toconn wrote: I spent days trying to figure out if I wanted to expose this guy or not... it was a tough call.
I would have spent about 0.3 seconds fuming before exposing that E36 M3bird.
I've only sold a car that I would have preferred to see crushed but some poor soul was DDing it up to a few years ago...I'm sure if I sold my 'rolla somebody would ball it up, but with the amount of work that's gone into it, selling it would be practically giving it away.
In a fit of downsizing, sold my track / autox car. The new buyer was more interested in the quality of the paint, than anything else. I told him he wasn't buying a show car, and should keep looking, but he paid my price, and bought the car. First thing he did was "re-arrange" suspension parts, and then complain the car was undriveable. I drove it for a bunch of years, and one of my co-drivers with decades of experience told me it was the most predictable car he had ever driven. I think he is slowly putting the car back to stock, undoing all of my work. The car is a rare classic, however. When was the last time you saw a Miata listed for sale?
My Fiero Formula wound up in some kids hands a few years after I sold it. Had some cheapy walmart tires on it and neon lights were planned...
On the flip side. The previous owner of my Challenge Firebird was thrilled to see what became of his car.
A bit of a departure from the title, I've had a decent amount of cars that developed issues shortly after I sold them:
-05 92x Aero (WRX) with most of the bolt on mods and 150k, sold to a kid who didn't understand the nuances that come with a modified car and ended up texting me a lot with random issues (hunting idle, low gas mileage, etc.). I helped as I could but the car was good to me and he was young so I assume he was helping to create the issues.
-83 FJ60, basket case SOA and not in great shape, traded on a 92 XJ. Shortly after getting it home the buyer said it wouldn't stay running.
-00 Excursion PSD, sold to a guy that flew in from Texas and drove it home. PATS went out the next week and one of the two batteries died.
I apparently know when to sell a car. On topic, one that was screwed up pretty badly by the next owner:
-92 XJ, lifted with a welded 8.8 and in "interesting" condition. Not that it was in great shape, but the buyer took it offroad and smashed the power steering box, sheared all of the mounting bolts. Called me at 11PM to complain. I politely told him to bugger off. Saw it on the side of the road a bit later, rattle canned black with a for sale sign and an optimistic price.
And one that was nicely modified by the next owner:
-08 KLR650, I put 4500 miles on it and it was drinking a good bit of oil. This was disclosed when I traded it for a Ural, the new owner put on a big bore kit and put 10k miles on it without a hiccup. Last I saw it the guy was riding it like it wanted to be ridden.
Most of the time I don't care what happened to a vehicle after I got rid of it, but I would like to know what happened to this one:
I had it all set up as a show truck (2/4 drop, carbon fiber interior parts, body parts, etc.). Got trophies at the All-Ford Nationals for 3 years.
I traded it in at a local Ford dealer for my Focus. Two days later I got a call from a friend. A co-worker of his had seen it on the lot at a Chevy dealer 20 miles away and was interested in it. When the co-worker went back the next day it was gone and the salesmen didn't seem to know where it went.
I go to car shows/cruise-ins as far as 50 miles away and know a lot of people who travel even farther. No one has seen the truck since two days after it was traded in back in 2001!
You know, I have sold a bunch of cars over the years and I have never seen any of them again after they were sold. Weird I guess.
A couple years ago someone came here asking about an E21 they were interested in buying. Turns out it was my old one that, while solid, was really in no condition to be daily driven. Gutted interior, no muffler, no air, heater fan was out. I remember that he went to check it out and said it was not really what he was looking for. But I never saw it again.
I sold my '92 Taurus SHO a few years ago. I had autocrossed it for a season and driven it daily longer than that. The car had ~180k miles on it when I sold it. A couple of years ago, my wife and I saw it sitting on the University of Louisville campus parked at some student housing. I was just impressed that it was still on the road, but it had been very badly abused since I sold it. The interior and exterior had been destroyed-- somehow including the top of the dash. I wasn't even mad, though. It had served me well and continued to serve someone else well.
I donated the first vehicle I ever bought to the Salvation army. It was a 1977 GMC Suburban, with something close to 200,000 miles on it (in 2000). I tried selling it for months, no one wanted it, not even for my $400 asking price (it was pretty rusty, but ran well, had a rebuilt TH350, and decent tires).
About 4 or 5 months after I donated it to Sally Anne, I get a letter in the mail from the State of Delaware (I was living in Maryland by then) telling me I owed a parking ticket for my Suburban...on a date a month or two after I'd donated it. Despite still having the proof of donation, it took me 3 months of runaround with the Delaware DMV to straighten it out.
No idea where that old Burban is now (probably sitting in someone's kitchen, recycled into a trash compactor), but I finally re-scratched my box-body-burban itch again, 15 years later:
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/smells-like-a-steak-and-seats-35/99875/page1/
I saw my old 944 while on a date about 4 years after selling it. It was absolutely trashed. I use to take that car to shows and concourse events in Portland. When I had it the guards red paint was so polished it looked like a red mirror. I was not happy.
My old Camaro I actually heard it before I saw it. That guy actually fixed up the car and finished the work I had started. It looked great.
A guy at work bought my wife's Tacoma so I see it everyday. It is still in good shape and way cleaner than when we had it and took it to the mountains every other week.
I wish I knew what happened to my '79 Dodge Lil' Red Express truck. Sold it to my in-laws when I was desparate for $$, thinking I'd buy it back within the year. When I mentioned it to the (now ex)wife shortly after, she said they had already sold it to cover the house payment on their rental house when the renters were late.
I would have taken out a berkeleying loan to pay what I'm sure they got for it.
Not so much sellers remorse, but I had a 1991 240SX SE trunk model with the HUD, 5 lug/Q45 brake swap. It was totaled by a tractor and would have been repairable, if I had the money at the time to buy back the salvage, but I was broke and newly-wed so I took the insurance check and cried myself to sleep.
I think the worst thing one can do is give a brother or sister a sweetheart deal on a car. Like many others here, that's what got me. "She needs a car really bad, and that Neon R/T is a great little car. Everybody wins". It was a near-perfect RT, with less than 100k on the clock. I practically gave it away, and it was ground into dust within six months.
I don't blame her. I blame myself for not seeing it coming. Every prior car was beat into the ground which is why she was hard-up for a car in the first place. I shoulda known better.
This thread is a great demonstration of why I don't sell cars to family members or people I know, and generally try to sell out of town... So far, I've been successful with that, and I think I'm done buying and selling cars for awhile now. Only one I wonder about really was my 1994 Z28, black over grey cloth, T tops, 80k miles, sport package, and zero rust. It looked fresh off the showroom floor, except for a small paint crack on the front bumper. Sold it about a year ago, and it really was one of the nicer examples out there. Had a poorly installed procharger kit on it when I got it, and I returned it to stock. Purchased by a LEO in Indianapolis somewhere as a weekend driver, so hopefully it is still being taken care of.
I guess I've been lucky. I've only see the fate of 1 of my ex cars, a miata, and the buyer kept it in great shape and in fact it was a little better than when I sold it to her. She drove it for a few years and then traded it in on a Fusion as she wanted something bigger for a daily driver.
5 cars I killed and sent to the junkyard with mega miles and a broken something or traded in and never heard from again.
I've had something like 3 dozen cars over the years. A lot have gone off for scrap but I've only ever seen two after they've sold. One was a Fiero that looked the same as when I sold it. The other was a Civic hatchback that the new owner was in the process of ricing out pretty hard.
Like others have said, once I've got the money they can do what they please with it. My automotive ADD prevents me from getting too attached.
Years ago I had a 1961 Pontiac Bonneville convertible. It was a nice 20 footer - not show quality by any means but it looked decent and ran great. the funny thing is I was able to follow its history for years after I sold it.
I sold it to a guy in Wisconsin, who later sold it to someone in Chicago, who later sold it to someone in Louisville, who later sold it to someone in Long Island, and every time it sold I just happened to see the for sale ad (the first couple sales were in the Car Trader magazine, and then when the internet came along it appeared on eBay a couple times.) I contacted the guy in Long Island; I was happy to hear he was planning a frame off restoration, so I sent him some old photos and some history on the car. Unfortunately I lost contact with him, hopefully he got the restoration done.
I traded in my '88 Accord LXi 5-speed coupe on a 1970 Impala. Couple months later the guy that bought it totaled it while running from the cops in Chattanooga - before he made the first payment.
Oh yeah, whoever bought my Miata took the GRM banner off the hardtop's back window, which I thought was kinda crappy of them.
My Grandfather had an immaculate white Lincoln Town Car when he died. I think my dad and uncle wound up selling it to the neighbor. Afterwards, the guy came with a sob story that the battery had died, and he could use $100 on it.
The next week it was rolling on dubs.
scardeal wrote: My Grandfather had an immaculate white Lincoln Town Car when he died. I think my dad and uncle wound up selling it to the neighbor. Afterwards, the guy came with a sob story that the battery had died, and he could use $100 on it. The next week it was rolling on dubs.
A hund-o a month will rent you some nice rims.
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