I hate tyre kickers!!

[JoZeff]

Just thought I would vent at the complete p*ss take I had to endure this weekend. As I am selling my gtr I was contacted by a decent enough guy and asked to travel down go London to show him the car (100 mile round trip). This fella was being bought a car by his old man and out he comes of his 1 million pound house complete with bentley on the drive. My gtr is in good nick the odd Stone chip and a very small bump, it's done 18k and is running a stage 2 map with ypipe and downpipes and I was looking for around 40k which seems reasonable to me.
And so we begin straight away the old fella complains that the servicing was not done by Nissan (litchfields actually), also showed him a service stamp from middlehurst and west way again these are not Nissan he says they know nothing about the car! Alright I'm thinking here we go, he then says the gyres they are bold, they were actually replaced 6 weeks ago. Then he preceded to go round the car pointing out the stone chips in great detail basically pulling apart my pride and joy in front of me. I could go on but you get the picture.
We had another car round yesterday newer than your, better condition than yours and he would take 36k he insisted, you should buy that one then I suggested that is a great deal! Undeterred he carried on saying how crap my car was, the tyres, the stone chips not even interested in hearing or driving the car.
36k was his final offer, when I had already made it clear on the phone that I would not go much below 40k.
All in all left a very nasty taste in the mouth, I don't mind people trying to get a bargain but at least have the decentcy to know what you are talking about and don't absolutely destroy someone's car in the process.
Vent over and yes I do feel better now, I would not sell the car to this Charlie at of principle now and hope he picks up a cheap dragged, launched and tracked version that is shot to bits.

[james1]

Never taken my car to someone to view usually the other way around..........and a million doesnt buy you much in london.....

alas....lets hope he buys a shit*er!

j.

[countvonc]

If they can't be arsed to come to you what do you expect!?

I know that you have been trying to sell for a while but you're always going to do badly in that situation.

[james1]

Bad time to sell anything....not much is moving out there.....

I know loads of M3 owners who cant seem to sell.....

With the financial products stealers still seem to be doing ok though....if you know any dealer that can SOR it for you, might help....but it wont be free!

j.

[Karls]

Yeah, echo what others have said; it's a grim time to try and sell a car, especially privately. It took me 6 months to shift my RS4 and only after I put it on a dealer's forecourt for two months did it gain any interest. I got totally pissed off with trying to sell it privately. Just so many timewasters and dreamers out there.

[james1]

Originally Posted by Karls

Yeah, echo what others have said; it's a grim time to try and sell a car, especially privately. It took me 6 months to shift my RS4 and only after I put it on a dealer's forecourt for two months did it gain any interest. I got totally pissed off with trying to sell it privately. Just so many timewasters and dreamers out there.

Good point, edited my post....

j.

[LiamGTR]

Typical attitude of rich folk, fuk'em

[RSVFOUR]

Hope this doesnt sound too harsh but............

It is a fundemental rule when selling cars .......The buyer travels.

Everyone can come up with a reason why they cant get to see a car . If they do come to look at it at least you know they are possibly interested

And all the time people are prepared to drive to him he doesnt need to do anything more than wait for cars to appear and make silly offers .

Once someone is prepared to drive the car to him he knows has the upper hand - he wastes half an hour you waste half a day and petrol. And TBH that should have been obvious before you got there.

So dont blame the guy you took the car to. (plonker or not )
He is only trying to get the best deal and part of this of course is slating the car and I suspect we have all done it in some way. How else is he going to justify a daft offer .

Problem is he will get a silly deal - might take a week might take a month but its not his time so I guess he s not worried.

And whilst saying " I wont sell him my car now " sounds good its pretty obvious cos he didnt buy it.
But if he phoned you and offered £40k cash we all know you WOULD sell it to him if he collected the car .

This honestly isnt a post slating you more one explaining the realities of buying os sellins a car in todays market.

Good luck with the sale at least you wont be taking to people any more ( I hope)

[TAZZMAXX]

Buyer always starts at rock bottom, fact. When I go and buy equipment I'll always try it on and tell the seller that it's had it or will need corrective work to get it up to scratch. The walk away tactic saying it's the final offer is a classic as well. As RSVFOUR points out, the fact that the OP travelled that distance is a dead giveaway that he needs to sell rather than wants to. Has the OP never haggled or tried to get a discount on something?

[skyline 34]

I have done exactly the same thing albeit a long time ago. Did the guy compensate you with fuel money? This would have been my request before travelling all that way, but when you think there is a good chance of a sale, I guess you just go along with it. Where was your car advertised, I have one of mine up for sale at the moment so I will be interested to see if he contacts me.
I'll tell him to come and view or stick it

[Adamantium]

I can't believe you drove to him.

Surely it's an obvious sign. if he wants it he'll come to you.

[JoZeff]

Some interesting replies, Although I think the original objections have been lost in the haste to post a wise reply.
I did agree and receive petrol money and a trip out in the GTR, which may have been the last, was not a problem to me.
I believe my issue is the way everything and I mean everything was ripped apart, in front of me, which I think is a particularly sh1tty thing to do.
I would look at the car decide a price based on any parts to replace/work to complete and knowledge of the market and make an offer and hope to negotiate a price, during this process possibly point out the issues to strengthen my case.
We either agree on a price or we dont thats life and walk away.
What I wouldnt do, is attack an individuals integrity, and rip apart their vehicle in an uneducated way, lie and bullsh1t, small matter of respect.
I dont have to sell the vehicle, I dont need to sell the vehicle, but should sell the vehicle due to limited use and change in circumstances. Maybe a Mug will come by and be desparate to take the fellas money, I may be nieve but please dont take me for a fool.
It appears that we have other tyre kickers on the forum!, interesting reading your views tho.

[londongtr]

this just about sums it up I agree.

He offered you £4k less than you asked, thats 10% less than the asking price, thats not un-reasonable i'd have negotiated or better still have set his expectations that the minimum would have been £44k in the first place

You sound like a nice guy who has just realised how brutal car negotiating is in a bear market but don't hate him for being 'rude'

Originally Posted by RSVFOUR

Hope this doesnt sound too harsh but............

It is a fundemental rule when selling cars .......The buyer travels.

Everyone can come up with a reason why they cant get to see a car . If they do come to look at it at least you know they are possibly interested

And all the time people are prepared to drive to him he doesnt need to do anything more than wait for cars to appear and make silly offers .

Once someone is prepared to drive the car to him he knows has the upper hand - he wastes half an hour you waste half a day and petrol. And TBH that should have been obvious before you got there.

So dont blame the guy you took the car to. (plonker or not )
He is only trying to get the best deal and part of this of course is slating the car and I suspect we have all done it in some way. How else is he going to justify a daft offer .

Problem is he will get a silly deal - might take a week might take a month but its not his time so I guess he s not worried.

And whilst saying " I wont sell him my car now " sounds good its pretty obvious cos he didnt buy it.
But if he phoned you and offered £40k cash we all know you WOULD sell it to him if he collected the car .

This honestly isnt a post slating you more one explaining the realities of buying os sellins a car in todays market.

Good luck with the sale at least you wont be taking to people any more ( I hope)

[tonigmr2]

Bear market or no, there's three prices in this world.

1) Over-priced
2) A decent price
3) Taking the piss

Sounds to me like the guy was in the third bracket. Plus there really is no need to be rude to do a deal, I'd have driven away just to annoy the fool.

[londongtr]

I don't agree 10% off as an opening gambit is taking the piss, as for rude I'll take the OP word for it however there Are always 2 sides to any story

Driving away wouldn't have sold a car which was the whole point

Originally Posted by tonigmr2

Bear market or no, there's three prices in this world.

1) Over-priced
2) A decent price
3) Taking the piss

Sounds to me like the guy was in the third bracket. Plus there really is no need to be rude to do a deal, I'd have driven away just to annoy the fool.

[tonigmr2]

He wants to sell yes, but he doesn't want a new hole ripped.

I consider £4K off the bottom line price as bracket three, but that's just IMHO.

[Nigel-Power]

When selling your car, never ever take it to the buyer, always they should come to you for viewing. When you travel to them, psychologically it means you are giving the buyer far more authority than they have, and you put yourself in a weak position which normally can be translated by the buyer as; 1- desperate to sell. 2- there must be something wrong with the car, hence you bothered to travel the distance to show it to him.
In fact some buyers ask the seller to come to them, so that in their own environment and comfort zone they can put the car under scrutiny. And almost always this would result in them knocking the price down, which they previously agreed on when they talked to you over the phone prior to viewing the car.

I feel for you mate, the guy obviously has never heard of Litchfields or Middlehurst, so how would you convince someone who's ignorant? But it does feel bitter that it was a wasted journey. Perhaps the idiot did not deserve the car.

Good luck with selling. But let them come to your fishing-net next time round.

[JoZeff]

I am enjoying this exchange, although it does appear I am coming across as a complete tit!.
The car was up for 42k, so 36K is low and I made it clear I was looking around 40k on the phone, but I dont mind if someone tries there luck and is respectful in offerring a low price hoping to negotiate a middle price that both parties are happy with. This chancer even offered to take me to the local Nissan garage get an offer from them and beat it by 500 quid.
I also had someone round last night, complete respect knew about the car, the mods, the history, the scene and all about HPC v Litchfields. We had a good chat and was happy, if he had offered 36k I would have said no and gone our separate ways, I dont have to feel like I have had my pants pulled down in school assembly, just to sell a car!

[TAZZMAXX]

Originally Posted by JoZeff

I believe my issue is the way everything and I mean everything was ripped apart, in front of me, which I think is a particularly sh1tty thing to do.

So did you stand there and take all the shit or did you pull him up and tell him to stop talking like a ****? I know what I'd have done.

It appears that we have other tyre kickers on the forum!, interesting reading your views tho.

I don't know whether I've been lumped into this category, I'm not really bothered but I gave an answer based on my own experiences. I get shafted every day of the week on jobs I do, my customers expect a discount. I normally take the piss and and ask them if they'd like a yellow reduced sticker on it or, better still, a two for one, it soon shuts them up. Maybe the guy was rude or maybe you mistook his manner for rudeness, we can only comment on the information you've presented. Look on the bright side, you've still got your car and you haven't let the guy have the satisfaction of bending you over, tomorrow's another day.

You'll find out whether you did the right thing when the car does sell.

Anyway, as they say in the for sale section, GLWTS

[JoZeff]

I started to descibe to him the benefits of using Litchfields, which was his first attack as it was not Nissan, then showed him receipts from Middlehursts and got the same response, then he went on to the tyres tried to explain the outer tread is less than the inner by design and soon realised I was wasting my time. We also had a language barrier issue so I just sat back and watched in awe as the BS flowed, LOOK LOOK AT THIS THE BODYWORK IS DAMAGED was one of the over excited remarks at which point I licked my finger and wiped away the offending mark. You get my drift.
I am finding this process strangely calming.