Buying and selling a car the hard way, a case study
Monday, April 19
After a day and a half of weekend relaxation, I’m ready ready to tackle the final steps of this car replacement odessey. I call Esurance in the morning to add the CX-5. Pretty standard phone process. Once the CX-5 is added, the customer service agent quotes me our former rate, our new rate, and our rate once we take the Sienna off the plan. The rate without the Sienna is significantly less. Motivated to get the Sienna off our insurance coverage asap, I begin the car donation process.
NPR often promotes its vehicle donation program, and I have decided to donate the Sienna to the local NPR-affiliate, KQED. Calling the 1–800 number, the operator asks me a few questions about the vehicle and explains the process to me. I ask her how the value of the donation is calculated. She tells me that the vehicles are auctioned, and the auction prices is the value that they use for the 8283 charity donation form.
I was hoping that the donation value would allow for a premium assessed value. Taking the donation value based on the auction sell price for a Sienna with 239K miles and a busted alternator is not going to fetch a promissing value. Based on this new development, I change my car disposal strategy. I turn to Craiglist to see if I can move it through a more standard sales process.
I snap a few pics on my phone. Looking at other 2004 Sienna postings, I calculate a non-running Sienna with 239K miles will be interesing at $2500.
Craigslist has a nice auto listing process. The questionaire makes it easy to include a vehicle’s VIN#, cylinders, odometer, color, title status, features and more.
The Sienna listing goes live at 3:07PM.
The power of Craigslist
The first call comes in 9 minutes later at 3:16. My listing explicitly states to text, and not call, but of course not everyone reads or pays attention to instructions. I ignore the calls thinking that these may be a spam robot call from one of those rip-off Cash for Cars scams.
The next calls come in at 3:17, 3:18 and 3:19. One 415 caller rings 3 times. This 415 caller would play a starring role in this car selling misadventure.
A total of 20 callers respond between 3:16pm and 5:26pm. I would answer none of these calls. During this same span, 12 unique texters (many who also called) express interest in the ad. I text these folks to see if they are interesting in checking out the minivan.
My response template is:
“I’ll be home around 5pm. It needs a new alternator. Other than that it’s in good condition.”
I figure the busted alternator would scare off some interested buyers. Surprisingly few are deterred by this information.
Of the 12 texters, 6 express interest in coming immediately to see the Sienna. One guy is planning on coming from Alameda during rush hour. I talk him out of coming. I tell him that a number of interested buyers have already committed to showing up, and I can’t promise the vehicle will be available by the time he makes it to Los Gatos.
Around 4:20PM, I delist the Craiglist ad to keep my phone from blowing up. I hope that of the interested texters, at least one would be come through with an offer.
The mob waiting to buy
At 4:42, one of the texters tells me he is at my house. The vehicle is in the driveway, so I tell him he can check it out and I’ll be home a little before 5pm.
I pull up to my house at 4:55 and there are 5 people swarming around the Sienna.
I greet the crowd and immediately, Jerky 415 approaches me and demands that I sell him the vehicle. He has a Russian accent and is smoking. He begins chastizing me. He wants to know why all these other guys are here when I promised to sell him the vehicle.
An argument ensues. I tell Jerky 415 that I never promissed him anything. He has asked to see the vehcile, and I said he could. Jerky 415 tells me he drove all the way from San Francisco and he is going to buy the car. I tell him that I’ll choose who I sell the car to. The other folks are just as entitled to purchase the vehicle as he is, and that he can leave if he doesn’t like it. The other interested buyers quiet viewing this argument, and I’m wonder if I need to call the police to get rid of Jerky 415.
Finally, one of the cooler heads in the crowd intervenes. He asks Jerky 415 and me to calm down. He tells Jerky 415 that I am the owner, and I can decide who to sell the vehicle to.
After regaining my composure, I tell the crowd I have a plan. I ask how many interested parties there are. There are 3 different buyers in the group. I unlock the vehicle so they can take a look at the interior, which is in pretty good shape. After I run down the list of the issues, I expect some of the buyers may drop off.
After the short 5 minute review, I ask how many of the buyers are still interested. All three are still in. At this point, a small bidding war erupts. The bidding goes up to $3000. I tell the buyers to hold on. A buyer recommends that we start the car, and the others agree this is a good idea. One of the guys has a pocket jump start kit, and we open the hood and jump the car.
The car lets out a horrible squelling noise as the belt engages, and finally quiets down after a few cachophonious seconds. The car idles as the buyers inspect the engine more closely.
Again, I ask the buyers if they are still interested. All 3 say yes. I tell them that over text, I had received an offer of $2800, and based on the response, I clearly have underpriced the vehicle. I don’t want this to turn into a crazy bidding war, and I believe the vehicle’s value is not more than $2800 considering the problems and wear and tear of the vehicle. I ask the buyers if they are still interested in the vehicle at a price of $2800. All three are good with that price.
At this point, another car pulls up, and now we have a fourth interested party. I quickly explain to the new guy that there are 3 interested buyers at $2800, and if he is interested at $2800, then we need to figure out how to come up with a process to determine who will get the vehicle. The fourth buyer is also interested at $2800. I suggest we do a lottery process to break the deadlock. I ask all 4 buyers if they are ok with that idea. All 4 agree that would be ok with them. We put 4 names into a box. I close my eyes and choose a name.
F*! Jerky 415 wins.
The other 3 buyers are disappointed but understanding. Two guys and their friends drive off. One guy sticks around for a bit to see if the deal will indeed close.
Jerky 415 asks to test drive the vehicle, and we take it around the block a few times. I tell him to pay attention the the warp sound when veering left, and he notes that. Jerky 415 has his mechanic brother with him, and his brother does a short test drive to hear the noise.
Of course, Jerky 415 wants to negotiate. I tell the other buyer who is hanging out in his car not to leave. I tell Jerky 415, that the deal is for $2800, and if he doesn’t want the vehicle, that’s fine.
After a few more complaints, he agrees to $2800. We now need to sign over the title and pay for the vehicle. His brother takes out a wad of what looks like $7000 or so in fresh $100 bills. The money is so new, that he carefully counts out 28 bills 3 times. I put the 28 bills in my back pocket.
I sign over the title. Then we exchange driver’s license information. I take out my wallet, and he takes out his. I record his name and address on my phone. My wife has an extra key fob and key, but is not home. I tell Jerky 415 that I’ll send the extra set to his address.
Things are finally wrapping up, and this whirlwind sale is just about complete. It is around 5:50PM. Jerky 415’s brother is counting his remaining Benjamin’s and looks slightly puzzled. He asks me to recount the $2800 as he thinks he is missing $100. Taking the money out of my back pocket, we again count the money and it comes out to $2800.
Jerky 415 and his brother leave. I tell them not to stop or they will need to rejump the car. He complains again about the car’s condition, and I tell him that he’s lucky I sold it to him since he was such a jerk through the entire 50 minute process.
Happy to get $300 more than listing, and to get the car sold in less than 3 hours of listing, I am finally done with the car replacement process, or so I thought.
Around 7pm, I hear the doorbell ring. My wife answers the door. Moments later I hear my wife screaming and our two dogs are going crazy. I jump off the exercise bike and head out to the front yard to see what is going on.
My wife is holding back our mid-size dog while our neighbor boy is holding his miniture cochapoo in his arms. Our second tiny dog is jumping on the boy and trying to get at the poor boy’s black cockapoo. Our dogs are mostly friendly, but get territorial when strangers, and especially other dogs are in the yard.
The kid is freaked out, and we feel terrible. He is returning my wallet which he found on the sidewalk in front of our house.
We put the dogs in the house and apologize to the boy. My wife has to go find him later to once again apologize and thank him.
My wife hands me the wallet. Empty. It had over $200 in cash.
It appears that Jerky 415 or his brother, either pick-pocketed me, or found my wallet lying around after we exchanged address information and took the cash. Fortuanately, the $2800 was not in the wallet and kept separate.
So much for the premium for the sale of the vehicle. I text Jerky 415 the following message at 8:35PM,
Thanks for leaving my wallet at least.
No response. The next morning, I fill out the DMV transfer of liability form. I certainly don’t want to be responsible for Jerky 415’s activity in the Sienna.
The next afternoon, I deposit the $2800 at Wells Fargo. Relieved that the bills are good, this car selling adventure finally comes to a close.
