2011-12-14T22:38:00.000-08:00

I imagine that it was the same throughout the USA, but when I was a teenager in Hawaii a person went to a dealer to purchase a new car, and when it came to a used car, looking through the classified ads was a good source to get what you wanted at a reasonable price. Dealing with the owner for the purchase was not an unpleasant experience, and although I don’t recall negotiating the price, there was a time when the owner offered to drop the price by a few hundred dollars. Selling one’s private used automobile using the ads was also not a big problem. The buyer paid the asking price if they wanted the car.

It was quite a different matter when it came to selling cars at a new car dealership. I tried that for a short time, and after all these years, a few vivid memories remain. Such as the time a gentleman came in and ordered a fully loaded luxury car and insisted on having it in his favorite color. Seemed this jovial man loved Pumpkin Orange. Of course the car was not available in such a color, so he adamantly insisted on paying an exorbitant price to have a white car painted that color for delivery on his birthday, which was about a week away. He left a $2,000 check as a deposit with the cash balance to be paid on delivery. The manager immediately started preparations to meet the order, but the check felt rubbery to me. Sure enough, it bounced all over the floor, walls, and ceiling when we verified it with the bank.

The dealership I worked for briefly was owned by a service and trading corporation. They dealt both new and used cars. The new cars were Toyota, Chevrolet, and Alfa Romeo. They even handled a particular line of forklifts. They had many locations throughout Oahu, and my location was near the airbase at Hickam, and the naval shipyard at Pearl Harbor. As a result, we had many military shoppers coming by to the dealership. It puzzled me that many of the veteran salesmen would shy away from military customers. I rather enjoyed talking with them to find out if they were qualified buyers.

Well, one day a young, clean-cut fellow comes in and heads straight for the shiny red Alfa Spider with the leather seats in the center of the showroom. No one pushed me out of the way during a stampede to approach him. The large showroom was unusually quiet. So I decided to keep him company for a while.

I soon found out that he was a junior grade non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy Submarine force. He was leaving for duty the next day and wanted to test drive the Spider.

I said I’d see what I can do, and went to the sales manager. His face went beet-red. No car was to be taken off the showroom floor! But I was determined, and insisted. Why display something that can’t be demonstrated?

After the test drive, the young man said that this was HIS car. He wrote a large check, and gave me the date of his return for his car delivery, which was six months down the road.

This young gentleman’s check did not bounce. The sales manager kept telling me for over a month that he would stop payment on the check, but it didn’t happen.

When the promised day came, so did the young man with the balance in hundreds and small bills. He was oh, so happy to see his car ready and waiting for him. So was I, because I believed that he deserved a test drive.

And yes, the commission on the sale was huge!

Sometimes I can’t remember for the life in me what the name of the actor that played Mork in Mork & Mindy is. This sale was roughly 35 years ago, and I still remember the young man’s name.

Submarine and Spider