Will the high vehicle prices trickle down to my 500,000 mile Sequoia too?

[eljefino]

Used car shoppers want a better than average deal.

I'm sure if your SUV was next to another with similar mileage and pricing but missing the "restoration" yours would sell in a day.

People that ask about timing belts don't actually want the work done. They want an excuse to knock $500 off. If you won't budge the $500, they'll probably leave. I've shown people how to tell if a car has a belt or chain (my saturn s-series had chains) and they got completely blank looks on their faces, and it didn't help sell the car.

You the seller don't want to look like a subject matter expert. In a deal there are two parties-- one knowing more than the other. This is intimidating in a car (or real estate) transaction.

 

[Wolf359]

My cars and my money, I can hold on to them as long as I want. And 20 year old cars don't depreciate. Your analogy of Walmart widgets to vehicles is funny. I'd rather make $2000 on one car a month that I've serviced fully and not have to worry about getting a 2 am call a week later that it broke down, then making $500 each on 5 cars a month and have 5 times the chance of them having problems after selling. I prefer to sell quality instead of quantity.

Right 20 years old cars don't depreciate, but inflation depreciates your money. And yeah one car a month vs 5 is one thing vs 1 car a year vs 2 months. Didn't you hold onto some car for several years before you finally sold it? And you talked about this car over a year ago and this thread started over 2 months ago. And do you really sell it with a warranty? I don't get 2am phone calls, I have my phone programmed to shut off the ringer at night so it doesn't even ring. If anyone wants to call at that hour, they can leave a message. Anyway, the whole point of the thread now seems to be that the ship for high priced high mileage vehicles that get bad gas mileage has probably sailed. Nevertheless you've had some luck in the past so maybe not all the fools are gone.

 

[atikovi]

Right 20 years old cars don't depreciate, but inflation depreciates your money.

Only if you consume large amounts of goods and services that are inflationary. Don't think I do, in fact, I'm rooting for inflation so interest rates will rise.

Didn't you hold onto some car for several years before you finally sold it?

Some. '95 Mercedes convertible bought in 2011 for $4200 that I sold for $13,000 last year to another dealer, '88 motorhome bought in 2011 for $2200 and sold for $5000 at the start of the pandemic, '99 Altima bought in 2013 for $800 and sold in January for $2600, 2003 box truck bought in 2014 for $2600 and sold for $6500 last year to another dealer. Yea, poor decisions.

And do you really sell it with a warranty?

No but I'm not going to leave someone hanging if something unexpected happens.

 

[dareo]

Broke people aren't likely to be shopping for gas guzzlers. I'm looking for the 1 in 10 buyer that understands and appreciates the extensive service done to it and sees the mileage as a badge of honor.

1 in 100 or 1 in 500 in the buyer pool for that many miles. It is not only the miles but the fuel economy and age compounding into it selling for a lot being unlikely. But not impossible; and you dont have to sell a hundred of these, just one.

I am that guy who understands high milage for the year and is not scared. One of my first cars was a 300k VW 99.5 tdi. It was half the price of normal mileage and for the most part was mint!

Guys like me are not that common and many of them get themselves financially into positions to start buying brand new instead of a chain of cheap high milers.

What somebody paid never matters in used resale. You could have been given that for free or paid $10k and it wont change the offers of willing buyers. If you make profit or not also does not matter to the person buying. All the money and time put in is a sunk cost, your problem, not whomever makes an offer.

I wish you the best of luck and thank you for sharing this vehicle with us. Even if some people just want to poor salt on it.

 

[AZjeff]

Maybe going forward if you want less drama you could stick to posts asking about finding cheap parts for your cars and how to fix things and forgo the links to ads with 175 photos of 500k mile cars. What you see and being thorough and informative most here see as excessive and unnecessary for a lower priced used car.

Your business model works well for you and you're not going to change or take any thoughts about pricing etc. seriously even when you asked for them.

If you enjoy your oppositional underdog role carry on. Best wishes for a successful sale of the Sequoia.

 

[supton]

Some. '95 Mercedes convertible bought in 2011 for $4200 that I sold for $13,000 last year to another dealer, '88 motorhome bought in 2011 for $2200 and sold for $5000 at the start of the pandemic, '99 Altima bought in 2013 for $800 and sold in January for $2600, 2003 box truck bought in 2014 for $2600 and sold for $6500 last year to another dealer. Yea, poor decisions.

Eyeballing this, you make $5k per vehicle, after it sits for 10 years? each parking spot makes you $40 per month?

I get that this is a hobby but it does not strike me as lucrative. Everyone can hit the ball out of the park once in a while, but are you making deals like this every month?

 

[PF52]

All this vehicle needs is one of those $175 tint jobs, and the prospective buyers will be beating a path to your door!