Selling a broken car is a major headache. Chances are, you’re selling the vehicle in a broken state because you’re at the end of your rope and you don’t want to put another dime or minute into fixing it. Yet, nobody wants to buy it because it’s broken. So how do you get rid of it?
I recently sold my wife’s rusty BMW E39. It’s going to get mechanically tightened up before it becomes a teen’s first car. Oh boy. Anyway, it took me a week to sell that car, which is almost the longest it has ever taken me to sell a vehicle. Somehow, there’s nothing but crickets for David Tracy’s similarly-priced Nissan Leaf with little range remaining.
As Rivers wrote today, someone built a 1:1 scale model of a Chaparral 2E. This has given Cam.man67 and hopefully David Tracy a brilliant idea:
Weird. Cool but weird. Next time I sell a car because I can’t get it running, I’m going to call it a “1:1 scale model”.
Speaking of fake stuff, Rivers also wrote about how scammers are putting fake parking tickets on cars so they can drain your bank accounts. Suddenly, I feel a lot better about never driving my own cars into a city. This reminds Samagon of the old “Nigerian Prince” scam:
hello car driving person,
I am a Nigerian police officer, you have received a parking ticket and through my generosity as a law enforcement official, I am hoping to help clear this parking ticket from your record. send me $50 and I will handle this for you immediately!
Now, we do not condone vandalism around here, but this gentle reminder to park better from John Beef isn’t too shabby:
I have fake parking tickets that say “VIOLATION $100 fine” in big letters but then in small print it says “This ticket was issued by a concerned citizen and is not an actual fine. This ticket is for entertainment purposes only.” I put them on assh0le parkers who take up 2 spots, for example, that sort of thing. If there’s even a moment of panic on their part, then maybe next time they’ll park a little better, and that’s the change we all want to see in the world. There’s no QR code and it’s not any sort of scam.
So much of the Internet is fake today. It’s frustrating that your first thought when seeing a silly video online is if it’s staged. Things in the car world are somehow getting even dumber. There are folks with nice cars who are apparently not satisfied with the attention you get owning a nice car. So, they vandalize their own cars and park them out in public, pretending like it happened for real. Clout chasing aside, I’m not sure why you’d want people to think you’re a cheater?
Anyway, I’m with you Pneumatic Tool:
“The Decline of Western Civilization Part V: The Influencer Years”
Mechjaz brings an underrated comment:
V, like, isn’t even a number, what are you even talking about?
Like and subscribe!
Have a great evening, everyone!
Can you just get the cheapest wrap available and paint the fake stuff on that? Then remove the wrap, and bam, new car.
I wish David would try to repair the Leaf. I know it would probably cost more than the car is worth, but the articles would be great and I would learn a lot about repair of electric vehicles. There has to be a place, somewhere, that has a totaled Leaf with a decent battery in it. Maybe it’s just not possible? I don’t know.
I do know that repairable electric cars are a MUST for the future. Otherwise, we are going to have landfills overflowing with 15 year old vehicles.
Leafs have a following and even the gen 1 leafs can be upgraded to a 64 kwh leaf pack. Assuming money in the hole + new XL battery pack install are less than what it could reasonably be sold for + would make a great post or 2 here… could be worth it
Or
Donate it to anyone other than 1-800-cars-4kids and take the tax write off
I feel like this should go here:
https://www.cartalk.com/car-donation/
Or the Kidney Foundation. However, the money behind car donations is long gone. The ‘secret’ was they allowed you do deduct book value for your car, while the car was usually far below book value in condition. If you had a high tax rate, the deduction could be worth more than the cash value (I used to buy Kidney Foundation cars from the junkyard that dealt with them, we’d buy them dirt cheap, fix them up and sell them.) The IRS eventually figured out what was going on, and now only allow you to deduct what the charity sells them for. So you are almost always losing money over just selling the car.
Pre vandalized cars are s bad as the folk who the rusty POS has patina and is a show car.
Then again, anyone remember Volvo bashing?
I think the only way he sells it is if he also offers to pay someone to take it. Sooooo, a reverse sell?? A sell is a sell.
So how do you get rid of it?
Easy!
Phase 1: Insurance
Phase 2: Thermite on battery pack
Phase 3: Profit!
(Alternately park it in front of Jason’s house with a gassed up chainsaw)
“There are folks with nice cars who are apparently not satisfied with the attention you get owning a nice car. So, they vandalize their own cars and park them out in public, pretending like it happened for real. Clout chasing aside, I’m not sure why you’d want people to think you’re a cheater?”
Isn’t vandalizing your own car for attention just another way of cheating?
Right? But sounds like a good business idea to me. Folks, if you really want that authentic look, I’d be happy to give your luxury car the Carrie Underwood or Jazmine Sullivan treatment for a “nominal” fee. I’ve got a spectacular crowbar, and everything.
Twas a girl named Sheila
Had a man with a van
They were supposed to go to dinner
But he had other plans
He said she was domineering
Tried to take her diamond earring
Said that she was profiteering
Soon he would be disappearing
She got mad, was on fire
Took a knife, slashed his tires
Pulled a full-on Richard Pryor
Santa said, “You’re no longer a qualifier ”
But you know what I say
Everybody’s gettin’ sump’n
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jWnP2jO06gc
Cudos to whoever updated the graphic. I wish it was one of those 3-in-1 kits, with the extra sprue with custom parts like a steering wheel, mag wheels, and side pipes!
Like with the “racing version” that includes the decal sheet, window nets, and odd spoiler?
I like how they didn’t even attempt to “fix” or black out the sides of the box and left “GTO” there.
Thanks for the COTD mention!
Whoo hoo! Popped my COTD cherry. Thank you!
feels different now don’t it.
Now the neighbors can light up afterwards, too.
David needs to change tactics. Instead of selling it as a car, it’s a “self-propelled solar generator”.
“You can use it to power your…shed?”
As often as I trip the one sad breaker feeding my shed, I don’t think the Leaf is up to that.
David just needs to lean into his Internet fame.
For Sale: One Nissan Leaf as owned by world famous rusty Jeep enthusiast David Tracy. Come complete with a vial of genuine XJ rust, a signed photograph of David Tracy and Project Cactus, and a notarized certificate of authenticity. For $500 over asking, you can spend an hour with David talking about wrenching and get a trip around the block in his BMW i3; as an aspirational electric car.
Buy David’s Leaf, get a year’s subscription of Autopian on him. No wait, that may be a net loss for David.
New membership tier: Busted-ass Nissan Leaf.
Does that slot in below Cloth?
They need to start another level below cloth (Towels and Duct Tape?). Then put Busted-Ass Nissan Leaf under that.
I feel like it could be negative subscription level, like things are so automotively bad for you that they not only give you membership but offer to dispatch the closest autopian to help you with whatever your ridiculous problem is.
“So it’s completely underwater, but you can still see it? And nothing swimming in it, as far as you can tell? Gotcha. SWG will be there in a few hours.”
“You’re going to need more mold and mildew to get a free membership.”
I think Bar’s Leaks followed by cinder blocks are the two lowest levels, where seating surfaces are merely hypothetical.
So we’re basically talking “milk crate in a van”?