02SilverStroke
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Alan Mulally might be a good guy after all. Check this out:
It wasn't a surprise to Danny Herrington that Ford's chief executive would be waiting on him Friday morning when he went to buy a new pickup truck. But it was flattering nonetheless.
"I'm feeling pretty special right now," Herrington said in a telephone interview after buying an F-350 Super Duty pickup truck at Galpin Ford in Los Angeles from new Ford CEO Alan Mulally and longtime General Sales Manager Terry Miller.
Herrington, of suburban Lancaster, Calif., who has purchased 15 or so vehicles from Galpin over the years, said he was warned in advance that Mulally might be there to deliver on a promise made at a dealer convention to spend a day on the sales floor.
Mulally, dressed in a suit and tie, asked multiple questions as Herrington haggled over the final numbers with Miller. Much of the sale already had been worked out, but a couple of small items, Herrington said, went his way because of Mulally. The CEO and Miller wouldn't give him enough money to trade in his 2000 F-250, he said.
Still Herrington, a general contractor, was able to get the payment to his target of $600 per month for six years.
"There were a couple of things that were in question as to be part of the deal," said Herrington, 46. "I think because of him it went my way."
At the National Automobile Dealers Association annual convention in Las Vegas last month, a dealer on the floor asked Mulally to spend a day selling cars on a showroom floor. Mulally accepted, and made good on his promise at Galpin, the world's top-selling Ford dealership.
Mulally would not allow reporters into the dealership Friday, but Ford agreed to make customers available for interviews after Mulally joined in waiting on them.
Herrington said he would have bought the truck Friday without Mulally's presence, but having the CEO wait on him made the experience special.
"He was very interested in the process. I was actually real surprised that he showed the interest in all of it that he did. He really wants to be a part of it," Herrington said while waiting for his truck Friday afternoon.
It wasn't a surprise to Danny Herrington that Ford's chief executive would be waiting on him Friday morning when he went to buy a new pickup truck. But it was flattering nonetheless.
"I'm feeling pretty special right now," Herrington said in a telephone interview after buying an F-350 Super Duty pickup truck at Galpin Ford in Los Angeles from new Ford CEO Alan Mulally and longtime General Sales Manager Terry Miller.
Herrington, of suburban Lancaster, Calif., who has purchased 15 or so vehicles from Galpin over the years, said he was warned in advance that Mulally might be there to deliver on a promise made at a dealer convention to spend a day on the sales floor.
Mulally, dressed in a suit and tie, asked multiple questions as Herrington haggled over the final numbers with Miller. Much of the sale already had been worked out, but a couple of small items, Herrington said, went his way because of Mulally. The CEO and Miller wouldn't give him enough money to trade in his 2000 F-250, he said.
Still Herrington, a general contractor, was able to get the payment to his target of $600 per month for six years.
"There were a couple of things that were in question as to be part of the deal," said Herrington, 46. "I think because of him it went my way."
At the National Automobile Dealers Association annual convention in Las Vegas last month, a dealer on the floor asked Mulally to spend a day selling cars on a showroom floor. Mulally accepted, and made good on his promise at Galpin, the world's top-selling Ford dealership.
Mulally would not allow reporters into the dealership Friday, but Ford agreed to make customers available for interviews after Mulally joined in waiting on them.
Herrington said he would have bought the truck Friday without Mulally's presence, but having the CEO wait on him made the experience special.
"He was very interested in the process. I was actually real surprised that he showed the interest in all of it that he did. He really wants to be a part of it," Herrington said while waiting for his truck Friday afternoon.
