I like this story

[argonsagas]

A nice, warming, morning read:

https://mightyscoops.com/trending/these-salesmen-laughed-at-an-elderly-man-who-came-to-the-dealership-who-got-the-last-laugh-oldmaninstore-gemini/28

[Suzukian]

I think that while this happens all the time, the stories are written so vaguely, they are compilations, or made up by some A.I.. That doesn't mean there's no truth in it, there's actually a lot.

I was selling motorcycles at a Suzuki, Honda and BMW dealership. This interracial couple came in. The Black gentleman was dress like he just came off his far,, overalls and all, and his wife looked like a dressed down farm wife. I was working sales only on weekends. None of the full time people would approach this couple. I saw him steering at a brand new 100 c.c R100, with a full fairing. This was a rather expensive bike. He started asking me technical questions, and I had to go look them up. I took out the Service Manual, and we looked up the specs together. An hour later, the guy pulls out a wad of cash and buys the bike outright.

The other salesman were furious that I was getting the commission, but it was too bad. I processed the sale, and made a couple of hundred bucks, which was a lot back then. This guy owned two other BMW's, and started bringing all his bikes into the shop for service. Not did we only sell him a bike, we got to service all three, and service and parts is where the money is a motorcycle shop is at. One shouldn't judge people by what appears to be their station in life. Most people dress in what's comfortable to them. The "Interracial Marriage" was an issue with some of these guys, I only now this because they mentioned it. How stupid.

[Grimly]

Reads like it was written by an AI.

[argonsagas]

I think that while this happens all the time, the stories are written so vaguely, they are compilations, or made up by some A.I.. That doesn't mean there's no truth in it, there's actually a lot.

I was selling motorcycles at a Suzuki, Honda and BMW dealership. This interracial couple came in. The Black gentleman was dress like he just came off his far,, overalls and all, and his wife looked like a dressed down farm wife. I was working sales only on weekends. None of the full time people would approach this couple. I saw him steering at a brand new 100 c.c R100, with a full fairing. This was a rather expensive bike. He started asking me technical questions, and I had to go look them up. I took out the Service Manual, and we looked up the specs together. An hour later, the guy pulls out a wad of cash and buys the bike outright.

The other salesman were furious that I was getting the commission, but it was too bad. I processed the sale, and made a couple of hundred bucks, which was a lot back then. This guy owned two other BMW's, and started bringing all his bikes into the shop for service. Not did we only sell him a bike, we got to service all three, and service and parts is where the money is a motorcycle shop is at. One shouldn't judge people by what appears to be their station in life. Most people dress in what's comfortable to them. The "Interracial Marriage" was an issue with some of these guys, I only now this because they mentioned it. How stupid.

I have to admit this story had a personal side for me, too.

When I was selling GM vehicles at a dealership I had two instances like this.

One was a man of about fifty who parked his car beside the showroom and came in. His car was a greasy mess inside and he looked decidedly unkempt..
No one else wanted to speak to him.
He told me he wanted to buy a Cadillac, as he liked the comfort of the car, so I sold him the most expensive one we had in stock.
Once he took possession of it, he removed the rear seat from the car and either tossed it or maybe just set it aside somewhere.The rear seat area was then
lined with a thick rubber pad and he used the car as his truck, for carrying automobile transmissions.
I do not recall his first name, but his surname was Wolfe, as in the company he and his brother owned: Wolfe Transmissions.
The company is still in business today.

The second one was a man who arrived on an old BMW motorcycle. He was dressed in jeans and a dirty jacked.
Other sales men ignored him, but a couple suggested I should talk to him as I was his fellow biker. ( I actually rode my Moto Guzzi to work some days, and everyone knew that)

He, like Mr. Wolfe, wanted to buy a Cadillac.
We talked about bikes and cars and he bought his new Cadillac from me. .
He paid cash.
When he came back in for service the car looked very odd, as it had been fitted with custom roof and trunk racks.
They were there to carry his ladders and other equipment as he did custom window cleaning and installations. .
Like Mr. Wolfe, he wanted a comfortable truck.

[argonsagas]

I The "Interracial Marriage" was an issue with some of these guys, I only now this because they mentioned it. How stupid.

That type of prejudiced thinking is still prevalent today, in every race and, yes, it is stupid.

[bccap]

I had a friend who did something like that . He was an English immigrant and decided to start a free ad newspaper based on the model of " Loot " which is in the UK ..... He called it the Buy & Sell and it became pretty large in several cities in North America and he was pretty successful rather quickly. So he decided to buy a Bentley . But he did it intentionally dressing like a bum just to see what happened ..... Said it didn't work . They'd seen too many nutty millionaires not to jump on him as soon as he walked through the door ......

[Suzukian]

H ave a friend that is a stereo type for a car dealer. All he cares about is your Credit history, how much he can get out of you, and that's it. He is extremely successful. We're the same age and he has purchased 3 homes and paid them all off. He rents two of them out, using a Rental company, and makes money off of these homes. They also have increased tremendously in price. When it comes to every other aspect of his life, he eats, drinks, and smokes too much. I have never seen someone drink hard liquor and be able to hold it like he does. I've seen his gushing red from booze, but he didn't sound drunk. I hope he gets to enjoy the fruits of his labor. The life style he lives precludes him from meeting a nice woman, which he has even told me that's what's missing in his life.

Every girl he meets wants to move in a week later. He paid a big price for that, girl moves in, gives him a check for $25 dollars for food, now she's a tenant. She calls the police, saying he's abusing her, and he gets kicked out of his house for 6 months. When he finally moved back in, the house was trashed. Not one wall didn't have huge holes in the sheetrock. All the Copper was stolen out of the house. She had disappeared, so he had to pay for all the repairs. that house still has quadrupled in value though. By using a Rental Management company, they take care of all of that for a decent fee.

[rphillips]

Pretty good story, and yes possibly from AI, we see them often. Still a nice story that has a moral lesson in it... Kind'f like many of the old Andy Griffith shows had. .

[trent]

I've read quite a few stories like this, several same setting even....auto sales/dealership

Same thing...homeless looking guy or some chit, nobody pays attention to him or brushes him off...turns out the homeless guy is some kind of wealthy person.

Buys most expensive thing on the lot, teaches every not to judge a book by its cover...LOL

[trevor]

Buying a car you can't afford....yeah, great story.

[Suzukian]

Some people knowing they don't want a house, because of the up keep, they may be older, and keep up with it, and don't want to spend the cash to outlay sprucing up a house, when they live in a Condo, or have a good apartment they have been happy in, will sometimes buy a car or small camper van. Sometimes it's the largest purchase in their life.

I found when I had my electronics repair store, it was audiophiles that were my best customers. They studied and listened to many amp and speaker combinations before they found what they wanted. Then they drop $20K on a Krell, or Carver, of McIntosh audio outfit, and people wonder why. At the end of they day, they put on their collection of music and relax. They usually have highly attuned hearing, buying only the highest quality recordings. These people ranged for I would label extremely well off, to the average working guy. Yet, when they were in my shop together, discussing audio, the best recordings, any social status disappeared. I had a large audiophile customer base.

Sometimes people buy a really nice car, and keep it all their life. It's the biggest purchase of their life, and it's something they cherish.

I don't know where "Buying a car you can't afford came from", kind of cynical, sometimes true though, but more often than not people buy cars they need, and a few, buy their dream car.

That's how I started restoring Mercedes Benz cars. I was a junior in 1973 and I saw a 1973 450SL and thought, "Someday, I will own one of those. It took many years, but I finally found one, and had some money. He was the original owner. He was asking 12K for the car. I had 10K in my pocket, and thought, if I can get it for 10K, I'll buy it. He asked me, "what are you going to do with it, fix some of the rust spots and sell it for 4K more?" I told him, I intend to fix the car, drive it, and then pass if on to my son, I've wanted one of these since it came out.. This guy had a 12 bay garage. He showed me the Windows Sticker, he had every receipt for the car, it was, in 1973, $12,795 dollars.

He said to me, "I get emotionally attached to my cars, and I want you to have this car, give me $6K for it and it's yours". My jaw dropped. I had the money in $1000 dollar bundles, and pulled out $6K. He was really happy about that. He then said since the car was still registered and insured, he would drive the car to my home, if I would bring him back home. What a deal. I am now the 2nd owner of the car. I've owned it for 30 years. I do all the work on it. This guy told me how he always try to sell his used cars to people he thought would appreciate them. The car was never advertised, a common friend told me about it. He probably had nearly 1 million dollars worth of cars in the other garages.

Within 2 years, I had purchased, and restored 6 Mercedes Benz cars, but I still have the '73 450SL, and I've already given it to my son. I made good money on the cars I sold, but had to stop, it was too much on my Spine.

You never really know what motivates people, why some are satisfied with 1 bike, and others have 6.

[argonsagas]

Some people knowing they don't want a house, because of the up keep, they may be older, and keep up with it, and don't want to spend the cash to outlay sprucing up a house, when they live in a Condo, or have a good apartment they have been happy in, will sometimes buy a car or small camper van. Sometimes it's the largest purchase in their life.

I found when I had my electronics repair store, it was audiophiles that were my best customers. They studied and listened to many amp and speaker combinations before they found what they wanted. Then they drop $20K on a Krell, or Carver, of McIntosh audio outfit, and people wonder why. At the end of they day, they put on their collection of music and relax. They usually have highly attuned hearing, buying only the highest quality recordings. These people ranged for I would label extremely well off, to the average working guy. Yet, when they were in my shop together, discussing audio, the best recordings, any social status disappeared. I had a large audiophile customer base.

Sometimes people buy a really nice car, and keep it all their life. It's the biggest purchase of their life, and it's something they cherish.

I don't know where "Buying a car you can't afford came from", kind of cynical, sometimes true though, but more often than not people buy cars they need, and a few, buy their dream car.

That's how I started restoring Mercedes Benz cars. I was a junior in 1973 and I saw a 1973 450SL and thought, "Someday, I will own one of those. It took many years, but I finally found one, and had some money. He was the original owner. He was asking 12K for the car. I had 10K in my pocket, and thought, if I can get it for 10K, I'll buy it. He asked me, "what are you going to do with it, fix some of the rust spots and sell it for 4K more?" I told him, I intend to fix the car, drive it, and then pass if on to my son, I've wanted one of these since it came out.. This guy had a 12 bay garage. He showed me the Windows Sticker, he had every receipt for the car, it was, in 1973, $12,795 dollars.

He said to me, "I get emotionally attached to my cars, and I want you to have this car, give me $6K for it and it's yours". My jaw dropped. I had the money in $1000 dollar bundles, and pulled out $6K. He was really happy about that. He then said since the car was still registered and insured, he would drive the car to my home, if I would bring him back home. What a deal. I am now the 2nd owner of the car. I've owned it for 30 years. I do all the work on it. This guy told me how he always try to sell his used cars to people he thought would appreciate them. The car was never advertised, a common friend told me about it. He probably had nearly 1 million dollars worth of cars in the other garages.

Within 2 years, I had purchased, and restored 6 Mercedes Benz cars, but I still have the '73 450SL, and I've already given it to my son. I made good money on the cars I sold, but had to stop, it was too much on my Spine.

You never really know what motivates people, why some are satisfied with 1 bike, and others have 6.

That is a story to which I can easily relate, but on a different level.
The car I was most fond of, loved it actually, I eventually, and literally, gave away. I had done so much work on the engine that it only bore a vague resemblance to stock.
It required replacement of rod and crank bearings every 2000 to 3000 miles, in considerable part because it was run at almost double its original 5600 RPM red line .
I could do the replacements in about half the time a mechanic could do it, but the frequency got to me.
Later I had the same back problem you mention from bending over engine compartments.

[Suzukian]

Sounds like it was a beast of a vehicle!!