Kevin Warnock

Entrepreneurship, ideas and more

Archive for the ‘trucks’ tag

I encountered a very unusual used vehicle salesman – Reza Fotoohi of Royal Motor in San Leandro, California

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Royal Motor website graphic from http://royalmotor.net, December 2011

Royal Motor website graphic from http://royalmotor.net, December 2011

One of the projects I’ve been toying with requires that I own a box truck. I have shelved the project for now, but when I was investigating this project, I had the good fortune to meet Reza Fotoohi, the owner of Royal Motor. Royal Motor is located at 16575 East 14th Street in San Leandro, California, USA.

Fotoohi stands apart from every other used vehicle salesperson I have ever encountered in life, and I’ve met a lot because I’ve only bought used vehicles because I believe that’s the most sound financial way to buy a vehicle.

Fotoohi has a LOT of used trucks for sale. He had a second lot he had to drive me to filled with perhaps 100 trucks, from really old to almost new and from small to huge. He had three trucks that could have been suitable for my off beat project. I liked all of them very much. I dreamed about them for days.

I described my project to Fottohi in great detail, sharing my plans and my vision. He was an astute and careful thinker and conversationalist, I found. We spent perhaps two hours together, talking and measuring trucks and evaluating their suitability. Any of the three trucks would have been suitable for my project.

I am writing this post because Reza Fotoohi advised me to pass on all of his trucks and to keep looking for even a better fit. He took my card and promised to call me when he had a more suitable truck in stock. I took his card.

Fotoohi started this business in 1984, and you can tell it’s his passion and life’s work. He was proud of his expertise and inventory.

You can be certain that when my project gets back on the front burner that my first stop will be at Royal Motor. You can’t help but think highly of Fotoohi for putting my project coming out well ahead of his making a sale right now. I have no idea if his trucks are good or bad, but with this uncommon display of ethics, I suspect his trucks are worth what he charges. I found Royal Motor on Craigslist, which Fotoohi’s a huge fan of. He advertises exclusively on Craigslist now, and was able to cut his advertising expenditures of USD $30,000 per year by canceling his contracts with websites that charged for listings. That’s money going right into Fotoohi’s pocket I suspect, and Craig Newmark, Jim Buckmaster and their team at Craigslist should be so proud that their website allows such beneficial outcomes on a world scale.

If you need a used truck, please visit Royal Motor and tell Mr. Fotoohi that I sent you.

Written by Kevin Warnock

December 5th, 2011 at 7:00 pm