From candy corn to Lincoln Continentals, Craigslist is the ultimate Turkish bazaar. It’s an almost universally accessible free market for millions of folks who once paid (and paid) for the privilege of selling their own stuff.
From a pistonhead perspective, Craigslist seems to be a great place to buy and sell automobiles. Even a brief scan shows that the site offers a vehicle for every type of appliance seeker, enthusiast and hobbyist.
I have been using Craigslist as my site du jour for nearly nine years. During that time, I have sold more than two thousand vehicles through the service.
But I’m a pro, and I’m here to warn you that as the years have gone by, there’s now a lot more risk to pursuing that good deal.
While Craigslist offers free, instant access to an enormous quantity of listings and potential buyers, car buyers and sellers get very little honest information about the vehicle involved.
Vehicle Identification (VIN) numbers, ownership histories and other critical details regarding the car’s true condition (i.e. collisions, insurance claims, outstanding debt) are few and far between.
You can imagine what happens next…
I’ve seen cars from commercial auctions with salvage and rebuilt titles advertised on Craigslist with nary a mention of these issues. And that’s not the half of it.
You may remember that in the recent past, I mentioned the chronic issues with curbstoners in my neck of the woods. These are folks who often times buy vehicles from individuals, and try to sell them as their own… with the individual’s name usually still on the title and the bill of sale.
When the buyer winds up with a misrepresented vehicle, they are SOL. A bad title? Same deal. That ad which mentioned a new engine or transmission? Don’t bet on it.
Obviously, printed classifieds also offer (offered?) criminals a chance to find their marks. But just as the web makes commercial transactions vastly more efficient, Craigslist has made it easier for dangerous and devious douchebags to identify, lure and victimize their targets.
Crime thrives in the dark. Since Craigslist offers no feedback for buyers and sellers, the scrupulous seller who provides full disclosure on Craigslist is no more likely to find favor than the unscrupulous scammer whose car title is as genuine as a thirty-three dollar bill. Once a Craigslist user buys a vehicle, it’s done and that’s that. A dishonest seller can easily continue with their deceptive and dishonest practices under a different name and phone number if necessary.
I would roughly estimate that about 3% to 5% of the automotive deals on Craigslist wind up this way. At my lot I have met a Dr. Zubowitz who was an identity thief and later arrested for theft by deception. A bishop who decided to avail himself to one of my rental cars and wound up in jail on a felony theft by conversion charge. It took three years for that Holy Roller to restitute me in full. Plus a long list of unsavory characters from drunks who wanted to drive my vehicle in the middle of the day. To scammers who wanted to siphon gas from my car to their own.
Then you have the hard core drug addicts who wind up asking the same questions three or four times. The lowball idiots who use their cell phones to text you at all hours of the day. The clueless who don’t bother to read your ad and then ask the most inane of questions, “Does it come with a title?” (Title? Hmmm… are you sure you need one?)
After nine years of dealing with customers via Craigslist, I would roughly guesstimate that 3 in 10 phone calls, 6 in 10 texts, and 8 of 10 emails are from people who either have a screw loose or are eyeing you with bad intent.
The phone calls and texts are from all over God’s green Earth. But I am reasonably sure that most of the emails come from two guys who run a shipping company in Lagos, Nigeria that specializes in the sale of dead parrots.
Since I first used Craigslist back in 2004, the site has gone from being a quality-focused website to the electronic equivalent of the Wild West. The days when this electronic bazaar was a well kept secret used by overwhelmingly decent and (how can I say this nicely) intelligent users are long gone.
The truth is that Craigslist remains a great site, with a lot more horrifically bad people within it. Feel free to share your Craigslist experiences, good and bad, in the comments below.
Any questions about cars? Whether it’s a new car or an old car, you can always send me a direct message at my Facebook address.
Just as a side note Steve, have you given up on eBay entirely?
You might laugh but the only Craigslist section I regularly peruse now is the “farm” section to look at the tractors for sale. Those ads usually seem more genuine than the car ads (but not by much.) Of course for me its just MM because I don’t need a Ford 8N with a rear blade or a 20 hp John Deere lawn and garden tractor, but I do WANT one.
No principaldan. It’s just that I simply don’t get too many older unique cars during this time of the year.
Those usually come in their greatest numbers either late in the year during the holiday season, or in the early spring ‘cleaning’ time of March and April.
Dad always said never buy a used car from a dealer, always go private party. Look for one owner and original paint were rules two and three.
His logic was simple. If someone had a nice used car to sell he would get more money selling it himself than trading it in to a dealer. You as a buyer would pay less than if you were to buy that same car from a dealer. Plus you get to talk directly to the owner about the car.
These days you find these kinds of sellers more on Craigslist than any other place. Way too many dealers on eBay.
I have no problem buying from a dealer but they need their cut so you are invariably paying more or are buying a car that was not desirable enough, for one reason or another, to be sold privately.
Dad’s newest rule: When you buy new from a dealer go the Costco route. Fixed price, no haggling. But be sure not to involve a retail sales person go directly to the contact Costco gives you.
I recently tried the COSTCO routine. Not a competitive price at all. Got a better deal from another dealer.
I had surprisingly good luck with Craigslist selling my ’98 Grand Prix. It had one cylinder not firing, likely due to a bad ignition module, so I was advertising it as non-running and letting it go fairly cheap. I had one response of the screw-loose variety, and then I got a reply from someone who could actually form complete sentences. It turned out to be a young guy looking for cheap wheels to fix up for his girlfriend to use to get to work. He showed up on time, checked the car out and was satisfied with it’s condition, paid my asking price, and hauled it away. The only sketchiness didn’t really have anything to do with me – he slapped the front plate from his car on mine so AAA would tow it. I guess they don’t tow unregistered cars, but they don’t really check too closely as long as it has a plate.
I once bought a ex tow truck and flipped it on ebay. after agreeing to drive it four hundred miles to deliver it directly to the buyer, he calls me a few hours later complaining about how the front bumper flew off and he almost got into a wreck. please tell me how it didnt happen in the 400 miles i drove it mister buyer? it doesn’t matter, you simply cant please everyone, and i will live my life with one less person in it.
I’ve bought two bicycles and a dining room table and chairs, and sold an artificial Christmas tree, on CL and all were trouble-free transactions. I look at the cars on CL all the time but would not be casual in the least about buying one from there.
CL is good for selling/buying stuff in value up to about $150. That’s about all most of the scroungy bastards who frequent CL can come up with in cash at one time. It’s pretty much the electronic version of a seedy flea-market or, as Mayor Quimby from The Simpsons once remarked, “Human cockroaches feeding off each others’ filth…”.
Trying to sell/buy anything for more than that on CL can be a major headache, if not an outright nightmare…
I’ve bought (never sold) things on CL and have had no problems, although I wouldn’t buy a car that way. It probably helps that I know exactly what I’m looking for before I ever go to the site; months pass between visits. The priciest item was a 6’1″ Mason & Hamlin AA, circa 1929, all original with ivory key tops, being sold by a math professor’s widow; her grandson across the country had set up the ad, and I paid a piano technician to examine it after I’d first seen it. Unlike many cars (1929 vintage or otherwise), any money that I’ll have to sink into it – such as for replacement of the original hammers – will be repaid in increased value.
Despite the advantages of buying locally on Craigslist (I never look at eBay anymore), I recognize that the journalistic enterprise in America is suffering as a result of the huge dropoff in classified and other print ad sales. The past 10 years have seen a big decline in newsroom staffs all over, via layoffs, attrition, and buyouts. Yet this country can’t operate the way it’s supposed to without effective journalism that can pay for itself, and government subsidy certainly isn’t the answer either. I’m not at all sure the benefits of Craigslist are worth that particular tradeoff – and yet I know that if it hadn’t been Craig it would’ve been someone else.
I’ve bought two cars off CL, both 77 Chevelles, and both for less than $400 apiece. One had a title, but the seller was not terribly sharp, the other didn’t have a title and the seller wasn’t terribly sharp on that one.. He bought it expecting it to interchange completly with his 72 Chevelle… yeah… the drivetrain would have worked, but not much else interchanges
I’ve never sold a car listing it on CL so I haven’t had to deal with that end of it. I have bought a couple cars I found there and didn’t have a problem. A couple from private parties and a couple from dealers. The one was a bit of a hassle since they owner had got a company vehicle with his job, his wife had her own car so he hadn’t driven it in a while. After we get back from the test drive I noticed that the tabs were not current. He did go and get a temporary for it on his dime, so we could legally drive it home and took a bit off of the price. Only a minor pain, now if we would have got pulled over on that test drive it would have been a different story.
I’ll never sell another car of mine privately – unless it’s to someone I know.
Years ago I sold my 91 Accord privately – only to get a ticket in the mail a few weeks later that the car was sitting in Paterson, NJ unlicensed.
The guy who had bought it never bothered to get new plates, etc for it.
I had to take a day off from work and go to court to prove that the car was not mine anymore.
It only took a few minutes in court – but never again – it’s safer and easier to trade it at the dealer.
That’s one of the good things of the Virginia DMV – you go on to their website and delist the car you just sold. In our case it’s mandatory due to personal property taxes, but it’s a wonderful idea. On the few occasions I’ve sold a motorcycle (never dealt in cars – yet), I had it removed from my DMV account by 1800 of the day it sold.
Trading it in a the dealer is no gaurntee that won’t happen though it probably is more unlikely. In my state you can inform the state that you sold it online or mail in a form that is a part of the title. Of course you need to get the info of the purchaser and if they aren’t willing to show you their license then I’d call off the deal.
+1
I once traded a car through a dealer, and had to jump through hoops to convince the local university that I had not amassed hundreds of dollars in parking violations in the three months after I owned it.
I sold a car to Carmax and they never did change the title over, and they called me back 3 or 4 times to sign paperwork on it. I told them any more of this and I’ll just take the car back, but it had been auctioned off months prior I guess.
I got a letter in the mail about 3 weeks later from DPD saying that they found my car, and to please come get it.
The easy solution to this problem is to keep the plates. I’ve had the same thing happen twice now. Now I just keep the plates and tell the buyer “sorry, new plates are only $5”. It’s not worth my time to go with them to the DMV or the hassle of having tickets come back to me.
We have a thing called the consumer guarentee act that stops dodgy car dealers from auctioning bombs and not meeting their legal obligations Dealers are still bound by the used car laws no matter how they sell cars, Fit for purpose is the crucial wording and if it isnt refunds and compensation will be awarded or the dealers licence is no more, I’m not accusing you of bodging cars Steve but its not unknown here and this and a roadworthy less than 30 days old as a sale requirement helps weed out the cowboys.
I haven’t been on craigs for a while, has anyone come up with a good Craigslist search engine?
Try AutoTempest and SearchTempest. Both have worked well for me.
When selling privately, you will get lots of lowballers, and not full retail as some expect.
“But that’s KBB!” Keep waiting to get that.
I was surfing CL late one night when I clicked on the ad.
It said “1992 pontiac bonneville . Black. 170 miles. 1200 obo. call anytime.” Then it had a phone number and two pictures of the car. That was it. But looking at the pictures I saw it was an SSEi, so I wrote down number.
I called the next day. When the other end picked up it sounded like they were standing next to a waterfall.
Me: Hi, I’m calling about the Bonneville.
Other line: *Silence*
Me: Um, the car for sale on Craigslist?
Other line: Alright.
Me: Well, what kind of shape is it in? Does it run? Is the title clean?
Other line: *Silence*
Me: Where is at? Can I come to look at it?
Other line: It’s at (gives come address in Lakeland area).
Me: Does tomorrow afternoon around 2PM work?
Other line: okay. But use this phone number from now on: (gives me new phone number).
Me: Great see you then.
Other line: *hangs up*
So at this point I assumed there was no car and they were planning to murder me when I showed up, but on the other hand, cheap supercharged Bonneville. So I called up a friend and asked him to drive me over there the next day.
Friend picks me up, we go to the bank (always good idea to carry around a lot of cash when dealing with shady characters), and make the drive into Polk county. We show up at the address given, it’s a run-down gray house. No Bonneville in sight. Go up to the front porch of the house, knock on the door, no answer. The house looks vacant. What kind of scam is this?
Get in my friend’s vehicle and call the number given me. A gruff sounding man answers.
Me: Hi. I was told to call this number about a Pontiac Bonneville for sale.
Other line: Are you at *gives address*?
Me: Yes.
Other line: I’ll be right there. *hangs up*
About three minutes later a primer colored Buick Roadmaster pulls up. A middle aged guy step out and walks over to my friend’s window. My friend rolls down the window about 1 cm.
“You folks for the Pontiac?” “Yes.” He looks us over for a second. “It’s at *gives another address somewhere in Lakeland* if you want to see it.” We write down the address. Then the man gets in the Roadmaster and drives away.
I don’t know if they moved the Bonneville during the day, or if they wanted to check us out first, but the whole thing seemed ridiculous. I asked my friend to go to the new address, and told him if the Bonneville wasn’t visible, we should just go home. He agreed.
We pulled up to the second place. It was an even more run down, small peach colored house. The front door was open. But, there was a Black SSEi in the yard.
I walked up to the car. Paint was faded. Two tires were flat. Front seat was cracking. Trash all over the interior. About what I expected. Sure let’s do this.
I walked up to the entry of the house and yell in “Hello. I’m here about the car.”
A very thin late 20s woman walks out. She’s in jean shorts and a white tank top. She’s kind of twitchy and scratching her arms. We walk over to the car. I ask for the keys. She tells me hold on and goes back in the house. Comes back with the keys and hands them to me. I get in the car. Open the hood an trunk. There are two pacifiers and an ACdelco oil filter box in the passenger seat. The back seat and floor are covered with napkins, papers, fast food bags, and pizza boxes.
The car was missing a radio and had no rear speakers. I started it up. The fuel pump was whining, but the only warning light illuminated was the low fuel one. No exhaust smoke. A/C didn’t work. Hot air only blew out of the defroster vent. I put it in drive, neutral, and reverse- it didn’t clunk.
Turned it off, and looked under the hood. Belts and pulleys looked okay. Actually had fluids in (except for gas). trunk had a bottle of Super Tech coolant.
“This is your car?”
“Yea. It used to be my husband’s. But it’s mine now.”
“Anything wrong with it?”
I don’t know. I don’t drive.”
“Would you take $820 for it?”
“Sure.”
So I bought the car without even driving an inch. Not the smartest move. Probably could have got it for less too.
She goes into the house. Comes back with a title. It isn’t printed on a take out menu so I assume it is legit. I go into my friend’s car and get the money. I exchange a tearful goodbye with the woman, and get into my “new” Bonneville.
My friend follows me home. I hit up a nearby gas station for fuel and air. I also pray that I’m not pulled over because who knows what is packed in the glovebox or door panels.
The car stalled once on the way home.
That was exciting, I kept reading, waiting for some sort of big surprise, I always find that when looking at mysterious used cars, it helps to bring a friend, especially one that looks like they mean business and a “Roscoe” is always nice to have handy.
Clean it thoroughly, wash out all the crack, pot, meth, crank and what not that might be in the carpets and door panels.
CL could certainly be considered a draw for adventurers and thrill seekers…
Craigslist is more frequently populated with dealer ads, mostly no credit dealers. I did sell a car several years ago for $2300 so the ads do work. eBay is now almost all fixed price dealer ads.
I usually check the By Owner only but not sure how good a filter that is?
It’s not bad…at least on the Greensboro, Winston-Salem, & Raleigh Craigslists.
Well I occasionally look on Charlotte’s but I either know personally or know the reputation of just about everyone in the car business so at least for me less of a challenge. If I were to sell cars on CL I would advertise them for sale and have buyers simply come to the shop no calls. That usually weeds out the riff raff, if people want to see they come we talk if they don’t I am not standing at the end of the driveway looking up the street. I have sold some household goods on CL with no problems. I have purchased twice from CL and once from eBay that the seller was local.
SearchTempest sorts the results by distance, starts from Charlotte then Winston, Gbo, Raleigh and out through the US. Of course there is 1.2 million people within 30 miles of downtown Charlotte so no problems finding anything that I want. Unless the car is Yankee (and we get a few car’s from transplants) it’s usually rust free with just mechanicals needed.
The “by owner” filter works, but the dealer ads still sneak in. You can tell because the car is a “salvage title” or some other red flag. It is still better than the local papers, who charge over $100 for a two line ad over three days.
If you want to waste time on CL, try looking for tires from a private owner. Impossible without spending much time weeding through dealers.
off topic but I want to ask
why do Canadians shun Craigslist for Kijiji? and why do Americans shun Kijiji for craigslist?
IMO – not a fan of craigslist due to the dated website design
For one thing, and I am only speaking for myself, but never heard of Kjjjjj. CL is popular with me for obvious reasons….
if you come up to canuckistan- you will not find cars on craigslist- people only use craigslist to look for casual sex up here.
Kijiji is what we use for selling/buying online
Lincman, I absolutely love Kijiji for MM’ing as long the cars are Canadian (MM-worthy USDM cars are far & few between on Kijiji).
I tried CL several years ago with some success. Anything in the past 3 years ago has been a waste of time.
Even worse is people who don’t accept SMS/e-mail responses & accept calls only. I have severe hearing loss so calling anyone rather than e-mail is a big PITA. It’s trivial to provision yourself a voip number in any country/area code for under $10 in 10 minutes or less so I’m not sure how calling reduces fraud.
I’ve actually gone through the effort several times when interested in a car or motorcycle & it turns out to be a salvage (not interested) or doesn’t have a title. I’ve had people tell me to pay them and they’ll get the title to me in a couple of weeks (um, no…….).
I think it would help greatly if CL had a basic questionnaire to answer before posting:
1) How many miles ?
2) Year ?
3) Condition?
4) Any photos ?
5) VIN
6) Been in an accident? Y/N If Y, frame damage?
7) Do you have title in hand ?
8) Maint records?
9) Manual, automatic or other trans?
If I could then filter on the answers to those I’d save myself TONS & TONS of time.
I quit taking emails/SMS because of the spam problem. Phone only or nothing has worked well for me.
I’m not sure about you, but I get plenty of phone spam as well — which is why I don’t usually answer the phone from unknown numbers.
It’s also fairly easy to provision yourself your own phone number in almost any country/city in the world in about 10 minutes, without ever talking to a human — although it costs a few $. I’ve already received (most likely voip based) phone spam/scams for microsoft “tech support” (I run linux) and other crap as well.
YMMV of course, but I generally ask people NOT to call as e-mail is a lot easier to filter than phone calls (and e-mail is less likely to wake up my toddler son when someone calls post 7:30pm)
On the other hand, my e-mail spam filters do a fairly decent job and I get very little spam via SMS.
YMMV of course….
I bought a ’78 Fairmont and an 8.8 rear end for it off Craigslist in the last couple months and nary an issue. The Fairmont was about 350 miles away in Dover PA, near York, so I asked the guy on the phone (the owner’s grandson) if it was safe to drive back to Cleveland, he kind of murmured “Well, it hasn’t been registered for a year but it does run good. After a nice relaxing ride on Amtrak from Cleveland to Harrisburg (and a seriously white-knuckled taxi ride in a crapped-out Stratus from the Amtrak station to the seller’s house) I found it to be a pretty damn decent car that ran well. Which it did all the way home, except for the majority of the exhaust taking a leave of absence on Rt22 somewhere near Ebensburg. Seller even drove me into York and helped me get a PA In Transit temp tag and reimbursed me for the taxi fare.
CL is one of those buyers beware type of thing. If you go in eyes wide open and research then you will do ok. I have bought 3 cars from CL (a 1993 Impreza for $900 with 112,980 miles on it, a 1985 Cutlass Supreme sedan with 90,384 miles(from the grand daughter of the original owner)(heck even the padded roof was unfaded and had no tears) for $1000 and a 1990 Volvo 240 wagon for $1000) All ran well except the Cutlass which needed a carb rebuild first(which I knew about based upon its symptoms and something that should be done on a almost 30 year old car anyway) and all lived up to my expectations. The Volvo 240 is a good Home Depot car, the Cutty is a weekend driver. The Impreza lasted a month before I sold it to a friend who wanted reliable “who gives a crap if it gets dents” car for her son to learn to drive on.
If you keep your expectations low you will do alright. The most I spent on CL cars was $1000 so I was not breaking the bank if something went belly up and all were cars that were both easy to fix on my own and parts cheap(yes even the Volvo)
My policy when buying a car on craigslist: affluent owners only. They’re usually easier and more pleasant to communicate with, and their garaged cars generally have little-to-no deferred maintenance. Their time is valuable, so they’re less likely to waste yours.
About a year ago, I made an exception to this and regretted it. Briefly considering joining the Panther fetish, I went to look at a “mint” Town Car Cartier. It was a bad neighborhood, the owner barely spoke English, and when I asked about the GIANT scrape on the passenger side door conveniently hidden in the ad pictures, he said with a straight face “No accidents.”
On the other side of the equation we have used CL to employ people and have gotten TONS or resumes. Some quite well qualified. Now that job market has improved that may not be the case but a few years ago it sure was. Heartbreaking to see so many good people desperate for work.
I bought and sold a few cars on CL (in CT) with no issues but it seems like there is a high proportion of “oh yes I’m interested” parties who never show up. And of course you can count on getting at least one of the “I’ll send you a cashier’s check for the full amount since I’m out of town, etc.” emails. I can’t complain too much for free although it really bugs me when I search using ‘by private owner’ and still end up talking to used car dealers.. One guy said “there’s nothing to stop us from doing it”. Yea now there’s a guy I want to buy a used car from…
I guess I spoke too soon, the paper just reported a CL car sale scam at a WalMart. A guy got bumped off, but in an ironic twist, one of the perps turned himself in later on.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/07/10/4158148/police-craigslist-buyer-robbed.html
It could be the areas I’ve lived in, or something else, but I have had nothing but good experiences with Craigslist so far. I’ve sold bikes, snow tires, other odds and ends, and recently, my Volvo.
I put the Volvo up on Craigslist with an asking price slightly on the high side of what I thought was reasonable ($4,000; I’d gotten trade in numbers between $2,700 and $3,100 prior to that), thinking it would likely take a while to sell, allowing me to take my time to find a replacement car. Long story short: listed the car Wednesday night, and Friday morning it was sold, for just $200 under asking price. The guy who bought it sent his wife and dad to look at it. Fine. His wife kept complaining about the wear on the leather seats of this 12 year old car, which was nothing but a few small cracks, nothing ripped or torn and the fact that the bumper had a couple parking lot scratches–both things had been copiously documented in the photo album with some 15 pictures I had linked in the Craigslist ad. The father on the other hand was quite taken with the car, and gave it his blessing.
However, even though I thought the deal had just gotten torpedoed by this overly demanding woman, we then began negotiations, first with the wife, who began by low balling me ($3,300?! No way!), and then with the guy himself. Ended up knocking off $200 and threw in the roof rack I would no longer have any use for, and called it a deal. Drew up a bill of sale right then, signed, wife left a deposit and the car was gone the following Monday. It was a very smooth transaction and they were nice people to deal with, they communicated well.
All in all I was a happy camper, save for one thing: I had to find myself a car quicker than I’d expected…
I love CL…so much that this post was longer than a lot of CC articles… To spare you all the pain, here’s the condensed version:
The trick to buying cars is to search it frequently: steals show up occasionally. I actually still have all my CL purchases except the Ciera.
Car#1: 1994 Camaro Convertible with engine problems: asking price: $2,000. Z28 was mentioned in the ad text which prompted my call. 6-speed? “On my way!” I limped it to my POE after paying $1,800 for it. A new Optispark, wires, water pump later & I was rolling. Cool car. Too bad it’s black.
Car#2 was a $250 beige ’82 Citation that wouldn’t start when I came to look at it. I bought it anyway figuring it was an electrical issue. It eventually did run but one thing led to another & I ended up putting another 2.5 in it. It wouldn’t start when I went to move it around the yard one day so I shoved it into the weeds for the mice, squirrels, & wasps to deal with.
Car #3 was an ’87 Ciera Brougham 2.5L with 60K, parked in a carport in ’91 when its owner passed away. Her husband refused to sell or drive the car until his dementia worsened — he reluctantly allowed his grown son & daughter to list the car on CL. I think I paid $4-500 for it and was fighting back tears as I watched the fading gentleman sign the back of the title. It took another $500 to bring it to daily-driver status which included new tires. Lots of stuff went bad due to sitting but it got a new lease on life somewhere in Birmingham, AL. I sold it for $1,000.
Car#4 was a terrible ad that ran for weeks…”1973 Buick. No rust, no title, no front bumper. Doesn’t run. Good for demolition derby or parts car. $450″. There were no pictures so I assumed it was a LeSabre or Electra. Never assume. It was a Century Luxus that had been parked in a shed since 1981 and he was right: zero rust. After purchasing it for $400, I eventually got tired of pushing it around the shop & dropped a $100 350 in it. Now I kind of want to fix the darn thing.
Car#5 was a powder blue ’73 Bonneville coupe, asking price $3,400, 20 miles away. The color was a turn-off as it was not offered on these cars but curiosity got the better of me & I checked it out anyway. It turns out this car was its original color: the factory invoice was still in the glove box & listed it as a $119 option. I was in love & the really cool seller accepted my ’94 Trans Am as an even trade. I hated the T/A and was so glad to get rid of it — I even told him I hated the car & that my father had wrecked it twice, etc. but he was okay with it. He ended up fixing the T/A and selling/giving it to his mother who loves it..probably not as much as I love the Bonneville though!
Car#6 was a rusted out ’78 GMC Suburban with excellent 454/400 drivetrain for $800. The seller & his son were really cool and the truck really does run excellent.
Car#7 was a primered non-running ’79 Firebird, listed for either $900 or $1000, I forgot. The pic showed red snowflake wheels which set off my Redbird alarm & I bought it without quibbling over the price because it’s an actual Redbird. Very very happy.
Car#8 is the elusive blue Fiero and one popped up on CL for $1,400: I’ve wanted a blue Fiero for years and after visiting with the 60-something YO gentleman owner & his wife for a surprisingly long time, he let me have the car for $1,300 because he was happy to see his car go to someone “like me” (wow) and he asked me to keep in touch. It’s not perfect but it’s a whole lot nicer than a $1,300 Fiero would normally be.
Car#9 was a $350 engineless red ’87 Camaro that happened to be twelve miles away. Perfect for my red frame-damaged ’87 Camaro.
Car#10 was a non-running yellow 6-cylinder ’67 Mustang pictured sitting in the weeds with flat tires, asking price $1,500. I brought it home without haggling the price, filed the points, hooked an IV to the carb, and the little 200 fired right up. Car is not rusted out & will not be very hard to bring back.
Car#11 was a running-when-parked-x-years ago ’88 Fiero for $600. It’s actually a V6 Formula 5-speed (which now runs) and I ended up meeting a very cool person & his wife when I bought it.
Car#12 is a wrecked ’85 Fiero from a few weeks ago, advertised for $300. I drove up there to get it but the excessive rain we’ve had lately made getting the car out of their yard impossible. The owner apologized for not realizing how soggy the yard was and offered me the car for $250. I’ve got the signed off title so I’m not real worried about it. More nice people.
Dang.. this was the short version… and I never even got to the E-bay purchases.
I have to request you write more about these finds. I hit craigs list multiple times a day to day dream about possible project cars (possible if I don’t mind being homeless and divorced).
Seconded. Great cars, and if you have pictures, this would be a wonderful feature.
I’ve bought about a half-dozen cars on CL (and one using Ebay even), and have sold a couple on CL as well. Most of the transactions went pretty well, but I’ll share this one cautionary tale.
Four years ago I sold my 1988 Buick Electra T-Type (221K miles, still ran and drove great, but the list of things going south was growing and I had just come across a one-owner 2001 Lesabre with 73K miles so needed the parking space) to a young male who seemed nice enough at the time.
My car showed up on CL the very next day, for three times what I sold it for, with a completely fabricated story: “One-owner, always garaged, low miles, new tires . . . ” etc. Though the linked photos in his ad, I found his photobucket site (which for some reason he had allowed public access to), with literally hundreds of pictures of cars that he had already flipped on CL (he had a thing for GM C&H-bodied Buicks, Olds, Pontiacs, and also Ford Panthers, basically blue-hair cars, because he could get them cheap I suspect).
The guy had problems selling it at his asking price, and it was listed, and relisted, for about a month. At the end, he was about down to twice what I sold it for (no idea what he actually took for it).
This was my very own introduction to and life lesson on “what is a curbstoner?”! I called the State Patrol (who, due to budget cuts, had recently disbanded their auto sales fraud unit that handled this exact type of crime) and found out that they weren’t going to be doing much about it, but they were very aware of this guy and knew his real name (later google searching of this guy shows that he apparently is now an incarcerated convicted murderer, no joke!). Hmmm . . . so first impressions don’t mean that much . . .
I did fill out the seller’s report online, with the completely bogus name & address that he had given me (he told me he was buying it for his sister). I did ask to see his driver’s license but he wouldn’t show it to me (big red flag).
To add insult to injury, a month later, I received a photo radar ticket of the jerk running a red light, 45 minutes after he left my house! Fortunately, I had accidently back-dated (sometimes it’s beneficial to not know what the date is) the seller’s report by one day, so I mailed a copy of the seller’s report in with the ticket and that was the end of that (phew!).
I didn’t even know what a curbstoner was before this, and had never even heard the term before either. Yes, they are still out there. Don’t buy or sell a car from one. Don’t do what I did! They never, ever transfer the title into their own name and are operating as illegal dealers (in most states).
This is an excellent story. Thanks for sharing it out here.
Craigslist is a very strange site, that’s for sure.
Although I’ve got to give it some credit; it was the venue I used to sell my CC, the 1997 Sable. I made sure to take good quality pics and write a thorough bio of the car.
I also only gave out my e-mail address, that way I could filter these prospective buyers a bit before meeting them in person. Fortunately, I was able to sell it to an honest buyer less then a week after purchasing my new car. It seems like my story is more of an exception than the norm.
I’ve bought and sold of Craigslist, with very mixed results.
My favorite was selling my ’96 Outback. The char what mechanically excellent & the interior was nice, but it has rolled down the driveway and sideswiped a tree, so it had a dented quarter and non-outback driver’s door. Asked $2800, a woman asked me a few questions and showed up to look at it. Told me it was what I’d said it was and gave me my asking price on the spot.
I put my ’67 beetle up for sale and after a few time wasters a guy showed up, was super excited by the car and offered me $1600 (on a $1900 asking price). I took the offer and he told me it would take him a bit of time to get the cash together, but offered me a $200 cash deposit. I told him he had 30 days, then it would go back on the market.
He called every few days all month talking about just needing to arrange a truck, or a trailer(despite it being running, driving & registered). On day 29 I called to arrange a pickup time, and he didn’t answer or return my call. days 30 & 31 same deal.
Day 32 it went back on Craigslist. This time someone showed up and wanted it as a rust-free shell for his rotted out beetle. He offered me $1750. He offered me a $100 deposit and asked if I could hold it while he got his $$ together.
I told him he had 15 days. Fortunately he actually had money and 5 days later the deal was done. A longer hassle than I’d wanted, but thanks to the first spaz I ended up with $50 over my asking price.
Funny aide note, the car appeared back on Craigslist two months later with the front end disassembled and almost another whole beetle’s worth of parts and the classic “Don’t have time for this project”m, for $1350. I was sorely tempted to buy it back, re-assemble it and sell it a third time.
I use Craigslist a lot to shop and sell. Whatever its shortcomings, it’s better than classified ads. The newspapers have lost their cash cow. Deservedly.
My main beef is dealing with chowderheads who have no clue how to sell a car:
— they list a phone number, then won’t answer or reply promptly to messages;
— they allow only email contact, then don’t reply (even with “it’s sold”);
— they leave the ad up even though the car has been sold;
— they attach no pictures;
— they attach a picture taken at night–without flash–of a black car–fifty yards away;
— they attach multiple pictures of the same thing;
— they attach only a picture of the undamaged side, not the one that was T-boned;
— they make statements that are grossly untrue (don’t say “icy A/C” if it’s broken);
— they have no title, or the title is in some other person’s name;
— the ad provides no indication whether the car is local or WAY out of town (who wants to drive 300 miles to check out a $1200 Sebring?).
Never bought a car (or anything) on CL, but I enjoy wasting time looking at cars on there.
The big thing that bugs me is when there are no pictures. Yeah, I’m (potentially) spending several thousand dollars on a vehicle, but I don’t care what it looks like…
Second peeve is when the idiot owner can’t take a picture of the WHOLE vehicle. There will be a picture of the headlight and part of the hood, a picture of a wheel and front fender (and the photographer’s foot, on occasion), or a picture showing the middle of the car, but not the front or back end. It’s not rocket science, taking a picture of a car–or so I thought.