Buying Cars from dealers-- sort of

["Rog & Jan van Hoy" <vanhilla@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I had an interesting experience buying my present '81
IMPERIAL. I called in response to a newspaper ad and asked
the usual questions.  The response was, "I'm in a spot, I
gotta have money, I got a DWI and have to pay the lawyer,
the rehab center and the court fines."  Definitely not a
good way to dicker.

I agreed to meet him at his work where he was a car salesman
at the Chrysler/Plymouth [former Imperial] dealer.  Turned
out the way he got the car was the original owner died, his
family wanted the dealer to consign the car, it was too old
but this salesman bought it.  [Probably dirt cheap.]  I
brought a cashier's check for $600 less than the asking
price and 6 $100 bills.  Told him I had a cashier's check
with his name on it for X - $600.  His initial response, I'm
not making this up, "Well... I didn't want to take a loss...
but okay."  The car was obviously in great shape and he had
$2,000 in dealer receipts for work done at half-price.

For those of you who haven't seen it, I got a beautiful 63K
mile Mahogany '81 with perfect Cashmere leather interior and
1984 factory/dealer carb conversion including all
instruments.  Granted I still paid double or triple what
some of you have found these for, but myself I couldn't be
happier... especially out-conning a car salesman.

--Roger van Hoy, '55 DeSoto, '58 DeSoto, '42 DeSoto, '66
Plymouth, '81 Imperial, Washougal, WA