My favorite comment was made be me.
In October of 1986 I was DETERMINED to find and purchase a new GN and after a painfully long search, I had finally located a new one in Palm Springs, CA. There was no internet back in those days, and you either had to know someone at a dealer or spend a stupid amount of time on the phone calling around long distance.
I was on my way out to Palm Springs from Phoenix and just before I left, a sales guy from a dealer in Indio, CA called me and asked me to come by and look at a car he had.
"It's exactly like a Grand National, engine, hood bump, everything.....and it's $5000 less than the one in Palm Springs, I promise......Ya gotta come see this car!!" this guy on the other end of the phone tells me.
Well I had to go through Indio anyway so I tell the guy "I'll come by and see you, Why is this GN so cheap?"
He says "you just have to see it."
So I show up and this salesman is all excited as walks me out back telling me what a cool car this is and all and then.......there it was...... this plain, ordinary, white bread little Regal. Bench seat, column shifter, ugly assed American Turbo lookin' wheels......but it did have a bump on the hood with the 3.8 Liter SFI badge.
He say's "This is "just like" a Grand National and I'll sell it to you for $11,500".
I just looked at this guy.......you could hear the crickets chirping.
So I look at the salesman. wrinkle up my nose and said (here it is)
"YOU DON"T SEEM TO UNDERSTAND, THIS CAR IS A GRAMPA CAR, I WANT A GRAND NATIONAL!" and I proceeded to drive to Palm Srings and pay $18000 for MY GRAND NATIONAL.
I was soon to meet a fellow who had what he called a "Turbo Regal" and I was quick to learn just what they were.......
Over the years I have told this story to many, many people and joked about how I , maybe, shoulda bought the car in Indio.... NAW, I did the right thing, I got what I wanted....
Fast forward to 1996, I'm married, have an infant son, and a LOT more money wrapped up in the car.
I'm getting ready for work and my wife walks into the bedroom with this awful look on her face.
I thought somebody in the family had taken seriously ill or passed away or something.
She said "The GN is gone."
And it was, it was never recovered, in fact, the cops never even found a trace of it.
That was a sad day.
Fast forward to 2011, I'm no longer married, My son is soon to be 17 and I'm looking at craigslist, sort of dreaming......
What's this? There's an ad that says "GN for sale in Orange County".
I check it out, some guy named Lou has not a GN, but a really pretty little White TR for sale.
I call my boss (who is the guy with the Turbo Regal I had met all those years back) and said "check it out, this looks just like the car I took a pass on way back in the day".....
So I call this guy, Lou and arrange to go out and look at the car.
I tell him the storied story of the little white car from Indio.
Well, I eventually bought the car from this Lou guy, and this Lou guy turns out to be Lou Czarnota, Turbolou.
And Lou builds Buicks, you know.....and I had a plan.
And the car, well..... GM archives tell me that this car was first shipped to a dealer group in San Jose, CA and then to, .....you guessed it ....Indio, CA for sale.
Could it be?????
Yes it is, only WAAAY better, because Lou builds Buicks, you know.
And I'm living happily ever after......
The End
