Secret Diary of a Classic Car Dealer – Part One

This morning I had a viewing arranged with a gentleman – let’s call him Richard (or any shortened derivative of the name you choose to use) – to see a rather lovely 911 Targa, a sharp example correctly described, fresh to market AND priced to sell.

‘Richard’ arrived on time and proceeded to spend the next 40 minutes of my life telling me how much he knew about cars – he’d spotted my old Rolls and very impressively told me he’d had Silver Shadows I, II and III over the years – yes even the super rare Shadow III, aka the one that never was.

Anyway, pleasantries and presentation of his car knowledge over, we moved onto the car he’d come to see….. for the best part of the next hour he crawled (literally) all over, inside and underneath, armed with his torch and magnet. No bit of bodywork, trim or chassis was left un-inspected.

Now don’t get me wrong, this bit I agree is crucial and very much part of how I view cars myself, as is checking the file carefully: specifically, service history and more specifically when and who carried out the latest works. However, what I don’t usually do is spend another 45 minutes going through the file to establish which oil was used THREE services ago in the late ‘80s.

So we are now up to around two and a half hours, without even turning the key…. Deep breath: “shall we take it for a drive Richard?”

A surprisingly short 20 minutes later we arrive back at base…. Richard eventually got used to the offset pedals, high clutch and precise gearbox (that we know and love in these cars) and spent the last 10 minutes ‘quite enjoying himself’ apparently.

I’ll cut to the chase, unlike Richard: At around the 3 hours 15 minutes mark he decided he liked the car and offered me 25 percent less than the asking price. Oh, and he wanted that to include delivery in a covered trailer.

I very politely thanked him for his offer but declined, explaining that I had received a lot of interest and in fact had another customer booked for a viewing the following morning. His reply: ‘Of course you have’. He cheerily left saying his offer would stand for a couple of days and that he’d speak to me soon and he even (helpfully) left me his card with the address for delivery, so sure was he that I had no other interested parties and that I would be accepting his offer.

The viewing the next day went well and an hour later we’d done a deal – full asking price and I’d carry out a minor service and deliver the car the following week.

Did I phone Richard and let him know? I didn’t need to, that evening he called me and ‘having thought about it’ would like to increase his offer. Sorry Richard, I’ve agreed a sale with the customer you clearly didn’t believe existed for a figure 25 percent higher than you believe the car is worth…and that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is what we call Car Karma.