Somewhat VW related - I listed my Dad's 127K Toyota Sienna for sale with a bad trans and a CEL (you'd think he drove an Audi) for $1200. The van is only worth about $4K in good condition and the trans and catatonic perverter will run close to $2500 to repair/replace. I think I've had 50 emails, some with "I'll pay $3000 NOW - cash in-hand". Absolutely amazing - I'm one of those old-fashioned people - first come, first served so I dealt with the first contact who immediately offered $1800. My initial reply was "Why exactly would you pay $600 OVER my asking price?" His reply was "My sister needs a car and I can fix it" - fine and reasonable but I still don't see why one would want to over-pay.
In any case, I showed him the van and we agreed on my original asking price - duh!! I know the vehicle's worth AND the cost of making the repairs - this may be a Yota but I've been around cars for a little while. IMHO, the only thing the van has going for it is that Dad's the original owner and it's nice to say "Driven my an 84 yr old widower" when selling the car. Now comes the good part...as I said, I'm old-fashioned so I emailed everyone and said "Got an offer - consider it sold". To that, I rec'd 6-8 "I'll beat that offer" replies. What kinds of scumbags are these people? A deal's a deal - I'm happy to get rid of the van at a fair price - don't need to screw people as I'd hope that they don't do that to me. Finally - the VW-related part. A friend, a VW master-tech, dumped 2 Mk4 Jettas at my house last spring. 1 is a GLX Wagon VR6 slush-o-matic with all the bells and whistles and 1 is a GLS Sedan 2.Slow 5 speed. As part of his evil plot to get me out of antique VWs, he got "otherwise occupied" and the cars were just sitting. The damn things tempted and taunted me with their heated seats, working a/c and soft, cushy ride. When my Dad wanted a smaller car (he's actually wanted a smaller car since my Mom passed away), I looked into my yard and said "Hey, want a nice Jetta wagon?" The car came with a replacement motor (the original fell fate to the typical VR6 timing chain failure) which some friends helped me install. For $4K, Dad's going to be stylin' and profilin' in an Indigo Blue Jetta Wagon - won't he be the envy of the Senior Citizen's Centre ;) Matthew
