'03 Pontiac Vibe AWD auto w/ 67k miles

In reply to John Welsh :

Emailed. Thanks!

Another current project I'm working on is this 2007 Saab 9-3

There was also this Silver 2004 Prius I sold to Billy. 

And, the deja vu, Silver 2006 Pontiac Vibe that I sold super quickly to a local buyer

This project had sort of stalled out for me.  My wife has been driving the Vibe and kind of likes it but not so much as to let go of her Mazda5.   

I had made the decision to have the local body guy I met, who worked on my Prius door, work on the back end.  I invested more into getting it all done right.  This then means that I will have to sell the car for "all the money."  So, now that I am back from The Challenge and caught back up on life, I finally got pictures taken Saturday and wrote up a CL ad the same day.  

About 24 hours later, or about 4pm Sunday, the first person looked at the car.  They liked it a lot and that meeting ended with them thinking they could have the money Tuesday.  Well, here we are and Tuesday morning at 8:45am that lady buyer was on my phone wondering what time we could go to her bank together!!!  I'll see her there at 10:30 and collect $4,300

Here is the current ad: https://sandusky.craigslist.org/cto/d/sandusky-pontiac-vibe-awd-68k-miles/7012117508.html  

damn man, four grand for a rebuilt title 16YO car is pretty solid work!

also, you should teach a class on how to write a car ad.  no wall of words.  hit the big points, good and bad.  well done.

In reply to AngryCorvair :

Try this exercise. Jump on your local CL and search any car any age but with awd and less than 80k miles.

If like me, you'll really find none. 

Well done! I'm impressed by how good the repair looks; did he replace body panels or fix what was there?

Edit: I did you experiment but limited it to 100,000 miles and under. Cheapest is a 2006 Jaguar for $5900.

Sold and done.  Im taking down the ad but thanks for the kind words about how it was written.  Therfore, I will copy the words here:

Pontiac Vibe AWD 68k miles - $4600 (Huron Twp)

2003 Pontiac Vibe. Well equipped including all wheel drive option. Only 68k miles.

The Pontiac Vibe is the twin of the Toyota Matrix which is generally a Toyota Corolla wagon. Given that this model has the awd option, it is similar to an early Rav4 too.

The car was once in a small accident in the rear bumper and rear tailgate area. This is the reason it has a rebuilt title. The damage was very minor and the repairs passed the required Ohio Hyw Patrol vehicle inspection. The last picture at Great Lakes shows the previous tailgate/bumper damage.

With only 68k miles, this car is in tremendous mechanical shape. I would be willing to hop in and drive it cross country. No repairs needed. Everything works as it should; AC, Heat, Radio, etc. New Goodyear brand tires at 61k miles. Brakes added at the same time done at the Toyota dealership in Bowling Green, OH.

The car can be seen at my home or a mutually agreed location. I can be reached via phone, text or email.

I had in the ad all these pictures...

The repair is good but not great. Better than I could do. 

Some time now so some more writing...  

I bought a $80 tailgate (already silver) from one JY and a $100 bumper cover (already silver) from another JY.  I then paid Paul (the body and paint guy) $400 to mount the gate and the bumper as well as work the metal and paint. 

If you look in the pic above there is still a dent at the top of the tail light.  Aside from that there is still some "ripple/wave" in the metal if you really look.  Near the bottom fo the tail light, the gap between the metal and the bumper cover is not great.  At the fender flare, the plastic flare does not exactly line up with the plastic bumper.   The used bumper cover has some scratching down to black plastic at the edge of the bumper cover near where it meets the flare.  Paul did swap over the lock cylinder so as expected, one key opens the whole car.  After I got the car back I noticed the power lock was not working on the hatch.  The car the hatch came from had crank windows and my guess now is that it did not have power locks either.  Since I still have the old hatch, I swapped over the latch which has a little power motor and now the car has power locks all around again.  Super easy.  

Another thing was that the old hatch had a badge on the left side that said All Wheel Drive.  The new hatch came from a fwd Vibe and therefore does not have the badge.  I tried to take the old badge off but it did not come off cleanly.  I searched ebay for another used badge.  There was one an it was not that good either,  I then searched some new AWD style badges off ebay, complete with mounting tape and for only.  Via Amazon I then scored this new badge for a mere $5.88, shipped.  Since lining it up on the left side required some guessing on spacing and getting it even, I decided to mount it on the right side, just under the Vibe name.  

I knew I would be accentuating the awd feature and wanted to have "proof" but additionally, I wanted it marked to save the new owner the damage that could come if their Vibe was towed via dolly or front lift tow truck.  I'm really happy with how this looks.  The badge looks sort of familiar.  Maybe from the Dodge Charger.   

The numbers:  

I had $3,300 into the entire car after I made the additional $580 investment of parts and labor for the bumper cover, hatch and body/paint work.  I also had 12 hours invested into the project.

The breakdown of those 12 hours:

• 2 pre-buy/inspect/bid
• 1 pick up/transport
• 3 bumper fender refurb (myself)
• 1 junk yard trips
• 1 title/registration offices
• 3 state inspection with travel
• 1 bearing order/delivery

I asked $4,600.  I wanted $4,300 and my bottom price was $4,000.  I was happy to turn the $1k profit and for 12 hours that equates to $83.34 per hour.  My goal on these jobs is for $100 per hour.  My accepted minimum is $50 per hour.  I am happy with the $83  

Now my focus moves on to selling this Dodge Minivan

Good job as always !