Is he leasing them the properties at fair market rates? If so he might be preventing gouging by not forcing we work to bid against the rest of the market.
If it were strategically important for the company the company should have bought the properties. It's a direct conflict of interest - and one that has been serious enough that they've ended up having to build an entire corporate strategy to deal with. Also, this is not the only conflict of interest: WeWork bought part of an artificial surfing wave pool in 2016 and the only reason anyone can find to do that is the CEO likes surfing.
I doubt these vehicles made it onto the road with the half fixes, they most likely just used the tape to allow the vehicle to move down the line then when the parts were available replaced them before customer delivery. This is probably not apparent and not explained to the untrustworthly assembly line worker.
Your story is completely unbelievable. Automobiles are not impulse buys, the idea behind the General Motors strategy is to make a vehicle for each class of buyer lifestyle. Now sure if a whimsical or uneducated buyer walks in with no idea of what they want and money to burn the salesperson (never a GM employee, GM) will try to put them in the most expensive vehicle, the reasons for that are obvious.
For me car buying is almost an "impulse buy" because I drive cars into the ground. The car has become chronically unreliable and in need of constant repairs, or it has been totaled.
My family owns one car so losing the car is a minor crisis that needs quick resolution, and that resolution is going to be hasty rather than deliberate. I'm not going to worry about being overcharged $2000 on a new car, that's the price of being able to drive off the lot immediately.
Some car dealers are spoken of highly by their employees and customers; a good car salesperson on a good day can meet your needs brilliantly.
My only real complaint about it is that the new car business is less competitive in many towns than it was in the 1990-2010 era: often it is the same dealer who will sell you Chevy, or a Toyota or Dodge (which has access to Italian exotic cars through Fiat...)
Still, car dealerships train techs, who often become the shade tree mechanics who themselves shine.
My dad went into an AMC dealership in the 1970s and bought a Gremlin (Civic, Corolla, Cavalier, Neon, Bug...) against the advice of a salesperson and returned it after 18 months because it was not a product that the salesperson was proud of.
The landlord of a building I worked in bought a bitchin' Corvette for $35k in cash during the 2008 crisis because he had the money and could hold out to get a great deal.
If you are the lead, call a meeting, explain the tech stack that will be used, explain that their performance will be judged based on meeting deadlines using said tech stack, summarize this meeting in an email to your leadership, in this email explain meeting deadlines depends on using the tried and true tech stack you chose. If they refuse or come up with some contrived reasons why your plan won't work, methodically and politically knock those reasons down, institute daily stand up meeting where they have to explain progress or blocking issues. If employee misses deadlines they go on probation and then get fired. If management does not support you, find a new job then give your notice.
I've taken the past year off to live on my savings and build a new saas, data as a service platform, it's possible and people do it all the time. You have to save money, then take the time off.
