Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Dutch Harbor Story

Rev. Paul in his Way Up North blog likes to feature Dutch Harbor stories.


Thought I might contribute a related Dutch Harbor story of my own. Around 1990, I was stuck in a Mitsubishi store in Puyallup, WA that was owned by a multi franchise organization. I was able to sell any of the brands the organization carried.

One day a customer, “Angel”, came in. About 5’ tall, and as round. Redefined androgynous. Who cares, she was a customer. She was from Dutch Harbor, had $10,000 cash to spend, wanted only a brand new vehicle, and insisted on four wheel drive. No new small truck was in her price range. Still, a cash customer. Solution? 

An all wheel drive Tempo. In fact, for her $10,000 we could add superior rust proofing with a warranty! Please understand, this wasn’t a rip-off. At the time, Zibart rust proofing was a huge improvement on anything the factories offered.

Angel was happy with her purchase, and still had enough money left to barge the Tempo to Dutch Harbor. In 2002, happened to be talking to a commercial fisherman from Dutch Harbor. He knew Angel, and remembered she still was driving the Tempo. Given the total of roads there, bet it still hadn’t clocked 100,000 miles. 

I loved the Tempo. It was the perfect no brainer car. There is a class of drivers who don’t like cars, don’t understand them, and only have one out of necessity. All they want is that it starts, drives away when you shift, and is CHEAP. The Tempo was made for them.

I had a subset of Tempo customers, Chinese. Ford had a marketing gimmick printed on the window sticker, a “Value Added Discount”. This was additions like A/C that added up to $660, and was discounted $640. Typical Chinese customer went like this.

    “I’m very poor man. Need large discount”!

    “Look, we have already given you a BIG discount”.

Chinese customers were fun. Hard negotiators, but not time wasters or liars. If they said they had $2,000 down, they weren’t lying. They didn’t come in to “shop”, they came in to buy. The Chinatown Seattle First bank would almost always finance them. The whole secret was to get them laughing.

    "I like you. I send all my friends to see you".

    "Please don't. I can't make any money of you Chinese, and I have a family       to feed".

    "Hah, I send EVERYBODY in Chinatown to see you".

There was little gross profit in a Tempo, but was a good sale towards the monthly volume bonuses, so I was happy to sell them.


Ford replaced the Tempo with the Contour. A superior car in all respects except price, and the no brainer customers didn’t like them. 

13 comments:

Momma Fargo said...

May I say my first detective car was a freaking Tempo....no get up and go! I hated the thing. They got me a Malibu next. Slight upgrade. I swear. Detectives need go fast cars. Great story!

Well Seasoned Fool said...

They are a slug, but detectives don't need to go fast; they only want to.

Old NFO said...

I had a comment but I was laughing so hard at Fargos and your comments I forgot it... :-)

Well Seasoned Fool said...

She is high speed.

Scotty said...

Being the die hard motorhead/hot rodder that I am.....I can't contemplate even sitting in a Tempo!

Well Seasoned Fool said...

For two years, you could get one with a Mazda sourced diesel. Someone at Ford took pity on the other motorist and made sure it was only available with a manual transaxle.

Scotty said...

This is more like it!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ8kOQxz5zY

Well Seasoned Fool said...

So, if you need to ask why, you will never be a motor head?

Momma Fargo said...

Well, I beg to differ. I had to go fast many o times catching murderers across the prairie. I don't know what kind of Detectives you have in Colorado, but Wyoming ones are fast and sure. And we have Longmire.

Momma Fargo said...

I am high speed. Thank you for noticing a Tempo should be just as it's name suggests...the speed in which music is played...which should be as fast as rap or heavy metal. Instead, I give it a classical instrumental rating. Blah.

Well Seasoned Fool said...

Not buying that, having spent a lot of time in Wyoming including being born in Wyoming. Radios and roadblocks are the proper tools. Of course, you need to be careful of Wyoming detectives on their way to DIA.

One time going East on Hwy 18 from I-25 to Lusk, I was forced to do the speed limit as there was a cop car going West every few minutes. Turned out there was a LEO funeral that morning in Lusk.

Well Seasoned Fool said...

It gave you more time to mentally review your notes; a good thing, no?

Scotty said...

That's right! ;-)