Page 42 - KCRPCA May 2017

Photos by Jim Cummings
I looked at, but I later learned that Edmunds normally prices low and KBB prices high, so it’s good practice to look at both and take the average.
When you decide to make your rst contact, go to CarFax and get the 2-month unlimited plan. Face it, you never buy the rst thing you look at, and once you look at the rst car, the urge to actually make a purchase grows. Do yourself a favor and get the two month plan. I didn’t realize how much I wanted to get a car until I saw the rst one in person and it ended up costing me a small fortune in CarFax reports.
While everyone is different in their approach to answering an ad, I tend to text rst to ensure that the car is still available (not all are), follow up with a phone call and then hopefully a test drive. You can tell a lot by talking with someone, or, more precisely, listening to them. Remember, their job is to sell you the car. You should have an idea of what the car is worth before you call. While you shouldn’t talk about pricing before you see the car, they should at least appear to have a rational basis for their pricing.
I found that a lot of people are VERY proud of their cars. They have a right to be proud, but you are under no obligation to stoke their ego. The rst car I went to see was priced above KBB’s “Outstanding Condition” value. The owner felt that the IMS x and a new top justi ed it. However, the one key wasn’t coded to the car, the O2 warning light came on intermittently, and there were other issues that kept it from being in the top 3% of the cars on the market. In three weeks, I was the only one who took the car for a test drive. I made an offer starting with his asking price and deducting the costs to x what was wrong. He agreed with my argument, but decided that his price was his price. And it’s still his car.
The next car I pursued was about six hours away, so I didn’t get a chance to drive it. The owner felt that it was a $10,000 car and sent me the KBB page to back it up. However, he was citing the “Dealer” price, again for an “Outstanding” car. I’m truly amazed
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May / June 2017