OT - got shown the door in the rudest way
 

I accompanied a fellow mbshopper to see a 91 350SD at a used lot/European car indy this afternoon. We pressed for a best price but the guy insisted on an offer. We took his asking price and subtracted for ACC inop (as in only the blower works), aux fan inop (fan wires bundled with electrical tape behing the left headlight) and bent rod unknown since he couldn't build any confidence in us that it's a good engine. Bascially we offered half the asking price though admittedly the rest of the car did not show its age or ~160K miles. To our surprise, the guy slammed the hood and said "Get f--- out of here!" He got in the car to move it back in line all the while yelling things with "f--- you" and "m----- f-----" in between. Boy, if that's not the last thing you expect from a professional. How bad a day can someone have? Why not close shop for the day if things are going so wrong?

Lemme tell you though, there's a reason people put up with bent rods. That car would leave a 126 300SE in it's wake. Smooth and quiet off the line with just a puff of smoke as it pulls away.

Sixto
87 300D

So what was his asking price?

Now, seriously, can you really characterize a used car dealer as a "professional"?

Yes, in the true sense of the word, he's a professional because he makes a living at that profession, but, these DB's are usually the lowest life form on the planet. Even if he's polite to you, he's thinking of how to rip you off for the maximum amount of money.

I don't see any surprise in such behavior..........it simply shows the person for who he really is...........a used car dealer.;)

Since he cussed us out and we didn't do anything to instigate nor retaliate...

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/car/689289029.html

Sixto
87 300D

The last thing a car salesman wants to deal with is an informed buyer. They would much prefer to have an emotion-driven buyer.

It's a good looking vehicle, and it's probably worth $6K if he fixed the a/c.

Yes, I can see that he wouldn't take kindly to $4K.............they're not amused by lowball offers..........oh well.........

I have pissed a few people off by lowballing. I usually have a real good idea what a person will take for something before I offer and then drop below that. So say a guy is asking $600 for something but I figure he will take $500. I will offer him $400 and come up to $500.

That being said, I do not for any reason buy or even look at cars at car lots.

Thats one nice looking SD, even for a 91

WOW!!! You guys are hard on Used Car Dealers. I agree NO ONE should be cussed at. It's un-professional and uncalled for. If you really low-balled the price then he should of said thank you and moved on or laughed. But to actually cuss... No excuse.

If he's looking for $8K, he's probably got about $5K into it (from a dealer trade or an auction), so he's not going to take $4K. I agree with Brian, he should fix the ACC and the fan and hold out for about $6-7K.

Yelling at potential customers won't help his case. He should have asked how much you would pay if he fixed those items, and started negotiating from there.

we could all call the number and keep asking about the car and saying stuff

LOL:D:D:D

Been there, done that, working through college.
When you have a car for sale, and somebody lowballs you, you counter, period. Ready, willing, and able is a buyer, and the only objection you have is price, so he's a buyer, you negotiate untill you find a mutually acceptable price or reach an impasse, then you part with a friendly goodbye and hand the buyer a card in case he decides to try again or has a friend he can send you.

This salesman was clearly not professional.

We lowballed a couple cars about a month ago, first was a 240d in pretty nice shape but it had many small issues. Interior needed a few repairs, idle control knob was broken, vacuum issues, all gauges did not work (well, the engine temp did :rolleyes: ) But overall it was a pretty nice car. Mileage was unknown but it ran nice (for a 240).....he wanted $2500 :eek:....we said how about $1400 (a very reasonable price for the car based on all it would need) He just looked depressed and said he couldn't go that low as he had already that much into getting it "up to snuff".....so we said that its never going to sell with all the issues it has for that price and he disagreed. So we left.....I checked there about 5 weeks later, its still on the lot. :D :rolleyes: Oh well.

Another car we looked at was an "ok" 300TE....it drove nice, and ran well, but all the windows were non functional and it had some cosmetic issues and the hatch did not open. Also it had pretty high miles for a gasser (225k)....He wanted $1800....we offered $1100....he said he couldn't go that low.....he was very professional about it, and we left.

No more looking at cars though as we have our awesome 300SD deal in the garage right now. :D :D

What I've experienced as a response to an unreasonably low offer is a similarly unreasonable alternative. "I can't sell you this 91 350SD for $X. What we have in that price range is a 380SE with twice as many miles." I know what he wants me to do with an MB logo but it's a far cry from saying it :)

The last thing I should do is glorify the experience by dwelling on it, but it all stems from the airs they put on about being a European car indy offering a premium car and not noting in the ad that something as basic as AC isn't working. To me, he was hoping we wouldn't check or ask. So basically he beat us to the profanity :)

Sixto
87 300D

Some guy on CL got mad at me for lowballing him once. He was selling a 240D with a bunch of issues: high miles, AC inop, just-OK interior, etc. He was asking $3,000! I offered him $1,000 and told him that he will NEVER get $3,000 for a 240 in that condition. He got all huffy and said, "It's a MERCEDES! It's worth that." I then told him that the absolute most he'd ever get for that car was $1,500, and that if he wants to sell it fast (which he claimed he did) he should put it at $1,500. He again got mad at the suggestion, so I just left.

The next week, another ad on CL, then a new one about every 2-3 weeks:
$2,750 then
$2,500 then
$2,250 then
$2,000 then
$1,750, finally
$1,500.
After he put it at $1,500 I didn't see the ad again. He could have just listened to me but instead he wasted about 4 months coming to the realization that I was right.

The listing is already off CL.

If I'm paying cash, you can expect the first offer to be in the dirt! I'm looking and I can keep looking, besides, I view my cash as green and portable. I do this with houses, cars, boats, guns, or critters. My wife keeps telling me, "you are just going to make them mad!". Heck, I'm not trying to make friends, I'm trying to buy something at my price and I don't really care if they get do mad.

It took a few months to buy this TD because...my neighbor will pay more, I just put 700 bucks into it, it's worth much more than you're offering. My answers were ...1. sell it to him, 2. I don't care, 3. no, it's not, it's worth what I, the buyer, think it's worth! In the end, I got it for 300 less than I offered the first time.

One of the things that pains me most in life is for a seller to jump on my first offer....geeez, I could have gone even lower! Start way low, it's easy to come up.

Was the car listed by Barooni Inports? If so its been relisted this AM:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/car/699654871.html

Somebody call him and offer him $500 for it... please record the conversation for us.

I bought my 82 300SD for a steal. $500.00

Sure, it had/has a few issues, but for me that's all part of the fun. I like working on it, so I don't mind. I may even do a WVO kit from greasecar.com at some point.

wow, you overpaid! my 83 was 150 less than that!!!thbbb I got my 82 for FREE!!!
... now for all the issues... wheeee!

lowballing
 

Just make your offer, politely and calmly. Don't tell the guy "it will never sell for that much" etc. Only a jerkoff would say that. You are insulting him, and will never make a deal that way. I've found the best way to lowball is to take the money out of your pocket, hold it right in front of him, ask "will you take XXX for it" and SHUT UP. Keep holding the money in front of him until he either takes it out of your hand (which means you have a deal) or he says says no. Money talks, everything else is BS.

When i bought my wagon, the asking price was $1500. I offered $750 and settled at $900

Sent my brother in law who has no interest in older cars to bid on a 48 ford in pretty good condition. If I would have gone the guy would have tried to jack the price. The last vehicle I wanted to buy from him he stated I could afford the elevated price.
Anyways told the brother in law to offer 2k. Brother in law offered 200.00. The reaction was volcanic I was told. I asked him why he offered the 200.00 instead of what I told him to. He said the car was pretty old and could not be worth 2.000.00 dollars so he bid 200.00. Car sold for 1800.00 and left town. This was a few years ago before prices really escallated.
What is even worst I did a quick repair on a nice 50 ford coupe. He did not mention it was for sale. Perhaps I should have mentioned I might be interested. It was sold the next day for 1,000.00 and was a nice low milage example. If nothing else it taught me to ask if something is for sale. This too goes back quite a few years.
I do not miss them all but decent deals (steals) seem far apart these days. May be my technique. Or I am just not stumbling into them as much.
Last one around two years ago with low milage. A 300d not running yet in really clean low milage shape. You can never be certain but the indicated 160k seems easily possible. Looks like it has not even been sat in. Five hundred and the problems were caused by an obstructed tank vent. Also had to remove and repair the starter. He had cranked it till he killed it. Steering is still the tightest of any example of this model I have ever driven. Car is just generally super tight in comparison to some of my other mercedes diesels. He took my reasonable offer. :)

I would say what you say to the person also depends a lot on who you're talking to. While it's "jerkoff"ish to tell many people, "It'll never sell for that," if (as in the case of the story I told earlier in the thread) it's a kid who inherited the car from his grandma, just wants to get rid of it (and fast), and whose knowledge of Mercedes extends to "they're nice", you can save them a lot of time and money by simply letting them know ahead of time what they should expect to get for their car (the high range). If the kid had listened to what I had told him in the first place he would have sold the car in a week instead of 4 months.

Yes, but now this experience make the kid wiser....
Some lessons are better learned the hard way.

Jim