A big Thanksgiving style congratulations to our November Fish Award Winners. Human Resources, consisting of Cindy and Kelly, took home the Team Fish Award and a pair of technicians took home the not-so-individual Individual Fish Award...great job Dave and Mark.
Each
month at Scott Honda’s aptly named “Monthly Meeting” two awards are given
out and October was no different. They are the Fish Awards and one is
given to an individual and one to a group or department who best represents the
spirit of the FISH Philosophy: Be There, Play, Make Their Day and Choose Your
Attitude.Each new winner is chosen by the winners from the previous months and round and round the fish go through our dealership.
The only good thing about moving is sometimes you stumble upon something of value, an old envelope of photos, some love notes from your high school sweetheart, a wad of birthday money you hid from yourself, a box of vintage car commercials from the 80's and 90's. Ok the latter may not hold true for everyone, but you understand my point.
Scott Honda is in the midst of selling an old property and while moving items from the upstairs I hit the mother load. Inside a desk drawer were 20 VHS tapes, 1 Beta max tape and a reel to reel. They were all old commercials made from 1987 to 2001. I couldn't find a VCR fast enough to watch these puppies and once I hit the play button they did not disappoint.
With titles like "Young Couple" and "Freshly Squeezed Prices" they are priceless. The graphics are awesome, the music is classic and our tag line "Come catch the feeling with Scott", doesn't read as well as it sounds at the end of most of these ads.
I ran the box of VHS tapes down to Disc Hounds in West Chester and in 3 days, for less then 8 American dollars, I got all the commercials put on disc...what a deal.
As an added bonus I found the 1 second appearance of your humble Sconda blogger, Douglas P. Scott, circa 1984 when I was a mere 4 1/2 years old. I remember the day we shot that commercial and my sister Emily, 3-years old at the time, was afraid she would get sucked into the television forever (a notion I had never considered and soon became concerned about as well, but as the big, brave older brother I was obligated to take the risk). Our mother, who appears with me in the spot, tried to bribe her with M+M's, but even candy coated chocolate didn't do the trick.
The commercial above, dubbed "New Used Car" is a teaser of what is to be unveiled in the weeks to come. There are 16 spots in all, some are better than this, some are cheesier, some are actually pretty good, so stay tuned for some TV greatness and keep an eye out for a young Duke Scott as well.
This story comes from the most interesting chapter in the 80 year history of Scott Family's time in the car business. Our founder Raymond P. Scott Sr. converted the service shop of his Plymouth Dodge dealership during World War II to build aileron controls for Grumman F4F Wildcats and Hellcats, as
well as catapult carts for Naval ships.
Ray would load the smaller aileron controls into his station wagon and
race them up to Grumman’s plant in Bethpage,N.Y. where they were installed in planes that would soon take
off to fight over Europe and the Pacific.
I recently posted over 20 historical photos on to our Facebook Fan page and in a caption below the above photo was written, "In the right corner below the "United States" sign is what appears to
be one of the classic WWII U.S. propaganda posters. However only the
top left side of the poster is visible and I have combed through 100's
of the posters from that era and have yet to find a match. I have not
given up yet though."
This is where the power of social media took hold. Sconda Fan and fellow car guy, Al Marie saw the photo and decided to help our cause. He did in 3 minutes what I couldn't do in hours of searching. He Googled "World War II posters" as well as the only visible word in the poster "Men" and he came upon the a vast database provided by Northwestern University. Sure enough, there it was "Men Working Together", the mystery had been solved.
The poster is officially described as, "A helmeted soldier, a factory worker, and a sailor stand proudly together." This poster, produced by the United States, Office for Emergency Management, Division of Information, in 1941 was perfect for our converted machine shop because my Great Grandfather's employees represented the factory workers, doing their part to help the military win the war.
Ironically the three men "standing together" never stood together until 1942 when they posed for a picture taken by Alfred T. Palmer, an Office of War Information photographer from 1941 to 1943. The threesome met at Sergeant Vineyard's army post (left), and assumed their famous order with welder George Woolslayer in the middle and Aviation-radio Chief John Marshall Evans on the right.
Special thanks again to Sconda Sleuth, Al Marie who helped bring all this information to light and put together one more piece of the Scott history puzzle.
What's white, fast, eco-conscious and badazz? It's the new CR-Z hybrid coupe from Honda. Fresh off being awarded the Editors' Choice from the Tokyo Auto show by Auto Week magazine, this lean, mean concept car turned reality is primed and ready to hit the road in the second half of 2010 according to Honda.
Billed as the resurrection of the Honda CR-X, a sporty 2-seater built from 1983-91 with a cult following, the CR-Z, which stands for Compact Renaissance Zero, may become an instant classic herself. Already equipped with a Facebook Fan Page maybe the CR-X can create some positive Facebook attention following the less then stellar public response on Honda's Accord Crosstour Fan Page.
Sporting a 6-speed manual transmission, eco-friendly/driving enthusiasts can finally combine two of their loves in this one vehicle or as Honda says on the coupes official micro-site, "CR-Z is that place in the universe where sport and efficiency meet."
Look for it in the Scott Honda Showroom, Fall 2011!
The first of six Honda Accord Crosstours rolled off the truck today at Scott Honda to some fanfare. Salespeople, technicians, lot attendants and others crowded around the newest member of the Honda family to get a look at this all wheel drive hatchback.
Officially going on sale this Friday, this CUV is designed in Japan and assembled in Honda's Ohio plant. All Crosstour models feature Honda's 3.5-liter i-VTEC V-6 engine with
Variable Cylinder Management designed for power and efficiency. The MSRP (excluding destination) ranges from the $29,670 in the EX 2WD to the $36,220 in the 4WD EX-L model with navigation.
There was a lot of internet speculation about the design of the Crosstour, with many (myself included) hoping it would be more wagon and less hatch. It's true look was debuted on a dedicated Facebook Fan Page, the results of which had to be a bit unsettling for Honda. The opinions poured in one after another and a feeding frenzy of negativity forced the page to be shut down for a few hours while Honda did some damage control. The majority of the consumer frustration came from their desire for an Accord Wagon, similar to the European version.
It's like when you take a swig of what you thought was going to be
Sprite and it instead you get water. There's nothing wrong with the
water, but your mind was ready for some fizzy lemon-lime flavored, sugar liquid.
Honda had this to say about "wagon envy" in part of their official Facebook response, "We've seen a lot of comments about the
desire for a wagon, but this is neither a wagon nor designed for wagon
buyers. We think the Euro wagon is a cool vehicle, too, and we
appreciate the feedback… but a version of that wasn't our intention
here. That's another segment worthy of our consideration, but the
Accord Crosstour, built on the larger, Accord platform, is meant to
give you the best of two worlds – the versatility of an SUV with the
sportiness of a car."
The new mantra became "you have to see it in person" and they were right, it is much nicer in person and only time will tell whether or not the decision to build a hatchback instead of a wagon was the right one. Many Honda lovers do love this newest addition to the line-up, while others are still holding out hope that an Accord wagon may still in the pipeline in the near future.
November's Artist of the Month is a real fun one. AJ's "Sea Sailer" caught our eye due to its unique style. The "Sea Sailer" is much more abstract than it's AOTM predecessors and that's what we liked. AJ took a risk and it paid off.
We particularly liked what appears to almost be a shadow of the mast and sails (in blue with green outline) on the sail of the actual boat. The jagged waves and great use of all four colors on the SCOTT was also a key part of the winning combination.
If your kids come in for sales or service make sure they pick up one of the free coloring book and crayon packs at the receptionist desk or in the Scott Kids Spot. It will help them pass the time and they could win the prestigious Sconda Artist of the Month Award.
Scott Honda took a big step this week in the emerging world of online reviews. DealerRater.com has established itself as the leader in online reviews for new car dealers across the country and after careful research Scott Honda decided now was the time to activate our certification.
With certification come a host of great features. For example, when a review is written by a customer Scott is able to respond to them, to either thank them for their patronage or try to resolve an issue they may have had while at our dealership. That is a function that is not allowed by review sites like Edmunds.com, which means the dealer never gets a chance to correct a problem.
"When you're talking about online reviews the key is, are you able to turn an unhappy customer into a happy customer?" says Vice President Duke Scott. "We know you can't make all the people happy all the time, but you can try and if current and potential customers who read these reviews can see that we have made a concerted effort to correct any mistakes and prove that we truly do care, that goes a long way in my mind."
Scott Honda is also now able to post inventory on their Facebook Fan page, a great new addition that will allow the casual Facebook followers to browse our new and used vehicles without logging out of one of the most popular social networking sites to ever hit the internet.
"I'm very excited about this upgrade to our Fan page," says Jason Reitelbach, Internet Sales Manager. "It opens a window to millions of new potential leads from people that we may never have reached before."
Currently the 4th dealer to be certified in Pennsylvania, Scott Honda has long way to go to catch up to some of our competitors who are as many as 88 reviews ahead of us. But with Scott's commitment to customer service and it's loyal customer base, in a couple months Scott Honda believes they can become the head of the pack.
Duke Scott believes that "If we as an organiziation embrace this product and use it to it's full potential we could make our online reputation as good as our real world reputiation."
If you'd like to leave Scott Honda some feedback on your experience at our delaership, we would greatly appreciate it, it will only take a couple minutes, just follow this link to dealerrater.com.
Each
month at Scott Honda’s aptly named “Monthly Meeting” two awards are given
out and October was no different. They are the Fish Awards and one is
given to an individual and one to a group or department who best represents the
spirit of the FISH Philosophy: Be There, Play, Make Their Day and Choose Your
Attitude.
Each new winner is chosen by the winners from the previous months and round and round the fish go through our dealership.
Congratulations to Billy Standring of the Parts Department and the
Valet Team, comprised of Larry Robinson, Clint Rupert, Thomas Boyd, Al
Del Rossi, Rich Larochelle, Thomaz Wiacek, Joe Stankavage, Tyler
Parrish and Wade Kelly.
Recent Comments