Hooray for stupid people!

Patrick said:
So essentially, I'd need to get the email address of whoever is actually making the offer and send him/her pictures of my car and scans/copies of the receipts for the tint and the speakers?

What should I actually say? "I was thinking somewhere closer to $x; I can send you pictures of the condition the car was in and copies of receipts for the modifications I had done if you'll give me your email address."
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Exactly. Let them make the offer and then you counteroffer. But remember you have to give them something to work with, but don't overestimate yourself. You need to know how much the modifications add to the value and you can research the value of the 'condition' of the car. Mileage is something you can't change but you may be able to sway them that your car was in better than average condition for the mileage it did have, and more importantly in better condition than the baseline comparison.

If they do negotiate it will be somewhere between their initial offer and your counteroffer. The best way is to be firm while being fair. It's tit for tat. You have to be willing to negotiate yourself. You can't just ball up and expect them to yield. If you do reach an impasse, ask to speak with their manager as a last resort.
 
I'm definitely going to be fair; I'm not trying to milk this for $10,000 or anything, I just want... enough. Judging by what's already been said, wear items don't count towards anything, right? So the fact that I had a $1000 set of tires with about 8,000 miles on them doesn't matter? Or the fact that I had filled up the gas tank about 1/2 a mile before the accident? :( hahaha

I assumed that no matter how fair my offer was, they weren't going to honor it, so I was already planning on setting my counteroffer at about $500 more than I want. Figuring that $500 isn't too ridiculous, but at the same time, it will let them "negotiate" down without hurting me any.
 
I was just kidding about the tank of gas. haha

The appraiser sent me a copy of her report on the car along with what value the different things added. She offered me $3850 for the car and told me that since she felt bad about the rental, she was going to reimburse me $24 a day for fourteen days instead of the standard $10, so there's an extra $366 added to the $3850 for the (lack of a) rental for a total of $4216.

I didn't want to push my luck or anything, but went ahead and explained my case, explained how it was supposed to go to a car show in a week and a half, blah blah blah. Long story short, I asked her if she could go as high as $4700 all in all. She put me on hold, cleared it with her supervisor, and told me she could do $4700.

Honestly, I'm impressed. And I wish I had asked for more since she accepted my counteroffer and didn't try to talk me down from it. haha but all things considered, I think I made out relatively well. I paid about $5000 for the car back in October of '07, and not counting maintenance, I had put about $400 worth of things that I didn't recover from the car into it. $200 for the tint, and $200 for the speakers. So there's $5400 that I had paid for the car before taking into account the fact that I added about 30,000 miles to it.

This turned out much better than I thought it would.

Now I just need to get a new Mark VIII (and SOON!) so I can make it to Carlisle! hahaha

Edit: Wow, after re-reading my post, there's a lot of numbers in there! Hope I don't confuse anyone. :p
 
ViiiKiller said:
Wow, what a blessing in disguise. Hope you will find an LSC.
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I looked around, and only found one LSC that I was interested in. (being second gen with under 100k miles) Had 91k on it, but I found out that he thought the engine had 91k miles on it; the odometer showed closer to 155k. That's kind of a turn-off right there.

The one that I'm looking at now and going to be checking out on Thursday is a '97 base, ivory, chrome 20-spoke directionals with a little under 60k miles. As much as I would've liked an LSC, mainly for the body-colored trim, the chrome doesn't look too gaudy on an ivory car. Worst case scenario, I can find body-colored trim or paint the chrome trim. The "dual" exhaust on the LSC doesn't matter too much because either way, I'll hopefully be getting a custom exhaust done sooner rather than later.
 
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Patrick said:
The one that I'm looking at now and going to be checking out on Thursday is a '97 base, ivory, chrome 20-spoke directionals with a little under 60k miles. As much as I would've liked an LSC, mainly for the body-colored trim, the chrome doesn't look too gaudy on an ivory car.
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Finding a base model with 60K would make me like it more than any LSC with 100K+ all things being equal. It's all in how well they have been maintained.
 
driller said:
Finding a base model with 60K would make me like it more than any LSC with 100K+ all things being equal. It's all in how well they have been maintained.
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That's more or less my logic on it. The LSC has its perks, but a low-mileage car is a low-mileage car! And besides, like I said, the only real perks to the LSC is the body-colored trim and what FLM considers to be a dual exhaust. haha both of which can easily be corrected or overlooked.

Most of what I could find had either close to, or over 100k miles, and as I'm sure we're all well aware, that's when some of the real issues with these cars start to set in. I figure if I can get a decent deal on a low mileage Mark, that'll give me that much more time to head any issues off before they become problems.
 
Found another car; unfortunately, it's not a Mark VIII though. (or a FLM, for that matter) :( I'll be picking it up on Tuesday and will HOPEFULLY be at Carlisle Friday afternoon.
 
BadSax said:
Will you be parking it on the showfield? :D
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haha unfortunately, I don't think I have the guts that you do, Joe. Plus I mean, with the way that cars go, you probably could've pulled CaddySax off as a prototype 2018 Crown Vic or something. As for me, I don't think Ford ever made something with a hood ornament. :(

And besides, I'm not 100% sure yet if I'm going to be coming to Carlisle yet. I'm leaning strongly towards it, but with a brand new (to me) car that I don't know well yet, I'm not sure if I'd trust it on an 800 mile trip. I know that at the very least I'm going to have to change the brake pads, and who knows when I'm going to get around to that! haha

Seriously, though, Joe, if someone else wants to split the room, go for it. I'd rather you split it with someone who's definitely going to be there than hold out on me. haha I don't even know what my funds are going to look like after buying this car; it's seriously gonna drain my bank account. :( lol
 
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