My uncle worked most of his life in sales at car dealerships in Evansville Indiana. I knew this of course.
He happened to be in town this weekend (we were throwing a family party), and we got to talking, somehow, about Buick GNX's. Turns out my uncle and his owner/partner were the big Buick dealer in town during the 80s and 90s, and after the GNX came up, he said: "I sold 3 of those! Well, leased one and sold 2."
First we got the lease story.
A guy from Chicago was passing though town, and saw the GNX but didn't know (believe) it was a GNX. He still stopped and inquired about the car. He says "Tell me about the Grand National" to which my uncle replies "That's not just any Grand National. It's a GNX." The guys says, "No it's not. You can't get those." "Well, see for yourself."
After they look at the car and it is indeed a GNX, the guy says, "I want it.", Uncle says "It'll cost ya". Guy responds "Don't care. Just write the lease and after the lease is over I'll buy it at the end too." The MSRP was $30k but that guy ended up getting it for about $45-50 all said is what my uncle remembers.
Then we got - "Hell, I sold one of em in the Wall Street Journal." Wait, what?
Story on that one was that the dealership owner bought it from another dealer for invoice (which my uncle remembers to be $26-something), and they put it in the showroom to bring customers into the dealership. Had 25 or 30 miles on it. So there it sat, bringing customers in, for 6-7 years, before finally the owner said to my uncle "Well, I think we got our use out of it, sell that thing." "How much do you want for it" "You got an imagination don'tcha? Use it. Run an ad in the Wall Street Journal."
So my uncle writes to the Wall Street Journal to place an ad. Copy was something along the lines of "Buick GNX, Brand new showroom condition, $49,999 not a penny less". And also keep in mind it is now 1993 or so. Then he promptly forgot about it as he was tending to daily work.
A couple months later, he got a call from someone in New York:
"You still got that GNX?" "Yep"
"My girlfriend wants a fast black car. It's brand new?" "Yes, brand new. You want me to send you photos?"
"No need, I'll wire you the money. But when my guy comes to pick it up if it isn't brand new I'll be getting my money back."
A few days after that, a semi pulls into the dealership front lot (local drivers all knew to pull around back). My uncle saw them running over the flowers out front and went out to see what was going on. The driver was there to pick up the GNX. When my uncle walked back inside, the buyer was already on the phone line waiting for my uncle. "My guy said the car is the cleanest 7 year old car in the country. My girlfriend will be happy."
Apparently the driver proceeded to unload both a Ferrari and a Maserati before loading the GNX in the front and then reloaded both other cars before taking off.
Of course I'm paraphrasing both stories, but I thought they were too fun not to share!
