I found out today why I got the call for the sales job at the dealership
where I am struggling to turn this hobby into my living. It took over four
weeks for them to get back to me after my initial interview, which had been
brief and had ended on a very unoptimistic note. You may recall I posted
about taking the car up to Perdenales Falls with my wife and daughter.
While I was going through a small town called Spring Branch, the sales
manager with whom I had interviewed saw the Imperial while I was overtaking
her on a part of Highway 16 that is only two lanes. She saw the huge
befinned beast in her rear view mirror wait until there was a safe chance to
pass and then just take off past her. The 392 Hemi is brilliant for that
kind of stuff, as those of you with cars lucky enough to be endowed with one
will know. Apparently I smiled at her as I passed and she recognized me.
My hair is almost completely white now so I guess its memorable. Then I
just kept her trailing as the car zoomed up the next long, steep grade,
another lovely Hemi trick. She saw all the stickers on the car, which are
there in lieu of paint, but had her boss call me anyway. My application had
become buried and forgotten but she was intrigued enough to think maybe they
could use my kind of BS. I am in the process of finding out if she was
right.
In passing, there is an older salesman there, by the name of Lewis. He sold
his first car, a Plymouth, in 1952. He was the third and last generation to
run a small Chrysler / Plymouth dealership in Karnes City, Texas. He sold
out in 1978, and the franchise was moved to a better location for modern
traffic and his old building demolished, which is exactly what happened in
Seguin, Texas, where my car was sold by a smaller Chrysler / Plymouth
dealership. He has sold a variety of Imperials over the years. He didn;t
keep any in stock but would special order them for customers. Car salesman
are remarkably unromantic about cars and Louis is no different. An Imperial
was a pain in the behind not only as a sales item but as a maintenance item,
too, as there was no little parts overlap with more common vehicles. But
the dealer profit was good, as they were never sold at anything less than
full price and were usually ordered fully loaded.
He came back to car sales around eight years ago for a couple of reasons.
He says he thinks he has some picture albums of his old dealership. He is
very sharp. He did a product walk around on a Dodge quad cab diesel 4X4
pick up and had a lot of good tips on how to present them. He is more
interested in new stuff than the old days, but I hope to pry those snaps
from him. I sold one of the trucks he taught us about today. Maybe that
will encourage him to dig them out of storage.
Hugh
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