Every month, Counterman’s “Guess the Car” contest challenges our readers to solve an automotive riddle, for a chance to win $100. And each month, we receive hundreds of responses from aftermarket professionals trying to guess the model of the vehicle depicted.
The correct answer for the November contest is the Porsche Cayenne.
The winner for November is Josh Bliefnick, store coordinator at Weaver Auto Parts in Wautoma, Wisconsin.
Now, let’s get to know the November “Guess the Car” champion.
CM: How long have you been working in the auto parts business?
JB: A little over six years.
CM: What do you like most about your job?
JB: Every day presents a different challenge. There’s always something different, and I’m always learning something new. When you’ve been at a job for a while, it can get stale, and you start getting a little bored. That has not happened here.
CM: Have you always worked in the automotive field?
JB: For the last 11 years.
For five years prior to coming here, I was changing tires, headlights and batteries and doing oil changes – basic light-duty maintenance. I went to school to be a mechanic.
CM: What’s the strangest question a customer has asked you?
JB: I had a customer who came in looking for wheel cylinders for a trailer, but it wasn’t a conventional trailer.
Somebody ended up taking an axle off a vintage Dodge, and they didn’t know what kind of Dodge it was, but they had the wheel cylinder. So I pretty much had to take the wheel cylinder and start looking at illustrations from around that era, and try to find one that looked the same. And it turned out we were able to find it.
CM: How old was the wheel cylinder?
JB: If I were to venture a guess, I would say around 1952. The easiest way to do the job sometimes is if you don’t have all the information you need, just bring me the part. If I have something to look at and something physical in my hand, I’ll have a better shot at finding what you’re looking for.
CM: What’s the coolest car you’ve ever owned or worked on?
JB: A 1989 Buick Riveria was the coolest car I’ve owned. It was an ‘89 and it had a touch-screen in the middle of it. This is extremely common technology today, but 30 years ago, not so much. It was way ahead of its time.
CM: Do you have any interesting hobbies? What do you do for fun?
JB: I do geocaching in my off-time.
CM: How would you explain geocaching to someone who’s not familiar with it?
JB: I guess the easiest way to explain it is you have a GPS unit and you’re looking for junk in the woods that other people have put out there. One of the incentives that gets people to go out is other people will put trackable items out there that they want to travel to other places. So sometimes you look for those so you can help those people out.
… Geocaching kind of meshes technology and old-school recreational activities together. You can look at technology in your hand but you’re also enjoying the outdoors.
CM: What’s your dream car?
JB: My dream car would be a Buick Grand National.
CM: Any particular year?
JB: Let’s go with a 1987 Buick GNX. They dubbed that ‘the Grand National to end all Grand Nationals.’
CM: I take it you’re a Buick guy.
JB: I own an ‘08 Buick LaCrosse Super right now, and it has a really rare drivetrain. It has a 5.3-liter all-aluminum V-8 in there with a 4T65-E HD transmission. Between two model years, I think they had fewer than 5,000 of them made.
