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First female competes in USA national auto repair contest
Katy
Younglove hopes to someday make a name for herself as Ms.
Goodwrench. The 18-year-old from Monroe was the
first-ever female to compete in the Ford/AAA Student Auto
Skills Competition and her team came in third. Her partner
on the team was classmate Craig Suydam, also a senior at
Monroe High School. "I was really excited when I found
out I was going to be the first female to ever be in the
contest," she said. "I really wanted to show
everyone what I can do." Robert Kaczor, assistant
vice president of automotive services for AAA Michigan
and AAA Chicago, said Younglove's participation in the
contest will hopefully start a trend. "You don't find
too many women in the auto repair and service field," he
said. "But it's nice too see Katy here. I think that
this provides an opportunity to bring more diversity into
the auto service industry." The event -- now in its
14th year -- was held Wednesday at the Macomb Community
College Sports & Expo Center in Warren. Twenty students
from nine Michigan high schools and tech centers vied for
top honors in the contest, which pitted two-person teams
against each other in a race to correctly diagnose and
repair engine problems on identical vehicles. Younglove
said she's always been a gear head. "My family's always
been into cars," she said. "I started helping
my dad work on them when I was 6 or 7." She also said
she was a little surprised at how well her team did. "We
were second to the last team to finish -- the ninth car
to go through the check," Younglove said. "We
were worried about our time, but we just pulled together
and took our time and didn't freak out." The team
from Saline High School -- Alex Dobroy of Clinton and Zachary
Hastings of Milan -- came in first place with a time of
49 minutes and 50 seconds. Second place went to the team
of Joshua Hoeskstra of Hastings and Jeremy Winget of Grand
Rapids, which represented the Kent Career Tech Center.
The winners will receive more than $45,000 in scholarships
and prizes. They will also represent the state in the national
finals, scheduled for June 26 at Ford Motor Co. headquarters
in Dearborn. Each year, more than 6,000 high school students
from across the country compete in the event.
Toyota surpasses
GM in first-quarter sales, says Edmunds.com
According
to quarterly sales results reported by Edmunds.com, Toyota
became the world's number-one car company in sales
for the three months of this year, surpassing General Motors,
the world leader for 76 years, for the first time. "While
the figures announced today represent only quarterly sales
results, they may well foreshadow the inevitable: Toyota
will become number one as early as this year," says
Michelle Krebs, Senior Editor of Edmunds' AutoObserver.com. "Toyota
has claimed that surpassing GM is not its goal, Toyota
president Katsuaki Watanabe told reporters in December.
But don't believe for a second Toyota's goal - or Watanabe's
goal - isn't to surpass GM. Toyota desperately wants to
be number one. Watanabe - described as sharp, very aggressive
and even a bit arrogant - wants Toyota to be number one.
The automaker just worries about what goes along with being
number one." According to Jesse Toprak, Edmunds.com
Senior Analyst, "This was not an unexpected turn of
events, but it happened a bit earlier than forecasted because
of GM's decision to cut fleet sales. GM wasn't making much
money on those cars anyway, so the financial picture isn't
dramatically different than before.
Car dealer who defrauded actor Nicholas Cage and others,
gets 5 years
It was a simple consignment-sale scam but ended
up costing victims over $2 million. The former owner of a
Philadelphia-area
classic car dealership was sentenced to prison for a
scheme whose victims included actor Nicolas Cage, screenwriters
and wealthy business owners, reports the Philadelphia
Business Journal. Peter Brotman was sentenced in to 60
months and ordered to forfeit more than $1.8 million. "Brotman's
fraud scheme was simple: he would sell, generally speaking,
expensive cars for his clients, which he had received
on consignment and keep the proceeds, or give the cars
to another person to whom he was indebted," U.S.
Attorney Pat Meehan said. Mr. Brotman tried to buy time
with clients by saying he would have their money after
a "commission ... he would be earning from brokering
the sale of a $450 million European art collection," Mr.
Meehan's office said. He also issued fraudulent checks
to car-selling clients and defrauded a local bank, which
gave Mr. Brotman's company loans totaling $955,000. For
collateral, Mr. Brotman used titles to cars he didn't
own, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. He breached the
loan agreement by selling some collateral without notifying
the bank and defaulted on a line of credit. The total
loss incurred to car owners, insurers, and the bank was
about $2.2 million.
Moron alert! Thief tries to sell car back to dealership
where he stole it
Why are crooks called wise guys, anyway?
A Connecticut man was arrested after he tried to trade
in a Jeep
to a car dealer, a month after allegedly stealing
the same Jeep from that same dealer, reports the
Stamford Advocate. The alleged thief, Jazrahel King,
was arrested after a sales manager at the dealership
recognized Mr. King's 2003 black Jeep Liberty as
a vehicle that was stolen from his lot in early March.
The sales manager said Mr. King brought the SUV in,
hoping to trade up for a larger vehicle. "I
was speechless. I couldn't believe he would try to
take back another car and he didn't think we would
recognize him," the manager said. Mr. King had
come to the dealership last month to test-drive some
vehicles. But there was a problem with his credit,
so salesmen at the dealership scrubbed the test-drives.
The sales manager said he last saw Mr. King wandering
around the lot as he was preparing the Jeep Liberty
for delivery to a customer who had just bought it.
The keys were left in the Jeep. Then the Jeep and
Mr. King disappeared. When police inspected the Jeep,
they found that the key ring was the same as those
issued by the dealership. The temporary plate on
the vehicle belonged to the dealership and documents
found inside showed it belonged to the dealership.
The real King of Car Sales is still going strong at
age 86
Legendary California car dealer says he's sold
a million cars. With all due respect to “Chop” Towbin,
Towbin Dodge and The King of Cars television show,
in 1950, when television was a brand new medium,
one of the first personalities to do commercials
was a tall, skinny cowboy in a white hat selling
used cars. "Hi, folks, Cal Worthington here," said
the voice from the television set. In the background,
singers chanted: "Go see Cal, go see Cal, go
see Cal." Fifty-seven years later, reports the
New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, that
same cowboy -- still wearing a Stetson -- is still
on television, still selling cars. Calvin Coolidge
Worthington is 86 now and lives on a 24,000-acre
ranch about 100 miles north of Sacramento. Cal Worthington
became a legend among car dealers, selling cars throughout
the American West from Texas to Alaska. By his own
count, he's sold more than a million and grossed
billions of dollars. With his good looks, folksy
charm and his dog, Spot -- who wasn’t actually
a dog – Cal Worthington always seemed a cut
above dealership television pitchmen, though he was
an integral part of the genre. It was those TV ads
that made Mr. Worthington a cultural icon. The ads
made him a minor Hollywood celebrity and led the
Television Bureau of Advertising to cite him as "probably
the best-known car dealer pitchman in television
history." He's not sentimental about the current
state of the car business and he knows how to make
a buck. "Most dealers make about 1.6 percent
on every car they sell; I make about 2.4 percent
because I've learned to do it more efficiently," he
said. "That may not sound like much until you
multiply it by a million cars." It has been
enough to buy him dozens of dealerships, an office
building, three shopping centers and eight ranches.
He also operates his own advertising agency, television
studio and finance company. Cal Worthington became
an early believer in the power of television advertising.
Rather than buy ad spots, he produced entire programs.
Much as Chop Towbin does today in Las Vegas, every
Saturday and Sunday night, Cal Worthington was host
of a three-hour variety show broadcast live on a
Los Angeles station from Cal's Corral at his dealership.
The show featured a who's who of country music stars,
including Johnny Cash, Buck Owens and Roger Miller.
The rising cost of television time eventually forced
Mr. Worthington to focus on shorter ads in which
he praised specific cars on his lot while wearing
a 10-gallon hat and a western suit. One day, a rival
dealer appeared in commercials with his dog, named
Storm. As a joke, Cal Worthington started countering
with ads featuring "my dog Spot." Only
Spot was never a dog. It was always a chicken, or
a possum, or a duck or something. But it was never
a dog. Through the 1960s, he was the nation's top
Dodge dealer; he even inspired a national Dodge ad
campaign, "The Good Guys in the White Hats." At
one point, his holdings grew to 29 dealerships. His
portfolio, he said, was a forerunner of the dealership
chains that dominate American auto retailing today.
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