't used for sweeping up dirt - it is just dedicated to putting swirls in paint. I'm sure they got the softest bristles they could find...



I worked at a used car dealership (we also sold new Suzuki motorcycles) back in the early 80's. I was the all-purpose worker-bee. One day I was told to glue three lug bolts on the rims of a Triumph TR-7. Only one lug wasn't stripped out totally. The owner just wanted me to glue the other three in place for looks. I said no freakin' way am I going to do that. So he did after chewing me out. Later that week, on a test drive, the wheel came off the car and it was totalled. The guy driving the car was alone and pretty shook up. The owner came over to me and threatened that he would make my life miserable if I ever mentioned this to anybody. I told the cop who was making the report... Never heard anything more about it.



Another time I went with the owner's son to repossess a pickup truck. We had the keys, so it should have been easy. The guy worked at a farmer's market and was inside the building when we pulled up in the son's Corvette. I jumped out and got in the truck. It was disgusting - rotting food and empty beer cans everywhere. I tried to start the truck but it wouldn't fire. About then I saw about 9 guys running out toward me - a few with 2x4 boards in hand. The son in the Corvette peeled out and left me there. I locked the doors and kept trying to start the truck. Finally, while they were pounding the glass of the truck with 2x4's, I got it started and almost rolled the thing whipping around the parking lot. They followed me all the way back to the dealership, then I could almost hear them go "Ohhhh, he's just repossessing it. Let's go have a beer, Earl." The owner chewed me out for allowing them to bust the truck up... I walked over the the son, punched him in the nose and quit that day.



I have a few other stories from that place if anybody cares to know what actually goes on at those places...
 
This story is about how selling at all costs is the overriding concern for some people...



I usually worked "behind the scenes" and not in the bike showroom. However, one day I found myself answering questions for a guy who wanted to buy a bike. Natually he was looking at the coolest bike we had - a racing 1100. This bike was a screamer and only for very experienced riders. I asked him how much experience he had riding and he said "None." Well, immediately I began showing him some nice 550's and 650's we had. More for the beginner but still plenty of pep - I had a 550 myself and it was a rocket ship. Anyway, my boss (the owner) overheard me and proceeded to scream at me (really, he screamed) right in front of the customer. Told me to get back into the shop area and never to talk to customers again as I was a blithering idiot.



Anyway, he sold the guy the 1100. Then he asked me to show him how to ride it. I tried, I really did. The guy dumped his new bike about a dozen times in our back lot. He was pathetic. I told him he really should sell the bike and get something more his speed but he as convinced that he was a badass and wanted to impress his friends.



Later that day, after his "lessons" were complete (I think he finally rode all the way around our back lot without dumping it one time) he was there with his wife and daughter signing the final paperwork. I had already replaced two turn signal lenses that he broke gratis. He told his wife that he would meet her back home after he dropped by the insurance agency. He got on the bike and started to rev the motor ominously. I couldn't look. He dumped the clutch and was propelled straight out into the 4-lane road. He hit the side of a semi-trailor dead on. He bounced off the side of the trailor and the bike went under. It was then smashed to bits. He was just a bit bloody but otherwise alive. I looked over at my boss and said "Told you he should have got a 550..."



True story...
 
In Florida they make you take a Motorcycle course and get a special MC license. I took the course and rode around on a Honda 250 for about a month before moving up to my Harley. I can't imagine anyone with no experience getting on a power bike! Basically you are putting a rocket between your legs and holding on. That guy was certainly lucky. Did he sue anyone? I would imagine he would have a pretty good case against the dealership for putting him on a bike he clearly was incapable of handling!



H
 
That's terrible - glad he is okay though. I was cracking up at that one, although the wheel falling off is hilarious. :D



Josiah
 
At least that I knew of. Things were different 20 years ago. You have a grace period here to get your MC license. They make you ride a course, too.



I'm sure that among the paperwork that the dealer made the guy sign protected him from getting sued anyway. This guy was as slippery as an eel, let me tell you. His son ended up getting a 13 year old gal pregnant (I think he was in his late 30's when that happened) so you don't hear much about these two anymore :D
 
Spent six+ years at a Ford dealership in Wisconsin as a technician...lots of good stories (like the State Patrol officer who complained of a dash rattle during high speed pursuits - had to take me out, flip on the lights and run us up to the speed limiter (132mph)...turns out the noise was coming from his light bar buffetting at high speed on the roof), but regarding the brushing:



We'd get monsterous snow storms, and the salesmen would all have to move the vehicles so the plows could go through the lots. I was working on a car in my 'stall', and this sales guy comes up and says, "you know where there's a broom I can use?" I hand him my stall's broom (the one for oil dry, etc). He says, "I'll bring it back in a bit."



Hearing about how slippery the sales guys were, I watched where he went with my broom...you guessed it - right to the hood of a new F150 Lightning (1993). Brushed the snow off, moved to the next new F150 Lightning...down the line. I looked out over the rest of the lots and saw about a dozen sales guys, all with shop brooms, cleaning the cars. This was standard practice (this story comes from my first winter at the dealership) during every winter I worked there.



Also seen it happen at the Audi/VW & Chevy dealerships across town. Which makes me glad that I've moved to a warmer climate!! :-)
 
Leaf Blower!!!!!!! or a giant heated tent. How come there aren't giant indoor car dealers?

Imagine: Right from the factory, onto the train, right onto the truck and into the indoor showroom. Never sitting outside getting rained or snowed on or baked in the sun.
 
I bought my first car in a "warehouse" type place in Hudson, Ohio. The used car showroom was completely indoors, probably so they wouldn't have to do the snow removal stuff. When I found my car we went a looking under 7 inches of snow or so. I wanted a silver GLX and we had to check like 15 Passats, pushing snow with gloves and sleeves. Ah I remember finding my car under that snow like it was yesterday, :D
 
CyberCowboy you should start a thread in off topic and post more stories. Heck everyone should.



SO is that stuff snow on that truck? I never seen snow. How do you make it? LOL:D
 
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