so i got this hairbrained idea of trading my car for a bicycle temporarily, and i got just the best pals who love to support me and my cockeyed dreams. now to go about it in a fairly legit way is always the trickier bit.
any suggestions on how to go about this the easiest way?
Rule 1 : Never Sell A Car To Anybody You Like Know. There Are Tousands Of Other Buyers Out There.
CSA
A good way to lose a car and a friend.
If you’re still going to do this Dope Slap thing, you have to transfer title. Otherwise you will be on the hook for any tickets or accidents.
Sounds like a bad idea to me.-Kevin
+1 to the previous comments.
There is an old saying…something to the effect of…The best way to lose a friend is to sell your car to him.
No matter how well you maintained the car, and no matter how good a condition the car might be in at this point, no matter what goes wrong with the car for the next couple of years, the problem will automatically become your fault. Unfortunately, that is the way that most people’s minds work, and friendships are severely tested–if not destroyed–by selling a car to a friend.
As was already said, with the huge numbers of potential customers for used cars, there is no logical reason (IMHO) to sell your car to a friend.
Bad idea. Even if every thing seems good now, what happens in six months when the starter dies or the transmission falls out. Neither of which you knew anything about before and your friend never would have guessed.
Really it is a bad idea. Friendships are worth far more than a used car.
Count me in with everyone else. The worse thing then buying a lemon is buying a lemon from a friend. Don’t chance it. The only exception is a gift or free car. If no one has skin in the game, there is nothing to loose if anything goes wrong.
Bad idea. The outcome is usually bad and I don’t see any difference in this instance.
Is this a Silver Ghost? Can I be your friend?
"Rule 1 : Never Sell A Car To Anybody You Like Know. There Are Tousands Of Other Buyers Out There."
Totally agree. Don’t do business with friends, ever!
Which do you value more – your car or your friendship?
We have a saying in my family; Never mix ink and blood. That means never do business with a relative. That also extends to friends.
Agree with other posters. Even within the family I have given away 3 cars with the full disclosure of the condition of all the parts.
Sold a car to my brother. Biggest mistake I ever made. I have NO idea what the heck I was thinking. It all turned into a trainwreck that didn’t end until I told him I was done working (for free, of course) on the piece of…
THEN he sold it.
Really, really, really bad idea.
Even with the best of cars, something can go wrong right after you sell it. Case in point: in 1955 my dad bought a 1954 Buick from family friends who were going overseas. The car had been meticulously maintained. However, our second ride in the Buick, it quit because of a defective fuel pump. My brother and I were sworn to secrecy to never mention that problem because he didn’t want to upset the couple who sold us the car.
Incidentally, all did turn out well. A farmer towed us to a garage in a small community that had an excellent mechanic who took care of the car until he retired. I bought the car from my dad 8 years later and then sold it to my brother. We ran the car to 160,000 miles(unusual for a 1950s car) and never had the heads or pan off the engine. My brother sold the car and it was still on the streets a couple of years after that.
I’ve done a few repairs for in-laws in the past and it was a mistake. Never again.
The worst (and last) was my sister in law’s ex who blew up the 350 in his pickup due to lack of oil. Feeling sorry for the guy I located a complete great running 350 that he could test drive before it was parted out. He drove it and the owner sold him the engine with all accessories; pulled and loaded for 250 dollars.
I installed the engine for free and the only thing he was out of pocket for was the actual cost of the coolant, oil, and oil filter. The truck ran great.
He took off on a test drive and I never saw him again or even heard a thank you back from him although I did hear a week or so later that he was telling everyone how I screwed him over on his truck…
Go figure.
The only time I sold a car to a friend it went down like this… We both told the wives it was a bad idea. Then we went in to the garage , then had a few Beers. When the wives did the deal we parted ways. He and I are sill best friends and the wives are now EX wives. Side note his wife total the car about a year later. We went to the bar and drank and toasted the lost!! We made them come get us.
I did sell and install a motor and repaint a truck for famliy menber as wedding gift. Some how the balancer came off. Instead of calling me he took it a shop. They welded it back on (to the crank). Then I got blamed for a bad motor that did not run right after this hack fix. If he would have called I could have fixed right.
About 20ish years ago one of my sisters in law had a carbureted Pontiac Firebird. She hooked up with some worthless mullet haired boyfriend who tweaked things a bit.
Even when warmed up it idled at 1500 RPM, kicked back while starting, and rattled like a can of marble son acceleration. In time the boyfriend took off and the SIL asked me to look at her car to find out why it had those symptoms.
The BF had advanced the timing by a full 12 degrees while telling her it would “make it go faster”.
I set the timing on it, adjusted the carburetor, and all was good. Or so I thought.
It came back to me shortly afterwards that “ever since I worked on her car it didn’t run worth a crap”.
What I should have done in retrospect is refuse to touch it and let excessively advanced timing take out the top end.
Never sell a car to a friend, bikes are cheap, park the car, when inclement weather comes use the car and be glad you have it.
Ditto Barky-I cant even do stuff for free my way without critcism(getting sorta tired of it)-Kevin