Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rick]

Aft'noon all,

Has anyone here ever worked at a new-car dealership? And if so, do you have any interesting tales to tell?

RJ
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[Whitegoatie]

Yes, trucks not cars.

Sending the apprentice to stores for 3m of phalophian tube was a constant source of amusement. It would be even funnier if I could spell it...

[Peter_L]

[ukdave2002]

The closest that I got was I the mid 80's when I used to do add hoc work for a mate who rented out sound and light systems; we did a few "new car launches " for dealerships generally in and around Chester..

Fun times, a mate of mine was a mechanic at the local Ford dealer: Quicks, the mechanics were not allowed to the launch of a new car, so we used to hire him as a roadie, partly just to hack Quicks off, however he did so well talking to potential customers that Quicks promoted him from a mechanic to Sales. He now runs his own ford dealership..

Dave

[Peter_L]

Hope this story is OK, relates to dealers.

Back in 2011(future life plans meant we wanted a crossover). So both took a day off and toured the dealers in our city, We must have test driven nearly every crossover version. Picked up a Chevrolet and tried it around the city and on the highway, then hit a problem, could not, for the life of us remember where we got it from. The dealer plate on the back was no help and there is never a cop when you want one. So drove into another dealer, who kindly keyed in the VIN but that came up with a previous owner in another part of Canada. So we took it home and later that evening received a phone call from the dealer. "can we have our car back"

[ukdave2002]

[Peter_L]

[Mog]

Crossover looks like it means, trade in the old bomb !

[Dipster]

I only get cross over moderns when I am unable to figure out what all the gizmos fitted (and thus tacked on the bill) actually do.......

[peter scott]

I've never worked for a dealership but was very pleasantly surprised by those working in a Rossleigh dealership in Edinburgh (Now Stratstone).

I had been trying to replace the splined hubs on my rear axle. These are secured on a keyed and tapered half shaft. With some effort I had managed to remove one of them but with much use of pullers and club hammers I failed to remove the other.

On advice from a friend I then took my half shaft and hub, looking very like a medieval mace, to the main Jaguar agent refered to above. The only customer reception desk was manned by immaculate gentlemen in pristine white shirts and ties seated at a desk on the otherside of the large yet spotless carpetted showroom.

Politely asked how they could help me I showed them the far from clean "mace" and could they remove the hub for me. "No problem sir!" It should be ready tomorrow and sure enough it was!

I was highly impressed.

Peter.


_________________
https://www.nostalgiatech.co.uk
1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon

[Whitegoatie]

[quote="peterwpg"]

[Whitegoatie]

[Peter_L]

[Rusty]

Well "I" did work at a dealership ! I did my apprenticeship with Winterbottom motors in Perth WA at the main workshop for the Western Australian distributor of all things English during the 1970s. I got to work on all the Morris and Austin models from the 60s and 70s as well as Triumphs MGs Jaguars a few old Rileys and Wolseleys ect, I think that's where my love of old British cars has come from. Another section of the company that I worked at was Wentworths, the Chrysler agents who shared the workshop with us and if things were quiet in one end of the shed or the other there was a fair bit of crossing over and working on the other marques which meant Chrysler both Ausy and US, Dodge, Hillman, Humber and Jensen.

Its a different world now to what it was then though because now almost no one repairs anything at the dealers, if they cant get a replacement part or a unit from a trade supplier then they don't do the job. We rebuilt everything that was rebuildable and the finished jobs usually worked fine with very few failures. I have a nephew who has completed an apprenticeship as a mechanic and he has never been taught the proper way to setup a diff, steering box, rack ect or how to go about rebuilding an engine or gearbox except in a limited way by me because they don't do that sort of thing now, just get a replacement unit and fit it. Makes you wonder what will happen in a few years but that's the way its gone.

If you want a couple of stories from then how about the Morris 1500, (similar drive train to your "maxi's") that was only running on 3 cyl from new, the mechanic checked it (not me) and the factory had forgotten to put the no 3 piston and rod assembly in the engine when it was built, or the P76 V8 that was vibrating and no one could work out why until we pulled the transmission out and the rear mating surface of the engine block casting had only been machined halfway across, the other half was raw casting. There's a gazillion things that happened then and they are slowly fading away from memory now. The workshop closed in 1980 about 18 months after I moved on (caused by a lot of big business politics) and I was reminiscing a couple of months ago with another bloke that also did his apprenticeship there and we know most of the older tradesmen have gone now and even us young apprentices are nearing retirement, soon there won't be anyone left to remember.

[Ashley]

Interesting to hear your stories Rusty, because in the seventies I worked opposite a BL dealer and became friendly with the mechanics there. It was quite astonishing to see the state of new cars when they arrived. Only one engine mount on an Allegro, battery, fuel tank, pipes and carpet thrown in the boot loose and so on. What really annoyed the lads was that they had to fill in a great long form listing all the problems that was supposed to be presented to the work force. Except nobody dared because they'd just walk out.

It's a miracle they lasted as long as they did.