This kinda bummed me out. Looking for ways to approach this. There was this nice clean 71 4-door 'Lark that I kept driving by on the way to my Grandfather's. Looked like a real original old lady car, and it was rust free. One day I left a note on it to please call me if it ever went up for sale. That was 16+ months ago. I got a call last month from the guy saying that he was interested in selling it, but he didn't know what the thing was worth. After doing some digging, I told him that it was probably worth about $500 to me, and he said that he was still interested in selling it. I went by the car, looked at it, and took lots of pictures, and decided that it is what I need. It's a rust-free Texas car that he has owned for over 10 years, and he got the car from his aunt (the original owner) with 10k miles on it. It's got a nice trunk floor (the part I need) and there's enough clean parts I could sell off of it to make it worth my time. I could drive this car for 5-6 months and then start cutting it up to restore my 70 GS, and I could probably hold off on getting my wife a new car for that time too. Perfect. So, I went by there Saturday with Cash in hand to test drive the car and buy it. I called him 3 hours ahead of time, and I get there and he has the front of the motor apart and he's putting a new water pump on it. Not the sort of thing you would expect someone to do if they are planning on selling a car. I gave him 2 phone numbers to get a hold of me on Saturday, and he never called me back. I tried calling him twice Saturday night, and he never picked up. I didn't say a word about cutting the thing up, but I did tell him the truth - I like old Buicks, I would love to drive this one, and we need a different car so we can sell my wife's. I'd hate to be a pest to the guy, but I really want this car. It would help me out all around. I'll be in the area again for turkey day, and I would like to seal the deal. Any thoughts on how to approach this? Thanks! - Freed
I agree, but... Money never came up in the conversation on Saturday. I brought $600+ with me just in case it did. - Freed
Next time you are in the area (at a reasonable timenon holiday) knock on the door and see if he answers. If he answers the door be polite and ask if you offended him in some manner. Politely discuss any differences and explain to him how much you like the car and were hoping the two of you could still work a deal out. Be prepared to leave with the car. Do not spend any more time with him except to complete the deal. Do not try to engage in idle chitchat or be overly complimentary. If he does not answer the door leave a short note containing the above information and a time when it is easy to reach you. Thank him for his time.
try try again Well your first mistake was leaving him when he was working on the car you should have offered to help and talk about it then, then tell him you brought the money for the car and pay him what it cost for the pump, some old people are funny with the situation, they fell bad because you caught them fixing a problem, so now you have to be real nice and gain there trust and tell him you work on cars all the time, he will feel better to hear that and think if you have a problem with the car you can fix it and you will be happy with it, I did this acouple of times with older people, I even had to do this for a friend many years ago to get a 70 electra, so be cool and even offer the old man money for the water pump, good luck and may the force be with you thanks Dan. GSXPRESS@MSN.COM:TU:
Sometimes when a person gets around a car that has sat for a long time they start reminicing. They get the urge to "finish" the car and start driving it again. I remember this almost happened with my convertible. The guy wanted to take one last look at it before I loaded it. I pretended not to listen and threw it on the trailer. I let him take his look AFTER I strapped it down!:TU:
