What are your best/worst car sale stories

[westoftown]

Off the back of a thread MercuryT posted about a possibly dodgy seller, I'm now curious:

What is your worst car sale story? Dodgy seller? lost the cash? crashed the car on a test drive? got scammed?

Alternatively what about the best? What kind of ridiculous lengths has a seller gone to accommodate your purchase, or what kind of lengths have you gone just to secure a car of your choice?

Lets hear them.

[323Turbo]

I bought a XB falcon coupe, knew it wasnt the car for me but thought it was cheap so I paid what the seller wanted - I did some very minor work to it ($100), decided it definitely wasnt for me & sold it a few weeks later for $29,000 profit - new buyer was very happy too.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Looked at a used car at a Ford dealership in Sydney and the guy didn't let me test drive it because it was 'too cheap'. He expected me to just pay the asking price and take it home.

Went to the same dealership a few years later when I was looking to buy a new Focus and the only praise for the car the salesperson had was the fuel flap - it won a few design awards or something apparently.

Bought heaps of used cars over the years. Hated wasting time on mis-represented cars.

Drove over 1hr to look at a car in the morning. Had cash ready.

Arrive to find I was dealing with the son and the car was in mums name. Did she sign anything? Nope. Was she local? Nope. I was told I would need to return in the evening if I wanted to get the car. ...Ummm Nope!

Turned up at another place. Was told there was nothing wrong with the car at all. - 'good to go'.

Near bald tyres, only 1 key, central locking fob that didn't work (battery of course), radio asking for the code, spare wheel well cacked in rust from holding water, interior of car reeked of mould and mildew, damaged trim, missing books etc etc etc....

The best one is when someone sells a car, hold off on inspections till several people are interested then he arranged viewings within minutes of each other then sent messages to all interested parties of the best offers they had 'for transparency' of course to get them bidding against each other.

Had a car for sale, got a call from a wholesaler asking me to drive it to them for an inspection and an offer to purchase. I said no thanks, generally buyers come to me. "Well that not how we work I'm sorry". And I replied with the same and hung up.

Same bird calls me the following day and this time I was a little more condescending and sarcastic. This time she bit back and told me there was no reason to snap back, I told her there is no reason to call me 2 days in a row asking the same rubbish request and expecting a different reply.

I hate dealing with people sometimes.....

[xxx000]

Rang and enquired about a car that was cheap.
" It's got a scrape down one side" was the reason given for price.
Went to check it out, the entire side of the car was peeled open like a can opener!

[ebv8]

i got a 3 bites last night from carsales on the car i'm selling.
1. wanted to swap a BA XR6, had to text i didn't understand him at all
2. lowballed me straight up, and wanted me to drive an hour away
3. called but i was making dinner so he text me and said take the car off carsales he will pickup tomorrow
i told him to inspect first and yes i'll hold it a day for him
then he messages back will i take $900 less.... i say no
then i reduced $700 and he says ok
then i get a text saying will i swap a car instead... i say no
then i said are you still interested and he says yes call me tomorrow morning

still waiting on a call.

[Crazy Dazz]

I was selling a GQ patrol (on LPG), asking $12.5k, would have taken $12k.
Guy agreed to buy it, subject to mechanical inspection.
Mechanic found nothing wrong with it, but buyer still backed out because "there might be something he missed".
Had another tosser come to look, opens bonnet and (in his most annoying Liverpudlian accent) proclaimed "oooooh, that's a carburettor."
Yes, I explained EFI didn't become available until the series 2, with came out two years later,
You can easily identify those because it says "Electronic Fuel Injection" in huge letters down the side,
but anyway the car runs on LPG.
In the end, a wholesaler came and offered me $11k, and I got him up to $11.5k.
I rang up a guy who had been interested at a lower price, and said he could have it for the same price, and he still tried to offer me less.

[Mr Brooksy]

Worst.
Went to some massive used car lot on Parramatta Road in Burwood back in 2002 with my old 83 Falcon looking to find out what a trade would be worth and whats available. Spent very little time actually looking at any of the cars they had to offer, or showing them my Falcon. What I did do for 3+ hours was sitting in the office of the "best used car salesman in Sydney", listening to him go on and on about the trade in, how good he was, how amazing it will be for me when I buy from him. After way too long I went to leave only for the boss (who was still holding my keys) to come in to try and close the deal, then 2 'security guards' who stood in the doorway to the only exit I was aware of, while the salesman and boss began yelling at me for wasting their time and threatening me if I left the building without doing the deal. I politely asked for my keys, received them with much yelling and swearing and walked past their security guards out to my car and drove away.

Great:
I had a Blueprint 03 XR6 company car with 20,000kms on it (we had gov pricing for cars back then due to working for a not for profit), and the resale value had just fallen out of the bottom of the Aussie Sedan market. I had this car (immaculate I might add) that I needed a trade in figure or a buy back figure for. The issue was the BA MKII was just released and the local Ford Dealer was offering no km BA's at less than the figure I needed to get. But a salesman of a little car yard in Newcastle wanted my XR6. So not only did he trade my XR6 for the figure I needed, but he did a very respectable deal on a 97 Futura that he had just agreed on earlier in the day! Somehow, I got the price I needed, and a handy replacement (personal car as we stopped the buy back scheme due to the change in the market). The best part was that someone who was helping fund our organisation also gave me the exact $$'s I needed to do the deal before I had even gone to the dealer that day, and our finance guy hadn't told me about it yet. You could not have scripted it better honestly!

[.:4:.]

When i bought my bf ghia it was from a ford dealer and just shy of 2 years old at the time. $19500 they were asking. First test trive the tank was dry. But the salesman threw a jerry in and handed me the fuel card and told me to go fill it up. This was my first test drive ever where the salesman didnt come along. All he said was where to get fuel and what route to take, and to see what i thought about the car. It was great being able to give it hell.
It was nice not having a salesman in the car telling me everything i had done my reasearch on. My method is go shopping, see whats available, look up stuff about whatever car i liked and then do the annoying test drive with someone trying to 'sell' the car when all i was after was if i liked how it drives or not.
So yes after driving the car i slept on it a couple days and re test drove it etc. I liked it, the mrs liked it, the mrs drove it, the price was good compared to other bfs in worse shape. So i bought it. Negotiated a tow bar. So an easy experience. Still have the 08 ghia today. Best part was, i wasnt sold the car, it was the car i actually wanted.

[Bossxr8]

Worst was selling a DF LTD a few years ago. Seller rang and arranged to look at it. Calls me back a few hours later saying he sees that that particular model had a recall on steering racks or something back in 96, and he didn't want it. I explained it had the recall sticker on the door pillar and it was all done back when the car was less than a year old. Still says nah it's had a recall, don't want it now. WTF.

What is it with time wasters? They clearly aren't that interested, but stuff you round making out they are.

[Tonz]

back in '96 had a Mazda 929 wagon, had a farmer mate who wanted rock removed and we wanted a rock wall, so many trips with (over) loaded trailer somehow altered the Mazda that none of the doors would stay closed for long.
Saw a XF wagon at a dealer, haggled down the price waving cash in his nose, and wanting to leave the Mazda. Finally struck gold and departed with the Falcon.

2 days later I saw the Mazda arriving at local japanese wreckers and there is met its death...finally

[Rallye Sport]

I was considering an RS Focus just before I picked up my Falcon.
Went to the local dealer for a look, he didn't seem to take me too seriously but in conversation I mentioned that I was a fan of the RS and I'd had a few over the years. He looked a little bewildered and said 'But they've only just been released' I didn't say anything and after a bit more to and fro thought I'd try another dealer.
I did give him a friendly toot and a wave as I left the forecourt in the old Escort...

[hawke]

Worst. Went to buy a new Fiesta for my son. Sale at City Ford Rockdale. They had a new blue one in stock, so signed up on the spot. Great pressure to make sure that I understood what a contract means - that is, you have to go through with it. Monday comes, salesman rings - sorry, car not available, but another car is available, but as the sale is over, the price has gone up. I asked about the contract I signed and paid for. Sorry, that’s now cancelled. Fxxx off. Went elsewhere, and vowed never to go back to City Ford.

Best. During the GFC - over 10 years ago - Porsche were not selling any cars. Walked in to Porsche Mascot - paid cash for one, and just drove out with it. No pressure. Still got it.

Also best. My wife wanted a new Merc, to replace her existing one. Rang the dealer - Mercedes Mosman - where we had bought a few. Told them what model, colour etc we wanted. Got a call back after a few days, they found one. Drove over, and drove out. Since have bought 5 cars from them.

[Falcon SXR8]

Went and looked at an ed xr8 once. Owner got real weird when i started checking it out. I was checking under the bonnet just the usual and he says sarcastically "are you a mechanic or something" then when i stuck my head under the car he goes "no need to look under there its all good" never seen a bloke so nervous. Anyway i walked from that one, didn't trust the bloke at all.

[CyberWasp]

2 highlights I can think of from the past when looking at new cars.

One eager salesman approached and quizzed me to sus me out.
After our brief conversation he helpfully informed me and points out that the new cars are in the section where the cars have no number plates and the used ones are in the car section with number plates.

Another time I wanted to take a new Nissan for a test drive and was told that I couldn't unless I was going to buy the car......... Like, Hello.

[kcodezd]

In 08 I bought my Ba from a mechanic that had decided he needed a career change from a big ford dealer here on the north side of Brisbane. He wanted 20k for it with only 40,000 on the clock. Problem for me was he still owed about 6 grand on finance. Being a private sale I had to decide whether it was worth me taking the risk. In the end I went to his finance company with Him, and paid out his loan, waited two days, so I could check for clear title. So with a bank cheque equaling the remainder minus the cost of rego, because it was nearly due, paid 19k for it.

While at the time handing over the money to get clear title was daunting, I have never regretted it.

Of course the best part is a car that has never left me stuck anywhere. I still love my falcon.

[MercuryT]

Strangely I've always found my sales easy.

Maybe as I'm not too fussy if a fraction less than hoped and I try and facilitate wherever possible. Payment and location to meet etc, test drive on own so long as deposit paid etc.

Buying though just a nightmare.

Demanding sellers for immediate deals, sellers who claim car is perfect mechanically, then ask a few questions on known model issues then vanish, cars that near deal say "oh, I'm selling on behalf of a friend", cars you turn up to as "immaculate" when my arguably neglected lawn mower is equally looked after condition wise etc etc etc etc.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Who's used the below line??

Got a car advertised for say $6k.

Get a random text / email with "I'll come with $3400 ca$h right NOW"....

I reply... "No thanks, I prefer to sell the whole car"

[MercuryT]

My XR6 Turbo I was offered a "top quality" skateboard for on Gumtree.

Maybe it was but I can't skate so no deal......ha.

(I sold it way too cheap so 40 at least enquiries in 1 day) but I'd had enough and had to go.

Sold for 2K. Buyer was rapt so that made me happy as.

[Jack91]

Years ago as a teenager living in Tasmania, a much cheaper than usual, manual au xr6 came up on eBay.
I wanted it bad so rang seller straight away, "yeah mate all good just want a quick sale" etc. Sounded like a mint car and a price was agreed upon. transferred him 100 or so as a deposit and booked flights for me and my old man to Melbourne to pick it up the following weekend.

Bloke agreed to pick us up from airport, and he'd jump out and get a lift home. When i seen it come around the corner my heart sank, the thing was rooted. Blowing smoke, both sides wavey as, next to no paint on it. We were in a bit of a spot as the boat schedule was tight. He says 'cant stop here, we'll find a carpark up here'. So we both jumped in.
What a coincidence that there were 4 heavies at this carpark who he happened to know. I bucked a bit and so did the old boy but we were totally boned. I wasnt leaving with the cash either way, so i bought the car at probably 5 times its actual value.

[Jack91]

Ive bought and sold tonnes of cars though and came up with what I think was the best line ever when buying my landcruiser. It was already cheap, but I'm as tight as a nuns nasty. I wanted it for 3000, he wanted 4500. After 10 minutes of the usual banter he says "mate, its just not enough money". I said "Mate, no, you hook a tape measure on that bullbar and run it to the back of that door (pointing to back of rear door), and every millimetre mark is a dollar. Its loads of money bud"
Either it was super slick or he thought I was mental. He looked a bit bewildered. Whatever it was i got a hell of a deal that day

[westoftown]

I was looking for a car and an AU XR8 came up in Melbourne (was living in Adelaide at the time). My sister had just moved from Adelaide to Melbourne and hadn't got around to working out how to take her car so I offered to drive it down for her in lieu of a flight, so I could buy this XR8 and drive it back to Adelaide.

Ring the bloke, seems to check out, drives good, it was right at the top end of my budget at the time but it was the cheapest AU XR8 going so I took a punt.

The problem started when I got to VicRoads to get an unregistered permit to drive it home, the vin came up as a blue XR6 when I thought I'd got a black XR8. Rang back the seller to get to the bottom of it, he dug some paperwork up to suggest it was the dealer he purchased it from who falsely advertised it as a XR8. Either way whether he was telling the truth or lying there was nothing much I could do now: he had the cash and I had a car I couldn't register back home without an engineers certificate.

Got stopped at Stawell, Nhill and Dimboola on the way back home to Adelaide by each towns respective officers, and after requesting to see the permit then interrogating me as to why the details on the permit were wrong, "but it's not blue" "XR6? sounds like a V8 to me"

Silver lining: resold it on gumtree 2 days later to some guy who came down from Mildura and paid me the amount I paid for it so he could strip the running gear for a project, and had a spare 4.0 I6 lying around he could throw back in the shell and rego back in Vic.

Learned a valuable lesson about due diligence and it has saved me since on more than one occasion from getting into a bind again.

[BA-XT]

Only sold one car. Had a good and bad experience.

Bad : I had a HJ-60 Land Cruiser. Clean, limited off road. Good condition. Guy came over with his two kids. Spent 2 hours talking and questioning everythin about th car. Tested the clutch, steering.... everything. Anyway at the end says yeah I'll think about it, and then asks if I'd be interested in coming along to his church. WTF.

Good: Few days later guy from country phoned up. Asked some questions. Dropped price by $500 and met up with him. Handed cash over and away he went. Brilliant!

[Rallye Sport]

Originally Posted by Yellow_Festiva

Who's used the below line??

Got a car advertised for say $6k.

Get a random text / email with "I'll come with $3400 ca$h right NOW"....

I reply... "No thanks, I prefer to sell the whole car"

I use "Sure come pick it up, the address is 1 Dreamer street Fairyland. Try not to park Mr Squiggles rocket ship in, he's got a temper when he's been drinking."
I did have one guy message back saying he couldn't find it in the map book.

[five 7]

Going to Toyota years back, to start we had to make our selves known to sales reps who showed no interest in us (we had three young kids in tow). We were looking to purchase a new work van, when i asked to take one for a test drive was told nothing new available but could take there three year old shop parts van, there were vans on the lot but was told they were allocated to NZ post, with that he said there would be a big wait and they sold that many to NZ post my chances were slim to next to nothing of getting one. So Toyota have missed out of five new van sales over the years. Never judge a book by its cover, the service from Mercedes was the polar opposite, they chucked me the key of a new Vito and said take as long as you want on test ride. Have only had a couple of things go wrong which have been fixed no question plus loan van provided
Best story was going into a HSV dealer window shopping (in 06) same again was just thrown keys to a VZ HSV manual with 11ks on clock and told take as long as you want, that drive sold me on the car just didn't think i would end up with that actual car, it was run in hard....

[fordomatic]

Selling my BAXR8 in 2007 and had a guy come and look at it. He looks it over and I can tell he's not going to buy it. Asks me if he can take it for a drive, no problem but i'm coming with you. I tell him not to rev it out until it is warm. Get about 1km down the road and he flogs it, i tell him not to do it again. We get to a T intersection and he revs through 1st,2nd, 3rd. I tell him to stop and get out the car. I left him on the side of the road and drove home, he had a 4km walk to come and pick his car up.

I bought 1 car from a dealer and got burnt real bad, it's the one and only time i've ever bought from a dealer, I only buy privately since then.

I spent around 4 years looking for an AU XR8 and looked at well over 10 cars in that time. So many con men out there with rose coloured glasses thinking their buckets of crap are immaculate. Drove me insane looking for one. A forum member here put me onto the owner of my P250. I gave him a call and knew straight away I was going to buy it. Flew to Brisbane and picked it up two days later, old owner even picked me up from the airport. The car was exactly as he said, even down to the amount of stone chips on the front bar. Sold it to me cheaper as well as he wanted it to go to an enthusiast, proper genuine seller, was a breath of fresh air after dealing with all the other toss pots.

[fiestaz]

As a kid (talking about 8 years old) mum and dad wanted to replace their VP commodore with a newer one. Went to the local dealer who had a blue supercharged S VT commodore. They drove it, loved it. It was lightly used and they wanted to buy it. Yet we spent the next 2 or so hours being given the run around as the salesman told us all about the new VX commodore, he would not tell my parents the price of the blue one they wanted. Needless to say the kids were over it, Mum and dad left. Dad decided to take me to another local dealer and bought a brand new white VT commodore, in stock ready to go. Process took no longer than 20mins. That was in 2000.

Back in 2011 I wanted to buy a new Fiesta. Did my research, found some cheap Zetecs brand new on car sales. Went to the local dealer to test drive. I was keen, wanted to place a deposit if they would match a price I saw in car sales. They allegedly couldn’t find this car, the manager rudely told me he couldn’t find it, and that I was full of it. I left and bought elsewhere cheaper. I did make sure I sent the link to the cheaper Fiesta to that dealer however.

I worked in a car dealer, I hate going to them. Sometimes the salesman need to stay well away instead of forcefully trying to sell.

[Crazy Dazz]

I would roughly break dealers down into 4 categories:

1) Relatively honest dealers who are happy to compete and be straight-forward. They don't make maximum profit, but try to offset that through volume.

2) Reputable dealers who are still mostly honest & straight-forward, but trade on their reputation to charge more. Sometimes justified, sometimes not.

3) The bullshart artistes. Once they figure you have at least half a brain, they lose interest, but that's ok because they know another sucker will eventually walk in. They don't sell as much as they could, because they **** off too many people, but they make good margin on what they do sell.

4) The dodgy brothers, almost always selling illegitimate 2nd-hand crapola.

[fiestaz]

Originally Posted by Crazy Dazz

I would roughly break dealers down into 4 categories:

1) Relatively honest dealers who are happy to compete and be straight-forward. They don't make maximum profit, but try to offset that through volume.

2) Reputable dealers who are still mostly honest & straight-forward, but trade on their reputation to charge more. Sometimes justified, sometimes not.

3) The bullshart artistes. Once they figure you have at least half a brain, they lose interest, but that's ok because they know another sucker will eventually walk in. They don't sell as much as they could, because they **** off too many people, but they make good margin on what they do sell.

4) The dodgy brothers, almost always selling illegitimate 2nd-hand crapola.

Forgot another story I had that relates to point 4.

Went to Car City, to have a look at an XR5 turbo. I had no interest in it as it was a complete crap box from Car City. But for my own research I wanted to look. Well I spoke to the “salesman” there who said if I wanted to drive it, first I would have to sit down and make a deal with him on the car. His reasoning for this was he had his mechanic inspect and it and knew it was a good car, and secondly he did not have time to take people on test drives all day... to which I thought, isn’t that your job?!”

Also had a case of a small yard in Hornsby who wanted $100 to look at and test drive a car worth $3000. When questioned on this $100 he said extremely rudely that his time is valuable.


I have too many stories but have another.
Was interested in a Toyota 86 at another dealer. I had never driven one, but was interested and ready to buy. I made that absolutely clear on my first visit, second visit I went for a drive. I liked it, but didn’t love it. The salesman must have thought I was a done deal, but I told him straight up sorry but... and stuck out my hand to shake his. His face dropped, he would not shake my hand and he walked away. What a laugh that was.

[PepeLePew]

Best....plenty. Selling always easy, my cars are near perfect and honest everytime. I spell everything out, i've always been lucky. Never had a soul try and neg on price 'on the moment'.

Worst...a story i've told repeatedly, just it's cathartic. Anyway, dealer here in SA down south on South Road I never name...been there a long time (not a branded dealer, a private outfit). These days trade in a more selective style of vehicle, but used to have some pretty cool cars. This is the late 80s'. Had two XD ESP's on the yard, both 351's, white auto, red manual. (and another car i'd considered a immaculate 351 auto ZF or ZG Fairlane, beautiful car.)

Well i got a bone on about the red ESP....where do i sign up (well not quite went thru the process but hey, young and i was no doubt dripping with i want signs). It was beautiful....(in my avatar with my old 240). Anyway, all go signing up papers planted in front of me....'oh sorry, just for your information cars perfect but the kms arent right as the dash had issues and was changed out, it's showing what'....i said '78000'. He says 'ah thats right, i think the old dash had about 275 on it, but highway kms and shes good as gold'.

Serious? Me young, dumb, hooked, last minute, no one with any sense with me, took her. Everything felt tight anyway, except got a bit of a valve issue and rebuilt the engine about a year later, yet about 7 years later i looked under the front guards and i couldve stuck my fist through the rust holes. Time for her to go. Interestingly, i found what looked like old grass up inside of the holes, wouldn't surprise me if stolen/recovered or some such. Anyway....point is, i was played. I'm quite ok at being older and less naive.

[mondeomatureguy]

Hi Guys,
I went to School with a guy whos parents were multimillionaires. There was only mum n dad and they had 3 children and they at the time six cars.

His dad owned a Meat export Business. His dad was the kind of guy that felt comfortable just in a pair of old jeans and t shirt.
He went to a BMW Dealer in Sydney and walked in looked around at the cars then the Salesman turned up.

He said he would like to by a New BMW with cash. The Sales man looked him up n down and said " Mate you couldn't afford a BMW" because he was in a pair of jeans and T shirt.

He walked out of the BMW dealer didn't say a word and went to a Mercedes Benz Dealer and brought a Mercedes 480 SEL. Some weeks later he went back to the BMW Dealer and saw the same sales man and told him " you missed out on a sale because of how you treated me and in the future don't judge a customer on how he is dressed you D...Head!