Gm brass hat owned cars

[Motorhead848]

Ok I think I atleast got a link of the picture in the above link. Thanks

[bergy]

Final thought - company cars that were purchased by employees after completing their 3,000 miles were sent to a local dealer for delivery prep, title, financing, etc. I assumed that these cars were also referred to as "brass hat" deliveries. Kurt is probably correct though - brass hat may only have applied to the company cars that weren't purchased by salaried employees.

I had occasion to lose a company car when I took a bunch of engineers from the Tech Center over to the Leeds Plant for a drive audit of the new Monte Carlo ('76?). There was a flash flood in downtown KC while we were there eating dinner and my company car floated away! One less brass hat! The entire OK car lot also flooded and totaled hundreds of new cars.

[DW31S]

We did do the "Brass Hat" deliveries on the 3000 mile cars at the dealership. We had another term for these deliveries, but I hate to say, I can't think of it now....but it will wake me out of a dead sleep later tonight!

[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

[Keith Seymore]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: bergy</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

I had occasion to lose a company car when I took a bunch of engineers from the Tech Center over to the Leeds Plant for a drive audit of the new Monte Carlo ('76?). There was a flash flood in downtown KC while we were there eating dinner and my company car floated away! One less brass hat! The entire OK car lot also flooded and totaled hundreds of new cars. </div></div>

Bergy - I lost one, too!

I was awaiting a 2011 Volt from the Hamtramck plant, which we were going to convert into a 2012 Opel Ampera for the show circuit (we were scheduled to do a quantity of 20 total).

About that same time President Obama was scheduled to visit the assembly plant. The plant planners asked if they could keep my car for a couple days, so they would have a Volt on display during his visit.

Everything was going swimmingly until Mr President went rogue, hopped in my car and drove it about 10 feet.

Ed Whitacre pointed at it and said: &quot;...that car....Heritage Center&quot;.

So - my Volt donor vehicle is now sitting on display in the GM Heritage Center.

[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/wink.gif[/img]

[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