Farewell

[ZOT MOLT]

After 46 years selling GM (gm) parts I think it's time to leave. After high school I worked 9 months at a gas station and then in March 1975 I started as a parts counterman at the local Chevrolet dealer. I got my start using paper catalogs and microfiche. The dealership was sold in late 1977 and we moved to our current location in 1980. We were now across the street from the Pontiac, Buick, GMC dealer and in 1981 I took the parts manager position at that store. A couple of years later I took over the service manager position which I kept until 1987 when I went back to the Chevrolet dealer. I have been parts manager here ever since. I've seen a lot of changes over the years, some of them good and some of them not so good.
Now I'm not one to say that everything was better in the past, because it was not. After all, I lived through the carburetor charts of the 1980s. Those were fun. In the days before VIN decoding of the RPOs you sometimes had to rely on the descriptions in the catalog for the only way to get the right parts. This was especially challenging with interior trim parts, sometimes the only difference being "Gray, Dark Gray, or Very Dark Gray. Then along came the SPID labels and they were an imporvement. The best thing I think to happen was the RPO and VIN filtering of the electronic catalog. Now if we could just keep them from "improving" the catalog without testing it first, we would be all set.
I want to thank everyone for their help and advise over the years, there are a lot of smart people on this forum. I have not posted a lot but I read it every day. If anybody else would like to share a breif history of their life in the parts business, I think it would be fun to read. Thank again, Ed.

[PartsPlant81]

Good luck in retirement!
Started at a dealership when I was 16 years old. It was 1998; I was the service department lot boy...I moved into parts a few years later as a driver then a counterman, then I worked in the body shop doing their parts orders and managing the rental vehicles. I ended up starting an online parts store while I was doing that then also became the service department coordinator before that dealership ended up selling...I was there almost 14 years.
I did wholesale parts sales at another dealership for about 9 months before I got my current position as Parts Manager at a GM dealership. Been here almost 9 years already.
What a wild ride it has been.
CHEERS!

[olepartsguy]

I started at a local Autoworks back in 1983, after a few years went to work at a full service gas station ( full service is pumping gas and checking all the fluids under the hood, sometimes selling a few belts or hoses or whatever we could see) after the gas went into my first Chevy dealer in 1986 . The whole parts department quit at the same time. the dealer principal was messing with our manager so we all got up and left within a week or so. I lasted there 90 days. When the GM told me that the service advisor was going to be my parts manager i said "no he is not I already have another job lined up" and that was at a Pontiac GMC dealer which was #1 in car sales then. I stayed for 7 years and then got married and moved to another Pontiac-GMC dealer which sales were in the top 3 most of the time. I stayed there till 93 till I finally took a position to be a Parts Manager across the street at a Saturn Dealer in 2006. went back to the Pontiac Dealer to run a Mitsubishi franchise. after working there for 13-16 years on and off found that the owner did not care much about the business and took a position at another Mitsubishi PM . and in 2011 became a Chevy PM. and I am still here. and since 2011 I have found the true colors of gm . I wish I never had. they suck. its for today not for tomorrow.

[camaroman]

Best wishes for a happy and healthy retirement. Thanks for your wisdom over the years.

[smoyer]

Started out as a co-op student driving parts in high school(1984) have done everything in parts from driving, counter, body shop, shipping and receiving, and ran a wholesale route for several years i have been the parts manager here for 20years . Have worked for the big three GM, Chrysler, and ford along with Subaru, Hyundai, KIA, Saab, and even Daewoo. used books, micro fishe, and the old card catalog for keeping track of stock parts. parts have been good to me i'll never get rich but bills are always paid, trying to keep my sanity for another 12-15 years good luck to you parts warriors who have gotten out alive

[johnmc98]

Congrats on getting out!! I am from a similar time period. I interviewed and was hired while still a senior in high school. Went on our class trip and started the following Monday morning. Worked at the same store from 1977 to 2009, and the Monday after we did inventory on the weekend got kicked to the curb because, "Things are slow, and we can save more if we lay you off instead of someone else". Got just as much unemployment from them as I could, was almost a year, tried selling insurance for 3 months. Which I don't recommend to anyone!! Started at the store I'm at now in 2011 and became pm in 2015. Went through a buyout in 2017 and the new owners have been good. Have gone from Ford originally to GM now. I still think in Ford base numbers after all this time away from it, so it's been really hard to try to adapt to group numbers, but am still hanging in for a few more years...!!!!!

[drapp]

Congrats on reaching retirement. Our paths are somewhat similar.

Started at the Chevy dealership after high school / vocational school in 1979, after graduation I was kept as full time - remember the economy then? 18% interest rates and runaway inflation - not easy to find a job at all.

In mid-1980 the economy was really bad where we are. The service manager quit. I had experience working with the public as my parents were full time so at that young age they made me an offer I could not refuse: Become service manger or be let go. Management I became.

Stayed service manager until late 1983 when parts manager quit and we could not find a parts manager. Another great idea was hatched where I would run both parts and service with assistants in both departments. This went on until 1994.

In 1994 I couldn't take the work schedule anymore, wasn't seeing family at all. Split apart management roles and became parts manager. It was difficult not being "sucked-back-in" to service issues but ultimately it worked - for a while.

In 2009, the Great GM Bankruptcy hit us. We were slated to close and after 30 years, 6 months I left for another dealership. Parts manager at a GM dealership that had all lines except GMC. When GM bankruptcy finished we had Chevy and Buick left. This only lasted for 9 months and I quit to return to the original dealer. The original dealer was reinstated and purchased the Buick GMC franchise down the road. I was hired back in as "Fixed Operations Manger" and now I spend most all my time in the service area - not my favorite.

I would prefer parts but there are not may opportunities out there anymore - dealerships numbers have been reduced and many dealerships don't put emphasis on parts anymore.

Hopefully, I too will reach the retirement window, sooner than later. I cannot take much more of this.

As additional comments go, I too started with paper catalogs, no option labels and correct part identification could be a problem. Some examples:

Late 70's Monte Carlo wheel opening moldings with wide or narrow body side moldings.
Fuel systems with "EEC" listed as an option.
Late 60's and early 70's engine listing as "high performance" or "special high performance"
Which four speed manual trans do you have?
I know your Cutlass has a 350 engine - Chevy or Olds engine
Which 6.6 does your Trans Am have?
Oldsmobile has decided to name every car they sell a Cutlass. Calais / Supreme / FWD / RWD, etc...
Are your T-tops GM or Hurst or Aftermarket --- they are factory, they were there when I purchased it. Yea, right.
Glass fuses fit everything domestic, just a couple different lengths to worry about.
194 & 1157 bulbs fit nearly everything.
We only had three common headlamp bulbs. Small low beam, small high beam and big round.
5.7 liter diesel based on Olds engine
Vega, Monza, Citation, Fiero, and several others - enough said

I could go on but seriously congrats you (both of us) have seen a lot. I don't even want to get into repeated failures because no one at GM remembers the first time they tried.

[Denise Trimble]

Wishing you well in your next leg of the journey!