Car Salesman Has Repeat Customer After Seventy-One Years

by Paul Niedermeyer

Published: September 7th, 2010

car salesman has repeat customer after seventy one years

In the middle of closing a deal on a 2010 Fusion Hybrid, the buyer asks the salesman: “Didn’t I trade in a 1928 Whippet for a used Model A with you?” Salesman Al Steinmetz whips out his meticulous sales notebook, and says “Yes, I credited you $12.65 for a 1928 Whippet as a trade in for a 1929 Ford Model A that you bought for $25. On July 29, 1939”.

Car salesmen love repeat business, but not many are still around after seventy-one years to take advantage of it. Or keep records of every one of the thousands of other transactions Al Steinmetz has ever made since. So if you’re still feeling screwed over on that Granada you bought back in ’74, Al can go over the numbers with you. And you’ll probably leave happily, driving a new Ford, quite likely. Honesty and longevity has that effect on folks. At eighty-eight, Al is still on his game.

Paul Niedermeyer

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5 of 24 comments

210delray on Sep 08, 2010

That is an amazing story; thanks for posting, Paul!

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Syke on Sep 08, 2010

My father had a couple of guys like that at his Chevy dealership (we're talking 45-50 years ago). And yeah, they used to amaze me with the stories about deals they had done back in the 1920's. One thing's for sure: Nobody stays this long in the car business by trying to rape and rob every customer that comes thru the door. Somewhere along the line, I get the feeling that this guy is reasonably straight . . . . . well, for a car salesman, anyway.

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- Rudiger on Sep 12, 2010
  
  Yeah, it's called karma. Sad to say, it's all too rare, especially in auto sales. Intentionally screwing over a customer might make a quick buck, but it's unlikely to garner repeat business. It's also unlikely that most car salesman really look at the job as a life-long career. I'm not sure I can blame them much as the whole management structure is based primarily on short-term gains, i.e., greed. Hell, a couple of times I bought a car and called back a week or two later to find that my salesman no longer worked at the place. In fact, I can only recall one time returning to a dealership a few years later to speak with the same guy I had the first time. I suspect this Steinmetz guy's (and his employer's) attitude wasn't one of making as much money as he possibly could off of every customer, but just making the sale was enough, even if the commission was small. It vividly reminds me of the Edmunds article when a writer went 'undercover' to be a car salesman. During the interview process to get hired, he quickly learned that the only thing that really got the attention of the interviewer was when he was asked why he wanted to be a salesman, he would answer, "To make lots of money!". Nothing else during the interview process seemed to really matter much.
  
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Fastback on Sep 08, 2010

DId I get my links crossed up & click onto 'the Onion' by mistake????

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Sinistermisterman on Sep 08, 2010

Is this the whippet he traded in? http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs404.snc4/46704_429159891667_626121667_4857186_6701063_n.jpg I saw it by the side of the road in Keremeos, BC.

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