Oldengineer
Member
I’m disappointed. I’m in the process of selling my wife’s 2006 Mazda Miata MX-5. I advertised in on Autotrader with many in-focus pictures showing a 35K miles pristine hangar queen. I priced it at full retail value ($12,500).
Within hours I had 7 different out of state area code texts saying they wanted to see it the next day, followed by a demand that I provide a history report from only THEIR source. In addition, the use of the English language was just OFF. Their plan was for me to buy a report that allowed access to my credit card information. After the second polite interchange, I rather impolitely dismissed them. Interesting scam.
Following this was a real buyer looking for a reliable car for his college son. All went well with the meet and greet and inspection. He put $500 down, pending a mechanical inspection at a shop of his choosing. Yesterday the MX-5 was inspected and no functional issues were identified as expected. What they did try to pull was the dirty fluid money grab. They wanted approximately $800 to change the differential, transmission, and power steering fluids, and recharge the AC. All based on subjective analysis by them.
Having spent 42 years as a Ford engineer, planner, director, and Vice President, my guess was that I had forgotten more about cars than they will ever know. I politely declined the unscheduled maintenance, called the buyer and shared what was going on. He agreed with me and only paid for the inspection cost.
My disappointment is the amount of dishonesty in the market place today. I’m programmed to do business under an umbrella of trust and respect until proven otherwise. I busted these guys and they didn’t like it. I won’t repeat the final verbal interchange with the owner. So very sad. .As always, I was armed!
Within hours I had 7 different out of state area code texts saying they wanted to see it the next day, followed by a demand that I provide a history report from only THEIR source. In addition, the use of the English language was just OFF. Their plan was for me to buy a report that allowed access to my credit card information. After the second polite interchange, I rather impolitely dismissed them. Interesting scam.
Following this was a real buyer looking for a reliable car for his college son. All went well with the meet and greet and inspection. He put $500 down, pending a mechanical inspection at a shop of his choosing. Yesterday the MX-5 was inspected and no functional issues were identified as expected. What they did try to pull was the dirty fluid money grab. They wanted approximately $800 to change the differential, transmission, and power steering fluids, and recharge the AC. All based on subjective analysis by them.
Having spent 42 years as a Ford engineer, planner, director, and Vice President, my guess was that I had forgotten more about cars than they will ever know. I politely declined the unscheduled maintenance, called the buyer and shared what was going on. He agreed with me and only paid for the inspection cost.
My disappointment is the amount of dishonesty in the market place today. I’m programmed to do business under an umbrella of trust and respect until proven otherwise. I busted these guys and they didn’t like it. I won’t repeat the final verbal interchange with the owner. So very sad. .As always, I was armed!
