Summer in the City

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Something serious and something funny today.
    While there was determination to fight and hope for a reprieve, the dealership had to proceed through the wind down process. The economy during the summer of 2009 was rocky.  There were no good leasing options and leasing was a big part of the luxury car market in Detroit.
    There were about 100 new cars in our inventory, those being all 2009's.  There could be no new orders for 2010 models but there were already some orders placed for customers before the termination letter came.  New models would usually begin to arrive in August.
  We had to fight to get those orders filled.  GM tried to divert those customer orders to other dealers.  We had to scream and yell at the district sales manager to straighten this out.  It was all so frustrating and GM seemed to be making a difficult process even harder every step of the way.
    After the June termination, GM was not communicating with our dealership as they had done previously.  We did not receive important bulletins or pertinent information that was needed even for the wind down process.  We had to rely on dealer friends to give us vital information.
    The inventory became stale.  Some customers came in expecting fire sale prices.  Some people did not want to buy from a dealer that is going out of business... they might as well transition to the place where they would get their vehicle serviced.
    There was no "trade bait". Often dealers will trade with each other and we didn't have anything new to offer.
    Looking back, it was an amazing feat to sell those cars, be weighed down by the overhead, keep ALL the employees working, fight day to day battles with GM and just carry on.
What was it like to work in the city during the summer?
    Of course it was hot.  People would be walking around, up and down Woodward, up and down Cass.
Guys from the 1/2 way houses would wander in, trying to get some cool air or take "sink baths" in the service department bathrooms.
    I asked Keith if there was something nice about summer there and he said and I quote: "The hookers were more scantily clad".  We both laughed so hard.  Keith!  He followed with the fact that sometimes they would pull together a barbeque during lunch on the used car lot.
    He got to know a lot of the locals and there were definitely some characters. Bicycle Man - dressed all in black, looking like an assassin.  He would pull up on his bike in front of the building, get off and pull out a tape measure that he kept like a gun in a holster.  He would stare through the windows (they would stare back), squint and eyeball them as he "measured them up" as if for a coffin.  It was all very dramatic. He would then put the tape measure back in the holster and get on the bike and ride away. He would be around for several days in a row.  Then he would be gone for months before reappearing.  Eventually he just stopped showing up and they never knew what happened to him.
    Another crazy was "the inspector".  He would inspect every car, taking an hour to perform his ritual.  For the most part these guys were harmless. Sometimes they had to be shooed away if customers were nearby.
    One day, Keith was standing in the office talking with Reverend Ed Rowe when they noticed a beating going on across Woodward.  Rev. Rowe said "somebody's got to help that man!"  Nobody moved and in the next minute, Rev. Rowe is out the door walking fast toward the street.  Keith used a few choice words and followed.
    As they got closer, it was two men stomping a guy on his head. They yelled at the men to stop and leave him alone.  The men did stop and moved away as Keith and Rev. Rowe approached. They thought the guy was dead.  They knew the police were coming and wanted to stall the men until they got there.  Keith picked a metal pipe and calls for them to come back.  They yelled back and forth but eventually they ran before the cops came.
    Rev. Rowe asked Keith later what he was going to do if they came back and Keith said he was planning to take their heads off with the metal pipe.  Rev. Rowe said something like"Oh Lord.  I can't condone that but I guess I'm glad you had a plan".
    The guy lived and told the police it was a squatters rights problem from some abandoned house on Piquette.  All in a day's work.
    Next up: Joe Biden, Louisiana Lonnie, Wicked Wanda and Homeless Johnny