Unusual Car Sales Experiences?
Discussion
I think this has done before but the only post I can find is ancient so I thought I'd start a new one as this memory just popped into my head again and I don't think I've ever shared it.
Year ago I picked up a 1991 Subaru Legacy GL, as basic as they come in farmer spec with the base 1.6 non-turbo engine and a really bad smell of wet dog and cigarettes inside, it cost me £200 and came with a dog cage that I sold for £50.
It was to be a utilitarian run around and I wasn't really bothered about street cred etc...
I was into detailing back then so gave it a good old wash and polish, stripped out the interior to clean behind all the panels and remove the hair and cigarette ash etc (the smell never went even with all kinds of chemicals) and brought it up to a fairly decent standard. I then picked up a couple of sets of alloys with tyres for about £50 and went a bit Barryboys.
The car never let me down, was cheap to run, sounded quite interesting, I could park it anywhere without worrying about it being stolen and it was great in the snow but the time to sell came and I cleaned it up, took some photos and got ready to do an ad.
Before I had chance to list it I came home from work and there was a note through the door, I opened it and it was from the police. It basically said that they wanted to speak to the owner of this particular Legacy and that I needed to phone them. After an initial period of trying to think what I had done wrong I phoned and they said they couldn't talk about it over the phone, don't worry and would it be OK to meet up tomorrow? I agreed to see them at work because at this point it was starting to sound like a scam and I had no idea if they were real police.
Meeting room booked and two chaps in plain clothes arrived at the time we'd discussed, I was bricking it, I knew I hadn't done anything wrong but this was like an enhanced version of just having a police car behind you, you panic.
They introduced themselves, showed ID and asked if they could borrow the Legacy to help with a case, someone had apparently used a near identical car in a murder and they needed one to take apart and put back together again to help them with the investigation. There weren't any around for sale and mine was the only one they could find locally. They would borrow it for a month, give me a hire car for that period and reimburse me for my trouble. At that point it would be given back just as it was when they borrowed it.
Relief washed over me for a bit and when I finally relaxed I countered their offer - why not just buy it off me? They asked how much, I suggested £1000 (I figured this would be similar to car hire and other costs anyway), they seemed really happy with this and 2 days later it was gone along with the original wheels.
I never saw anything in the news about the crime and never saw the car again but, as I am right now, often wonder what happened and if it helped them.
Given this is PH I'm sure there are far more exciting stories... feel free to share
Year ago I picked up a 1991 Subaru Legacy GL, as basic as they come in farmer spec with the base 1.6 non-turbo engine and a really bad smell of wet dog and cigarettes inside, it cost me £200 and came with a dog cage that I sold for £50.
It was to be a utilitarian run around and I wasn't really bothered about street cred etc...
I was into detailing back then so gave it a good old wash and polish, stripped out the interior to clean behind all the panels and remove the hair and cigarette ash etc (the smell never went even with all kinds of chemicals) and brought it up to a fairly decent standard. I then picked up a couple of sets of alloys with tyres for about £50 and went a bit Barryboys.
The car never let me down, was cheap to run, sounded quite interesting, I could park it anywhere without worrying about it being stolen and it was great in the snow but the time to sell came and I cleaned it up, took some photos and got ready to do an ad.
Before I had chance to list it I came home from work and there was a note through the door, I opened it and it was from the police. It basically said that they wanted to speak to the owner of this particular Legacy and that I needed to phone them. After an initial period of trying to think what I had done wrong I phoned and they said they couldn't talk about it over the phone, don't worry and would it be OK to meet up tomorrow? I agreed to see them at work because at this point it was starting to sound like a scam and I had no idea if they were real police.
Meeting room booked and two chaps in plain clothes arrived at the time we'd discussed, I was bricking it, I knew I hadn't done anything wrong but this was like an enhanced version of just having a police car behind you, you panic.
They introduced themselves, showed ID and asked if they could borrow the Legacy to help with a case, someone had apparently used a near identical car in a murder and they needed one to take apart and put back together again to help them with the investigation. There weren't any around for sale and mine was the only one they could find locally. They would borrow it for a month, give me a hire car for that period and reimburse me for my trouble. At that point it would be given back just as it was when they borrowed it.
Relief washed over me for a bit and when I finally relaxed I countered their offer - why not just buy it off me? They asked how much, I suggested £1000 (I figured this would be similar to car hire and other costs anyway), they seemed really happy with this and 2 days later it was gone along with the original wheels.
I never saw anything in the news about the crime and never saw the car again but, as I am right now, often wonder what happened and if it helped them.
Given this is PH I'm sure there are far more exciting stories... feel free to share
I can’t beat that enjoyed reading it. I used to take my Golf to the foreign wash. They saw it at least once a month. Living on a working farm it’d be covered in mud. Anyhow, they enjoyed cleaning the car so much and happened to need one. So they asked how much and I suggested £1,000. Agreed there and then for cash in hand. Left the car. They dropped me back and we signed off the logbook. It went from my 120,000 miles to their 240,000 miles last time I saw it before I moved.
krisdelta said:
No reciprocal tale, but a very interesting story - you may need to trawl the True-crime podcasts to find out what you've helped the police with... thank you for sharing that!
I wouldn't know where to start, it was over 15 years ago now too, I did find some Legacy-related murder content on Google but not to the extent of the car needing to be used in this way. aguywalksintoabar said:
I can’t beat that enjoyed reading it. I used to take my Golf to the foreign wash. They saw it at least once a month. Living on a working farm it’d be covered in mud. Anyhow, they enjoyed cleaning the car so much and happened to need one. So they asked how much and I suggested £1,000. Agreed there and then for cash in hand. Left the car. They dropped me back and we signed off the logbook. It went from my 120,000 miles to their 240,000 miles last time I saw it before I moved.
A great easy sale, I haven't had such luck since the Legacy, recent sales seem to involve 99% scammers and then quite demanding proper buyers who, despite videos, 50+ photos and the most honest description you're likely to find, still have questions.That said the CRV we had went to a chap I never spoke to other than on text messages and I didn't even meet him when I sold the car, I drove it from Leeds to Stoke and dropped it outside his brothers house, the buyer lived in France where the car eventually went to live out it's last years in a ski resort.
I just remembered the "Has my approved Rolls Royce Been Clocked" post and whiles it's a buying experience rather than a selling one it certainly opened my eyes to the car sales world in modern times, before reading it I had no idea there were devices to stop the mileage moving on modern cars, my dodgy uncle (RIP) used to just unscrew the speedo cable.
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