A Cadillac in Every Garage

In 1953 Willow Run burned. This immediately stopped production of all Cadillacs, as this plant was their only supplier of transmissions. So General Motors decided to put the dynaflow transmission (which was Buick) into the Cadillacs. This was fine except that the knowledgeable Cadillac buyers weren’t enthused about the dynaflow transmission. So, in spite of a tremendous demand for Cadillacs, the cars began piling up.

Most of the salespeople had given up. They were convinced that our dynaflow Cadillacs were salesproof. Obviously something had to be done. So Gordon Wilcox (our top salesman) and I sat down across a desk one day and started cold-canvassing. We had each put $25 in the pot, and the first to sell a car would get the $50, plus his commission.

About four o’clock in the afternoon, after quite a few calls, I was talking to a man and and he said, “It’s about time they put a decent transmission in the Cadillac. They should have put the dynaflow in it a long time ago. I have a Cadillac now with hydramatic, and I sure would like one with dynaflow.” I said, “I’ll be there in 20 minutes, and you can drive one!”

He lived on Garfield Blvd., and I hurried over to see him. He was an old inventor, and one who’d managed to make some money with his inventions. He had a two-year-old Cadillac Special with 4,000 miles on it. I called the dealership for an appraisal on the trade, but I thought the figure given me was too low. After all, I had seen the car. So I put my own evaluation on it, and closed the deal.

When I got back to the dealership about 7 o’clock (we normally closed at 6 o’clock), Mr. Alpaugh, our Sales Manager, was waiting for me. He asked to see the papers, looked them over, and told me I had put too much money on the trade. One of the house rules was that you could go over on any appraisal if you chose to, but if the dealership demanded it, you would have to sit down and write your own check for the car. You, the salesman, owned the automobile that you appraised at an inflated value.

He said, “I’ll have your check for the car.” I said, “Thank you, ” and very quickly wrote a check and handed it to him. He said, “Wait a minute. I want to see this car.”

We went out and took a look at it and then, of course, he realized why I had done what I had done. He said, “No, you don’t. Tear up that check. You’re not buying this automobile.” I said, “All right, but I’m going to sell it. Don’t let anybody else sell it.”

So the next morning by 10 o’clock I had sold it to a friend of mine who was delighted to get a two-year-old car with 4,000 miles on it (and hydramatic transmission). And the old inventor who had traded the car was very happy with his new Cadillac with a dynaflow transmission.

Sometimes – not very often, but sometimes – you can please them all! Best of all, I’d earned two commissions and the $50 pot!