Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, December 4, 1994 TAG: 9412030003
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The pizza: an Italian dish made by baking a thin layer of dough covered with a spiced preparation of tomatoes, cheese and, often, sausage, mushrooms, anchovies, etc., according to Webster's Dictionary. Also, about the only food in America you can get delivered hot to your door. Price range: $5.85-$17.65 (extra large with the works).
Mike Greenway: where the pizza and the BMW meet.
On a good night, he can earn $13 an hour. And as he does so, boldly, in his black 528E with the illuminated Papa John's Pizza delivery sign sticking out the window, Greenway endures the stares.
Sometimes, glares.
"I know they're thinking, 'Look at this guy abusing the BMW that daddy bought him,'" Greenway says.
At first, when he started delivering pizzas in his BMW almost two years ago, the glares and the stares bothered him. He had been accustomed to the reaction that came along with his old car, a 1980 Toyota Corolla.
That is to say, no stares.
You expect pizza from a 1980 Toyota Corolla - not from a German luxury sedan with power windows, power locks, power antenna, power sunroof, alarm, cellular phone and system computer.
"They're probably thinking, 'What an idiot ... . What a freak!'"
But now, Greenway, 19, has come to terms with his own status as Roanoke's most talked-about pizza delivery driver. "If they want to think that, they can. Because it's just a job and it's just a car," he says.
Let them glare.
He knows what he is and what he is not, that he isn't any poster boy for the American dream run amok or some rich kid whose daddy would buy him the moon if it came in a red convertible.
Greenway's daddy is a distribution manager for NAPA Auto Parts. His mother is a sterilizing technician at Lewis-Gale Hospital. And Greenway lives, not in the lap of luxury, but in an apartment with his mother in Salem.
His father did co-sign for his loan on the car, but the $160 payments are all his own. Insurance is $115, soon to increase to $238 because Greenway sideswiped a parked car recently while trying to tune his radio. Taxes are around $120.
As for his second job, it isn't climbing the corporate ladder. It's playing drums in a local garage band, Alternate Roots.
And the BMW?
He spotted it on a used-car lot. It was a 1983 model with 111,000 miles and ripped upholstery. List price: $5,000. (New in 1983, it sold for $28,000.)
"I test-drove it twice and kind of fell in love with it. I always wanted a nice car," he says.
His license plate reads: 528-BMUU. (Double-U, get it?)
Not that he buys into the whole BMW mystique. He says his friends know he isn't caught up in success or greed. To him, owning a BMW means having an appreciation for fine cars and the dedication to care for one.
He washes his two or three times a week.
"I try not to make it a status symbol," he says.
At the same time, in the pizza business as in the world in general, a BMW doesn't often go unnoticed. Occasionally, Papa John's will get a special delivery request for the guy in the BMW.
Apparently, pizza tastes better when transported in such a car.
"Oh sure," says Greenway.
More often, however, Greenway says his car works against him. "I've had people look at my car and not give me a tip because they say I drive a nicer car than they do. They don't think I need it."
The fact is, he does need the tips. At a dollar or two per run, they add up to a major portion of his income. Greenway works full time at the Papa John's on Brambleton Avenue, where he earns just over the $4.25 minimum wage, plus tips and a commission on the volume of pizza he delivers each shift.
On a good night, he says that can add up to $13 an hour - most of which he sinks back into the car.
Already, he has spent more than $4,000 on the car to rebuild the engine, replace the front seat upholstery and the voltage regulator, among other repairs. He changes the oil monthly.
"It's not in as good a shape as it looks," he says.
During one particularly troublesome week it died four times, costing him $140 in towing expenses and a couple of cold pizzas. "They were going crazy here. They took me off the schedule."
It turned out to be a minor problem caused by an electrical short. Meanwhile, the car soon will need brake work, a new clutch and a valve realignment, none of which will come cheap.
He doesn't have any regrets, however. The car and its related expenses have delayed his starting college. He plans to begin at Radford University in January. But it does help him with meeting women.
"That's really sad to say, but it does," he says.
He wouldn't trade it for anything. "The car is basically all I've got ... . It's my baby." Unless, of course, he could have his dream car.
And what would a 19-year-old pizza delivery driver with a BMW choose as his dream car?
"It would probably be a new BMW," he says.
Nothing too opulent.
"This car is flashy enough for me right now."
by CNB