I arrive at the Infantry Officers Advance course in Ft Benning, (Columbus) Ga in '77 and I know in a few months I am going to make Capt and a big raise to go with it and I want a new Corvette and I wanted the 78 SA with Red interior.
I started at the local dealer, Bill Heard Chev, it was the 11th largest Chev dealer in the US and I thought I would get a good deal.
The Deal: Well sir you will need to talk to the Sales Manager, he is the only one that takes orders for speciality Corvettes, have a seat over there. I sit down and wait, and wait. and wait, hours past and watch him go in and out and around and around, he never says a word. Finally about 3+ hrs he says come on in. What can I do for you?
Sir, I want to order a 78 SA Corvette?
Fine, let look and see....market adjust price is 10% over MSRP.
my eyes spin, thinking guess I will need shop around
And, I also get 10% of MSRP in CASH as in $20's and $100's. There is no paperwork, that is a call it a TIP for getting you a rare car that almost no one will have but a few folks and you prob sell it thousands over what you pay.
Thanks I will consider it.
Thus begins the search in the SE US for a dealer who will not rob me. Weeks later on the way to Atlanta I take a side road and pass thru a town that does not even have a stop light or Dairy Queen but it does have a Chev Dealer. Its not much and in fact it looks more like a used car lot if it were not for the new cars. The building is not as big as my house and in front is a Car Port, with a '65 Chevy II, Red line tires, 4 sp and the big HP small block, still unsold. I walk in and a BIG man walks around the corner and says come on it, you looking for something?
Yes Sir, want to order a SA Corvette?
A WHAT?
78 SA Corvette!
Well hell, gonna have to look that thing up, last time I sold a Corvette was in '57 and that was to Farmer Brown and not sure he has ever driven that thing except home.
Sir, can you get one, do you have an allocation?
LOL, son, I don't need no allocation, I just tell them what I want and they send it. I bought this dealership from my Daddy, who bought it from his Daddy who bought it from Chev in '29. He went on tell he he was one of the few GM dealerships left, if GM. made it, he could sell it.
Mr Bickerstaff, Buena VIsta GA. We got to be good friends and he howled when I told him the story off Bill Heard. There were 3 people there, Mr "Bill", his wife the bookkeeper and his son who was a part time mechanic. But he did a big volume in Trucks as its all farming out there and he shipped trucks all over the SE US. He asked me what do I want to give for it and I said $500 over dead invoice and said fine. Ended up getting 3 more corvettes (Indy car and another vet for the wife) from him and 2 trucks, then he retired as his son and daughter did not want anything to do with it. I should haver bought the Chevy II, it was an ordered car for a farmers son and the kid went in the Army and off to Germany, got married and decided he did not want it. He told me he would let me have for $1500 and I should have jumped, but I was on the way to Korea.
Mr Bill gives me the dealer order book and it looked like a NYC telephone directory, he was HUGE and in several volumes and you order what you want. Now here come the interesting part. Mr Bill tells me, look all in the book, as there may be options that are not on the standard list of options and there was and when I saw it I laughed but said I got this, this has to be cool...Trailer Hitch! Was not much, maybe $25 bucks +/-, but I got every option I wanted that was HP, L82 engine, sadly it was a AUTO, not my first, my '56 was an auto w/240 hp engine, IIRC.
The aftermath: I come out of Ft Benning with orders to the DMZ in Korea unaccompanied tour. I take the little Cheerleader wife of mine put her butt in that SA send her off to Dallas til I get back. Well I am gone a year and she ain't happy, files for divorce 'cause the life in Dallas she missed after she married me and she is gonna stay
She is wants everything and that '79 Corvette I bought her other than being driven back from Ga to Dallas has not rolled another mile since she like SA and RED interior. With luck Dallas is Corvette in demand and sell it to a dealer for $500 over what I paid Mr Bill for it.
SO the day come I am to meet her at my bank in Dallas and turn over that SA to her with a clear title along with all the cash we have in the bank (she has the accounts frozen). I pulled into the bank parking lot get my stuff in the Corvette and look at the my First ordered car in life, for me, by me and that little witch wants because its mine and does not want the '79 sitting in the garage. I have been driving vetted a long time and anyone who says they do not have a soul is not a real owner and I tell that Corvette, I am gone and all you got is that little bitch that been herding you around for the past year, well you don't have to take care of here any more and I wiped a tear I felt the spirt of the Corvette leave.
I got a lot to do in the bank, my business with her took only a few minutes. I take care of business, jump in the 79 she drove over and I need to sell it as she took everything except the starch out of my fatigues. I pull out onto Josy Lane just N of LBJ Freeway in Dallas. I am heading S and up ahead there is a 78 SA sitting semi sideways almost across the whole right lane, left lane has to slow to get by. There is a tow truck and the driver is talking to her, I slow roll down the window and ask what happened she SCREAMS at me that I BROKE her car, tow driver says trans is GONE and there is fluid everywhere.
Next day her Lawyer calls and asked me what did or poured into the transmission? I say nothing, then I will give you a choice, you pay for a NEW trans now and we will the trans inspected for damage that you could have done or had done and if so I will sue for new trans and $10,000 + cost of rental etc. I say fine I did NOTHING to the car and had just driven up from Ft Hood Tx running perfect.
I never hear again, I did nothing.
More: I hear from her again, car is broke, what did you do, lawyer calls, same BS, this time he tells me we gotcha something had to be added to the oil and if you are cough up new engine and $20k plus expenses and we are having you served with papers you are not to come within 100 yards of her or her work etc etc BS. I tell him I do not know where she lives, her phone number or where she works and I did nothingI, I hang up, smile, my corvette misses me a LOT!
Every Corvette in my life has been an interesting odyssey of finding and buying. Never bought a Corvette in the city in which I lived and usually in another state, even my ordered ones. The most I have ever paid was my Z06 $1000 over invoice and at that time IF could get a Z06 is $10k on the market adjustment in Dallas and I had shopped every dealer in DFW.
YES this is a true story as it happened...thought maybe some might enjoy and I do know that men, Corvettes and X wives often end up with his Corvette.
I started at the local dealer, Bill Heard Chev, it was the 11th largest Chev dealer in the US and I thought I would get a good deal.
The Deal: Well sir you will need to talk to the Sales Manager, he is the only one that takes orders for speciality Corvettes, have a seat over there. I sit down and wait, and wait. and wait, hours past and watch him go in and out and around and around, he never says a word. Finally about 3+ hrs he says come on in. What can I do for you?
Sir, I want to order a 78 SA Corvette?
Fine, let look and see....market adjust price is 10% over MSRP.
my eyes spin, thinking guess I will need shop around
And, I also get 10% of MSRP in CASH as in $20's and $100's. There is no paperwork, that is a call it a TIP for getting you a rare car that almost no one will have but a few folks and you prob sell it thousands over what you pay.
Thanks I will consider it.
Thus begins the search in the SE US for a dealer who will not rob me. Weeks later on the way to Atlanta I take a side road and pass thru a town that does not even have a stop light or Dairy Queen but it does have a Chev Dealer. Its not much and in fact it looks more like a used car lot if it were not for the new cars. The building is not as big as my house and in front is a Car Port, with a '65 Chevy II, Red line tires, 4 sp and the big HP small block, still unsold. I walk in and a BIG man walks around the corner and says come on it, you looking for something?
Yes Sir, want to order a SA Corvette?
A WHAT?
78 SA Corvette!
Well hell, gonna have to look that thing up, last time I sold a Corvette was in '57 and that was to Farmer Brown and not sure he has ever driven that thing except home.
Sir, can you get one, do you have an allocation?
LOL, son, I don't need no allocation, I just tell them what I want and they send it. I bought this dealership from my Daddy, who bought it from his Daddy who bought it from Chev in '29. He went on tell he he was one of the few GM dealerships left, if GM. made it, he could sell it.
Mr Bickerstaff, Buena VIsta GA. We got to be good friends and he howled when I told him the story off Bill Heard. There were 3 people there, Mr "Bill", his wife the bookkeeper and his son who was a part time mechanic. But he did a big volume in Trucks as its all farming out there and he shipped trucks all over the SE US. He asked me what do I want to give for it and I said $500 over dead invoice and said fine. Ended up getting 3 more corvettes (Indy car and another vet for the wife) from him and 2 trucks, then he retired as his son and daughter did not want anything to do with it. I should haver bought the Chevy II, it was an ordered car for a farmers son and the kid went in the Army and off to Germany, got married and decided he did not want it. He told me he would let me have for $1500 and I should have jumped, but I was on the way to Korea.
Mr Bill gives me the dealer order book and it looked like a NYC telephone directory, he was HUGE and in several volumes and you order what you want. Now here come the interesting part. Mr Bill tells me, look all in the book, as there may be options that are not on the standard list of options and there was and when I saw it I laughed but said I got this, this has to be cool...Trailer Hitch! Was not much, maybe $25 bucks +/-, but I got every option I wanted that was HP, L82 engine, sadly it was a AUTO, not my first, my '56 was an auto w/240 hp engine, IIRC.
The aftermath: I come out of Ft Benning with orders to the DMZ in Korea unaccompanied tour. I take the little Cheerleader wife of mine put her butt in that SA send her off to Dallas til I get back. Well I am gone a year and she ain't happy, files for divorce 'cause the life in Dallas she missed after she married me and she is gonna stay
She is wants everything and that '79 Corvette I bought her other than being driven back from Ga to Dallas has not rolled another mile since she like SA and RED interior. With luck Dallas is Corvette in demand and sell it to a dealer for $500 over what I paid Mr Bill for it.
SO the day come I am to meet her at my bank in Dallas and turn over that SA to her with a clear title along with all the cash we have in the bank (she has the accounts frozen). I pulled into the bank parking lot get my stuff in the Corvette and look at the my First ordered car in life, for me, by me and that little witch wants because its mine and does not want the '79 sitting in the garage. I have been driving vetted a long time and anyone who says they do not have a soul is not a real owner and I tell that Corvette, I am gone and all you got is that little bitch that been herding you around for the past year, well you don't have to take care of here any more and I wiped a tear I felt the spirt of the Corvette leave.
I got a lot to do in the bank, my business with her took only a few minutes. I take care of business, jump in the 79 she drove over and I need to sell it as she took everything except the starch out of my fatigues. I pull out onto Josy Lane just N of LBJ Freeway in Dallas. I am heading S and up ahead there is a 78 SA sitting semi sideways almost across the whole right lane, left lane has to slow to get by. There is a tow truck and the driver is talking to her, I slow roll down the window and ask what happened she SCREAMS at me that I BROKE her car, tow driver says trans is GONE and there is fluid everywhere.
Next day her Lawyer calls and asked me what did or poured into the transmission? I say nothing, then I will give you a choice, you pay for a NEW trans now and we will the trans inspected for damage that you could have done or had done and if so I will sue for new trans and $10,000 + cost of rental etc. I say fine I did NOTHING to the car and had just driven up from Ft Hood Tx running perfect.
I never hear again, I did nothing.
More: I hear from her again, car is broke, what did you do, lawyer calls, same BS, this time he tells me we gotcha something had to be added to the oil and if you are cough up new engine and $20k plus expenses and we are having you served with papers you are not to come within 100 yards of her or her work etc etc BS. I tell him I do not know where she lives, her phone number or where she works and I did nothingI, I hang up, smile, my corvette misses me a LOT!
Every Corvette in my life has been an interesting odyssey of finding and buying. Never bought a Corvette in the city in which I lived and usually in another state, even my ordered ones. The most I have ever paid was my Z06 $1000 over invoice and at that time IF could get a Z06 is $10k on the market adjustment in Dallas and I had shopped every dealer in DFW.
YES this is a true story as it happened...thought maybe some might enjoy and I do know that men, Corvettes and X wives often end up with his Corvette.
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