Matilda’s father bought and sold car’s and he seemed to make quite a lot of money from doing it.
‘Sawdust,’ he said proudly. ‘That’s the secret. And it costs me nothing. I get it from the wood shop.’
‘How can sawdust help you to sell car’s daddy?’ asked Matilda.
I don’t understand.’
That’s because you’re a stupid little girl,’ her father said. He turned to his son. ‘I’m always glad to buy a car with an old gearbox, one that makes a terrible noise. I get it cheap. Then I mix a little sawdust with the oil in the gearbox and it goes beautifully – for a day or two.’
‘How long will it go like that before it starts making noises again?’ asked Matilda.
‘Long enough for the buyer to get long way away,’ her father said, laughing.
‘But that’s not honest, daddy,’ said Matilda.
‘Nobody gets rich by being honest,’ he said. He was a small ratty-looking man with a thin moustache. He liked to wear brightly coloured jackets with yellow or green ties. ‘For example, anyone who buys a car asks “How many miles has it done?” Right, Michael?’
‘Right,’ said his son.
‘So, I buy an old car that’s done a hundred and fifty thousand miles, and get it cheap. Then I ask myself, “How can I change the clock so that it reads ten thousand?” If run the car backwards, the numbers will go backwards. But who’s going to drive a car backwards for thousands and thousands of miles?,
‘Nobody,’ young Michael said.
‘Right,’ said his father. ‘Now this clock thing runs off one of the front wheels. So I use an electric drill on it, and when the drill turns, it turns the clock backwards-very fast! I can take fifty thousand miles off the car in a few minutes! And by the time I finish, the car’s only done ten thousand, and I tell the customer,
“It belonged to an old person who only used it once a week for shopping.” ‘He laughed loudly.