Gm brass hat owned cars

[DW31S]

I'm pretty sure we called them "PEP" cars at the dealership. We counted them in the total for unit bonuses but there was a flat commission paid because the dealership made very little if anything for doing the paperwork.

[StealthBird]

One other point I'd like to make. I often see listings on E-Bay and other places where a car may have 25+ options, and the seller assumes it's a "brass hat" car. Just because the car was ordered with a lot of options does not automatically mean it was ordered by a high ranking GM executive. General Motors also built trains, trucks, buses, etc., and the executives within those divisions also ordered cars. There were thousands of GM executives around the world.

The term "brass hat" was more of a slang term used by dealers when an executive driven car, well equipped, was sold through their dealership. It makes the car more attractive to a buyer when a customer thinks an "executive" special ordered the car, it has a lot of options, and they're buying it at a discount. But also remember, an executive driven car doesn't necessarily mean a babied and pampered car.

Mike

[Keith Seymore]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: StealthBird</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> But also remember, an executive driven car doesn't necessarily mean a babied and pampered car.

Mike </div></div>

Perhaps even the opposite: the fleet coordinator had a cartoon posted in his office that indicated company cars &quot;accelerated faster, braked harder and went faster&quot; than regular vehicles (if you get my drift).

I was a company vehicle driver for just shy of 20 years. I lost that rank during the unpleasantness of '08.

K

[Kurt S]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: StealthBird</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The term &quot;brass hat&quot; was more of a slang term used by dealers when an executive driven car, well equipped, was sold through their dealership. </div></div>
It's a totally made-up term by the dealers. They applied it to anything coming thru the auction - pool cars and exec cars.

PEP = Product Evaluation Program, btw. The formal term for giving cars to execs. Not sure when the term came into use.

[Keith Seymore]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Kurt S</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
PEP = Product Evaluation Program, btw. The formal term for giving cars to execs. Not sure when the term came into use. </div></div>

Seems like it started around the early 1990's. I made 8th level in October of 1991 and the term was already in use at that time.

That was around the same time that we were no longer allowed to specify the option content on our randomly assigned vehicles (I cheated and schmoozed the fleet coordinator with the option content for a GMT400 extended cab short box pickup, 350 cu inch manual 5 speed, black exterior with the argent full face styled steel wheels and P275 tires, which she submitted. That was the last time I was able to pick the options besides drive-and-buys).

K

[Keith Seymore]

One last story (and then I'll move on):

I remember one time I had a Muscle Car review or some other &quot;performance car&quot; magazine laying on my desk; it had a red '70 Chevelle SS/black stripes on the cover.

One of the &quot;old guys&quot; (!) wandered by and saw it. He commented: &quot;oh - I drove one of those as a company vehicle one time...&quot;

He thought for a second, and then added: &quot;...it got terrible gas mileage&quot;.




K

[Xplantdad]

Keith... [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]