Guinness Records flees messy Detroit fight over who sold the most cars

Phoebe Wall Howard | Detroit Free Press

Joe Girard is fighting to take his “world’s best car salesman” title to the grave.

The 89-year-old from Grosse Pointe Shores set the record in 1973 while working for Merollis Chevrolet in East Detroit, and went on to become a best-selling author and motivational speaker. He has now sued a challenger whose sales record was recognized by General Motors in 2017.

“I really can’t believe I’m going through this,” said the challenger, Ali Reda, 45, who works at Les Stanford Chevrolet Cadillac in Dearborn. “I had a completely different image of what this would look like. It’s a shame Joe just couldn’t accept, congratulate and embrace all of this.”

Reda made headlines earlier this year for his application to Guinness World Records, believing his sales number was tops. The international certification process has dragged for months.

Guinness, meantime, has backed away from the whole thing, deciding it would no longer update the category.

“We beat the record, no question about it,” Reda said. “I am more upset about having to explain to my 9-year-old twins why Guinness dropped out. They were, quite frankly, more excited than anyone. They aren’t going to understand the process failed us. It’s very frustrating.”

For months, Guinness corresponded with Reda as he pursued the verification process.

"I'm disappointed," he said. "It feels like I’ve been strung along for seven months."

On May 3, the Guinness team was “still in discussions with the applicant.”

On May 21, Joe Girard sued, "claiming loss of reputation in the community and economic loss, including, but not limited to, loss of book sales, loss of income, loss of opportunities and loss of earning capacity.”

The lawsuit in Wayne County Circuit Court accused Reda of “chasing the economic benefit” that comes with holding the record. Girard’s lawsuit said he “had reduced bookings” as a result of the stories about Reda. Girard said he “suffered emotional harm” associated with “ignorant emails” sent by the public to the contact link at joegirard.com.

Reached by phone Wednesday and asked about the lawsuit, Joe Girard's wife, Kitty Girard, said they had no comment.

No national independent analyst exists

Guinness decided that the organization is unable to approve Reda's application without an independent analysis of the competition, either through “market research or from a global institution,” a spokeswoman wrote to the Free Press.

“After extensive research, it appears that no such institution exists, and market research would be deemed insufficient according to our guidelines," she wrote. "Therefore, the title has been rested as we are unable to be supplied with sufficient evidence to validate any claim.”

The whole Guinness experience doesn’t add up, said Scott Montgomery, general sales manager at Les Stanford, providing a string of emails to the Free Press for review.

On Jan. 11, Guinness wrote, “Are you interested in having a judge present for a certificate presentation or any kind of licensing agreement?”

On May 8, the record-keeping organization wrote, “The problem is if Ali sold GM cars, then they have a stake in the record being successful and thus are not independent.”

Girard hired Deloitte & Touche to audit his records. Reda said he went to Deloitte and learned that the company no longer provides such service.

When Guinness asked about a national car sales regulatory body, which does not exist, Reda found a private auditing firm ready to do the work. Before hiring the company, he reached out to Guinness to be sure it was acceptable.

“That’s when they sent the reply,” Reda said.

It was over.

Elizabeth Montoya, public relations manager for Guinness World Records North America, confirmed the decision to the Free Press by email:

The Guinness “team” decided “recently to eliminate the “best salesman” category.

Girard “would be labeled as the record holder, but the record title is no longer active.”

“Our team regularly reviews current titles to ensure that they meet criteria. Based on these assessments, they might update or deactivate the title."

Was Guinness contacted by Joe Girard in his campaign to keep the record? “We can confirm that our Records Management Team was in touch with the former applicant, Joe Girard,” Montoya said.

More: Guinness Records' top car salesman, 89, fights the very idea that he's been topped

More: Record-breaking car salesman: I learned how from Joe Girard's book

Montoya declined to say whether legal counsel for Girard contacted the organization.

'Makes me want to puke'

“Unbelievable,” Montgomery of Les Stanford said. “It all makes me want to puke.”

Girard won recognition from Guinness for "most cars sold by a salesman in a year," 1,425.

Reda sold 1,530 new vehicles and 52 used vehicles in 2017, according to Les Stanford Chevrolet Cadillac, which submitted the accomplishment to Guinness.

Efforts to determine how to comply with Guinness guidelines began in October 2017, Montgomery said. “Every time we reached out, it took weeks for them to respond. I’d ask again and again, ‘Is this acceptable?’ We provided documents from GM that validated Ali’s claim to the title. I have a suspicion that Joe copied Guinness on the lawsuit he filed. Or scared them away.”

Reda said he had no choice but to take legal action to defend himself.

Back in February, when the Free Press first contacted Girard about the record challenge, he pledged to send lawyers to the dealership where Reda works.

Neither Girard nor his wife, Kitty, could believe his record was broken.

Girard doesn't let go easily. He never forgave a boss who fired him, according to an Automotive News article in 2011. He mailed a copy of his W-2 annual earnings statement to his old boss with a note at the bottom telling him, “You fired the wrong guy.”

Puzzling to GM

The questioning of official sales data has surprised GM officials and owners of the family dealership. They invited Girard and his wife to attend an awards breakfast at the Motor City Casino on Jan. 18 with 300 attendees honoring Reda.

Joe and Kitty Girard declined to attend, with Kitty saying at the time that her husband would "usually" get paid more than $60,000 for such an appearance.

This whole mess makes little sense to anyone, aside from the fact that the record holder and his challenger both sold GM products.

"Retail sales reporting is a straightforward process," said Jim Cain, GM spokesman. "When a sale is completed at the dealership, it is reported to the factory and counted as a delivery. Deliveries are aggregated for the month, and reported on sales day."

Despite Guinness pulling out, the fight continues.

The dealership stands by its records.

Lawyers for Girard are in the process of reviewing sales data, Reda said. "We've maintained all along we're totally OK with auditing."

But even after an audit, Reda said, "nobody wins, everybody loses."

"Guinness didn't just hurt me, they're hurting thousands of salespeople that had set high standards and goals because of this record," he said. "It's ironic that the person that has impacted the auto sales industry for the past 44 years has set us back. The former champ has been dethroned. He'll just have to accept that."

At this time, neither "Joe Girard" nor "best car salesman" can be found on the Guinness World Records website.

Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: phoward@freepress.com or 313-222-6512. Follow her on Twitter @phoebesaid