Sold the Porsche

I finally sold the Porsche after five months of trying half-heartedly. A gay guy from Pompano bought it. He called me on Thursday and said he’d be in town Friday and would like to see it. I’ve grown accustomed to people saying they were coming and then never hearing from them again. So when he called again Friday and said he was an hour away, I was surprised. I had intended to get it washed earlier that day, but didn’t have a lot of time or confidence that he was coming. So I gave it a quick wash myself to knock the dust off.

He was a car guy and really knew his stuff. I like these types as I don’t have to waste bunch of time introducing them to the car. He already knew all the strengths and weaknesses, so he just wanted to validate the condition (which was excellent) and take it for a spin. I even learned a few things about the car. For example, I never knew that there was a switch in the foot well to manually control the spoiler. This would have come in handy for those times when I would slow down to pass a cop but still had my speed-activated spoiler up like a big “Look at me, I was going over 75” sign.

Finding the buyer was a real pain. It would have been real nice if Carmax would have given me a decent offer for it. Unfortunately, they detected the body work and branded it unworthy so they would only give me what they thought they could get at auction. Annoying, but it is nice to see they have such high standards for their retail cars. I ended up selling privately for 50% more than they offered.

I tried listing in the Tampa newspapers first. You can submit ads over the web which was real convenient. It was like $200 to list for four weeks. One guy came to see the car as a result of that ad. He was an older guy buying a vacation home here. He knew his cars too and drove real well on the test drive. He said he was very interested, but I never heard from him again.

I tried AutoTrader next. This generated lots of traffic, but very few serious folks. Many people would email to ask if I still had the vehicle. I would reply that I did and would never hear from them again. Other than the guy who bought it, AutoTrader only generated one other actual visit and he was a screwball. Showed up drunk and tried to lowball me.

It really pisses me off what some people think passes for negotiation. I can’t remember how many people started the conversation asking what my “bottom dollar” is. By the end, I’d stopped even replying to these people. I thought the price I was asking was a good deal and expected it to go for that. In the end, I sold it for 93% of my asking price after being listed for 5 months.

Cars are a bad deal. I knew this of course. I got a great deal on the car to begin with. I haven’t figured out exactly how much it cost me to own it for those 18 months, but it wasn’t that bad. Worrying about keeping it nice, finding a buyer, depreciation, insurance… I sold it because it wasn’t worth it to me anymore.

On the one hand I miss the car – it was a lot of fun to drive; but on the other hand I’m glad to be free of it. I’ll have to have enough money not to care about getting it back out of the car to have another nice one. Like the guys that drive the real nice cars in Manhattan and get dings and scratches all over them. You know they’ve gotta have some coin. It kills me to see a new Carrera parked at the curb in New York with scratches on the bumper from some stupid taxi.

I’ve still got the Grand Prix I bought when I was 19 and I’ll drive that until it dies. It’s a reliable car and worth way more to me than anything I could get for it. But man that new G35 sure is looking sweet…