Oli77
08-25-2018, 12:04 PM
I am selling my enthusiast-maintained ZSP and get a text this morning about the car on a local NextDoor neighborhood app my wife used to place the add last night.
Gotta share this story. Texts to meet at a parking lot. Show up, and a older lady comes out of the passenger side of 2017 Honda Civic. She says she is the one interested in the car. So I say this is for you? and she turns and points the the Honda and says no, for my husband. The older gentleman had been stuck in the driver's side of his car since I had arrived. "He takes some time to get out, but he's coming".
It's for him. The guy is ~75 years old and he tells me he "wants a toy". So I turn the conversation towards the idea that the car is low, tight, a bit hard, and may be difficult for him to get out. He brushes it off. He wants to drop the price by %500 but I don't budge because brand new brakes, new tires, and second set of winter tires/wheels. So he says OK. Sits down in it very slowly. Realizes its a manual.
Note to self: Don't assume people know what 5MT means in the title of he add, only knuckleheads like you do!
Soooo, he smiles and starts to dig that a lot. I ask if he is comfy with clutch, brake, accelerator etc... says "i'll get used to it, done it before". He asks to see the engine. Show him and we talk. He is not much of a gear head and not too knowledgeable about cars or BMWs but he "wants a toy". So I tell them it's a sporty car, it's well-maintained, etc.. All along thinking no way he can drive my car. Are we gonna wreck? Is he going to know what to do? Man is old you understand? he moves real slow.
After 10 minutes of question I offer to take them on a ride so they can feel the bumps and the tightness of it all. Wife says go on along and just drive him back home. OK. I drive him around, he digs. He can tell the suspension, the chassis, the whole thing is not your 1960's Buick. It's hard steel German engineering, tight, made for rolling well. He is not interested in speed at all. We talk about cornering and 50/50 weight distribution. He is lost. So I take a sharp righthander and he smiles and laughs and says I want it. I am buying this car, now when can we meet to go to the County Clerk to buy this car?
He is in love with the car. Doesn't understand what he is getting. Just wants a "garage queen", "will never take it out in the rain, or snow". I don't think he will we drive it much at all. So we stop in a parking lot and trade places. He doesn't know were reverse is (feel like testing his skills in reverse where there is nothing behind us is the safest at this point), I show him, can't find it, I push on it with him and he realize the strength it takes to push it left. He evntually gets it in. ... smooth back 10 meters. First gear, yup, we go ... all good. Then on the road (stall #1), then long first gear to a stop, then heavy foot first to fourth, "You are in fourth", . but at 35 mph then decide he should go to third... rev high but clean. "I think I will leave it in third a lot". good idea.
I then had to remind him about the clutch and neutral when we arrived at a stop sign and again, when we arrive at his house.
Talked a lot more. Wife is not into it all, but man, he is.
Will update if this comes through but isn't that weird? He absolutely loves it wants it and got his jellies from driving this car. He wants to own it.
Should I sell it to him if he calls back?
Gotta share this story. Texts to meet at a parking lot. Show up, and a older lady comes out of the passenger side of 2017 Honda Civic. She says she is the one interested in the car. So I say this is for you? and she turns and points the the Honda and says no, for my husband. The older gentleman had been stuck in the driver's side of his car since I had arrived. "He takes some time to get out, but he's coming".
It's for him. The guy is ~75 years old and he tells me he "wants a toy". So I turn the conversation towards the idea that the car is low, tight, a bit hard, and may be difficult for him to get out. He brushes it off. He wants to drop the price by %500 but I don't budge because brand new brakes, new tires, and second set of winter tires/wheels. So he says OK. Sits down in it very slowly. Realizes its a manual.
Note to self: Don't assume people know what 5MT means in the title of he add, only knuckleheads like you do!
Soooo, he smiles and starts to dig that a lot. I ask if he is comfy with clutch, brake, accelerator etc... says "i'll get used to it, done it before". He asks to see the engine. Show him and we talk. He is not much of a gear head and not too knowledgeable about cars or BMWs but he "wants a toy". So I tell them it's a sporty car, it's well-maintained, etc.. All along thinking no way he can drive my car. Are we gonna wreck? Is he going to know what to do? Man is old you understand? he moves real slow.
After 10 minutes of question I offer to take them on a ride so they can feel the bumps and the tightness of it all. Wife says go on along and just drive him back home. OK. I drive him around, he digs. He can tell the suspension, the chassis, the whole thing is not your 1960's Buick. It's hard steel German engineering, tight, made for rolling well. He is not interested in speed at all. We talk about cornering and 50/50 weight distribution. He is lost. So I take a sharp righthander and he smiles and laughs and says I want it. I am buying this car, now when can we meet to go to the County Clerk to buy this car?
He is in love with the car. Doesn't understand what he is getting. Just wants a "garage queen", "will never take it out in the rain, or snow". I don't think he will we drive it much at all. So we stop in a parking lot and trade places. He doesn't know were reverse is (feel like testing his skills in reverse where there is nothing behind us is the safest at this point), I show him, can't find it, I push on it with him and he realize the strength it takes to push it left. He evntually gets it in. ... smooth back 10 meters. First gear, yup, we go ... all good. Then on the road (stall #1), then long first gear to a stop, then heavy foot first to fourth, "You are in fourth", . but at 35 mph then decide he should go to third... rev high but clean. "I think I will leave it in third a lot". good idea.
I then had to remind him about the clutch and neutral when we arrived at a stop sign and again, when we arrive at his house.
Talked a lot more. Wife is not into it all, but man, he is.
Will update if this comes through but isn't that weird? He absolutely loves it wants it and got his jellies from driving this car. He wants to own it.
Should I sell it to him if he calls back?