The back end of Lucy, my 2011 Mustang GT

No, this isn’t a post about my car. It’s about Road America – yes, the “RDAMCA” license plate I have on my Mustang is in reference to the fantastic Wisconsin racetrack that has helped develop my passion for racing and cars. I try and make it back at least once a year, even though I now live in Kansas City. I’ve got a track map framed in our house, next to a framed illustration of a group of race car drivers throughout history hanging out in Elkhart Lake, WI (where Road America is located). I love that place. Love it.

I went back in July of this year for their epic vintage racing weekend. As part of most race weekends there, a lunchtime event called “track touring” takes place; that’s a time for ordinary people to take their street cars onto the racetrack and experience what it’s like to drive the track, with controlled speeds, of course. This was my second time doing the track touring and I had some concerns about how the event was run, so when I got back to KC, I wrote a letter expressing my concerns and offering some solutions. If you’d like to read the letter, download it here.

I didn’t expect them to call, thank me profusely and tell me all my ideas were being implemented immediately. But I did expect to at least receive a form letter or email, thanking me for writing. It’s now October 18 (almost three months later) and I’ve received nothing. So, I went to Twitter today and tweeted at @roadamerica, which you can see below:

Ok, this response was kind of vague and mildly sarcastic but no big deal. So I replied.

More unnecessary, insulting sarcasm. Don’t get me wrong, I love sarcasm – just ask my wife. But not in this way. So I replied once more.

And this person still doesn’t realize I’m getting more and more irritated, or they just don’t care – either excuse is bad. Would it have been that hard to respond with “Sorry to hear that – not sure what happened. I’ll DM you the correct person that it should go to in a sec.” Or even better, “Email it to me – I’ll make sure it gets to the right person.” Not to mention this person not understanding the purpose of retweeting – it’s to share answers/info that your other followers might find useful. Pretty sure most of their followers don’t care about my simple question.

It’s not like I was trying to write a letter to Tim Cook or Alan Mulally; we’re talking about a privately-owned business that has 10 people listed in their staff directory. Two of those ten people are the Marketing & Promotions manager and the Communications manager. Two people that should care enough about the brand they represent to make sure whomever manages their social media accounts does it right. And this sure as heck isn’t it.

Instead of taking the 30 seconds to help me, they took the sarcastic way out. So I’m going to use the power that I have by posting about it, and probably using this in future case studies, presentations, etc. about the wrong way to use social media. I did email my letter to the Track Operations manager, so we’ll see if he responds or not.

That response won’t change the point of this post though: if you’re going to have a social media presence, do it right. Don’t use it to anger your loyal fans.

EDIT: Finally received responses from Road America today (10/19), the morning after I posted this.

That’s all I was looking for…in August. It’s just disappointing that it took a bunch of tweets and me calling them out in a blog post to get the canned, basic response that meets average customer service standards. I shouldn’t be baffled by great brands that can’t even get basics right, but this is just one of many examples out there. It’s a great reminder that, as marketers, we can’t ignore the basics even as we chase the next big thing.

On Sunday, August 14, I was getting ready to head to the airport when I got a call from Park Air Express, telling me there had been an accident at their facility involving my car. One of their valets, driving a Ford Escape, got out of control and slammed into my car, pushing me into two other cars too. They claimed that the accelerator stuck and he was unable to control it, which is not the truth (remember – all the Toyota “unintended acceleration” lawsuits were thrown out due to driver error – same thing here). And here’s the fun result:

Yep...everything from the driver's door forward was absolutely destroyed.

And there's the sad death of my 2003 Mazda6.

However, the Park Air Express people handled the entire thing very well, meeting me immediately after I arrived at the airport and working through the incident report before letting me know everything would be handled through their insurance company, Aon. If you’re not familiar with them, they’re one of the biggest insurance companies on Earth and the brand seen on the jerseys of Manchester United.

I was taken to the rental car facility to pick up a car, and was allowed to get whatever I wanted within reason, so I chose a 2012 Mustang V6 coupe, which I’d also been driving in Wisconsin as a rental while I’d been there too. From there, I needed to just be patient and let the insurance machine do its work.

In less than three days, the Mazda was declared totaled, meaning for the 2nd time, I was now going to be replacing a 2003 blue Mazda that was wrecked through no fault of my own – my 2003 Mazda Protege5 was totaled on 7/2/2006 (see below!).

My Wrecked '03 Mazda Protege5

So, now I just had to wait and see what the insurance company was going to give me for the Mazda before I could decide what I was going to get next. I love car shopping, and I dove right in, looking at used BMW 3-Series, Pontiac Solstice, Mazda RX-8, Mazdaspeed3, Nissan 350Z and more. But I kept coming back to Ford Mustangs, and for good reason. When I was about 13, my uncle took me for a ride in a friend of his’ ’97 Mustang Cobra convertible, telling me “if you tell your mother how fast we go, I’ll kill you” (with a smile on his face). And I’ve been hooked since – that was one of the reasons I became so passionate about cars.

It had always kind of been my goal to get my Mustang by the time I turned 30, and it was going to be a bright yellow convertible like this one. With my 29th birthday approaching on the 30th, it was nice to think I could accomplish that goal a little early, thanks to these circumstances. I was pretty certain I wanted a 2010 or newer Mustang, since the exterior and interior had both been redesigned that year, but I wasn’t 100% sure yet. Then, in 2011, Ford came out with two all-new engines – a 3.7 liter 305 horsepower V6 that also got 31 MPG highway (which I’d been experiencing in the rental car) and a 5.0 liter 412 horsepower V8 that was still good for 26 MPG highway. Those engines were replacing a 4.0 liter V6 with 210 horsepower and a 4.6 liter V8 with 315 horsepower, both with worse gas mileage than the new engines too. So, I started by going to Zeck Ford in Leavenworth, Kansas because they had a 2011 Mustang GT convertible for sale, in Grabber Blue (check out the color here if you’d like). I worked with an awesome salesperson named Gene Sirabella, and he treated me right, which I really appreciated. After driving that car with the new 5.0 V8, I knew I couldn’t get anything older than a 2011. The V6 in my rental car was more powerful and got better mileage than the older V8, and I didn’t want to go “back” like that.

So my search was now on for a 2011 Mustang GT – it had to have a manual transmission and heated seats. Beyond that, I was pretty open. Since I was looking for a used 2011, there weren’t a ton of options out there (less than 100 nationwide). I had communications with Ford dealers in Texas, Virginia, Louisiana and here in KC. Finally, I found just what I wanted, ironically enough, back home in Wisconsin – in Sheboygan Falls at B&B Ford. I talked with the salesperson at B&B, Michael Kennedy, and got everything figured out. While all this was going on, I still didn’t know what I was going to get for the wrecked Mazda, though I knew within probably $1,000 what I would get.

Finally, after two weeks of waiting, I decided I wasn’t going to wait around any longer and I booked a one-way flight to Milwaukee for Friday, September 2nd. A couple guys from B&B Ford were waiting for me at the airport, and took me over to a McDonald’s not far from the airport where they’d parked my car. After signing some papers, I finally had my Mustang!

15 years later - it's mine. What a great birthday present!

It’s a 2011 Mustang GT coupe premium. The color is Race Red and it has heated seats and the Interior Upgrade Package. Standard features include 18″ wheels, the Sync in-car connectivity system, and the usual amenities. Most importantly, it has 412 horsepower and three pedals/six gears to put that horsepower to good use. Not the yellow convertible I always imagined, but I love where I ended up.

The only problem with my flying up to get the car was that I was supposed to be at the Lake of the Ozarks all weekend for my buddy Corey Cassaw‘s bachelor party. So, I took off from Milwaukee back south towards Missouri, with my destination for the night being Hannibal, MO (the home of Mark Twain), before driving the final 150 miles to Osage Beach, MO on Saturday morning. My route for the night looked like this:

View Larger Map

368 miles in a night was a great way to get to know my new car. I had a blast and made it to the Lake in time for an incredible weekend of fun.

It’s now been just over three weeks since I got the car and I love it as much as I always knew I would. I’ve gone a little crazy buying things to go with it, including:

• A complete set of winter floormats from Husky Liners (BTW, if you want a great set of floormats to protect your car’s interior – these rock. Had ‘em on my Explorer and have ‘em again now.
• 18″ Ford Racing wheels with Bridgestone Blizzak snow tires from The Tire Rack, which will let me get through KC winter with little to no problem.

• Joining the Mustang Club of America and the Mustang Club of Greater Kansas City.
• Buying a strut tower brace – comes standard on Mustang GT convertibles and coupes with 19″ wheels, so not on mine. Here’s how it will look:

Looks good and helps with stability and handling a bit too

Thankfully, I live with a girlfriend that loves driving it and, most importantly, knows how much I’ve always wanted one and, therefore, has more patience than could be reasonably expected! We’re driving it back to Wisconsin this coming weekend for the Wisconsin vs. Nebraska game on Saturday and the Packers vs. Broncos game on Sunday. On Saturday morning, we’re going to take a drive in the Mustang with my uncle and aunt in their 2001 Ferrari 360 Modena. Two gorgeous, fast, red cars and a lot of fun, gas prices be damned. With that, I’ll end this marathon post with a slideshow of my ‘Stang:

I decided I really didn’t like this piece anymore, but I’ll leave it up since I wrote it and tweeted about it. Chris said a couple things on 610 Sports with Nick Wright that made some of what I wrote incorrect, especially the last part about the KU/MU thing so I’ve crossed that out.

About a month ago, Grantland.com launched as the brainchild of my favorite sportswriter, Bill Simmons. There’s a lot of back story to its genesis, but I’ll skip that – the point of the site, to me, is to cover sports and pop culture in a long-form manner that doesn’t get done very often in this era of TMZ, Twitter and instant analysis. So far, I’ve enjoyed the site a lot – it’s got a ton of talented writers covering all sorts of different topics.

Last week, the biggest Royals fan I can think of (Rany Jayzayerli of Rany on the Royals) wrote a Grantland column about the historical ineptitude of KC’s hometown team. Though a bit depressing for Royals fans, it was all true and can’t really be disputed.

Today, another column about Kansas City appeared on the site, written by Chris Suellentrop and titled “Hard Times in the Paris of the Plains.” Its intent was to discuss the failed attempts to bring a NBA team to Kansas City’s Sprint Center and how that feeds into the Midwestern inferiority complex that we (supposedly) have. Though Chris had some good points, I really took issue with a few things he said and want to offer my counter-opinion here.

“Currently the Sprint Center is home to an arena football team and not much else.”

While it’s true that there is no anchor tenant at the Sprint Center (other than the Kansas City Command, formerly the Brigade), the lack of a NBA/NHL team has probably helped the arena overall, as it was ranked by Pollstar Magazine (the concert industry’s leading trade publication), as the 5th busiest arena in the United States and 12th busiest in the world. From the Kansas City Star: “In 2010, Sprint Center hosted 17 of the top 20 North American tours, including Bon Jovi, Roger Waters, Michael Buble, Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, Elton John and Billy Joel, Justin Bieber, the Black Eyed Peas, and James Taylor and Carole King.” Those rankings are for concerts only, so undoubtedly, Kansas City would not be ranked as high if sports events were included. However, the Sprint Center is home to the Big XII Men’s Basketball Tournament and has hosted event like WWE, PBR and others. The point is; the place is not sitting there unused like Suellentrop makes it sound.

“I didn’t know yet that if you want to do something reasonably creative for a living and get paid for it, pretty much the only way to do it in Kansas City anymore was to write for Hallmark cards.”

This is, without a doubt, the most untrue line in the entire piece and the only one that was truly offensive to me. Since you’ve been gone since the late 90′s, Chris, let me catch you up on the creativity of town you grew up in:

• The Crossroads area fills up every month in a celebration of this town’s artists and other creative people called “First Fridays” – http://www.kccrossroads.org/
• The American Advertising Federation – Kansas City (AAF-KC) is one of the biggest AAF chapters in the country. Just last month, its members won more National ADDY Awards than any market outside Chicago or Los Angeles. KC’s large marketing/advertising community is home to clients like McDonald’s, On the Border, Krispy Kreme, Gatorade, Ford (Canada), Kellogg’s, and many, many more.
• Incredibly gifted photographers like rw/2, Ron Berg, Austin Walsh, Alistair Tutton, Nick Vedros and David Morris all call KC home.
• The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art added on the architecturally-renowned Bloch edition a couple years ago and it, along with the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, are both world-class art museums.
• Oh yeah, Hallmark is still the industry leader too.

“Though as a Kansan, I am trying to be mean to Missouri, even though I went to journalism school there. In Kansas City, collegiate rooting affiliations are bound by blood and soil, not matriculation. I root for the Tigers in journalism and for the Jayhawks in everything else.”

Where to start with this one? It doesn’t matter where you grew up; it matters where you went to school. A lot of Kansans used to do this split loyalty thing and say they rooted for Kansas State football and Kansas basketball. But splitting loyalties between KU/MU is far worse than that – sorry, Chris, but you forsake your right to cheer for the Jayhawks when you went to Mizzou. In case you didn’t realize, KU has a fabulous journalism school too, so the argument of going there for that program doesn’t really hold up. You’re a Tiger now, for better or worse, so please donate any Crimson & Blue you have to Goodwill and embrace your Tiger-ness.

I know you wrote some of this lightheartedly but it’d sure be nice if Kansas City wasn’t stereotyped and bashed nationally by a guy who thinks of himself “as a resident out-of-towner in New York.” Maybe it’s time you came back and saw some of what’s happening in this town – you might be surprised.

It’s the story of President Grover Cleveland undergoing risky, serious surgery on a friend’s yacht out in the waters of Long Island Sound, so no one would know. I haven’t read it yet, thought I did buy a copy of the book, but here’s some interesting facts about Cleveland that I learned from Matthew. Since he’s not exactly Washington or Lincoln, you might not know most of these:

• He’s the only President to get married in the White House (two others got married while they were President but not in the White House)
• That marriage was to a 21 year old woman (he was 49), the grieving daughter of a friend of Cleveland’s.
• He was the only Democrat elected President in the 50 year period between Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson
• He’s the only President to serve non-consecutive terms. After losing the 1889 election to Benjamin Harrison, he left the White House, only to return four years later after defeating Harrison in the 1893 election.
• Because of that, Cleveland is the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. Though we’ve had 44 Presidents, only 43 men have actually taken the oath of office.
• He was the first President to come to Kansas City, arriving in 1887 for the National Agricultural Exposition and staying at the Coates House Hotel, which still stands at 10th & Broadway.
• He vetoed more bills than all the previous Presidents combined. He’s still #2 in that regard, being surpassed only by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who served three terms.

Check out the book; I can’t wait to read it, just gotta get through 1,600 more pages of Teddy Roosevelt history that I’m in the middle of! And please, please check out the Kansas City Public Library’s event schedule; they put on great lectures, presentations and events almost every day of the week and are an incredible asset to our city.