4 ~ Friday, February 12, 1993 ~ North Shore News

Car sales

revor
Lautens

ti

GARDEN OF BIASES

SORRY, Gabe Torok of
Dick Irwin Chevrolet
Oldsmobile — one of the
most interesting as well as
helpful and charming car
salesmen P’ve met.

Also Jim Simmons of Dave
Buck Ford. I'd rate Mr, Simmions
right at the top for intelligent, in-
formative, no-pressure expertise,
especially in his grasp and expla-
nation of automobile leasing.
Wish we could have done
business.

Same for Russ Reid of Specialty
Motors. This gentlemanly former
policeman also struck me as a
straightforward man selling same
very straightforward, no-fooling
cars ~— Subaru and Volvo, Pity
we couldn’tstrike a deal.

-_-U send my regrets to a number

of others, Like John Allan of

“Dueck Chev-Olds-Cadillac in

“ Vancouver (yes, | ogcasionally
stray over the bridge to do some
prospective business in the foreign
territory of Vancouver, although

- always with a sense of guilt that
I'm sot supporting the domestic
indisstry of Greater Tiddlycove on
the North Shore.)

>Also Kiu Sepehri of Wolfe

Chev-Olds on Boundary Read.
Nice man,
And Montreal native Andy
‘Baillargeon of Bowmac Motors on
‘Broadway, one of those good
‘+ salesmen who remembers you and
tips you to a car he thinks you'll
ike. :

As is Ross Davison of Totem
Mercury Sales, a smart old
veteran salesman and a fine son of

my home province of Ontario.

Helpful effort too by Jetf
Valleau, also of Totem, [ believe a
native of Saskatchewan. (Amazing
what you pick up along the way
about people.)

Going back a few years, Bar-
bara Weiler at Carter Chev-Olds
was a super-intefligent help, and 1
almost bought ... but dithered,

Hans Mugge, from Germany as
I recall, was very helpful at
Carter's Dodge-Chrysler dealer-
ship at the next corner,

[also got the straight goods
from Allan Ramsay at Vancouver
Jeep Eagle. Had an amiable talk
too with Wayne Poulsen at Ensign
Pacific Lease on West Georgia.

And high marks for Mike D.
Meyer, president of Howard
Distributors — a little-known
Carter division of national scope
that deals in what are called pro-
fessional vehicles, meaning the
huge limousines used by diplo-
mats, airport limo companies,
funeral directors and such.

And other fine and skilled men
and women I've talked to in the
car business for the last two or
three years, Can’t recall them all,
and ['m sorry they aren't listed
here.

Why do I bring this matter up?

Well, partly to say thanks. And
partly to pay sincere tribute to the
people in an industry that perhaps
gets less revognition than it
deserve

They're a kind of matchmaker,
aren't they? They bring together
people and the vehicles with which
so many of us have a continuing
love affair, Worth noting on this
Valentine's weekend.

Let's face it, a romance can end
tomorrow, but a 1939 3%4-litre
Jaguar 8S convertible is a collec-
tor’s item, cight?

But there is another reason for
this salute to the many sales per-
sonnel and dealers who have tried
to find the right car for me over
the past few years — and usually,
by the way, with far less hype and
pressure and a lot more courtesy
and intelligence chant the stereo-

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type of ald suggests,

Put simply: [ want to announce
the winners,

Yes, although several of the
above-named sales people pat as
far as the quarter-finals and even
the semi-finals, they couldn't or
didn’t clinch a deal with one of
the hardest sells in the Western
world,

Me.

In fact, my wife became posi-
tively embarrassed.

She was sure I was so well
known on the car lots of Greater
Vancouver that the sales staffs
had got together and held a pool
to sce which one would actually
sell a car to T. Lautens.

1 rarely test-drove a car unless |
had a pretty strong interest. But
even with that qualification, |
brought home some fancy and
exotic machines for my wife to
see, |

And.there lay the probiem, as it
so often does.

Put Madly, any car boring
enough far my wife to accept was
too dull for me to want,

And any car that intrigued me
was so exquisile —- or eccentric —
that my wife hated it.

recall, for example, a
beautifully maintained, low-
mileage 1980 Cadillac eight-
passenger black limousine that
had been privately owned in
Arizona. .

I thought this was the perfect
car for a seven-person, two-dog
housshold, as it was then,

My wile thought | was nuts.

Then there was the gorgeous
two-tone (canary yellow and
brown) Olds Toronado with con-
tinental kit —: driven by an af-
fluent lady who'd put only about
35,000 miles on it.

My wife thought it was a
French pleasure house on wheels,

Extended
Hours

Open Sunday §

11 to Spm

OF course she didn’t put it that
way, but all spouses eventually
can read each other’s minds,
which is quite a violation of the
Privacy Act, by the way.

In any event, | had tried so
often to get the “ right’? car that
would satisfy the family’s many
purposes that ( had officially an-
nounced that we'd damn well have
to make do with the five cars we
had. All sentimentally aging stuff,
[ assure you.

But, no sooner had | resigned
myself to keeping my disparate
fleet of cars (average age, 16
years) than i got a call from a ter-
rific salesman who had quietly
persisted in seeking the car of my
dreams — or, more accurately,
one that he could sell on its merits
to our disputatious family.

He and his partner did a superb
job. And !'d go back to them
anytime for another car — which
could be as early as around 2005.

DIAMOND anp

€
ou

The car — roll of drums, tootle
of trumpets, picase — is a
wonderfully handsome and
carefully maintained 1984 Buick
Electra station wagon.

And the winning salesmen were
— more drums, more tootles -—
SCOTT MURRAY and KEN
CLEMES of Jubilee Plymouth
Chrysler, North Vancouver,

Those men deserve capital fet-

_ters, readers. They handled the

whole thing superbly. Faultlessly.

Their epitaphs could read: ‘We
sold a car to the most finicky
buyer in the world.”’

And, after three cautious weeks
of driving it, 1 can testify: 1 love
the car,

Remind me to pass it off to my
wife as an carly Valentine's Day
present.

It's that or a box of chocolates,
sweetheart.

EET PORT

The Shape
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