Carmen Grawe – Mom With Heart Buys Used Truck from Runde’s

Today I sat down with Carmen Grawe, from Manchester, Iowa who recently bought a used truck from us. She was in the Dubuque area visiting her sister and she was kind enough to stop by the Runde Chevrolet dealership and take some time to tell us about her family, her life, her experience at Runde’s and anything else she wanted to share.  

Hey Carmen, thanks for taking some time out today for the interview! So I hear you bought a vehicle from Runde’s recently, what did you end up buying?

We bought a very nice used truck – it’s a blue granite Chevy Silverado 1500 from the Manchester store.

Oh, so you bought the vehicle from our Ford store, did they have the Chevy vehicle shipped up to you?

Yea, the vehicle was originally at your Chevrolet store in East Dubuque. They transported it up to the Ford store for me as soon as I wanted it. It was a great service and everyone was very nice.

Great!   Were they “Santa Clause nice” where your given stuff for free; “Oprah nice” where she interviews you and gives you a nice parting gift or “Tom Brokaw nice” where he gives you all the information, facts and figures and then lets you, as the consumer/viewer make an informed choice?

Uh, I guess “Tom Brokaw nice” – where do you guys come up with these questions?

So how was the experience, on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the best?

Oh, definitely an eleven. They went above and beyond.

I’m glad you thought it was a great experience! So what do you plan on doing with the truck?

Well when it gets a little warmer, I plan on going out and kayaking with my kids and taking it out on family vacations, maybe to Mt. Rushmore. It’ll pretty much be our leisure truck.

So you have a family, then. Are you married and how many kids do you have?

Yes, I’m married and have three kids – Austin, 12 – who is in 6th grade, Justin, 8 – he’s in the 2nd grade and Ethan, 3, is in pre-school.

I’m sure they are all great kids.

Yea, Justin is my animated child while Austin is definitely the “big brother” figure. Ethan is going to be my rowdy boy.

And what is your husband’s name?

Marty.

Yea, we get that reaction a lot.

Do you get out-voted often living in a house with all males?

Oh yeah, but it doesn’t bother me – they love their mom. That’s one thing that is great about our family. Even though we are all busy, we all enjoy doing such a broad variety of things like the boys will play sports, go hunting, take Tae-Kwan-Do lessons along with several other activities.

We like to go out and kayak in the summer and we used to camp. Pretty much anything outdoors. We are hoping to camp more now that we have the new truck.

Do you consider the glass half full or half empty?

I just assume that someone drank half of the contents, left it sitting there and now it’s just another dirty dish I have to wash.

What is your favorite place in Manchester?

I’d have to say the Mexican restaurant. It’s a very nice place to go to.

Who’s is your favorite actor/actress?

I really like Grey’s Anatomy. I’d have to say Patrick Dempsey is my favorite.

Favorite movie?

Hmm… Probably Gran Torino is my favorite current movie.

What kind of music do you like?

All kinds of music except for rap and head-banging acid rock where you can’t really understand what they are saying. AC/DC is probably one of my favorites – it’s actually one of my dad’s favorites as well.

If you could do any one thing or go any one place what would you do or where would you go?

I’d like to see the world with my family. Anywhere besides Adventure Land in Altoona, IA. More importantly, though, I’d like to see my kids grow up and see them live their lives. I want to see them get married and be happy in life.

Any last comments?

When it comes time that I need a new van or another used truck I will definitely go to Runde’s first, it has been a great experience. I would recommend it to everyone.

Thank you Carmen!