Confusing ways to live your life
Wouldn't it be odd if your last name happened to be, say, Ford, and you wanted to open up an auto dealership, but you wanted to sell, say, Chevys instead of Fords? You could really confuse matters by naming your dealership "Ford Chevrolet."
"Hi, I'm looking for an F-150."I suppose even if you decided to sell Fords instead, there'd be the confusion of everyone thinking you were with the Ford family that founded the company. It could be awfully confusing if you incorporated your dealership under the name "Ford Auto Company" when you had to do all of your dealings with the Ford Motor Company.
"Sorry, 'Ford' is just our name. Might I interest you in a Silverado?"
Gerald Ford was from Michigan; I wonder if when he was running for Congress he won (or lost) any votes depending on the voter's feelings about the Ford Motor Company. Maybe early in his career he had keep telling people "Hi, I'm Gerald Ford - no relation to Henry."
posted by Adam Villani @ 7/10/2007 03:43:00 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Probably, if I had that problem, I would not name my auto dealership after my name. I'd probably call it something like, "Monterey Park Chevrolet" or "A-1 Chevys."
Gerald Ford actually had one of the great self-deprecating quotes along those lines. Upon becoming vice president, he said, "I'm a Ford, not a Lincoln."
Heh, that's actually pretty clever because it works both ways for both cars and Presidents.
Also, I suspect that someone named Ford who wanted to open a Chevrolet dealership called "Ford Chevrolet" would have a hard time getting a franchise from GM under that name.
It's possible that an unrelated person named Ford who wanted to open a Ford dealership under the name "Ford Autos" might still have trouble getting a franchise, since the main company might want to keep some distinction in the customers' minds between the main company and the franchisee.
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