The crazy car business stories.. are excellent, here's just one from Michael Satterfield of Gentlemen Racer.com

Your tax dollars at work:

I was working as the Internet Sales Manager for the dealer group that included Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, and Kia when a phone call came in from a local state assemblywoman’s office. The staffer was frantic and looking for a Lincoln Towncar Signature L. These had been discontinued from regular production at the time but had been available for special fleet orders, but production was done so they were few and far between. The staffer told me that he needed two Black on Black Towncars. One for the local office and one for the Sacramento office. I put him on hold and did a search find that there were none within 500 miles and with Southern California being the hub of the automotive industry and the largest market if we did not have it, no one did.

So I google the assemblywoman’s name and find countless bills, speeches, and articles on her green legislation, hybrid car bills, and other general tree huggery. I pick the phone back up and tell the staffer “good news I have the cars you are looking for in stock. Black on Black Ford Escape Hybrids”…. Complete silence on the other end. “Well seeing as the assemblywoman is so concerned about the environment that she keeps passing laws regulating the cars we should drive and the types of cars we should have in California, I thought she would like a car that gets double the gas mileage of a Towncar, and costs about $15,000 less” the staffer flies off the handle. “She cannot be seen in something like that she needs a prestigious car for entertaining dignitaries… if you are not willing to help us we will go to someone that will” At that point I was just laughing a the idea of a state assembly member “entertaining dignitaries”. They wanted to spend almost $100,000 for two Towncars so some hack can be driven around in by a staffer like she was the president….they did find them from a dealer in Nevada that orders them for the casinos…your tax dollars at work.

the others are just as good, and can be read at http://www.thegentlemanracer.com/2014/01/crazy-car-business-stories.html