Share Your Best Car Selling Experience   

"functionoverfashion" (functionoverfashion) 05/13/2016 at 11:09 • Filed to: no tire kickers here, car buying

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You hear Craigslist horror stories all the time, right? Tire kickers, bullshitters, scammers... mother rapers...... father rapers ! But selling a car isn’t ALWAYS bad. In fact, I had the best used vehicle sales experience possibly ever yesterday. I mean, it could only be better if I could travel back in time, buy a bunch of E30 M3s and 190E Cosworths, then take them out of storage like, right now. But that’s only money.

This was better than making money.

As I wrote in !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! recently, I just sold my 1972 Ford F100 that I’ve had since 2007. The amount agreed upon at the time was - purely by coincidence - the exact amount that the original owner paid to the dealer when he took delivery in 1972. The sales receipt was buried in a pile of papers in the glove box among other things like handwritten notes on parts boxes to record part numbers, timing order, and the like.

So yesterday, I picked up the same person who sold me the truck 9 years ago, drove him to my house, and he hands me the cash (same exact amount again in case you didn’t guess) and says, “Thanks for taking care of my truck. Here’s your money back,” with a handshake. We discussed a few of the things that have changed about the truck, which is a short list, all of which are improvements aside from the 17,628 miles I accumulated. New front tires was the biggest one I left out of my previous post.

The truck started right up and he drove it away. I may have then met him at a local bar for a drink and some food, somewhat diminishing the drama of him driving off into the figurative sunset. As I took a sip of delicious cold beer, I looked at my watch - it was only 6:20. Compared to the average time spent with a buyer of a used car, this was a Guinness World Record.

Apologies for the crappy pic

Anyway, I’m sure I’ll see it around and I could always take it for a spin if I wanted to. When we walked out of the bar, my wife said she instinctively started walking toward the old ‘72... but no more. In hindsight, it would have been amazing if I had just taken it home anyway and left him with my ‘61. Just for fun.

So that’s it, I don’t see how selling a car for actual money could be a lot better. I mean, I once bought a motorcycle for a dollar and the guy who “bought” it from me gave me a six-pack of beer, so that was a nice relative profit... but not the same kind of transaction.

What’s your best used car/vehicle/widget sales experience?

Flavien Vidal > functionoverfashion 05/13/2016 at 11:15

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To buy the Corvette, buyer called me, came to my place, looked at the car, we test drove it, he gave me the money, we did the paperwork and he left with the car... Took 2 hours. Great selling experience.

Future next gen S2000 owner > functionoverfashion 05/13/2016 at 11:18

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I listed my car on a Saturday afternoon. Buyer came Wednesday evening. Offered a reasonable amount in cash. I accepted. Didn’t even test drive the car.

Whole thing took about 45 minutes and most of that was me filling out the bill of sale, counting cash loading tires and some bs time thrown in for good measure.

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > functionoverfashion 05/13/2016 at 11:21

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The guy who bought my TL came all the way to my house, an hour ride for him, and didn’t want a way home. He brought the 3k i asked for the car but offered 2,800; i told him, well you need a way home and my price is firm.

It’s nice when they dont have a back up plan

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > functionoverfashion 05/13/2016 at 11:22

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For some reason, I actually had fun selling the flex. I made the signs for it, I carefully picked where I park it whenever we went somewhere, and it was fun to see people walk up and think “this person might be the buyer.”

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > functionoverfashion 05/13/2016 at 11:23

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I’ve never sold a vehicle... Scrapped a couple, but sold? Nah.

fourvalleys > functionoverfashion 05/13/2016 at 11:25

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You really freaked me out for a second. I’ve got a distant relative named Carl Burke who lived in the Maywood area right around that date. Just... not the Maywood in CA.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Flavien Vidal 05/13/2016 at 11:27

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Same thing when we sold my wife’s Sunbird. Quick, easy, painless.

functionoverfashion > fourvalleys 05/13/2016 at 11:30

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It would be amazing if this somehow brought the original owner to the surface!

functionoverfashion > Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras 05/13/2016 at 11:31

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He should have only brought $2,800 if that was his plan.

functionoverfashion > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee 05/13/2016 at 11:32

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ha! Now that I think about it, my father doesn’t really sell vehicles either. He drives them until they are utterly done.

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > functionoverfashion 05/13/2016 at 11:37

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Oh i totally agree...but hey, one man’s stupidity is another man’s profit

vicali > functionoverfashion 05/13/2016 at 11:40

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When we sold our Westy the new owner flew up from Seattle, by the time he arrived his bank transfer had gone through and I had the paperwork ready for signatures. I picked him up at the airport, signed the papers in the driveway, showed him how to pop the top and check the engine, and he drove off home. Total time was about 30 minutes.

cletus44 aka Clayton Seams > functionoverfashion 05/13/2016 at 11:41

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Just sold my ‘69 Newport to a buyer in Germany. The idea of my big land barge in Bavaria cracks me up.

fourvalleys > functionoverfashion 05/13/2016 at 11:45

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Hah, just a funny coincidence. It’s a few thousand miles from the Maywood I’m thinking of.

CalzoneGolem > functionoverfashion 05/13/2016 at 11:47

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Did you swing by Alice’s?

Pixel > functionoverfashion 05/13/2016 at 11:53

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When I sold my Outback I’d gotten no replies to the ad, and was just about to lower my asking price, when a woman called and asked if she could come down the next day to look at it.

She showed up exactly on time, looked the car over very thoroughly and told me she’d take it. No dickering, no BS. She handed me a deposit and asked me when I’d like her to pick it up. I asked if she could pick it up that weekend as I needed a way to get to work. She was fine with that and told me to call her if I needed to keep if a few more days(I was still car shopping).

That I bought the replacement vehicle(my Scion xB) for ~$2000 off the asking price(and what the dealer paid for it, as verified by their receipt from the auction), just made the whole experience that much better.

jkm7680 > functionoverfashion 05/13/2016 at 11:58

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I sold a broken German car on Craigslist in under 24 hours. It was great.

functionoverfashion > CalzoneGolem 05/13/2016 at 13:07

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I hear you can get anything you want there...

+1,000,000 internet points for getting the reference, you’re the first.

CalzoneGolem > functionoverfashion 05/13/2016 at 13:10

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Excepting Alice.

That song is a Thanksgiving tradition.

functionoverfashion > jkm7680 05/13/2016 at 13:10

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Awesome. I bought an old ski boat once for parts, so once I had everything I wanted plus a few other more valuable pieces, I put it on ebay, no reserve. It still had a windshield, dash, steering wheel, and a complete interior. But really it was pretty rough overall. Some dude from North Carolina (I’m in New Hampshire) paid $120 for it and drove all the way to NH (with a trailer!) to pick it up!

functionoverfashion > CalzoneGolem 05/13/2016 at 13:17

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I love it. I actually hadn’t heard it for a few years and played it again this past Thanksgiving... I think I still remembered every detail.

He actually played at a local venue to me pretty recently... I had a conflict or I probably would have gone.

CalzoneGolem > functionoverfashion 05/13/2016 at 13:40

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Oh wow. Never thought he’d be playing still.

functionoverfashion > CalzoneGolem 05/13/2016 at 13:45

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I was surprised, too. I saw him probably 15 years ago and he was pretty old then. Bob Dylan still plays, he’s been at it for 57 freaking years!!

DarkCreamyBeer > functionoverfashion 05/13/2016 at 14:32

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I recently sold my wife’s Odyssey, stained carpets, dents and all for more than blue book private party price (and more than I could find one advertised online)... to CARMAX. Whole thing took half an hour. I laid rubber like a bank getaway on the way out of the parking lot.

functionoverfashion > DarkCreamyBeer 05/13/2016 at 14:46

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hahaha, wow that tells you what they think of those! So, did you buy something from them at the same time?

DarkCreamyBeer > functionoverfashion 05/13/2016 at 14:57

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Nope. This was all triggered by a hand-me-down purchase of a newer car from my inlaws.