That's a bummer. But try to look at the positives. You went on an adventure! And as was previously mentioned, your little boy will still have his wagon. I'm sure he was thrilled to see it was back home. Focus on that, and in the mean time keep looking. The right car will turn up eventually.
Haha! I appreciate your enthusiasm. Im sure there are all sorts of ways i could have handled it. I have found through past experiences with something petty like this it’s better for me to just get out of there. Quick. Otherwise, the more i start trying to “reason” with guys like this, the more i lose my temper, snowballing into a grown man throwing a temper tantrum, which gets the cops called, which 9 Times out of 10 results in jail time for me. Any time the police show up I’m out of there. The guy was sitting in my passenger seat of the wagon telling me how sorry he was. I responded with my head in one hand and a loud “god @$#% it!!!!” He got the hint and got out of the car. Any longer and he might have sustained some form of bodily injury. Or who knows? He might have whooped MY ass! It’s happened before! Several times... either way, i made it back home where the kids are bad and the beer is good and i got to sleep in a warm bed by my wife and not a cold cot next to some some joker with bad breath talking about all the reasons he shouldn’t be in jail and how he’s been picked on and mistreated his entire life.
I can see changing my mind. But with cell phones and email, I'd call before you drove all the way to trade. This Bruce should have let you know he'd decided to keep his car. Did he have anything negative to mention about your station wagon? Or did he still like it but couldn't part with the car? Sometimes us old farts can't make up our minds and won't let go, like in that 'LetGo' commercial where everything works out. On the brighter side I-40 is a nice fast scenic route for a Sunday drive.
Sometimes old buggers get scared at the thought that their beloved heaps will get dropped on 4-wheel drive truck frames or the like. With them, it's important to emphasize that it's going to a loving home and that the car has a nostalgic connection to better times, parents, grandparents (depending on your age) or whatever you both may have in common. It's difficult for younger people to imagine this, only because younger people just haven't been there yet. Older people just get set in their ways and younger people can't know this, until they age themselves. Just like when you didn't like kids, until you had some of your own. It's no different. Of course, aging also has its disadvantages. That's the trade off, unfortunately. It's important to make a point that you intend on restoring it to a museum classic. Maybe, if you had went along, Sir, you could have arbitrated the deal to work out successfully. It's never a bad idea to have a referee, at the scene
Grizz a guy named Bruce on the hokey ass message board on Hamb tell a different story of your adventure . A good read for ya. Always two sides .
Never fail to disclose all imperfections when selling or trading a vehicle. Saves a lot of time and effort for both parties.
Man turns down trade. Two pages of back-patting ensues. Only on HAMB would a 30+ year old car be called "late model".
Now I wanna jump! I can see why Bruce didn't make the trade. Grizz should have explained everything needing work on the station wagon. To travel farther than an hour away everything should have been discussed with the idea either can still back out when they meet. I feel sorta bad because I told each man the other seemed fair and honest. I still feel they both got the vehicle they love. As an example........ I'd spent $2000 on my 2004 Dodge truck engine with 67,000 miles and yet the electric throttle controller was bad. The truck idled like 4500 RPM. I got and traded it at a GMC dealer for an Impala. I made sure the dealership knew it needed a $100 part and needed it installed. This may have lost me the deal had I not informed the dealship. Explain everything, no matter how old the vehicle is or what's wrong. I've looked at a lot of cars I'd pictured in my mind as show cars only to find they need a complete restoration. I've also found piles of junk that I still bought because I could see the car of my dreams in that pile of crap. Keep in mind, these are just cars. As humans we all change our minds.
i read it. He just trying to cover his ass. He knows i look at the hamb as well. Don’t worry buddy. I’m not that petty to try and put someone down over the Internet. I’m more of a face to face kinda person. What he didn’t say is that over the course of a dozen or so emails of me disclosing everything wrong with the car and giving pictures of the rust and other issues he still gave the thumbs up for the trade. He knew how far i had to come. He knew exactly the work that needed to be done. Honestly to me it just sounded like a 30 year old car that has been sitting in a basement for two months. It DID have a rough idle. It most definitely was not roaring. Maybe he was hearing the x pipe and dual flow masters?. I don’t know, It didn’t run like that when I parked it two months ago. I wasn’t riding the brakes like he says. I didn’t start it and try and warm it up before i got there as that would seem dishonest. I wanted to deliver it “as is”. I offered to put the scanner on it for any codes it might pull. I did run across the street to o’Riley and put an IAC on it. Which as he said brought the idle down and it was running great. After that he just shook his head and said that he doesn’t know enough about “modern” cars to feel comfortable doing the trade.The fact that this guy doesn’t mention he’s even slightly sorry for how far i had to come is just more proof that he doesn’t give a shit about wasting my time or money. To me the car ran fine, no knocking, pinging, popping, or stalling. I haven’t done any investigating on the idle as it’s not real high on my priority list. Long story short -to me, and obviously I’m a little biased, the rough idle issue was something minor that could easily be fixed. (And with the iac it was. Either that or the car had finally warmed up)He knew, and told me he was prepared to do some work on it. So to me that’s no reason to make someone drive 10hrs and waste money on gas and a trailer. If he really wanted the car we could have worked out a deal over this minor of an issue. He wasn’t having any, and now he’s on the computer trying make me sound like the jerk. It’s all good. I got bigger fish to fry right here in my own town, no need for me to worry about what some hillbilly yokel living in the mountains tells his computer buddies. Good luck Bruce. I hope you find what your looking for. If you do email me and tell me all about it
I'm also a firm believer that any car over a few years old will need work and adjustments. Not sticking up for either of you, most everyone has a cell phone. Deals can be undone anytime in those ten hours. Just the return trip home would make me consider driving over a ledge. I'm still a firm believer that anything 1949 and beyond is too new. I purposely bought a 1948 Chevy panel truck for that reason. Up till 1954 they pretty much look alike. As we get older and more cars disappear, those cut offs do need to be changed. Still, a 2018 Corvette at an old car event is NOT right. Danged, I accidentally got a panel truck with my wagon in the photo.
One thing to consider - his pics from the Craigslist ad sure don't look like his recent profile pics. Looks like the car may need more bodywork than is led to believe. I would still think it's a neat car, but I am a little biased - I really like those Forward Look cars.
