Chapter 20

It appeared there were some serfs and peons that were not to be content with their proposed new lot in life. If the world did not owe them anything, at least no one was going to take away their bread and butter. Some were getting rich. Some car execs even demanded a percentage from every deal, can you imagine that?

It was early in the season yet. Few would have known of the deals P B & J had made with the Japanese, or the inclusion of Evergreen, or the addition of Geist, SI and Ted’s friends helping out. Oh the webs we weave. Cobo hall, traditional home of the Auto Show in Detroit, informed MB and then VW, that they may not have enough space to house them. This before our Hong Kong stint.

Erica called one day asking for me, but getting Ginny and Kristi instead, who both had a colds and Kristi was home from school. (I told her to put some clothes on last night, but no, do any of them listen to me?) Maybe I should spank them, but where was best?

Giselle explained to them what went on at the Auto Show.

“So why don’t we just do that ourselves?” was asked.

Before I got home, (We had that Pink thing, now) I got the short summary and strategy report, they were already underway, no dust or cookie crumbs would fall on them. They were true ‘Daimler Demons’!

Our line-up read, Toyota to head up LA, VW in Texas. Honda in New York and SMART II to lead Miami. Ted was getting TV and cable arranged, and SI was going to do a TV special. All would be live, the Networks salivating to help us out, the newbie, and guess what, we were a free view, and on the same days as Detroit; all the dates planned for Cobo in a series.

That and the fact that the young ladies staffing us normally had worked previous Cobo shows for Geist, made the TV and cable appearances better for them as they would not have to ‘Play Nice’ in the hospitality suites later, either. Sammy from Geist (Doing LA) thought sample cars for the girls would be ‘icy’, to quote somebody. (Thanks Colt 45) Why not I thought?

The bookings and fees were coming in for Cobo, but were a lot fewer than expected; there was real concern now. Auto suppliers like ‘Denso’, and a host of related companies decided to show us and Toyota some solidarity. We now had more booths than Cobo. We were absorbing the hall costs, ... or, rather, our car clients were... , and at $25,000-$100,000 per booth, few could pass up such a good deal.

I told Ginny that I did not want to discuss next year, yet. She had this great idea to... !