GM Trax 2000 Database

[Geoff Coenen]

Besides selling us lots of genuine GM Corvette parts, our franchised GM dealer provided lots of help. Some of it was great. They would sometimes get GMSPO to fax us a small GM blueprint of a part when a customer questioned a part. I was faxed notices that GM sent to subcontractors telling them to scrap the GM tooling & reimburse GM for the scrap value of the tool when a part was discontinued. The now retired director of all of the GM warehousing & distribution sent me lots of GM blueprints for discontinued parts. These roughly 24x36 blueprints came folded up in large pre-printed manila envelopes with GM’s address & GM postage meter stamp. Ken would write me notes on his personalized GM stationary explaining different thing – like how a certain 69-72 part in the Assembly manual had two different part numbers in error & was actually the same part. I was fortunate to have GM’s help. I was sent the advance notice that GM was discontinuing 65-67 side pipes. That was unusual, because those notices came via the Trax 2000 computer database network.

Later the GM Restoration Parts Program with contracts was instituted & the company administering it for GM was EMI: Equity Management Inc. That’s when everything became pay to play. The more contracts EMI got signed for GM, the more money they made so they wanted every bit of assistance to flow through them.

When I was stamping production date codes in 1961-1972 Aluminum expansion tanks they called me & said they would get the 3 different tanks discontinued. They somehow had that power. Then everyone would have to buy them from me. When any of the 6,000 (or was it 9,000 ?) GM franchised dealers sold these tanks – EMI got nothing. If they got them discontinued, they would get a cut of every sale. I turned them down & later realized they offered them to Tom Dewitt who accepted.
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But the direst access to the GM warehouse computer network from my own phones was incredible. It made it easy to keep inventory and you cannot sell from an empty wagon!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9Ybykfjzb8"

PS The tones in this video will not go there today.

 

[redvetracr]

money money money with GM it`s all about money......might be the reason I now have three Fords.....

 

[BBShark]

I bought a Ford for the first time in my life a year ago.

I like their product lineup. I like the fact they didn't accept government bailout money like GM did. I like when they were confronted by social activist employee's demanding they quit making cop cars, they told them they were not going to stop making them.

 

[Geoff Coenen]

We all have stories about car dealers.
The franchised ones I had commercial accounts with were great:
Russell Chevrolet, Fairfield, CT – gone
Winer Chevrolet, Stratford, CT – gone
Dan Perkins Chevrolet, Milford, CT – gone
I followed 2 parts dept manager that gave me excellent service when they changed jobs.

The last 2 GM stores I used commercially were in Watertown & Meriden, CT. I never set foot in either one. The parts dept managers who had changed jobs told the store owners about our account & we were in like Flynn. One was a Buick dealer in Watertown. You did not need to buy Corvette parts from a Chevy store. I would fax them a list of part numbers & they would deliver to my warehouse.
Harte Chevrolet – Meriden (?), CT – gone. Never went there either; never met the owner. The part dept managers Buddy (RIP) & Gordie (RIP) were 2 great guys.

Kerbeck Corvette Atlantic City, NJ gave me the best prices on Corvettes. George Kerbeck was a character. In 1986 he told me he was going to sell more Corvette’s & become the number one dealer in the USA. Turn out he was not blowing smoke & has been number 1 since then. He married a very pretty sales girl: Vicky, who in October 1998 sold me a 99. He told me he lived on the beach, next to Chip Miller (RIP).

900 miles later the 99 shifter locked up & would not go into gear. I called Chevy & no local Chevy store had a mechanic yet trained on the C5. A tilt & slide was sent to my warehouse in Bridgeport, CT & brought the car to Dworkin Chevrolet, Derby, CT. They would not give me a loaner. Their manager said “You didn’t buy that Corvette here”. I replied, “you don’t even have any new Corvettes to sell”. P.S. Dworkin Chevrolets – they be gone too.

Went to Steven Ford Lincoln in Milford, Ct to look at a Continental. The salesman blew me off, would not allow a test drive. We went to Fruitrich Cadillac in Shelton and bought a Deville for my better half. True story. I worked at this exact same dealership decades earlier when I was a poor school teacher. It was Frascatore Cadillac Olds back then.

Off for the summer with no pay, I applied for a job in the parts dept. Bless me Father for I have sinned, I lied. Said I was laid off from my job & my wife was pregnant. When the new Corvette parts manuals came out each year, the Russell Chevrolet store had been giving me their old Corvette parts manuals so I had a good working knowledge of how GM organized the parts. At that time I was just a regular Joe buying parts for my 63 at Russell. Got the job at the Caddy Old dealer & learned even more about GM’s parts system. As September rolled around, I was going to resign to go back to teaching the inner city yuuuuth. Didn’t have to - I got laid off.

Serendepity: getting those 1970’s Corvette part manuals & 2 month’s working in a GM Parts Dept gave me the basis for a future change of career. After 8 year of college with a pay check of $204 net per week, living from credit card to credit card I was ready for a change. And I’ve never looked back.

America is the land of opportunity. If you want to get ahead, get to the point where you sign the front of a paycheck, not the back. There are exception: get a union government job & many retire making more in retirement than they did on the job. That’s why CT, CA, IL, NY, NJ, MA, RI, etc, etc have the highest taxes.