[notfarnow]

I sold new cars at a Suzuki dealer for a year, back when I lived in Montreal. I loved it... it was a great little dealership with many repeat customers... You started out selling 2-4 cars a week easily. You didn't make a pile of money on each car, bought if you sold a lot of them you did OK, and it was a lot of fun for a 26 yr old car nut.

Pete was a snide little SOB who sat beside me, and he pretty much fit the description you guys are talking about. Condescending and belittling. I always thought it was a bit much... I mean cripes, we were selling Suzukis... but he maintained it was important to be IN CONTROL. I liked meeting people, and liked talking cars, so the sales came pretty easy.

There was an Asian guy who worked at the textiles factory up the road. Every day after work, he caught the bus right in front of the dealership. One slow, rainy day he came in after work.

It was Pete's "up" and, he had been waiting 3 hrs for someone to come through the door. He said "you take him, I'm not wasting my up."

I spent an hour and a half with him, his english was bad but I walked him through the whole thing, options, price etc... on the fully clapped out Grand Vitara with v6 , bushbars, leather. Offered a test drive but he had to catch the bus. Pete taunted me afterwards, saying the guy just wanted to keep out of the rain and was always wasting our time when it rained.

Next day after work, he came in with $5000 down, in cash. All old $20 and $50 bills... took almost an hour to count. He wanted to pick the car up the next day, so he could drive to his son's university graduation in his first car. THAT was a good day. The guy even wrote ME a thank-you letter.