You get a lead on a car, but....

I recently finished getting a Datsun Roadster back on the road.  It's a driver, now a polished driver.  I am not going to "restore" , paint or put any thing in the car above what it as absorbed of my willingness to spend on it.  I have spent more on this car for parts than I paid for the car.  Yes, everyone is giving me a thumbs up.  I, am not quite over the sting of what it has taken to get to this point.

Then I get a lead on a 1973 Datsun 240 Z, 113000 miles .  It's a three owner automatic. Repainted in white, from the stock silver. The seats are recovered, not stock.  The dash is covered by a dash mat, the original is cracked.  As they all are.  The car is in a garage, one spring on the garage door is broken. The husband passed 5 years ago. The car is not quite a driver.  The asking price is way above anything I would be willing to counter.

Now what?  I will thank her for the pictures.  I will not go see the car. I have found that the more time I am educating people the more unhappy they end up.  The carburetors on the '73 are not the round top's, unless they were upgraded....

I thank them and then just say that we're too far apart to go further but let me know if anything changes.

jr02518 said:

I have found that the more time I am educating people the more unhappy they end up.

This is a bittersweet realization. I end up unhappy, too. It's too natural for me to try to be helpful, and too easy to tell a seller all the things a buyer would want to know or would have to address, but ultimately it's just a waste of my time and often arms a shifty seller with the information they need to deceive a buyer. My wife called me on it after I did a PPI on an old Celica we were looking at, then gave the seller a laundry list of everything that was wrong with it. No charge, ma'am, and I hope you find a buyer soon...

Now what?  I will thank her for the pictures.  I will not go see the car. I have found that the more time I am educating people the more unhappy they end up.  The carburetors on the '73 are not the round top's, unless they were upgraded....

Been there many times , someone has polluted the water saying how much that Barnfind is worth  , without any knowledge of what it takes to make it a safe car again.

if you lowball them , you just soften them up for the next guy to bid a little more and get it , 

it is really a no win situation , I would  tell her your offer because it needs x , y and z and you still do not know what the engine or trans is like.

Good Luck 

It's not my job to educate someone on the value of something they own, just as it's not your job to educate me on the value of something I own. You will not win in that situation, you'll just come off looking like an shiny happy person. 

Agreed.  I've also found that if a seller won't tell you their asking price, just walk away.  What they think it's worth in their mind is far more than reality and any offer you make will insult them and cause all sorts of problems.  Btdt.

"Thanks for thinking of me and for the pictures, but that's not what I am thinking of for my next project right now. I will pass the word if I run across anyone that might be interested. Let me know if you sell it or if the price changes so I am not passing on bad info."

I once told a seller I'd be interested in a car when he was asking "a less ambitious price".  He actually did call me some time later and offered it to me for real money instead of fantasy money. But, he also wanted it gone on a timeline I couldn't make happen, so no deal.

True story:  I bought that car from the guy he sold it to, for the price I originally wanted to pay.