By Bob Mastroianni, Staff Reporter.
It’s that time of the year I hate the most; it ranks right up there with renewing my auto insurance and purchasing tabs for my license plate. Both of those I enjoy about as much as going to the dentist and getting my yearly physical.
At least I know when the before-mentioned events will be occurring. Not so with what I have to do now:
Purchase a different car.
To paraphrase William Shakespeare: “To purchase or not to purchase, that is the question.”
Only time will tell.
I never know when to keep putting money into the car or when to just say, “enough is enough” and move on to another. I always feel like if I just fix this one more thing that should be the end of it. Of course, the problem arises when I start to say that more often.
So I just decided that if I don’t have to put any more money into this car by Nov. 1, I will keep it; likewise if I have to sink more money into the car by then I will dump it.
The very first car I ever sold on my own was a 1983 Ford Mustang which I sold in 1986. I purchased this car brand new and it took six weeks from the time I ordered it to come in, but it was worth the wait. I paid it off by 1985 and decided to order a 1986 Ford Mustang. I had this 1983 for sale for about a week when I sold it.
This one woman got upset with me because I wouldn’t sell it to her.
I was asking $6,500 for the car, a fair price considering it had 25,000 miles on it and the price was $200 below the Kelly Blue Book.
This woman and her boyfriend looked at my car and, without even driving it, said, “I will offer you $5,000 for it.”
“No,” I told her. “That’s $1,500 less than what I am asking. You didn’t even test drive it.”
“Oh, I don’t have to test drive it,” she said with smugness. “I know there’s a lot wrong with it, so I will offer you $4,500.”
Even her boyfriend couldn’t believe what she was saying.
“Honey, I really think you should test drive his car first before you criticize it,” he said. “Even Joe said the car was worth it.”
“Oh, Joe doesn’t know everything. Besides, I know what I am doing,” she told him.
Apparently, Joe was their mechanic and he had told her that based on the information she provided to him, the car was worth $6,500. She didn’t want to pay that much, which explains why she didn’t want to test drive it and take it to Joe.
She was right on one point: Joe didn’t know everything. For instance, I bet Joe didn’t know why she thought she knew more than he did about cars. Also, I bet Joe wondered why she took her cars to him if he, “didn’t know everything.”
“No,” I said. “I can’t take $5,000 for it. I know what great shape the car is in and what it’s worth.”
“OK. It’s Friday and if you don’t have the car sold by Monday, call me,” she said as she handed me a piece of paper with her name and phone number on it.
I agreed, as her boyfriend and I looked at each other with utter amazement.
No more than thirty minutes later a father and son inquired about the car. This one had much different results.
“I am looking for a car for my son, and he really wants your car,” he said. “Could we take it for a test drive?”
So I gave the keys to the father and son and off they went to get the car checked out by a mechanic.
They were gone about 30 minutes and returned the car to me.
“The mechanic went through this car with a fine-tooth comb and can’t find a thing wrong with it,” he said. “How much are you asking?”
“Well, $6,500,” I said. “That’s a firm price.”
So the next day they came back with a $6,500 cashier’s check made out to me.
Apparently, this kid should play the lottery because he predicted correctly what his first car would be.
“My son would see you drive this car all over town would tell me every time he saw it, ‘Dad, one day that car will be for sale and it when it is it will be my first car,’ the dad said as he handed me the check. “I just never thought it would actually happen. When he saw your car was for sale he was so ecstatic.”
Wow, what a difference an hour makes. Two people were asking me about the car. One couldn’t find nice things to say about it, the other couldn’t find bad things to say about it.
So come Monday afternoon I get a phone call; much to my pleasure it was the women who wanted to buy the car for $5,000.
“So Robert, did you think it over and did you come to a decision,” she asked me.
“Yes I have,” I said.
“Great, when can I buy the car,” she asked.
“Well I really don’t think the car is for sale any longer, at least not by me,” I told her. “I sold the car an hour after you left.”
“That wasn’t very nice of you,” she said. “I really wanted that car.”
“Gee, I am sorry. It was my mistake. I should have known you wanted the car,” I told her. “But it was your disdain for the car that fooled me.”
“You’re a typical man,” she told me.
“That’s right,” I told her. “A typical man knows that getting $6,500 for a car is better than getting $5,000.”
