• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Frustration !!!

Share this page

kyreb1862

kyreb1862

Jedi Knight
Offline
I have been trying for almost two weeks now to make a deal with a person that doesn't know what they want for their car but, when I make an offer I am simply told that the offer isn't high enough. I am never given a counter proposal so I have no idea what to offer back. I think I'm about to give up. Its a shame to because a potentialy nice MGB RB is going to sit in a driveway and rot away. Ok, rant over. Anyone else ever have this problem?

Regards John
 
Some folks simply like to haggle. At any rate, it's a pretty good idea to have a car purchase "budget". You gotta know what your purchase limit is, the max amount you will pay for the car.

If he's balking, offer him about 90% of your upper limit. Then walk away. Call him a little while later and make the final, highest offer.

If that isn't good enough for the seller, then simply wait for the next nice car to come along. And, it will.

Some sellers who play this game actually don't really want to sell, they're just testing the waters to see what the car is "worth". /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif

Don't waste your time on the guy, there's always another car. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif

Good luck, let us know . . .
 
I think Mark nailed it -- there are more cars out there with reasonable buyers. Offer him what the car is worth to you. If he turns it down, then find another seller.
 
This is a problem you'll run into often as you look for another car. I've seen cars rusting away to nothing and the owner still sees the car they enjoyed many years ago before somethig quit and they couldn't drive it anymore. They just won't budge off their price, or simply don't have one. It is funny how another car will find you if you keep looking.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]I have been trying for almost two weeks now to make a deal with a person that doesn't know what they want for their car but, when I make an offer I am simply told that the offer isn't high enough. I am never given a counter proposal so I have no idea what to offer back. [/QUOTE]
Write your final & highest offer on the back of your business card & explain that's what it is...put a date there also & tell him that's how long the offer stands...tell him you'll return with the cash and a trailer anytime before that date...& walk away.

Don't look over your shoulder as you walk away....don't hesitate....get in your car & as you drive away, forget about the little car....its death is on his shoulder, not yours.
 
He knows what he wants for the car; by not telling you what that is or counter offering, he's hoping he'll frustrate you into upping your offer so much that it goes over what he wants for it. Don't bite on it. There's plenty of good cars out there; I would do what Tony suggested in regards to the offer written on the card.
 
It's either the above, or he really doesn't want to sell the car and is under duress to do so. "Well honey...I tried, really I tried...but no one wants to buy the car. We might as well keep it..."
 
I ran into that same problem with a chrome bumpered GT that I watched deteriorate for almost five years. I would stop in now and again and make an offer on the car. The real shame of it was that I eventually saw the car in my local junkyard, after it had totally gone to pot. I guess I should have done what Tony recommended.
 
That's exactly how I end up with so many of my cars - people get "seller's remorse" or wife starts hounding them & my card is their only fallback....you'd be surprised how many people call em months after I've left a card, when I've already forgotten about the car, to tell me I can come get it.

And never, ever negotiate from a disadvantage position (that's what you're doing - he holds all the cards)....remember what my granddad told me, "The guy who mentions money first, loses."

I always force them to make the first price...if they won't set a price, I walk...if I like their price, I pay it, if not I leave my card.
 
That's what happened with the TC I was looking at. I started low and would up back to where he started but in the long run, he did not sell and decided he wanted to grow old with it.
 
There are two MGBs for sale in the Richmond, Virginia newspaper. It's not that far from you. Check it out.
 
Back
Top