 Deals and Dealerships
I've been actively looking for a '69 XL, and have been enjoying the bidding and shopping. I've got the patience to wait for what I want, and at the price I want. During all this, I've remembered all the wheeling and dealing that I've been involved in with cars.
In 1969, I bought a black-on-black XL with buckets and console, big block, and everything short of the "GT" package. I was at my favorite gin mill showing it off to a few buddies, when the waitress said, "I've got an XL, too."
Outside we went, and I saw this bright red Galaxie 500 with a white interior and white vinyl roof. Someone had mounted "XL" emblems at the proper place on the roof pillars. The car didn't have hide-away headlamps, and had all the other trim that goes with a Galaxie 500. The waitress told me she got it from a dealer in nearby Ft. Worth, Texas. She had been given a good deal on it, she said, becauise it was a "demo" car. It took a little doing to convince her it wasn't an XL, but then she was mad. When she found out she paid almost the same amount for her Galaxie as I had for my XL, and she had a smaller engine and fewer options, she was furious.
The next day, I went with her to the dealership to confront her salesman. I had followed her there in my car, and parked next to her. When confronted, the salesman said it WAS and XL and pointed to the roof emblems. I intervened and told him that it was not an XL, and pointed to my car, and said "That"s an XL." I pointed to her car and said, "That's a Galaxie." He kept denying any knowledge of wrongdoing, and finally a manager got involved. When they finally shrugged the whole thing off and were not willing to "make it right", I advised them that a friend of mine worked as a news anchor for a local TV station. (This was true.) I asked if they thought it would make a good story for the evening news. They did, and they ordered her an XL in red with the GT package and allowed her to drive the Galaxie until her car arrived. The end result was that she got an XL-GT for the price of a Galaxie.
The point of this story is, I guess, that when dealing with automobiles, you seldom have any friends. It's up to YOU to check the details. Obviously, a twenty-something waitress had no idea she was being scammed; any dealer out there is only as honest as he has to be. The next time one of these car salesman is saying all the warm, fuzzy things to make you feel good, keep your hand on your wallet and don't turn your back on him.
Meanwhile, happy motoring, all. | 
