Selling cars - your best stories

I forgot the very best sale (or "sale") I've ever done. 100 years ago, in a previous life, I needed an extra beater to drive, after turning my DD Miata into too much of a track car. I found a manual Nissan 200SX -86 (the squared 80s version with pop up headlights and a talking onboard computer) at an auction and got it for $500. It was mint, everything worked - Somebody had obviously loved it for many years. It ran flawlessly for over a year, despite me drifting it daily. 

A friend had hit some financial trouble. She had a part time job at Lowes, but what she made barely covered the cost of daycare for her 6 year old daughter (whose father was MIA, of course). She considered moving back home to share a house with her sister and mother, many states away. One day, her car was repossessed at the daycare, while she was picking up her daughter. We guessed they couldn't get to the car at her apartment, so they followed her and took it there. She was now stuck with no car, not being able to get to or from work or daycare and of course no money or means to go home to her family. She asked if I would consider selling the old beater and get paid bit by bit over a couple of months... 

I gave it a good service and sold her the car for $1. It didn't make a big difference to me, but it made a huge difference to her. 

mtn said:

One time I sold a car to a guy, he flew down to pick it up, and it broke down on the way home after he paid me exactly what we agreed to with no haggling. Still feel bad about that one. Sorry FBC. 

I try to treat people, Especially regulars on here well. Extra haggling ain't needed.  I've just had the car in the air and it is every bit of a rust free car. Very nice to see compared to the rotted rocker junk piles up here. 

Leant a car I was selling to my neighbour at the time because her husband had skipped town and she needed to go to work. The agreement was "pay me when you can, don't worry about it". Got the car back with a siezed engine and not even an attempt to pay for it. Figured I had some good karma coming for that.

Sold a truck to a former workmate F-150 that needed brakes and a fuel pump in one of the tanks replaced. I was selling it cheap enough that it wasn't worht it for me to fix it.

She didn't haggle and when I found out she was buying it to start her own business, I sorted the brakes and replaced the fuel pump and didn't charger her any extra. Haven't heard from her since but I hope she had good luck.

I was selling a TE72 Corolla, clean car, price was $1000.00

Made a deal with a guy from Penticton over the phone, we agreed on the $1000 price, cash money and he would be able to drive it home. The car was my daily driver until that point so no issues at all.

Penticton is a 4 hour drive from my house.

He arrived with $300 less than the agreed upon price and left without a car.

I called it a teachable moment.

I tend to drive my cars until they're used up but I have sold a few.

The Dart

My second car, the first car I bought for myself, was a 1967 dart GT. Exactly what I was looking for, 225 slant six. The GT package included absolutely no performance parts. Since I was traveling with the harness horses then, the six was best for me.

I drove it for about 6 years. The original owner must not have ever changed the oil, because I had to put a long block in it at 105,000 miles.

I loved that car, but agreed to sell it to my brother. He drove it for a few months without paying me any money, then totaled it. He told me that since it was wrecked, he shouldn't have to pay for it. 

The Miata

I bought my first Miata in February 2018. I originally wanted a car that would be good for track days as well as autocross, but subsequently decided to only do autocross. That was a 2001 sport, with a roll bar, hardtop, 6-speed, the sport brakes, and a seat and steering wheel change.

Those last two things, plus the lightweight flywheel put the car into a modified class for autocross. I wanted something competitive for ES, and I lucked into buying a really nice 99 sport.

I advertised the 01 on the forum here, and a potential buyer and his wife arranged for a fly and drive. The car had been sitting for a couple of weeks at a time, and when I drove it after arranging for the sale, I noticed it had a small oil leak on the front of the engine. I didn't feel right about that, so I decided to get it fixed.

This was on a Friday, and the buyer was due the following Saturday.

I took it into my regular shop on Monday, where was determined that it needed a new oil pump. After replacing the oil pump, it came back from the test run with a leak from the rear main seal (which hadn't been present previously), plus still leaking from the front.

After a late-night thrash, my friend that owns the shop met me there on Saturday morning so I could pick the car up, and pay the $1800 repair bill (which wasn't going to be added to the purchase price, I was just trying to do the right thing).

A couple of hours later, my buyer and his wife arrived and take the car for a test drive. They pull in to the driveway about 15 minutes later, and he asks me, "Do you smell oil?"

I grabbed the jack stands and lifted the car, and pulled off the undertray. I didn't even look myself, I just handed him the flashlight and passed him the creeper. Sure enough, leaking from both ends. 

I was out of a sale, but I felt a lot worse for costing somebody two plane tickets and a weekend. 

The car got fixed, and weeks later I finally got it sold. 

Oh, I forget about the tacoma. 

I had a 2000 Tacoma TRD, extended cab, 4 x 4, 3.4-5 speed. I bought it with 12,000 miles on it. The original owner had put on a dealer installed TRD supercharger. 

The truck was really fun. I perfected the technique for launching it in first gear, then immediately pulling the transfer case shifter into 2 wheel drive before the second gear shift.

I never took it to the track, but similarly prepare trucks were said to run low 15 to mid 14s in the quarter. Not real fast, but it would pull multiple car lengths on just about anything until I would get reeled in at about 75. 

Unfortunately, it wouldn't fit a rear facing baby seat, so it had to go.

I had on the right of way on US 41 in Sarasota for about 10 minutes with a for sale sign, before the police showed up and told me to move it. By then someone had already stopped and arrange to buy it, he said, "for my wife to drive."

He sent his wife to pick it up. She was a middle aged woman probably no taller than 4'10". We did the paperwork, she paid me, and I walked her out to the truck. She had to scoot the seat all the way forward, and still had to twist her body sideways to push the clutch in.

All I can figure is that he must have wanted her to hate the truck so then he could drive it.

On selling, my most-told story is a Volvo Wagon I sold. Even though I never registered it, the state of CA used the release of liability info to send me bills for

the buyer who ran tolls without paying, and eventually abandoned it, and the tow company tried to bill me for towing and storage.  Never payed any of it,

but it is a story I tell so anyone who sells a car better get the buyer info and submit the release of liability paperwork to the dmv!

My buyer story is a car I bought for $200 where the seller said it didn't run.  I was going to convert it to an EV, so didn't care about the engine.

 I towed it home, and discovered it would not run because the battery needed to be charged.  No dead, just needed a charge., that was it. 

So I kept it and drove it for a few months, until I dropped my daughter off at school on day and some girls pointed at it and said "look at that car, it is SO cute!" 

That was it, I went home and put it up for sale.    It was the only Pink car I've owned.

Majority of my vehicles just go to the junkyard when I'm done with them. Accidents when I was younger, rust and repairs beyond my skill level/budget/desire to work on gravel more recently. 

But my Forrester, that was something. Put it on Craigslist a couple weeks before I moved to Cali and waited. Finally get a message and a guy comes over to check it out, we're talking, find out we have mutual friends. Turns out, I revealed by accident that his fiancee was berking our mutual friend. Didn't know anyone was engaged, oops.

I found out about a year later that he packed his E36 M3 and left for a new job in Florida the week he bought the subie which was also the week I moved to Cali. He got as far as Tennessee before the engine popped on him. 

I feel bad about the motor popping, but I'm also glad it didn't happen to me, plus my accidental reveal led to a paternity test, turns out the kids weren't even his, so I kinda feel like I did the guy a favor. 

Each one is better than the last.

Not really a car sale but a motorcycle.

I had a Kawasaki KLR 250 that I listed for $1200. I immediately got flooded with emails because, apparently, these things have a bit of a cult following. An older gentleman shows up with a diesel Mazda pickup truck. He takes the bike for a drive then offers me $1,000. Normally I’d say yes but in this case I had people offering to send me my full asking price sight unseen, so I say sorry but no. He starts asking about potential trades. It turns out he’s a retired mechanical engineer and loves Diesel engines. He lists a bunch of things he’s willing to trade and one of them is a 12kw diesel generator. I’m interested but a bit concerned about how much I’ll have to give him on top of the KLR. So I say I may be interested in the generator if it’s in good shape. He hands me the $1,000 bucks and says he’ll be back in two hours. He shows back up with the generator in tow. I check it over and test run it, all good. He loads the bike and heads home. The $1,000 is long gone but I still have the generator and it still runs like a top. It’ll basically run my whole house. We had an ice storm that left us without power for almost 5 days. We had cold beer, running water and hot showers. I hope he’s still enjoying the KLR.

In reply to Wayslow :

Diesel generator, now that was a score!

We had some random guy fly from FL to buy one of my swapped festivas and drive it home. Never really looked at it or Any thing. 

I've got another motorcycle-selling story. I had a Suzuki GS500 that I'd put up for sale. Some kid shows up to buy it who didn't even have a helmet of his own, rode off with my used (and road rashed) helmet. Not a good sign. I followed my usual practice of making an extra copy of the bill of sale.

About a month after selling it, I get a call from the cops late at night saying that GS500 had been found on the side of the road. Given the hour they'd called, I'm guessing they didn't find it rubber side down. I gave them the contact info I had from the bill of sale for the kid who bought it.

I still wonder what the rest of the story was. Hopefully the kid's still alive.

My sale stories have no great customer confrontations but there is some use of AAA towing.  

2003 Saturn Vue w/ 265k miles and a bad slave cylinder for the manual trans.  Ran great but no real redeeming qualities left with 4 bad tires and 4 old shock and unable to shift.  I put it on CL for $400.  I had two shoppers lined up for the next day.  The 7am guy never showed.  The 8am guy was interested but unsure when he would come get it (needed to be towed.)  I was asking $400, he offered less.  I countered with $400 and I'll have my AAA tow it to your house across town.  30 minutes later the car left via AAA.  The seller misunderstood my sale intentions.  I really just wanted the car gone more than I wanted the $400.  

Another shopper of a '09 Pontiac Vibe.  The shopper came alone from 1 hr away.  We agreed on a price and he was even willing to pay today, but, he wasn't sure when he would come back to get the actual car.  Fearing that "time to think" or "time to come back to get the car" might queer the deal....  I offered, "I'll have my AAA come get the car now and deliver to your house."  30 minutes later the car was off to his house.  

My AAA package gives me more services per year than I typically use so I find creative ways to use them.  

My wife was expecting that one Thanksgiving morning that I would drive 2 hours down and 2 hours back to Ohio State University to pick up her niece.  I had an extra car here so the Sunday morning before, I called AAA and had a car shipped the 99 miles (100 miles allowed) directly to the niece and she drove up Thanksgiving morning herself.  

A buddy about 80 miles away got into an accident with his Accord.  It was totaled.  I had a '10 Mercury Milan that would be perfect for him.  I had AAA tow it to his house.  I told him a price and said to drive it for a week and be sure he liked it...which he did.   

No me but my youngest brother.  Probably around 1987.

He had a VW Beetle.   It stopped running.   This brother had no mechanical aptitude or interest in learning.

My other brother and me worked our way though high school as mechanics at our grandpa's automotive and tire shop and could basically fix anything.

We offer to look at the VW but hardhead brother says no way, I got this.  He messes around with trying to start it for like 2 weeks.  Finally he puts an ad in the paper to sell it.   Like for nothing, maybe $200. 

Some guy shows up, looks at it, cranks it over and says I'll take it.   I'll be back in 15 minutes.   Dude comes back with a can of gasoline, puts it into the gas tank.   Cranks for a few seconds, and vroom!, the engine starts.    He drives away with hard head brother standing there looking like a deer in the headlights.

My other brother and I were just laughing our butts off...

Bought a 99 Altima alomost 4 years ago to be the learning car for the oldest teenager.  Paid the neighbor $1000 for it as he was about to head off to Georgia (moving) so I had to drive  him to the airport.

Taught 3 teenagers of my own and a couple of other folks how to drive a stick shift with it.  Loaned it to Ashykyun to make an out of town airport run with.  Loaned it to my sister for a month when her car was in the bodyshop.  Generally beat it into the ground for two years (it already had 200,000 miles on it when I bought it) and sold it last summer to a dude who wanted a winter beater for $1000.  The exhaust broke while he was test driving it but he recognized that could have happened at any time and still bought the car.  Pretty sure it's still rolling with ice cold AC and a heater that will boil a chicken.

KyAllroad (Jeremy) said:

Bought a 99 Altima alomost 4 years ago to be the learning car for the oldest teenager.  Paid the neighbor $1000 for it as he was about to head off to Georgia (moving) so I had to drive  him to the airport.

Taught 3 teenagers of my own and a couple of other folks how to drive a stick shift with it.  Loaned it to Ashykyun to make an out of town airport run with.  Loaned it to my sister for a month when her car was in the bodyshop.  Generally beat it into the ground for two years (it already had 200,000 miles on it when I bought it) and sold it last summer to a dude who wanted a winter beater for $1000.  The exhaust broke while he was test driving it but he recognized that could have happened at any time and still bought the car.  Pretty sure it's still rolling with ice cold AC and a heater that will boil a chicken.

Ah, so it leaked too?

2000 Jag XJR.  150ish miles.  Ran well but lots of issues.   Radio dead.  AC dead.  Traction control/ABS dead.  Lots of paintwork.  Decent but not original.  CEL that I couldn't figure out.  Rattling supercharger.

IIRC, I put it on CL for $2300 on morning.   Guy shows up at my house 6hrs later in a torrential downpour.  Just crazy rain.  "I'll take it, here's the money."  "Don't you want to drive it?"  "Does it drive OK?"   "Sure, it runs great."   "K, thanks, bye".   

Selling my Cobalt SS:

The slave cylinder disintegrated so I had put it up for sale cheap. Had a buyer willing to fly from CO to DE if it was fixed and ready. The clutch job was an absolute nightmare as I had dropped a clip into the bellhousing and couldn't fish it out with a magnet, so the trans came off twice. Also, the replacement master cylinder didn't hold pressure, so I had to reuse the original one. Once back together, I drove it for 200 miles before I picked him up in the morning to complete the sale. No issue with the car, and he paid full asking price (my listed price plus cost of 4 tires and clutch/flywheel). 

I get a call in the evening that the clutch pedal was on the floor. Stupid master cylinder had popped out of the firewall because I must not have installed it perfectly! He lost about 1hr getting it back in and was on his way. Felt bad, but that issue didn't show up in the few hundred miles I drove it.

Still keep in touch with him. He recently messaged me about an O2 sensor code that I had gotten but hadn't come on in the 7k miles I drove it. I'm guessing it's also fixed after I told him to mess with the connectors. It's nice knowing what's going on with your cars after you sell them.

I sold my E-150 conversion van on eBay back in Feb 2007.  Sold it as a "parts car" (to save on the eBay fees) since I hadn't driven or even started it in nearly 1.5 years.  The winner bidder called and arranged to meet with a trailer. In passing, I told him to bring a fresh battery since, "who knows... maybe it'll start." The buyer shows up, we install the battery, I get in the driver's seat and turn the key. The engine fires up as if it had been driven the previous day. On gas that was at least a year and a half old.  The now VERY happy buyer drove it on to the trailer.  He emailed me later saying the clunking noise that had caused me to park it all those months ago turned out to be a bad power steering pump.  

I miss that van.  

Katya4me said:

1994 Miata:

My husband posted this on GRM last fall and mazdeuce bought it, sight unseen.    

I LOVE that car. It's a hooptie of all hoopties and it's fantastic. Mazdeuce put some love in it. But it was exactly the car described and you guys sold it for a great price and It lives on today to RallyX and go to the Track here in TX. 

Aaaaaaaand I’m posting this while standing at the prearranged location more than 20 minutes after the agreed-on time, waiting for my first no-show. We just chatted today, last time was about 90 minutes ago. 

Over the last winter I picked up a 1998 Subaru Outback with head gasket issues planning on running it in the Gambler 500.  I did the head gaskets and got it running really well with about $500 into it. I decided it was too nice to gamble and actually could have a lot of life left.

I listed it for $1500  on a Saturday morning in February with a light snowstorm forecasted for later that day.  I immediately had several people message me interested in coming to look at the car.  

First guy shows up, walks up to the car and says, "This doesn't really look like a 2008 model, are you sure it is?" 

I pulled up the ad on my phone and showed him that it was listed as a 1998.  "Sorry for the confusion, I've got another guy on his way. Have a nice day" I say. 

He decides to take it for a test drive anyway. I hand him the key and we get in. He says, "Oh, it's a stick!? I haven't driven one of these in 20 years"

After a very jerky trip around the block including at least 2 stalls, I say "Well, you're probably not interested, right? Thanks anyway. Have a nice day"

He pulls out a small stack of Benjamins and says "It's perfect, I'll take it".  I was stunned.  Potential buyer #2 knocked on the door as I was signing over the title.  I kind of felt like crap, and apologized profusely. 

It's funny, I have only sold a handful of cars outright; most get junked or traded in. 

One of the ones I DID sell was a 1983 Z28 I picked up for short money in the early 2000's. It had no title and the engine was junk, and I ended up buying my Trans Am a couple months after I picked it up, so it had to go. 

After a bunch of no-shows and a guy who wanted to turn it into a Fauxrarri kit car who I refused to sell it to, a guy that owned a bunch of 3rd Gens called and wanted to see it; he wanted to make it a father/daughter project.

He shows up with his two daughters who were around my age, and they were berking WEIRD. The guy and one daughter were super, super creepy, and the other daughter was making fun of the other's "advances" toward me while also hitting on me at the same time. Also, the dad ended up graduating with my mom from HS, and he was hitting on her the whole time. WTF. 

I did sell end up selling it to them, but I thought I was going to have to marry one of the daughters as part of the deal. 

Too many to list! But one of my favorites was while I was at the local Pick-N-Pull, a fellow pulls up in a 4 door Granada. He had "for sale $500" written on the window, but he was tired of the car and told me it would not crank and had to be push started, ran like crap, and the drivers front suspension was rattling and looked collapsed. Junkyard guy didn't want it, so he offered it to me for $50 because it was NOT going home with him. Quick look had us spend another $50 for a spring, a handfull of used spark plugs, a good battery cable along with the parts for a Mazda tribute and Dodge Dakota which was why we were there in the first place. 

3 guys and 30 minutes got it running, starting and sitting good and we proceeded with the treasure hunt when a gentleman walks up and joins us in our activities such as checking the lights, brakes, radio, windows and such. He steps back and asks who is selling the car and I raise my hand. He whips out 500 bucks and offers it to me so it is a done deal! Also got 3 bucks of change, a Thorsen breakover bar, an old Craftsman drill and 3 impact sockets.

Car moved maybe 20 feet the whole time! They did make me buy lunch though.

Bruce

I had a sweet R53 MCS with a bunch of mods that I bought from a guy after he got rear-ended and had the car totaled from some suspension damage.  After 6 months of daily driving, I decided the car wasn't for me as I need to fit 3 kids in the back seat occasionally. I listed it for $4500, which I thought was on the high end for a salvage title car, but it had zero functional flaws, pretty low miles and had some great mods that made it super fun to drive.

A few weeks after listing it I got a text from a Vegas phone number asking if I'd take $4k and if I could pick him up at the Salt Lake City airport in two days. He had no questions about the car and didn't even ask for additional pictures. The message seemed a bit scammy, but I agreed to pick him up if he could immediately venmo me a 20% deposit and pay the balance on arrival in cash.

I left work early to make the 1 hour drive to the airport thinking of all the ways this could end badly.

What do you know, it worked out great!  I picked him up at the terminal, counted cash and signed the title, wished him a good drive and sent him on his way.  I hopped on the train at the airport and headed for home.