Trying to Sell to Harry

There was a consultant at work, Harry, who'd expressed a strong interest in buying the Jeep. He'd admired it in the parking lot, and got pretty excited when he learned that it was for sale. I brought the repair papers in the next day so he could read about all the new parts it had, as of this summer. He said he'd have to talk it over with his wife.

Over the next week, I kept meaning to talk to him to see whether he was going to buy it or not. When we finally talked, he said he'd come by and see it soon. The next week, on a Tuesday, he came by and looked at it. He liked what he saw, but said that the main issue was coming up with the money. He said he probably wouldn't know until the beginning of November, when some money was supposed to come in.

So in the meantime, the Jeep just sat there in front of the house. When November came, he said that he couldn't come up with the money, and that his yard already had 10 cars in it, so he couldn't do it. I was disappointed, but didn't think I'd have any trouble selling the Jeep in the paper.

Advertising Jeep in Paper

From the time when I knew I was going to sell the Jeep until I actually posted an ad was kind of a long time. I bought a used Honda in the meantime (see Searching for a Honda). I posted the ad on Saturday, November 6th. However, I missed the deadline for a Sunday or Monday posting by 1/2 hour, so the ad didn't appear until Tuesday. Meanwhile, Ian's brother Thomas arrived for a week-long visit on Monday. It wasn't the best timing on my part.

Warming up the Jeep

Last week I'd tried to start the Jeep and it had gone dead. So I charged it up with our car battery charger. Then I let it idle for about 1/2 hour to charge it up fully. Everything went fine, so I thought that I could charge it up that way and not have to worry. I soon found out that was a fallacy...

Shortly after I got home from work on the Tuesday when the ad first ran, I had a call from a potential buyer. I thought that I'd better warm the Jeep up to make sure it wouldn't have any problems. I have no idea why I thought this would be necessary once I'd verified that the car would start. Maybe I thought so because I'd learned that starting the car drains the battery, and I was afraid that the car wouldn't start back up when the potential buyer arrived.

So I let the car run again, unattended. I'd been told that I must not let the Jeep overheat again because doing so could cause additional damage. However, I did not connect that warning with leaving the car idling. I had no idea a car could overheat while simply idling.

I found out much to my dismay that it can indeed overheat quite dreadfully at an idle. I let it go just a little too long - about 40 minutes instead of 1/2 hour (we were cooking). When I went outside, steam was seeping out from underneath the hood. The temperature gauge was pinned all the way over to the right. There was so much steam that I didn't even feel safe opening the hood yet.

I went back into the house in a minor panic. I didn't even know whether I should let the buyer come up to see the car because I had no idea what condition it was in now.

First Potential Buyer

I called the potential buyer back to tell him what'd had happened, and asked him whether he still wanted to see it. He did, so I went outside to start cooling the car down. I poured several gallons of water into the car at intervals, and watched while the car heated the water to boiling. By the time the potential buyer arrived, the car had cooled down.

He and his wife both looked at the car. He had me start it up, and he revved the engine by squeezing something under the hood. The tailpipe was emitting a thick white stream of gas. I didn't know whether it was steam or smoke. I asked the guy what he thought about that. He said that if the gas hadn't been there before, and it was there now, something was wrong. I got the impression that it could just be steam from all of the boiling water, but that it might be something bad.

He asked me whether I'd take $300 for the car. I said yes, because I couldn't imagine what in the world I'd say to any other potential buyer, and how in the world I'd be able to convince someone (in good faith) to pay the original $500 asking price. So after he looked it over some more, he said he'd take it.

Payment in Cash

I thought the transaction was a little odd. I hadn't actually expected someone to drive off with it tonight. Especially given that it could overheat! But he was ready to take it. He hadn't even test-driven it.

I made a hand-written copy of the sales agreement that the seller of my Honda had printed up for our transaction. I had the wife sign the agreement, since they were putting the car in her name. She also signed the title. The guy gave me me three $100 bills. This came as quite a surprise - I've never had anyone pay me so much cash. It seemed kind of strange to me, but I didn't know what else to do but take it.

We took my plate off, and they said goodbye, and the Jeep was gone. Later, I felt a strange longing for the Jeep. I hadn't been mentally prepared to say goodbye to it, and now it was gone.

But that feeling didn't last for very long. The Jeep was out of my hands, and would never again cost me exorbitant amounts of money to repair. That was a relief, and I felt that, in the Honda, I had a much safer and more reliable vehicle. I'd always been a little afraid of the Jeep because of its height off the ground and because of reliability questions.