Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

breld

The salesperson implied that they'd be hoping to get $23-$24 for the car, so I bet they list it at around $26k. I'll be checking over the next week to see out of curiosity. We debated for a little while ordering a new X3 and using that 4-6 weeks to privately sell the 3, but really had some doubt whether we'd come out any better (considering the 8.5% tax savings on the $20k trade).

Overall, I found the F30 to be appealing, but I think it may take some time for it to grow on me. Exterior-wise, I like the changes - they seem pretty subtle, with the most significant difference at the nose, which very much resembles the 5. Inside, it does appear roomier in the back seat, with little growth on the exterior dimensions. I'm just not crazy about the dash and front seats at this point. I like the dash on both the E90 and E46 better, and it's hard to explain, but the seats look more "Nissan" than German - something about the lines and stitching that turns me off.

I didn't push it or anything with that new engine, but acceleration felt similar to the normally aspirated 6, which is a fine thing considering the efficiency gain. Like most reviews have pointed out, the sound of the engine is not as pleasing as the 6. The power delivery is smoother than VW's 2.0T, and while I think that's mostly a good thing given the character of the BMW, there is a certain rush from the VW that is quite fun.

They had an example of each of the "styles" - luxury, modern and sport. I'd have to say I liked the overall look of the modern.

breld

And congrats to you stick, on the S40. I like those quite a bit - several years ago I was looking at a V50 T5 with a stick. It was a lot of fun, but was a bit cramped in passenger space even compared to the TSX I had at the time, so I couldn't make the case for it.

And, like others have said, I can't imagine you'll have any trouble selling that Accord - it's very appealing.

isellhondas

I can't believe that your accord hasn't been snapped up by now. Personaly, I think you are selling it too cheap.

It's a beautiful car in great shape. Yes, the stick hurts it but there are stick lovers out there who would be hard pressed to find another one.

BE CAREFUL with the Craigslist people. CL attracts crooks, strokes and flakes by the ton. You REALLY need to screen them before you agree to meet with them.

Seriously, if I needed a car and my wife could/would drive a stick, I would be all over that car! Don't cheap sell it!

stickguy

I hope you are right. At least the person that did respond still wants to see it today, even though it is frigid out and there is snow on the ground. A women from close by, which is good. So we shall see.

I picked a bad weekend to list it, weather wise. So hopefully that is why I am getting no action, but it is just on craig's. If I get desperate I will fire it up on cars.com too.

I think it is one that will get snapped up by a smart buyer when they see it. The trick is getting them to see it!

Of course, this is what I am usually looking for but can't find...

stever

I like it too, and I don't much care for sedans or leather. :shades:

Woman buyer eh? Mention your wife and daughter a lot, or even better, maybe one of them will be with you when you do the meet and greet.

Not long ago I sold a spare snowboard on craigslist. Only got one response, guy said he'd be here that night when I returned his call. No quibbles or dickering, had cash, and he's probably riding it today. Always had great luck with CL - maybe Seattle is just a bad market for want ads.

fezo

I wish Criag wouldn't come in like that while I am starting to subtly trying to knock down his price so I sweep down and scoop it up....

If I could just manage having an extra car and only drive the Solara when the top can come down....

So what color is that thing? It looks like two different colors depending on the picture. I like the blue one....

isellhondas

I know you didn't ask for advise, but....

DON'T CHEAP SELL IT!! You alrealy have ti priced for at least a couple of thousand less than a dealer would ask!

Tell the buyers that..." I priced it to sell. I don't like to dicker!"

stickguy

the Accord is bright silver with black leather. I took the pictures early so the sun was at an angle.

isellhondas

Don't be a "mooch" Steve! It's a red hot bargain as it is!

isellhondas

Oh, the majority of CL's people are probably fine and "normal" people but flakes abound too and thety really have to be screened.

At the risk of insulting some of these people, I would put in my ad...

" Please, I am a busy person and I will be straightforward with you and I expect the same. I have no time for joyriders or "non serious" shoppers. I DO NOT want your trade and I will only deal with CASH or I'll be happy to meet
you at your bank. I have the title in hand"

Craigslist does attract a lot of strokes and this wording may elininate some of them.

fezo

He doesn't want to eliminate all the strokes! That would mean I wouldn't come over!

Were I looking I'd snap that sucker right up. It is exactly what I'd like in an Accord and I love Accords up through 2007.

Heck, if I knew you were going to do this I might have held out with the van. All that time when you'd say you might sell it one day I thought you were just pulling my leg.

I'm betting it is sold by Wednesday. If not people are crazy.

kyfdx

Can you edit your title?

I'd put "stick-shift" in the title of the ad.. that will draw the people that are manual-shift enthusiasts...

stickguy

maybe will do that when I re-post it for next week. I do have it in the body, but some people probably are too dumb to figure it out. You might be right about flagging it for the 3 pedal crowd.

fezo

Before you posted the link I was looking for it and didn't find it because I was looking for mt,5 speed or some such thing.

isellhondas

Great idea..." Rare 5 speed"

There ARE people looking for an EXL with a handshaker. Jsut not many of them.

If some mooch treis to lowball you you can remind them of that.

stever

Whenever I see that kind of "mooch" stuff in an ad, or one that says no emails or other such nonsense, I generally move on. If you price it right in the first place (and Stick did), it should move without having to go through a lot of drama.

stickguy

well, it was one and done. Met the women that emailed about it (along with her husband, who it turns out remembered me from when I used to ride the commuter train into Philly, as he is a train operator). Not what I was expecting (probably 60ish?). But, liked stick shifts.

She took a quick lap around the parking lot (met them at a drug store), and he drove around on the roads (being lest stick rusty). And appreciated it for the find that it was.

Didn't want to lose it. Made a half-hearted attempt to negotiate down to 10, but I settled at 10.5 since it should be a clean deal (reliable buyer, lives close by, no drama, and it will be gone by mid week when her insurance settlement comes in).

That was pretty much my bottom line what I wanted out of the deal, so I am not going to complain. In effect I traded the Honda even up for the Volvo outside of tax and tags and fees.

Will be sad to see it go, but on the bright side, pretty soon I get to start shopping again, and if I decide to go ahead and pass the Volvo down, it can be for any oddball thing that strikes my fancy since it will be just for me.

fezo

Congratulations. I thought that one and done might be the case.

fintail

I remember when I put my old W126 on craigslist back in 05, the emails I got were very annoying. I listed it there although I had a potential buyer already, just in case it fell through. I got about 5 emails, I think 3 offered around 50% off without looking at the car, another wanted every detail of the car but was unwilling to come look, and another wanted me to drive 2 hours so he could look at it. I ended up selling it to the original interested party.

stever

Not what I was expecting (probably 60ish?). But, liked stick shifts

Sounds like us, less 5 years or so. :-)

Congrats.

And the new hunt begins LOL.

isellhondas

Oh, I would never use the term "mooch" or "stroke" in an ad. I have used "non serious buyers" before.

If I person is serious, I don't think I'll lose them but I just may eliminate a non buyer I don't want to waste time with.

I would never say "no emails" since that seems to be the only way some people know how to communicate these days. That and texting.

People that deal with me quickly learn that I'm very easy to deal with and that I'm 100% open as to the condition of whatever it is I'm selling.

I may try to move the Reatta one of these days.

isellhondas

Exactly what I meant about "strokes" on CL!

stickguy

I think the cheaper the car, the worse it is. Last time I sold one was just about 3 years ago, and it was a contour for about $2,500? Really brought out the flakes. People all excited to see it that never showed up. And quite a few that called, never asked anything about the car but wanted to negotiate the price. Did not pay attention to them.

nyccarguy

Awesome stickguy! Congratulations!

michaellno

Congrats on your new X3! Did John get the deal again?

Gonna have to pester him .. even though I've not done business with him, I gave you his name and now you've done two deals!

stever

I think everyone in the UP thinks they won't get ripped if they get a phone call. Maybe they believe caller ID really means something - if it's a spacey ad, I'd call 'em on Skype and let them really get confused. :-)

Good thing I'm not a chronic buyer (unless I liked trucks). CL up here has pretty slim pickings, although this barn find has possibilities.

Looking at the snow on it, I don't know if they pushed it into the garage or if the barn has a sunroof that they left open.

oldfarmer50

"...you REALLY need to screen them..."

Based on your years of experience with crazy buyers, what are some of the questions you'd ask to weed out the real flakes.

stickguy

just basic stuff. where they are coming from, how they plan to pay. Heck, just talking to them gives you a real good feel for things (the "smell" test).

But, I have some people I put in the flake category end up coming through as serious buyers, so you never know.

And Steve, I love the "yoopers" craiglist path in that ad.

roadburner

I also posted this over in the "Sales Frontlines" topic, but I thought some of you might be interested. Last week a 1974 BMW 2002 showed up on eBay. The car was a great ten-footer, but it needed quite a bit of work- several rust spots, no heater, broken radio console, etc. The seller was located in Louisville and a discussion popped up on an informal IN/KY/OH 2002 enthusiast Facebook group. It turns out that the car had been flipped several times for $1,200. If I had known earlier I would have eagerly bought it for $1,200 and quickly swapped at least $500 worth of parts over to my son's car and then re-sold it for $600-$700. Anyway, the sled wound up selling on eBay for $3,100. Yikes! I'm almost tempted to throw my son's car up there with a starting price of $4,500...

Here's original listing.

..

bolivar

Regarding your 'barn find'. I don't understand that first picture either. What is the big, white, snow looking shape in the upper right part of the picture?

No snow around the car, except in the last picture which is probably raked off the car.

They pushed the car into the barn, flat tire/s and all? They did say it ran, so they might have been able to drive it in?

qbrozen

Good for you, stick. I figured it would go fast, but I never would have guessed 1 day.

No matter what, I think you got strong money for it with the busted bumper.

tjc78

the sled wound up selling on eBay for $3,100

Ebay is funny sometimes. I don't know whether people get caught up in the bidding process or what. I've never listed a car, but several pieces of electronics and on all but one I got more than I expected, or at least definately more than I would have paid for the item. OTOH, maybe I'm just cheap.

stever

I think that's just a piece of equipment in the barn. Looking again, it appears to be uninsulated so that snow could have been on there for weeks now.

Why not take a couple of hours and air the tires up and at least empty the trash in the passenger compartment? And wipe the snow off.

Ah, I think I get it - this guy has a whole barn full of barn finds. Looks like he sold the 1916 Hutmobile. And he has a Spider - good pics there of the whole "yard".

steine13

Oh, wow, Calumet, Michigan.
Where collecting meets hoarding.
Cheers -m

stever

That place is a long way from anywhere too. Not exactly optimal storage conditions up here in the Rust Belt either.

isellhondas

Were it not for the serious rust problems, that isn't that bad of a car. All of those nagging problems that seem to be such a big deal to the guy that bought it aren't that serious.

The rust, however is.

Tha BMW is a great example of why it's better to pay twice as much and get a rust free much better car that is already "done". Much cheaper that way!

fintail

I see what looks like a Triumph Herald in that first link - you can make those into crappy sailboats.

That T-Bird is probably too far gone for realistic saving, they can rust with a vengeance and aren't worth a fortune when completed.

stever

Window shopping was much better in high desert climate of Boise.

isellhondas

Yes, do they salt the streets in Boise?

fintail

Eastern WA and surrounding areas are fantastic for hobby car hunting - but there are dealer groups who stalk the area looking for bargains, so it isn't 100% easy. Even the damp climate where I live is 100x better than back east - cars last a long time here if they are maintained, lots of odd old metal still on the street.

stever

They would use a spray before a predicted snowfall; seems like it was magnesium something but don't think it was the salt (chloride) form. It would form slush and the traffic would splash it to the curb.

You have to remember that we didn't get much more snow in town there than you guys in Seattle do. Plenty of snow around but mostly over 4,000 feet or so. When it did snow, it was rare that much stayed around more than two days.

You'd see older classics cruising around town every month of the year.

isellhondas

I like Boise except it's a bit too hot in the summer for my liking.

I once spent SIX WEEKS sitting in your counthouse trying to help defend our company against a friviolous lawsuit.

Of course, we lost. A big company can't win if there is s jury!

Great downtown area to walk around. Lots of trendy restaurants etc.

breld

Congrats on your new X3! Did John get the deal again?

Gonna have to pester him .. even though I've not done business with him, I gave you his name and now you've done two deals!

No - we ended up buying way up at Co's BMW in Loveland. Living up north in Thornton, it's just as convenient as Schomp, and Co's seemed to be the only dealer with any sort of inventory of X3's. Plus, we really liked the salesperson we happened upon at Co's.

tifighter

Picked this up for my wife on Saturday. 07 Grand Touring with 15k miles, has the aluminum folding top. I've always wanted a Miata, even after having a Z3 a long time ago. Now in california for two years, its now or never, right? Photo from the dealer site-

EDIT - Hmm, shows in preview, but not when published. Anyhow, photo can be found here-
07 Miata

ateixeira

Congrats. I have an 08 Touring model, also PRHT.

How much?

tifighter

Hey Juice, I thought of yours when I wrote the post. They wanted $19k; did 18,4 and worked a trade. Lowest PRHT here (bay area) was $17.5, this one had less miles and the condition was notable - very well taken care of. Was the color we wanted too. One owner, third car, hence the miles. Has the package with DSC/xenon etc.

As you know, the used prices are ridiculous everywhere right now, but its not going away anytime soon...

stever

it's a bit too hot in the summer for my liking.

Bah, it only hits 105° a couple of weeks a year. :P

105 sounds pretty good right about now, lol.

There were 15 cars in my aisle at the ski hill Sunday. Six of them were Subarus. Safe to say that skiers are chronic Subie buyers?

ateixeira

A GT like yours was probably $28-30k new, so looks like the original owner absorbed more than 1/3rd of the depreciation for you.

Nice buy.

Heated seats? That's about the only thing I wish mine had that it doesn't, for those chilly nights.

ateixeira

Subaru's market share in Vermont is 14 (!) times what it is in Florida.

That's a definite Yes!

isellhondas

" 105 sounds pretty good right about now"

Ah...105 NEVER sounds good! You can have it!