The cheek of some people when selling your car

[hedgefinder]

I have just been through this for the last few months.
At the start I was reluctant to sell the car, but ongoing building work and the car being in the way really makes selling a priority now that I am starting to be realistic.

So I initially list my car for an admittedly optomistic 42k... although I consider this to be the cars true value, in the current market it just isnt likely to be obtainable in the UK.
Within 2 days I have an offer of 35k which I politely refuse......... but with hindsight I should certainly have taken...contacted the guy since and he bought something else. Then a total of 5 offers of 30k mark..and several between 25k and 29k again I refused, being stubborn.
Some of the reasons for making reduced offers are laughable - one was that the wheels were painted.... if you wanted to strip them and have them bare wood it wouldnt cost you 5k lol.....

Some weeks later I get several emails from a guy offering to "take the car off your hands now for 15k" as "its been for sale a while now and you should be glad of the cash" lol.... the guy didnt seem to understand why I was in no way interested in his offer and kept repeating it...eventually I just barred his address and mobile number.

I have pulled the car from sale now due to a local guy supposedly wanting the car for his wedding car business and offering 32k by the end of December - a week after I removed it from sale he tells me that the bank have refused to extend his business loan so he cant go through with the purchase after weeks of begging me to accept just slightly less he now cant raise more than 28k!

At the end of the day I am not desperate to sell, but would like the space to complete the building work.

the sheer number of timewasters is unbeleivable -
especially ones with p/exs......... usually goes something along the lines of initially a request as to whether I would consider their car/bike/boat in p/ex then they value their p/ex at double its actual market value and it still leaves me with a huge storage issue!
the best ones are "I would buy it if it was a different colour"... why contact me then ? It isnt another colour FFS..... lol

[Sump]

hedgefinder said:

the best ones are "I would buy it if it was a different colour"... why contact me then ? It isnt another colour FFS..... lol

This a million.

It hasn't got the spec I want. It isn't the colour. It isn't a petrol.

Proper wtf, my ad says what my car is, why are you calling me exactly?

[Blown2CV]

hoppo4.2 said:

So I have a car up for sale. Guy contacts me from a long way away. Asked all the right questions negotiated a good price for him. I waited for a few weeks for him to get flights etc. Turns up looks round all good then casualy drops in "I've only got £xx now but that's fine isn't it?"

Now £xx is 1k under what we had agreed.

He was genuinely surprised when I said no.

"But I've come miles etc"

Sorry you wasted your time and mine best book your self a flight home.

His face was a picture.

Really can't believe the nerve of some people

i had a guy drive from the netherlands with a trailer and a suitcase of cash try and pull the same trick. He got sent away too.

[Blown2CV]

NickCQ said:

22 said:

Fairplay to you OP, I would have done the same although imagine most would take the hit.

Years ago someone flew from Germany, got the train to near me and I picked him up from the station. He offered half the asking price, I didn't say a word, just walked to my house and shut the door. He didn't knock or anything and we're pretty rural so no idea how he got home.

A tad extreme?

is it fk. What do you owe these people? fk all.

[HIAO]

When it comes to selling a car, I like to think I'm a pragmatist.

Realistically appraise its condition, factual ad, decent photos, clean and tidy. I always price for what i expect to get paid and I'm usually upfront about this with anyone who calls.

With the best intentions, its possible to miss something with the description that a potential buyer asks about and wants to haggle on. I'm open to that.

But, when a buyer tries to haggle and says 'don't let me go back to my wife without having negotiated a discount', I cringe.

Both times thats happened, I told them they can go back to their wife with a great car, fairly priced and with not a penny off the price.

Both times, they bought the car.

[pits]

The only issue I have ever had really is a guy who bought my car, two days before it went I noticed a small boost spike, checked boost pipes and found a split just before the turbo.

Sucking in unmetred air and in taking it off made it worse and it boosted at 30psi, bought pipe and had it sent to him, emailed explained situation. Don't drive it etc, or if you do don't go on boost.

Few days later video appears of him kicking the st out of it through the streets, boost gauge showing 20-30 psi and it fuel cutting, I saved the videos, about a week later pipe turned up, he fitted it then realised he broke the car, surprisingly 30psi into boost solenoid jammed it all up.
Demanded £1000 back for it iirc, I just ignored it, not fixing a car you broke after I told you not do something with it and you did, then videoed it, he also removed the videos of it swiftly

[OddCat]

hedgefinder said:

I have just been through this for the last few months.
At the start I was reluctant to sell the car, but ongoing building work and the car being in the way really makes selling a priority now that I am starting to be realistic.

So I initially list my car for an admittedly optomistic 42k... although I consider this to be the cars true value, in the current market it just isnt likely to be obtainable in the UK.
Within 2 days I have an offer of 35k which I politely refuse......... but with hindsight I should certainly have taken...contacted the guy since and he bought something else. Then a total of 5 offers of 30k mark..and several between 25k and 29k again I refused, being stubborn.
Some of the reasons for making reduced offers are laughable - one was that the wheels were painted.... if you wanted to strip them and have them bare wood it wouldnt cost you 5k lol.....

Some weeks later I get several emails from a guy offering to "take the car off your hands now for 15k" as "its been for sale a while now and you should be glad of the cash" lol.... the guy didnt seem to understand why I was in no way interested in his offer and kept repeating it...eventually I just barred his address and mobile number.

I have pulled the car from sale now due to a local guy supposedly wanting the car for his wedding car business and offering 32k by the end of December - a week after I removed it from sale he tells me that the bank have refused to extend his business loan so he cant go through with the purchase after weeks of begging me to accept just slightly less he now cant raise more than 28k!

At the end of the day I am not desperate to sell, but would like the space to complete the building work.

the sheer number of timewasters is unbeleivable -
especially ones with p/exs......... usually goes something along the lines of initially a request as to whether I would consider their car/bike/boat in p/ex then they value their p/ex at double its actual market value and it still leaves me with a huge storage issue!
the best ones are "I would buy it if it was a different colour"... why contact me then ? It isnt another colour FFS..... lol

What sort if car is it?

[DaveOrange]

eliot said:

StuTheGrouch said:

Pi is 3.14

For anyone who's got an Amazon echo ask Alexa 'what is the value of PI'

She goes on a bit doesn't she

[so called]

Chrisoldskool said:

On the other hand had one strange experience funnily enough with the same car (guy above left without car), a lady came to view the car, explains that she has split up with her husband a week ago and needed a car sharpish was local to me literally less than 1/2 a mile away, looks around the car happy with it all, says can i leave £500 deposit (friday night) and ill bring the rest the following wednesday, at this point I agree (approx 25% deposit), .. Wednesday comes i call to discuss collection times, to which she says "My husband and I have sorted our issues out, keep the money, he shouldnt of been a W****R with me"....

Point blank refused to take any money back.....

Result Car Sold in the end for £1800 in total i received £2300.

Rare case I know but from one extreme to the other.

I paid a deposit on TVR a few years back. The dealer had to travel back from Scotland a day earlier than he had planned.
Over the weekend I found a Tuscan convertible and bought that instead.
Couldn't apologise enough to the dealer and declined the deposit back.

[Prohibiting]

Enjoyed reading all of these. I've sold 3 cars privately and have all been mega easy. 2 of them were to people I already knew and the other to a stranger who had travelled 3 hours to view and he immediately said it was the best one he had viewed and made me an offer £200 below my asking price which I accepted.

[danllama]

I think i've been quite lucky too. Usually sold to the first viewer.

Love the story about the bloke turning up in leathers! Someone knows how to live!

[StottyEvo]

Blown2CV said:

i had a guy drive from the netherlands with a trailer and a suitcase of cash try and pull the same trick. He got sent away too.

I imagine he had a few cars on his list, made silly offers for the ones he wasn't too bothered about. When you say no he'll just head to the next one!

[BigLion]

I filter a lot of potential purchasers, it won't go down well on here but in essence I'd tell the following types my car is sold even if it's not :

- when calling use of words like bruv
- people who text with things like mates
- geography, if you're from West Yorkshire or Liverpool forget it
- accent, hard for me to be too harsh on here but there is a demographic I won't sell to based on my previous experience
- people who sound like council estate chavs
- people who ask ridiculously anal questions relative to the car being sold

It can be viewed as harsh and stereotyping but saved me a lot of time since doing this!

[marked1]

Just recently selling an old car for £200 on Gumtree. Its the worse thing i have ever done. Someone offered me £70 for it telling me it has problems and he is doing me a favor. When i told him he is having a laugh he proceeded to tell me to shove the car up my arse. Problem about selling a car in this price range is that you get the undesirables who want something for nothing. I'm thinking of scrapping it and not run the risk of having my house fire bombed if something goes wrong in 6 months time.

[hyphen]

Not selling a car as such.

But many years ago I found a car part I needed, the seller lived a fair distance away and the price was high so we agreed a compromise where he would fit it in (was an engineer in the raf). Being a long drive I take an associate along for company in the journey.

So we get there, all fine, he goes to all the fiddlesome trouble of fitting the part with me proactively doing whatever to help such as helping to hold things etc.

Get to final part and I pull out the wallet to pay, and for some inexplicable reason, said associate pipes up saying along the lines of will you take £xxx less.

Completely out of the blue, we both look at him. I, whilst glaring at him, mumble an embarrassed "sorry about him", pay and head on our way.

In his head he was trying to help.

[donkmeister]

The one time I ever sold a car privately the actual sale was painless and well-mannered. I put a few posters up on the noticeboards around work with a fairly keen price on it (i.e. it was exactly what Parkers reckoned for model, age and condition). I had a call a couple of days later from a bloke at work who's brother-in-law was interested. He liked the car, we haggled for approximately 30 seconds and shook on £50 less than asking price. In hindsight I should have had the asking price a bit higher as it was mint with FMSH, but I was happy with the deal and so was he.

I then had weeks of random people from work ringing me up or coming to my desk and offering me half the asking price "cash" (what else would they be using to buy a £2000 Vauxhall?!). I never realised I worked with such a bunch of wideboys until then!

[HTP99]

Sump said:

hedgefinder said:

the best ones are "I would buy it if it was a different colour"... why contact me then ? It isnt another colour FFS..... lol

This a million.

It hasn't got the spec I want. It isn't the colour. It isn't a petrol.

Proper wtf, my ad says what my car is, why are you calling me exactly?

I sell cars for a living and the colour thing really gets on my tits "oh it was a nice drive, great spec and price but I don't want red" FFS it was red when you looked at it online, it was red when you phoned up to book an appt., it was red when you came in, it was red when you drove it and it is still bloody red!!!!

[SidewaysSi]

Sump said:

22 said:

Fairplay to you OP, I would have done the same although imagine most would take the hit.

Years ago someone flew from Germany, got the train to near me and I picked him up from the station. He offered half the asking price, I didn't say a word, just walked to my house and shut the door. He didn't knock or anything and we're pretty rural so no idea how he got home.

I did this also. Chap took offence in my case but left after he was ignored.

Weren't selling a 2cv by any chance?

[SidewaysSi]

BigLion said:

I filter a lot of potential purchasers, it won't go down well on here but in essence I'd tell the following types my car is sold even if it's not :

- when calling use of words like bruv
- people who text with things like mates
- geography, if you're from West Yorkshire or Liverpool forget it
- accent, hard for me to be too harsh on here but there is a demographic I won't sell to based on my previous experience
- people who sound like council estate chavs
- people who ask ridiculously anal questions relative to the car being sold

It can be viewed as harsh and stereotyping but saved me a lot of time since doing this!

I ask questions what some may deem 'anal' but I have yet to go see a car I didn't buy. Can't be arsed with sellers telling me how good they think their car is. But actually isn't at all.

[Gary C]

StuTheGrouch said:

Pi is 3.14

No it's not.