Back when I was just 18 years old, I had just graduated High School, gotten married (to my now ex wife), I left my job at JC Whitney for what I thought would be a more lucrative job: Selling cars.
It was 2003 & everyone had good credit so you tried to sell everyone, but it was hard to actually get someone to buy (which is funny, cuz the next time I tried selling cars was after 2008 & nobody had good credit, but for some reason EVERYONE wanted to buy). I really liked my job as I was a huge motorhead & loved VWs. This dealership sold VWs as well as Mopar brands & Mazda. I was paid a salary of $300 per week, PLUS commission. I could survive on the salary alone, so any sales were a total bonus for me at the time.
I was the kind of person who learned every single detail I could possibly know about every car we sold. I wanted to be the guy who knew what was going on with EVERYTHING. I even kept up with the shop & their schedule of receiving new cars so I could know what was available & when it was ready to drive. Some might not know this but, when a new car is delivered it only has enough fluid & lubricant in it to drive it onto the truck & off of the truck. Then it goes into the shop to get set up (which is more work than you might think. Not only do they fill it with the proper fluids, they hook it up to the computer & basically set up the whole car right then).
Fast forward to the time the Chrysler 300C was coming onto the market. It was a huge deal because it was to be the FIRST car with a Hemi Engine in decades. Not only that, it got the same gas mileage as the V6 at that time. It was gonna be big & everyone knew it. Obviously, I was on top of knowing when our first one was going to be available cuz I wanted to be the one to sell our first one. Our first one was on site, but it was in the shop, still waiting for final setup. Basically, not ready to drive. On or around the day we got our first one, we were to have a huge sale. The sale was advertised all over the radio & there was a promoter that was hired to pump up customer traffic to the store.
On this day, at some point, I had asked my manager too many questions for his liking. And I'm the kind of person who, I will ask you things because I want to know, NOT because I don't trust you. I'm just into details. Well, the manager yelled at me in front of everyone (which is par for the course for him when yelling at anyone) & said I needed to “Stop Questioning me & just do as I say.” No, I don't remember the question that did it. Anyway, I stopped questioning him.
The sale was in full swing, it's probably 118 degrees outside, mid day, & my manager brings me this nice couple looking for a car & they're interested in the 300C. My manager tells me this & then asks me to take them out in the new one we just got. The one that I knew was NOT ready to be driven. I KNEW this for a fact. My manager clearly did not & he JUST TOLD ME TODAY: Stop questioning me & do as I say. So I shut my mouth & took them out in the 300C.
Under normal circumstances, I drive the customers from the store to an abandoned parking lot where I demonstrate the vehicle's features in great detail, then they get to drive it from there onto the highway, then back on regular roads & back to the store. This customer says “hey, so I wanna see what this Hemi can do, but I don't wanna get a ticket. Would you mind—” I cut him off: punching it on the highway so you can see how fast it is? You got it!
I get on the on ramp & we're up to like 80 mph before we're even at the highway! Halfway to the usual offramp, the A/C quits working & the check engine light comes on. I blow it off & just say “huh, that's weird. I'm sure it's nothing.” We then drive PAST the dealership because I have yet to demonstrate the car's features & have the customer drive it. So as I pass the dealership, the A/C comes back on, smoke is coming out the back of the car, and MORE lights come on on the dashboard that I've never seen before (one is like a lightning bolt in parenthesis, idk). So I pull into the parking lot to demonstrate the car. As I pop the hood on this 118 degree day & open it to show the customers, we ALL recoil from the heat coming off the engine. Without missing a beat, I go into my schpeal about the car. Then comes the time for the customer to drive it. They get behind the wheel, turn the key & the engine makes the slowest turning sound I've ever heard. Again, pretending like I don't know what's going on (I know exactly what's going on), I say “huh, that's weird, you better try it again.” It's worse the second time.
To reiterate, I knew this was a horrible idea this entire time & it was going to end badly.
So I walk to a nearby place to use their phone & call the dealership. I tell the person who answers “hey, tell the manager we're stuck at the parking lot & the car is going to need to be towed back. Send someone to pick us up.” They don't send someone to pick us up. They send a mechanic in a 2 seat pickup truck. Including the mechanic, there's 4 of us. This mechanic doesn't apparently know what I know, as he thinks he's going to get it running. After he tries to start it & fails, he then tells me “I think it's best if we tow it back.” My brain is going “YEAH AS OPPOSED TO DRIVING IT BACK YOU FRIGGIN MORON?” but I play dumb. So they finally send a van to pick us up. I then show the customers a different vehicle. They like it. Want to buy it. But have garbage credit, so it doesn't matter anyway. They were never going to be able to buy a car that day.
Fast forward to about a week later when the mechanics finally finish finding out what happened to the 300C. I walk in to work & literally everyone there is waiting for me & they begin collectively sarcastic clapping. One of them tells me “Congratulations…. you melted it.” I pretend to not know what they're talking about & say “What? I melted what?” I catch a glance at the manager & see a look on his face that tells the entire story. Either he didn't know & just figured it out, or he had it figured out & wanted his face to tell me he figured it out. But he didn't say a word. I did what he asked. How could he be mad at me for literally doing exactly as he asked, without questioning him, on the very day he told me to do exactly that, resulting in destroying a brand new car?