Car Sales Confidential

Chapter 3 The Trans Couple

THE TRANS COUPLE

What follows is Luke's account of that fascinating insider's look at the world of Car Sales Confidential.

Wendy had bigger arms, came in by himself, had nails, and was seriously looking at a car. He had been in before, some years earlier, but I remembered him. Was he obviously trans? No, no, no, that stereotypical notion about the feminine thing is from sheltered, richer people, they see MTV, they see certain guys, and there are lots in the closet acting like totally normal people, so you wouldn't recognize anything that unusual.

Yes, Wendy was a man looking like a woman, but it wasn't stereotypical. The guy was about six feet tall for sure, at least about six feet, had those bigger arms, bigger than mine, not severely big, but big enough, painted nails, painted like a polished, reddish color, tan skin, kind of woman-looking small boobs up there, you didn't know gender or is that just the way transgenders look with a bra. Kind of a sweater on, lipstick, a little bit, a little bit of makeup, but still, with jeans on and a kind of like T-shirt that hung down that could have been for a male or female.

"Welcome," I said.

"I'm looking for this Jeep that's supposed to be here," Wendy answered.

Showed the customer the Jeep, I was real nice, you know, super nice, and Wendy goes, "Well..." and I was a little surprised to hear what came next but, "I do have to check with my wife," he goes on, "we decide everything together, so what I'll do, I'll come back and I'll make sure we ask for you."

That was fine, but when I realized he was about to go I had to hurry to say, "We have a thing here, the managers just want to say hi before you go."

"Sure...I understand."

So, the two managers had seen the guy and they were both chuckling about it. Not that anyone else would know, they were away from the floor and quiet about it, and noticing their attitude I said, "Jesus, don't mess it up...he works for General Electric."

I knew Wendy was aces. He'd mentioned he was on his lunch break and so the bosses had me bring him into their office.

"Hi, Wendy, I'm Bart," he reached out to shake his hand, "I understand you're looking at our Jeep but you have to talk to your wife first. How did Luke do?"

"Oh, Luke's great."

"I'd like you to do something for us, your wife likes the Jeep, why don't you take the Jeep and show it to your wife?"

"Well...I'm kind of in a hurry."

So, here's a dude, dressed like a woman, who has to show the car to his wife, but the story isn't nearly over.

Were we trying to be cool about this...oh no, when you're in business, the owner and staff are certainly going to be professional about this, there are other sales going on in and outside the showroom, people are looking at people.

It's just a life style, we've had gays as customers, Wendy's a bigger guy, so people might glance for a second, but what are they going to do? It's not like it's a bar...it's a business. He's pre-qualified...I know he's got money cause the car he pulled up in wasn't a beater, works for General Electric, but he's got to check with his wife.

So, if he didn't have to check with his wife, and you write it up right away, he could be a deadbeat. If they write it up real easy, then they probably couldn't make the payments anyway...and it's all BS...new sales guys get tricked like that—that's how you qualify when you're not sure they have good credit.

Things to look for...if they say, "What kind of deals do you have going on?" Or then they get real smart and say, "I'm just looking at cars and I don't want to be bothered."