Sales hustle is American way

I’ve never actually seen a John Wieland home up close. But I know people who have lived in one, and they swear by the quality. Wieland, the Smyrna-based builder, is traveling in a customized motor home in a personal effort to sell about 101 homes by some time in April. According to a recent AJC story, “the builder will talk to potential buyers at Wieland communities in Georgia and three other states about low interest rates and price cuts. ‘It’s time to get back to fundamentals,’ ” Wieland says.

The idea is: He’ll stay in a vacant Wieland home a night, you make the house call and he writes a contract until the magic number is reached. You have to admire the tenacity and hustle evidenced by Wieland’s sales technique, which includes a lifetime structural warranty.

I was recently on the receiving end of a similarly creative sales pitch in an unusual location, and for what I thought at the time was an unusual service: body repair on our damaged Camry in the parking lot of the local PetSmart.

Our 1995 Camry had sustained ugly dents after a tractor-trailer turned into us at a stoplight, ripping the metal with the truck’s right-front tire lug nuts. We drove around with what appeared to be several large bullet holes in our two left car doors for many months.

You know the story. We had dropped collision on the Camry. Police report didn’t blame the trucker or me. The out-of-pocket expense to repair this almost exceeded the car’s value. The body shop estimate was in the thousands.

As chance would have it, I was pulling out of PetSmart one weekday evening, and this guy in a pickup truck gave me an incredible offer. He said he could repair my Camry for $150, including a paint job over the repaired area. We parked under a tree and I queried him about his skill. He was off duty and worked in a body shop part time; his name was Nick.

Nick was so sure of himself, I decided to give it a try. In retrospect, we both probably violated some local business ordinances. But hustlers in a down economy have certain admirable qualities about them that transcend what governs the usual business relationship.

Nick repaired our Camry in about an hour under that tree and earned a $30 tip from me along with gratitude. The repair isn’t perfect, but it’s not the eyesore it was. Nick also provided his version of a warranty — his cellphone number.

I give two thumbs up to Nick and John Wieland for their business hustle. Surely, these two guys, obviously from different social strata, are very similar in one important way. They demonstrate the American work ethic. Now, if I could get one of those Wieland homes as cheap.

• Craig Allen of Marietta has lived in Cobb County for eight years.