Cars & Motorbikes The Joys of Selling a Car

Oh the joys of selling a car.
I'm selling a '02 BMW 320i,
It's fairly high kms and short rego. It is priced accordingly and is one of the cheapest on the market at the moment. ($3995).
It went up tonight.
10 mins after the ad was posted I receive a phone call:
"I can do $3000 and I'll pick it up tonight".
Sigh... but not too bad,
Then there's this:
Receive a message through gumtree:
"2700 my offer"
I reply asking him to add 1200 to it and we can talk.
"BMW is expensive parts, expensive maintenance, expensive everything,, 2800 final offer".
And you know what, I get his thinking - it's why ferraris and lambos and Maseratis are so cheap brand new! The dealers have to subsidise the ongoing expensive maintenance..
*second sigh*
I did ask him if he ever has any success with the 3 word low ball approach. Unfortunately I didn't receive an answer to that one.

Well, 3hrs done...
I'm still waiting for ol' mate and his oil rig job that he will pay me above my asking price and send a friend to go pick it up and 'transfer' me the funds...
I'll probably hear from him tomorrow when the Carsales ad is posted.

...and it begins

/EndRant

 

I'm currently intestate but very interested in your car for my son. I can pay in full and arrange delivery. Can you send me your credit card details and i pay tonight

 

Sold!
But I'll need another 1k for my trouble

 

Yep the old "I am currently working on a oil rig" but would love to buy your car line....

 

I have sold two of my last cars on the internet.

Both were relatively painless.

I just ignored the rubbish scammers.

 

General gumtree MO is to offer 50% of asking

 

Oh, and I expect you to deliver it to my farm which is at the end of a steep narrow dirt track that's 1000km away. It needs to be completed by 9pm tonight. If you don't do that I will have nowhere else to sleep tonight, because the car will be my new home. You know it's getting too cold to sleep on the streets these days...

 

I've been through the process more often than I'd like to admit. You just have to ignore the idiots and scammers. I don't respond, just delete their messages right away otherwise they lurk in the back of my mind and multiply my state of annoyance.

 

Private sales are now the target for dealers. Many moons ago dealers could go to auctions, get a good ex fleet car at a discount and move it on for a tidy profit.

Now auctions are full of retail buyers paying retail prices.

Much easier to make a few calls and screw a private buyer down.

 

At the minimum an urge

 

And the saga continues..
Carsales has refused to post the ad as they suspect the owner before us had tampered with the odometer...
I have to send log books to show otherwise...
Oh the fun of it.
Maybe I should have just accepted that dudes offer of 3k last night

 

I've paid you $4800 via Paypal (receipt attached) would you mind sending my agent (who will pick up the car) $500 via western union? You can keep the difference for your trouble!

Yours

Prince Albert

P.S. Interesting on the carsales...

 

Had our 3yr old Nissan on carsales, usual whats your lowest price , ridiculous offers and daughter ill in Sydney have to fly there urgently, send me your bank details and I will put 6k deposit in etc, scarily though our internet security usually 6 cookies spiked to up to 1400 threats and dropped back to 6ish when ad taken off. Funnily enough, we were at a car yard to trade it in and sales guy called out to people in carpark that the car they were all over was ours and not the sales yards, guy took it for a drive and bought it. Right place at the right time

 

@BKRinvesting - there's your solution, drive the car to a car yard and hang around until someone buys it

 

I had 17K offers on my Subie (and a couple of the bogus 12K offers and the poorly worded "You sell me car for $X" emails) didn't end up selling it, 12 months later I traded it on my Mazda for 24K or something like that.

My car before I dropped the price from 12,500 to 10k for the kid who bought it. I had offers of 11 which I turned down but this keep just seemed right for the car, he offered 9 and I said no, he called back 2 days later, he had borrowed off mates, mum and brother to get his 9K up to 10 and asked if I would take that, I accepted .

He turned up to meet me, gave me the cash as soon as he saw me, I asked if he maybe wanted to test drive it, his older brother who drove him over just shook his head and laughed at the kid, he was so excited and for me (a person who gets pretty attached to his cars) it was just wonderful to see the joy in this kids eyes. I don't regret taking a 20% hit for this kid.

Interestingly enough, I have had recent sightings from friends where he still drives this car, he bought it off me in 2010 .

 

That's awesome,
I kind of miss being into my cars like I used to be. Still enjoy driving them, driving an 06 530i wagon at the moment. It's very nice.
Toy Cars and the associated modding is something I plan to pick back up once the PPOR mortgage is all recycled.

 

Why don't you consider buying a few Carsales shares, and then let them know that you intend to raise this issue with the Board at the next AGM, and submit their email as an example of your concern.

What you will hear next is a surreal loud screeching sound, as they (metaphorically) rip at the handbrake....

 

I don't mod any more but I have every intention once I retire to buy a 70's mini moke and restore it, my first car was a 1978 mini and I know those motors inside out

I wish I could mod my mx5 but in all honesty once we moved to ECU's it just scares me lol

 

Love it!! I have my 2005 Pajero up for sale on Carsales and other 'techniques' are:
I can buy a 2003 cheaper (who would have thought?)
Does it come with a guarantee (coz all private sales do that hey)
It doesn't have a bull bar and winch - will you fit one? (Of course, why should the buyer pay for mods?)
Or my favourite - Call me and convince me to buy. Call 0412....