The Maple has dropped a tapestry in our yard.

Buying a Car

   I used Craigslist again.  I sold my van using Craigslist so why not.  Actually, I had been using C to look for vehicles for several weeks.  I explored many other sites on the web, but none were as straight forward as C.  The others seemed need more work to search and were filled with advertising.

     During the research period R and I did visit several of dealerships.  The front runners were Mini, Chevy HHR, Scion XB, Honda Element, and the Toyota Prius.  After driving both a new and used Prius, it became our number one.  We both liked how it drove, how it felt (it was comfortable for R) and the idea of a hybrid.

    Back to Craigslist for more searching.  I found a couple of 2005s with 70K in the Portland area that sounded good, but not good enough to travel the two hours just to drive it.  Our schedule would but us in Portland the following week and if the cars were still available, then we would drive them.  I did come to the conclusion that cars, new and used, are plentiful.  Except for a few special collector models there are always many to choose from.  So we were relaxed about the process.

   Car dealers, however, aren’t so relaxed.  They are there to get that car sold.  As I was searching and asking questions about various vehicles, I received lots of emails and calls trying to “answer any questions I may have”  “When are you going to come and take a test drive?”

    It was Saturday, Oct 30^th and I checked C list again and the same blue 2008 Prius was still for sale at a local dealership.  I called.  “ Is it still available? “  “Yes”  “What is the price?”   “Just a minute.”   After a minute I was quoted a price, I decided to go out on a limb and told the sales guy, “If you lower the price by $2000, I will buy the car.”   “I will talk to my boss and call you back”, was the reply.

    Five minutes later the phone rang.  “My boss said that we have had the car for 63 days and it’s time to move it.  If you buy it this month, you have a deal.”  I agreed with the stipulation that we still needed to come down and see and drive it before we approved of the deal.  We did and we did.  A couple of hours and signatures and initials on many sheets of paper later, we drove it home.

Selling a Car

 I went the Craigslist route.  Good choice.  Easy to list your vehicle, which I did.  Easy to update during the process.  Easy to control the responses, whether you choose to list your phone number or just have them respond to the listing.  Oddly enough I only had one response, but that was the guy who eventually bought the car.  He called me and I gave him more information about the car.  He asked for my best price and I told him and hung up.  Two days later he called and said that he and his wife were driving down from Portland ( about a two hour drive) to drive the car.  I told him ok but the car price had not changed.

    Two hours later he showed up and I showed the two of them the van.  I could not tell if they were excited or not.  After I took down his name, address, and drivers license number I let them take a test drive.  They were gone quite a while and when they came back said that they wanted the car but at a lower price.  I had decided ahead of time that if the car did not sell at decent price I was going to keep it for a while longer and try again later.  So I was not in a dickering mood.  I stuck firm on the price I had quoted on the phone.  The negotiation broke down and the two of them went back to their car and I want into the back yard to cut some limbs.  A few minutes later, his wife called my name and came around and handed me an envelope with the correct amount of cash in it.  The van is gone.  

     The next day I went to the bank and put the cash into our checking account.  The teller, who told me she had only been there two weeks and had to check if she needed approval to accept cash.  I just smiled.   It was OK.

  Good bye, Venture