Sammy...Cal Worthington?

[legion]

Not to put this in the random pictures thread. How was Cal Worthington crooked? Just curious. Doesn't surprise me as his whole persona was style over substance. I do remember the commercials as a kid and dancing around the house singing: "Pussy cow! Pussy cow! Pussy cow!"

[Vipergrün]

Originally Posted by legion

Not to put this in the random pictures thread. How was Cal Worthington crooked? Just curious. Doesn't surprise me as his whole persona was style over substance. I do remember the commercials as a kid and dancing around the house singing: "Pussy cow! Pussy cow! Pussy cow!"

.....and his "dog" spot. LOL Wow, I use to hear the very same thing....pussy cow...not go see Cal. Must have had something else on my mind :-)

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by legion

How was Cal Worthington crooked?

He was a retail car dealer.

[sammyg2]

He started in used cars, and that was his specialty until he got in bed with ford.

His dealership was the king of bait and switch, the used cars featured in the commercials were never on the lot. Pretty sure they invented that game.

His dealership would promise anything to get you there, and then change the deal at the last minute. IOW, car salesmen.

And that whole dog spot thing? It was created to try to screw over a competitor.
A small-time car sales guy put out a commercial with his real dog, named spot. Worthington didn't like anyone else muscling in on his territory, so he flooded the market with HIS commercials and made it look like the little guy was copying HIM.

They were always up to something. like promising a free radio or tickets or whatever for every test drive, but they always seemed to be fresh out of whatever they promised.
Bait to get you in the door.

I don't know if he was any worse than the rest, but that don't say much.

[Jim Richards]

I used to hear his relentless TV commercials when I was stationed in San Diego. “Go see Cal!” Sheesh!

[mrbeverlyhills]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

He started in used cars, and that was his specialty until he got in bed with ford.

His dealership was the king of bait and switch, the used cars featured in the commercials were never on the lot. Pretty sure they invented that game.

His dealership would promise anything to get you there, and then change the deal at the last minute. IOW, car salesmen.

And that whole dog spot thing? It was created to try to screw over a competitor.
A small-time car sales guy put out a commercial with his real dog, named spot. Worthington didn't like anyone else muscling in on his territory, so he flooded the market with HIS commercials and made it look like the little guy was copying HIM.

They were always up to something. like promising a free radio or tickets or whatever for every test drive, but they always seemed to be fresh out of whatever they promised.
Bait to get you in the door.

I don't know if he was any worse than the rest, but that don't say much.

My cousin went in to see a "TV Car", one that was like $999 or something. It cleared the lot of salesman when he asked. He was told later, if you sold a "TV Car" you got the boot right away.

[Bob Kontak]

Anchorage about 1990, Worthington Ford.

I was smothered by the salesman. Boilerplate set of questions. Vicious. Never anything like it experienced.

Bailed pronto.

[sammyg2]

In the late 70s my girlfriend's dad bought a slightly used ford sedan from a Worthington dealership. Can't remember the 'zact numbers but mileage was supposed to be really low. Car was babied, garaged, only driven on weekends, yada. You know the drill.

He popped the hood and I could see the yellow junkyard paint pen writing on the valve cover. Definitely not number's matching

It was a different world back then, buyer beware.



But the worst vehicle buying experience I had was at Worthington's competitor, Pete Ellis furd off the 91 freeway and bellflower.
I was in the market for a new ford ranger in 86
The guy on the phone said they had one at the price I wanted to pay. IIRC it was $9000.
But the price got higher when I walked on the lot, $10,000
I left.

He called and apologized, said they had the one i wanted at the price quoted. $9000? Yep.

Reluctantly, I went back down there. Same game. Nope, sales manager said we'd loose money at that price, gotta add a grand.
I left again.
Another guy called, and said $9000.
I told him that if they jack me around again someone was going through the plate glass window so they might as well call the cops now.
He said OK, $9200 and they'd fill the tank.

Turned out to be the biggest POS vehicle I ever owned.

PS I'm a little fuzzy on the exact price but it was ballpark and you get the jest.

[mrbeverlyhills]

^^^ Don't feel bad, ultimately my cousin bought a car they said was the service manager's wife's car. Yes, really.
When he got home, if you stood sideways and looked at the car sideways from a 3/4 view, you could see the Valley Cab logo they had painted over on the door.

[Dansvan]

From Wiki

"He saw combat as a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot with the 390th Bomb Group, flying 29 missions over Germany. He was discharged after the war as a captain. Worthington was awarded the Air Medal five times, and received the Distinguished Flying Cross, which was presented to him by General Jimmy Doolittle.

Worthington's military service was frequently revisited in the 21st century in aviation magazines, since he had trained pilots who would become some of America's first astronauts."

His kids that I have met are trash. Only met him once in person, hard to judge someone on such a brief encounter but seemed pleasant.

[sc_rufctr]

[look 171]

Originally Posted by Vipergrün

.....and his "dog" spot. LOL Wow, I use to hear the very same thing....pussy cow...not go see Cal. Must have had something else on my mind :-)

Funny. I always thought it was ...and his dark spot and of course, pussy cow, pussy cow. Couldn't get over that Texas or country accent. I was little then, but the other southern accent on TV was Flo saying Kiss my Grits working at Mel's dinner. I think the show was Alice?

[tabs]

A woman that ii know here in lv wears blue jeans pull over polo type shirts and doesnt wear make up. She went into the local Porsche agemcy to buy a car, she asked for a test drive. THEY REFUSED HER..she was rather upset..she opened her purse and showed them a 100k in cash in her purse. She walked out..

They called her back..she picked out a car that she liked..the dealwrship tacked on a couple of k as a transportation charge from another dealership..she walked again.

They callef again and when she went back she started to cry..she did wind up buying a Boxster.

[chuckr]

Same here, stationed in San Diego and as best as I can remember the best commercial came on
Late at night.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by mrbeverlyhills

^^^ Don't feel bad, ultimately my cousin bought a car they said was the service manager's wife's car. Yes, really.
When he got home, if you stood sideways and looked at the car sideways from a 3/4 view, you could see the Valley Cab logo they had painted over on the door.

Oh man, that is classic.
A repurposed taxi? You know that had a gozillion miles on it.
Best case would be that it was wrecked and rebuilt using a door from cab. Not much better!

[legion]

Originally Posted by mrbeverlyhills

My cousin went in to see a "TV Car", one that was like $999 or something. It cleared the lot of salesman when he asked. He was told later, if you sold a "TV Car" you got the boot right away.

That's interesting. I suppose it makes sense in a perverse way. Those were just the bait but no one was allowed to actually sell it.

Funny thing, I bought a "TV Car" when I bought my Mustang. It is a totally stripped-out (no options, other than upgraded tires) manual 5.0 GT. It's exactly what I wanted. They definitely priced it as bait and the price of course was ridiculously low. Yes, they did try to sell me on ones with options that doubled the price. They also had two identical "TV cars" on the lot with sequential VINs, so at least they weren't in the business of not selling their bait cars.

[sammyg2]

Right after I bought my F150, a coworker liked it and decided to get one too.
He got the Saturday morning paper and saw an ad for a really good price on the truck he wanted and was there when the dealership opened.
He corralled a sales guy and said he want to buy this truck. The sales guy said it's gone already but they have plenty more, but not at that price.
He started walking away but spotted the truck in the ad.
The sales guy tried to deny it but it was the same truck. After a few hours of attempted shenanigans, he drove off with the new truck and paid a lot less than I did, and I thought I got a great deal!

So it does work out good occasionally. Usually for other people tho

[mrbeverlyhills]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Right after I bought my F150, a coworker liked it and decided to get one too.
He got the Saturday morning paper and saw an ad for a really good price on the truck he wanted and was there when the dealership opened.
He corralled a sales guy and said he want to buy this truck. The sales guy said it's gone already but they have plenty more, but not at that price.
He started walking away but spotted the truck in the ad.
The sales guy tried to deny it but it was the same truck. After a few hours of attempted shenanigans, he drove off with the new truck and paid a lot less than I did, and I thought I got a great deal!

So it does work out good occasionally. Usually for other people tho

There was a post here or maybe on Renlist where a Porsche guy asked his fiance to take his truck to the dealer for service. The service adviser asked her what model and she said Ford. He said, sure, but which model? She said it was a Feeso. A what? A Feeso, says so on the back. So, curious now, the adviser goes out to look at the vehicle and sees the F150 on the back, puts it together and doubles over laughing.

Every time my kids see one they yell Feeso!

[KFC911]

^^^ I need some 710 for my FISO

[Scott Douglas]

They must have gone thru a lot of salesmen as the commercials I remember had dozens of cars that he'd walk his 'dog' past with big signs on the windshields with the price on them.
What did they sell if not the TV cars?