Ms Fifikins

This is another one of my 101 in 1001 tasks I can cross off.

I actually did this 11 days ago and it ha taken me all this time to work out how to report it. It wasn’t the most pleasant experience of my life.

In an ideal world I would have been organised enough to sell my car 12 months ago. But I didn’t. In an ideal world I would have used the proceeds from the sale of the car on something nice, like a new bike or a family holiday! But I couldn’t.

I was forced to sell my car to pay an important bill. And I don’t begrudge that I had to pay this bill as I am receiving a wonderful service, but I would have preferred to not have to pay it. And on this matter cryptic will I stay…

I went around selling my car the wrong way. I will admit that. Actually it wasn’t necessarily the wrong way, but not the way that was going to get me the most dollars in my pocket. I could have advertised in the local paper, or on eBay or CarSales.com.au. But I chose not to. I didn’t want people coming to my house to look at the car, waste time test driving and then deciding they didn’t want it.

That’s not the wrong way though. I made the mistake of only visiting one dealer. I suspect this used car salesman knew that if you were lubed up enough you don’t even notice when you are being so badly screwed up the backside with a rusty bollard.

I had done some research and seen how much most cars of my model and year were going for. This was a 3 year old car that had only done 24,000km. It had sat in my garage for the last 15 months as I have a work car. Yes, it did have some paint damage from going over the high gutters in Cairns and from the odd stone chip and some bat poo had left a small mark on the roof. I chose not to spend money fixing this myself. I paid to have it washed and vacuumed and it came up well.

I even had a value in my head that I was happy to accept. In the end I accepted $2,500 less than what I wanted. I was talked into selling and was really discouraged from looking around. I didn’t know how to say ‘Please, I want my keys back and I want to think about it.’ I was so desperate to pay this bill that I accepted the first offer.

Yes, it leaves a bitter taste and does nothing to enhance the reputation of used car salesmen. I suspect what I was offered was probably what I would have got elsewhere within a few hundred dollars. What pisses me is that even after the paintwork has been fixed (probably around $800 for a cut and polish?) it is now sitting in the yard $5,000 more than what I got for it. No doubt someone will buy it and get them down a couple of grand and think they got a great deal. I know even used car salesmen need to make money, but I know I have been had.

I’ll just keep telling myself that I did it the easy way!