GAOldsman

After reading a very cool thread on another forum that sadly had very very few posts relating to stories about the memorable events that happened while working at an Oldsmobile dealership, I figured this would be the best place to hear some amazing and or quirky things that you may have experienced. Doesn't even have to be from a dealership, it could be from a used car dealership or while working as a mechanic. So let's here what you got

Here is a great example, not mine but a great example...

" I worked for a local garage back in the 70's when I was a teenager.
Had a underhanded used car dealer across the street.
He had a horrible reputation, but people kept buying from him.
Many of his cars he would bring over to us when he sold them to get them NY State inspected as we had an inspection license and he didn't. My boss always said if I was doing an inspection for that dealer, do a good one as there was always something wrong.
He brought over a 60's Mopar one time and while inspecting it I found out the cross member near the torsion bars was rotted out.
Sent it back to him and told him to weld that up and bring it back.
Car was back the next day and it looked good, too good.
took a hammer and gave the cross member a whack and knocked out a huge chunk of bondo.
Instead of welding it properly (and he was a good welder), he just filled it with bondo and painted undercoating over it.
Same dealer brought over a mustang one time with the front wheel leaning in.
The upper control arm bolts you loosen for alignment were shot and needed to be replaced.
Boss sent that back to him, and it came back in a few hours, welded in place instead of fixing it right...........

Finally the boss told him to take his junk elsewhere.
He was sick of arguing with the guy all the time.
Every time you told him to fix something, he would cry he wasn't making money on the deal as it was, just trying to help the buyer out........yeah right!

That guy would rather make a single dollar dishonestly, than make a thousand dollars honestly, just the way he was wired.

Took many years, but he finally got nailed and spent time in jail. As soon as he got out on good behavior, he broke probation and ended up back in jail to finish his original sentance.

He sold degreased motors as re-builts, did bait and switch, wrecked a customers car, and said someone must have borrowed it. I could go on for hours on the things he pulled........... "

GAOldsman

Here is another not mine but still interesting to hear from both sides of the fence. I think the dealerships have received bad raps due to shenanigans like this but the truth is that it is usually the customers that are the ones that will pull a fast one.


"I bought a new car in 1995. At about 30,000 miles I put new premium brakes on it myself. (easier than messing with the dealer)

At 34,000 miles (under warranty) the coil pack started missfiring. I had my wife and her girlfriend drop the car off early in the day for repair. At 2 PM my wife calls me at work crying, saying the dealer told her the car needed brakes and it would be $600. Also it was their policy to do "all of the work or nothing"

I left work and drove to the dealership. I tell the service manager I want to see the brake problem on the car. He takes me out to the service bay and shows me the problem.... The front brakes were worn out. BUT he was showing me somebody else's car.

I wanted to punch him in the nose for being a liar... Instead of going to jail for assault, I figured I'll grab him by the necktie he was wearing and give him a couple jerks since he was jerking me around.

Only problem was somebody had been there before me....
He was wearing a clip-on tie."

Indy_68_S

Not Olds related & I've never worked in a dealership, but a good friend of mine replaced the radiator in his wife's minivan ~2 weeks ago. New hoses, coolant,etc..

A week later she takes it to the dealer for a routine oil change (because she was at the mileage on the sticker ). They talk her in to more routine maintenance (as usual) based on the van's mileage...including a cooling system flush & fill for $140.

He was far more diplomatic than I would've been and got a handful of discount coupons for future oil changes....

Don't get me started on 'stealerships'...

GAOldsman

Thanks for posting and sounds about right as they are geared towards the "upsale" of services. I personally do not have any experience myself with dealerships and only deal with private sellers as a rule due to this exact scenario, not to mention the fact that they remind me of buzzards when you pull up and get out to look at a vehicle The wife recently bought her first new car but it was what she wanted and I just made sure they was being honest and luckily she found a great no pressure salesman

I think it is very interesting to have any and all stories from both sides of the fence Reading the thread on the other forum, they told stories of how customers would rent a car of the same style of their personal car and bring the rental back with bald tires after they swapped them out with their own And how many of the customer's special order cars finally come in after 6-8 weeks of waiting only to be damaged by the truck driver getting them off the truck

slantflat

I worked at a Chevrolet/Peugeot/Mitsubishi place when I was in high school. A guy brought a Mitsubishi Tredia in for service and when they called to say it was ready, he drove over with a spare key and took the car home and didn't tell anyone. Later they called and asked if he had the car because it wasn't on the lot and he said no, I'll be right over it must have been stolen. He drove the Tredia to the dealer.

GAOldsman

That's funny right there Mike Reminds me of one where a guy previously had his car appraised to trade in and on the next day came back to signed but parked at the end of the lot, comes to find out the passenger side was wiped out earlier in the day in a wreck Needless to say he got a car that day but way less on his trade-in.

Mr442

I worked at a dealer back in the early '90's selling new cars. It was around the May/June timeframe where several kids were looking for their 'graduation' presents. Normally, I would always require their parents but this kid was 18 and he had a valid DL...

When I was getting the dealer plate he jumped in the driver's side and ripped out of the dealership! I was thinking he obviously gave me a fake DL but when the cops went to his house the next day it was confirmed that he gave me the real DL!

Needless to say, it was not the best example of our public school system in action!

mmurphy77

I bought a new GMC Envoy XL in 2005. We settled on a deal and came back to do the paperwork. Once in the F&I office our monthly payment was now about $40 MORE a month. So I say "no deal, give me my car we're leaving". Later that day I get a call from the Owner saying not only were they giving us our original deal, our monthly payment would actually be a few dollars LESS! Went back, signed the paperwork and left. It wasn't until a year later, after moving 400 miles away, that I found out they ADDED a year to our loan (to lower the payment) without telling me!! It's my fault for not catching it, but still - how LOW!

GAOldsman

Ouch Mike that would be another reason for me to buy from private sellers I've heard and read lots of stories on the ole bait & switch too and this falls along the same lines

Jamesbo

Scot, Here's one showing the better side.


When the tornado hit Atlanta back in 75 I was out of town. I had a buddy who lived in the same apartment complex that owned a sporting good store and was very generous with the Ford dealership's employees with fishing tackle and other goodies.

Many of the cars in the gated community got their windshields blow out from the gravel flying around off the roofs.

The next day my friend drove his car to the dealership and naturally got preferential treatment and a new windshield. When he returned to our apartment complex the guards at the gate wouldn’t let him in because his new windshield didn’t have the proper sticker showing he was a resident and NO ONE could possibly get a new windshiled in a town just hit by a tornado

So, he turn around, went back to the dealership where his buddies retrieved his apartment sticker on a piece of the shattered windshield from the dumpster.

When he returned to the gated apartments, He leaned over and showed the guard the remains of his sticker still adhered to a piece of shattered glass in a cigar box.

69442C

Here's a quick one as I need to get to a meeting. Went to a dealer looking to buy a new car in 1998. After trying to get a good deal for about 2 hours, it was clear the dealer wasn't interested in working with me. So the I told the wife and kids we were leaving. We got outside, got in our car and as I started pulling away the sales manager had come outside and was knocking on my window trying to get me to come back inside. The odd thing about this is the sales manager was a midget. He could barely see inside the car and was reaching up to knock on the window. He was trying to run along side of the car as I was pulling away. We still think about that and laugh.

Brian

m371961

This one from a well established new car dealership service department.
A fellow I worked with bought a 1 ton duelly diesel. He asked me to take a look as he had just had a oil change done and had oil on his garage floor. The drain plug was loose enough that I got a full turn tightening it! After that he asked me to check it every time he had it changed, and I always found it a little loose and leaking.
Same fellow went to pick it up after another service, and he was meticulous enough to walk around it each time he picked it up. The fool that worked on it this time clipped the rear pass. fiberglass fender on the garage door and tore it up. They fixed it, but I still wonder what would have happened if he would have drove it off the lot first.
I hate getting my stuff fixed or serviced by someone else. The only thing I have had done by others in 40+ years was glass,tires, tint and alignments. Oh, also a rear seal while on vacation. And, I still had complants about those.

GAOldsman

All great stories Keep 'em coming

47 Convertible

When I was in high school I worked at a used car lot detailing trade in cars, fixing minor mechanical things and tire problems. The two guys who owned the lot were stereotypical used car dealers but they always said the only bigger crook than the dealer was the customer.

I remember one customer who traded in a 52 Chevy that was suspiciously quiet to me for the mileage it had. After the deal was done I asked the dealer if I could check it out. I found both std. transmission and rear end had been stuffed with sawdust to take up slack and quiet the whine. A number of times I found oatmeal in the radiator to plug minor leaks on trade in cars and it was common to find 50W oil in the engine to bring up oil pressure.

The dealers had their own shenanigans too. A local guy made a living going around used car lots and cutting deeper tread in almost worn out tires. In those days (1950s) most tire treads were simple zig zag patterns. If a trade in was in rough shape but had good tires the dealers I worked for always had a supply of well used common size tires they would have me put on the rims and save the good tires for better cars.

Finally, I learned several wisdoms from the dealers. For one thing cars moved through the lot pretty regularly so the dealers who were their own salesmen, couldn't possibly know all about the good cars. People would come in and ask "Is this a good car?" whereupon the dealer would usually lean on a front fender, pat the hood and say "When my own car breaks down I have a choice of any car on the lot to drive until mine is fixed and THIS car is the one I drive home." It worked most of the time.

The dealers also had an uncanny ability to sort out the lookers who they called "tire kickers" from serious customers. They would watch when someone came on the lot and if that person went from car to car to car never checking one closely they would pronounce them not to be a buyer and would not spend time talking to them. But if the prospect looked at several and kept coming back to one or two the dealer would say it was worth his time to talk to them.

The dealer who consistently outsold his partner told me one time that he sold more cars because he didn't sell the cars virtues. His contention was the customer sold themselves on the car and most of the time this dealer would spend trying to find the customers obstacle to an immediate purchase whether it was a wife's objections, lack of cash ( don't worry we can get you financed right here on the lot), some real or imagined thing wrong with the car ( don't worry that noise will probably go away and if it doesn't I will get you my cost on fixing it up.)

These guys were like a shady character from a Damon Runyon novel --crooked but had a good heart. They were good to me, paid well and I got to keep all the tools, coins etc. that I found in the trade in. When I needed a better car they always would help me find one and get it at wholesale price.

GAOldsman

Here is one from a full service station....

A lady comes in with a flat tire. She claims she was going down a rough dirt road so she was traveling fairly slow due to the bumpiness. By the time she reached the pavement heading towards town she noticed her right rear tire was flat, so she continued on towards the service station on the shoulder of the road. Gets to the service station and luckily the tire wasn't destroyed, just flat. So the attendant jacks the car up and removes the tire. He then refilled the tire with air but could not hear any hissing. So feeling around the tire his hand was cut by something. That something was the back of a rattlesnake fang that was lodged in the sidewall of the tire. Apparently as she drove down the dirt road a rattlesnake was sunning or something and her tire got a little too close for his comfort and wham-o. The service station attendant went to the hospital and by the next day his hand was the size of a baseball mitt, he lived but still has the scars from the aftermath. She of course bought two new tires.

True story.

Indy_68_S

I'll throw out this one as told to me years ago by my grandfather who was a Cadillac man and used to hang with his buddies, a few that were mechanics...can't vouch for it's validity...

Older guy comes in with his new Caddy complaining that the horn isn't loud enough , he can barely hear it, and he'll pick the car up tomorrow. Mechs check it out and can't find anything wrong. Guy picks up car and comes back a few days later with the same complaint. They check it out again and can't find even an intermittent problem. Seems fine. Owner comes back again - same complaint. Mechs finally realize the guy is hard of hearing......so they bolt an extra horn under the dash.

Customer is happy.

krooser

My old boss at an auto shop I worked at used to sell cars in Dallas.

When a flathead Ford came in they usually had poor oil presure (but 15lbs was considered GOOD)... they'd remove the instrument gauge glass and bend the oil pressure needle to show about 30 lbs when running... no one cared that the gauge showed 20 lbs with the engine off!

He also said that when they'd get a car in that had a scored cylinder or broken piston, they'd simply pull the head, remove the bad piton and rod, and install a chunk of fence post in place of the piston. They'd sell the car "as-is" with a bad miss!

I used to rollback odometers for a guy I worked with at a local Dodge dealer... I made $2.85 per hour at the dealer by day but made $25.00 per car spinning speedos... i could do up to four per night at the auction. paid for my stock car racing habit...

69442C

Many years ago I worked at a service station and started out pumping gas. I was working one Friday evening and ended up being by myself as my co-worker ended up leaving sick. The night duty guy came on at 11pm so I was by myself for about 2 hours. Keep in mind that I was 17 at the time. A woman comes rolling into the station like a bat out of hell and parks her car behind the station. She comes running into the office claiming her husband is trying to kill her and that he hired 2 men in a green Chevy to do it. The shop was locked and just the small office was open. She began pulling out the cigarette machine and was trying to hide behind it and then climbed under one of the desks. At the time I'm not sure what the hell is going on. Just then a green Chevy pulls into the station and parks on the side and 2 men are in the car. And they proceed to sit there. Not what I wanted to see! I grabbed the nearest phone and called the police. We used to take care of the local police when their cars had small issues so within a few minutes of the call there were 3 police cars surrounding the Chevy and the police had their guns drawn. They pulled the guys out of the car, frisked them and then placed the guns these guys were carrying on the roof of the Chevy. Needless to say I was thinking WTF!! Then I saw the police give the guns back to the guys. Turns out the woman was a few fries short of a happy meal and her husband paid private detectives to follow her around so she didn't get into trouble. Still remember her name....Mrs. Sherman. The police took her to the hospital for evaluation. And I felt like I needed a laundry change.