Selling the car
While we were dating but before we had bought the house, my wife decided that she wanted to get a new car. She had been driving what could charitably be called a beater, and she wanted a fun car. She ended up buying a 1998 VW Cabrio. It was a fun car. We went on numerous wine country trips and picnics with that car. But when we had Oliver we knew that its time was coming to an end. The most convenient way to get Oliver in and out of the car was to slide him through the window Dukes of Hazzard style. That works okay when you have an infant - even if it does look somewhat strange. It works less well the bigger and heavier he gets.
Over the summer during the first rush of "You pay what we pay" sales, my wife had FINALLY narrowed her choices down to the Pontiac Vibe and the Mazda 3. But then she couldn't find exactly what she wanted, so we ended up not buying either. In August, a friend of a friend bailed us out when he let us take over his lease on his Passat (thanks Karl!). It wasn't exactly what we wanted, but by the end of the three year lease we'll have a better feeling for how big our family will end up being.
So we had a '98 Cabrio for sale. After briefly entertaining the thought of being a three car family ("Insurance is how much?!?!?!?!?"), we decided to put it up for sale. We were full of grand plans of advertising, putting up flyers on Wash U's campus, and getting it sold quickly. Instead, we just put it up on Cars.com for $6500. Initially we got a lot of responses, but few added up to any real action.
It wasn't until September that we actually got someone to come out and look at the car. That guy was really car savvy and checked it out as thoroughly as possible. He crawled under the car. He popped the hood and poked around in the engine. He checked the brakes. I think he liked it, but he ended up not buying it.
September turned into October. October turned into November. November brought a pricing reduction to $6100. Then we got a call from someone interested in buying the car. They offered $5400. We said that that was in the ball park and invited them out for a test drive. It turned out that they weren't as car savvy. They popped the hood but didn't do much more than listen to how the engine sounded. No crawling, no checking the brakes. But they decided to buy it from us for $5500. Yay!!!!
There were a couple of problems with the whole transaction that other people might learn from this experience. First, I gave them crappy directions to get to our house for the test drive. Second, we didn't have the title with us when they came by, so that had to take a second trip out to see us. Third, when the car savvy guy test drove the car, he must have broken the glove box lid which we fixed before we handed the car over - just before we handed the car over, so the exchange was not smooth. I ended up waiting around for ten minutes or so with the buyers before the car arrived. Fourth, we did not specify how we wanted to be paid before the sale was to have taken place. We ended up getting paid in cash, but if they had given us a personal check that bounced or something we'd have had no recourse.
But it's sold. Yay!!!!!
Over the summer during the first rush of "You pay what we pay" sales, my wife had FINALLY narrowed her choices down to the Pontiac Vibe and the Mazda 3. But then she couldn't find exactly what she wanted, so we ended up not buying either. In August, a friend of a friend bailed us out when he let us take over his lease on his Passat (thanks Karl!). It wasn't exactly what we wanted, but by the end of the three year lease we'll have a better feeling for how big our family will end up being.
So we had a '98 Cabrio for sale. After briefly entertaining the thought of being a three car family ("Insurance is how much?!?!?!?!?"), we decided to put it up for sale. We were full of grand plans of advertising, putting up flyers on Wash U's campus, and getting it sold quickly. Instead, we just put it up on Cars.com for $6500. Initially we got a lot of responses, but few added up to any real action.
It wasn't until September that we actually got someone to come out and look at the car. That guy was really car savvy and checked it out as thoroughly as possible. He crawled under the car. He popped the hood and poked around in the engine. He checked the brakes. I think he liked it, but he ended up not buying it.
September turned into October. October turned into November. November brought a pricing reduction to $6100. Then we got a call from someone interested in buying the car. They offered $5400. We said that that was in the ball park and invited them out for a test drive. It turned out that they weren't as car savvy. They popped the hood but didn't do much more than listen to how the engine sounded. No crawling, no checking the brakes. But they decided to buy it from us for $5500. Yay!!!!
There were a couple of problems with the whole transaction that other people might learn from this experience. First, I gave them crappy directions to get to our house for the test drive. Second, we didn't have the title with us when they came by, so that had to take a second trip out to see us. Third, when the car savvy guy test drove the car, he must have broken the glove box lid which we fixed before we handed the car over - just before we handed the car over, so the exchange was not smooth. I ended up waiting around for ten minutes or so with the buyers before the car arrived. Fourth, we did not specify how we wanted to be paid before the sale was to have taken place. We ended up getting paid in cash, but if they had given us a personal check that bounced or something we'd have had no recourse.
But it's sold. Yay!!!!!
posted by mypetrock at 4:42 PM
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