The Joy of Used Car Sales

[chromium]

This was kinda funny.  

The guy blogged some of the correspondence from the sale of his 2003 Land Rover:

    http://www.27bslash6.com/sold.html

(mildly NSFW due to language)


Here's an excerpt:

From: Brian Lawrence
Date: Wednesday 26 May 2010 11.04am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Car

Hi I saw your ad for the car I checked redbook and its not worth much because its pretty old and they hve lots of problems with the waterpumb and stuff. can come and have a test drive now if your home. will you take $1800 cash for it?



From: David Thorne
Date: Wednesday 26 May 2010 11.46am
To: Brian Lawrence
Subject: Re: Car

Dear Brian,
Thank you for your enticing offer. I was moments away from swapping the vehicle for three magic beans so your timing is impeccable.
When I was about ten, I swapped my Standish Selecta 12 racing bike for a broken microwave oven. Planning to construct a mind control ray, I connected the innards of the dismantled microwave unit to a tape recorder (which repeated the words "Let David paint his bedroom walls black") and plugged it into the mains. Unfortunately, the only results were being thrown across the room, receiving third degree burns to my hands and arms and forgetting how to do long division.
Disheartened that there have been only eighteen enquiries for the vehicle, despite it being advertised over an hour ago, I am not only prepared to deliberate your offer, but willing to throw in a pair of pants (beige, size 32L) and 4kg bag of squirrel food to sweeten the deal.
Regards, David.

[gweimer]

They're both douchebags.  Selling used cars isn't as easy as dropping the price from the KBB.  I had my dad's Buick Century a couple years back, and needed to sell it.  It had a KBB value of about $5400, and with only 69K on a 2002, with all records, and an updated stereo, I listed it at $4800 in the local papers.  No takers.  Put it on craigslist.  Got a couple inquiries from local dealers, trying to lowball me (and they weren't really insulting, either).  Long story short, after spending about $150 in advertising trying to sell it, I finally got rid of it six months later, to a dealer who gave me $3000 for it.  He told me that unless people had financing, they weren't likely to buy from a private seller in my price range.

As far as the seller of the Land Rover, he'd probably had more luck with a higher asking price.  Listing at half of value just told potential buyers that there was a problem he didn't want to divulge.  Responding to the lowball offer probably just confirmed it, and he didn't even try to negotiate a higher price.  I wouldn't buy from the guy, either.

[jumbodbassman]

when did ever buying a car, whether new or used, never be a nightmare. 

Let me check with the grand wizard behind the curtain or your offer....

[chromium]

They're both douchebags.

Yeah it kinda works itself out that way.   

[Dave W]

They're both douchebags. 

Ummm... nope. Apparently you haven't read 27b/6 before. It's a humor blog. David Thorne deliberately yanks peoples' chains, assuming that his email exchanges are real, which I doubt. That's what he does. You may not think it's funny, but he's not being serious.

Here's possibly his most famous piece: http://www.27bslash6.com/overdue.html

[Highlander]

Excellent squirrel content...

[lowend1]

Damn, those are funny.

[gweimer]

Ummm... nope. Apparently you haven't read 27b/6 before. It's a humor blog. David Thorne deliberately yanks peoples' chains, assuming that his email exchanges are real, which I doubt. That's what he does. You may not think it's funny, but he's not being serious.

Here's possibly his most famous piece: http://www.27bslash6.com/overdue.html

Even a bigger douchebag now...   

[Dave W]

Even a bigger douchebag now...   

You don't think he's funny then. 

I wouldn't either if I thought these were real.

[lowend1]

The one about the pie charts was hysterical.

[Chris P.]

4 kg of squirrel food. Kenny, are you selling it?

[Highlander]

No chance... our squirrel's would rebel at the thought...