Someone Drove 10 Hours To Buy My Car And Then Backed Out

Yesterday was a weird day — one that involved me feeling quite a bit of guilt. You see, a gentleman who had seen my 1954 Willys CJ-3B for sale on Facebook Marketplace had told me he was quite interested; I told him the Jeep wasn’t finished, but once it was, I’d let him know. He gave me his number, and for months we stayed in touch so I could relay my progress. Yesterday, after agreeing to a price, this gentleman drove five hours (one way) to buy the Jeep, only to decide against it. It was a strange situation, and a great learning opportunity for both him and me.

To be clear: It’s totally OK if someone decides they don’t want to buy my car. I don’t hold that against this gentleman, but this was a situation quite different than my previous vehicle sales, so I wanted to share it. Plus we need more posts since yesterday was such a bad traffic day, so here it is.

This gentleman had seen my 1954 Willys CJ-3B for sale on Facebook Marketplace for $15,000, and was apparently keen to make it his. “I’m really interested and looking for cj3b from long time. I will [keep] this for all my life,” he told me, saying his father in India used to own the very same Jeep, down to the color and model-year. It was at around this time that I was starting to prepare for my wedding, and decided to keep the CJ-3B as my wedding vehicle. “If I sell it, I will call you. But I suggest you keep an eye out for others in case. I will keep an eye out as well,” I offered.

In the end, I ultimately decided to make the Jeep Wrangler YJ my wedding vehicle, and to part ways with the CJ-3B. This was for a few reasons: First, the CJ-3B was taking a while to get ready, and I had bigger fish to fry than to wrench on a Willys when I had so much other wedding planning to do. Second, when I found bondo on my CJ, I knew I wouldn’t be able to avoid eventually replacing the entire body tub to make it a fully metal Jeep free from putty. I just don’t have time to go down that kind of rabbit hole.

So I reached back out to the gentleman who had been so keen to buy my CJ-3B and told him I was willing to part ways with the Jeep, but that it’d take me a little while to get it up to snuff. And so, after my wedding, I got to work, replacing the Jeep’s fuel tank, fuel pump, brake lines, brake master cylinder, wheel cylinders, and rebuilding the carburetor and replacing the shocks and a bunch of other bits.

 

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I was sure to let the prospective buyer know that I had discovered Bondo, and I generally wanted him to have a good idea of what condition the Jeep was in. So I made him this video:

Between that video and the photos of the Jeep in my listing (below), I figured the prospective buyer had a good understanding of what shape the Jeep was in, and of course I’d be happy to send more pics:

It took me a few months, but ultimately I got the Willys Jeep — which I bought last summer from a gentleman in San Gabriel, California who had told me the Jeep had been sitting a while — driving and stopping like a dream. Check it out:

Cruising in that Jeep was a true joy; that T90 three-speed just snicked up, to the right, and then up into second, then straight down into third with two satisfying SNICKS. The F-head motor sang a similar tune to its L-head “Go-Devil” older brother that I’d gotten used to in my 1948 Willys CJ-2A nicknamed “Project Slow Devil,” and the ride was charmingly bouncy. The entire world seemed to be looking as I drove down Roscoe Blvd in Van Nuys, California; there’s just something friendly about that Jeep’s styling that disarms the general public invites it to wave and yell “cool Jeep!”

I was reminded how much I miss Project Slow Devil:

Anyway, after showing this prospective buyer that the Jeep was running and driving like a dream and I was done wrenching on it, he asked me how much I’d sell it for. I reminded him that he’d replied to my $15,000 asking price on Facebook Marketplace; he replied with a $10,000 offer, saying he’s citing the bondo as the primary driver of the offer. I suggested $12, and in the end we wound up at $11,400 for a nicely running, driving, stopping Willys with a frame, engine, and transmission that had clearly been gone through in an older restoration, and some bondo on the rear quarters and other parts of the tub. It was a thoroughly OK CJ-3B. Not minty, not bad, but decent.

Truth is, I wasn’t even sure what the CJ-3B is worth; someone I’d nearly bought a CJ-5 from a few weeks back had seen the listing for my CJ-3B, and he told me it was a $15,000 Jeep. Between that and a bunch of online listings, I figured I’d start there, because why not?

Discovering the Bondo made it clear that 15 was too much, so when we agreed to $11,400, that seemed about right. Who knows how many of the above Willy CJ-3Bs (none of which are on the west coast, it’s worth mentioning)  have some Bondo on their bodies, too.

Anyway, I really don’t know what the Jeep is worth, and I’m not really too worried about making X dollars, I just want to feel like I’m getting a fair deal in the sale. $11,400 is $4,100 less than the CJ-3B below that sold on Bring a Trailer. It’s nicer than mine, but it’s not an original creampuff (unless this vehicle is an M606 — and I don’t think this is — then this civilian Jeep’s body has been “militarized” with a shovel and headlight protection and extra footman loops); it’s unclear if the body has any filler:

I’m not one to point to Bring a Trailer and say “look, this one sold for that, so that’s what my car is worth!” but we agreed to $11,400, and looking at comps, it didn’t seem far off. But then the buyer showed up.

He’d rented a trailer and driven five hours south from the Bay Area to meet me in Van Nuys. We walked over to the Jeep and did a cold start so I could demonstrate the alacrity with which the Jeep fired up. The prospective buyer sat in the Jeep, drove it just a few feet in the parking lot, and then chatted with his friend for a while before telling me the Jeep is not as nice as it looked in pictures.

For five minutes, this prospective buyer lingered and didn’t know what to say. It seemed to me like he no longer wanted the Jeep; he told me he’d offer $9000.

I wasn’t upset by this, and honestly he might be right! Car-selling is a complex business, and it’s best not to take things personally. But I’d sent him videos and pictures of the Jeep, and he’d had ample opportunity to get more information on the vehicle prior to making the five-hour trek. We’d agreed to an $11,400 price, and to drive down and then try to negotiate another $2,400 off the price… it was just a little weird.

The vibes felt a little off. That’s not to say I need to get more than $9000 for this Jeep (at that price, I’d just about break even on what I paid for the Jeep and repair parts). Maybe that’s what it’s worth! Maybe that’s a good offer! I really don’t know. I agreed to take $11,000, and told the prospective buyer that I was trying to find comps to better understand if $9000 was a reasonable ask. I’d taken a bit off guard by the second round of negotiations, so I was looking into other decent, stock CJ-3Bs that had sold in the area.

I asked the duo if they could find a Jeep in this condition in this area for less than $11,000. “No, these are just so rare,” the friend told me. The prospective buyer told me he’d been looking for years for a decent, stock CJ-3B in California. This confused me a bit. “Given that it’s so rare, maybe it is worth $11,000. I mean, time matters, too. If you have to wait two years to get one in slightly better shape, is that worth it?” I said. In the end, I was willing to drop to $10,400, but the prospective buyer ultimately decided not to buy the Jeep. He drove five hours back home empty handed.

I don’t want to imply here that anyone screwed up. It’s clear to me that I could have done better providing more detailed photos of the Jeep, and it’s likely clear to this gentleman that in the future he should ask more questions before renting a trailer and driving five hours one-way. We both screwed up. It was a total bust.

But there’s a bright side, here. The bust means this gentleman didn’t end up owning a Jeep he didn’t want (sometimes a vehicle just doesn’t look as good in real life; that’s OK — I think this gentleman might want to just spend $15K-$20K on a cherry one), and it means I’ll be holding onto this CJ-3B for a while. Driving it around town after the duo from the Bay left reminded me why I’d bought the Willys in the first place. It is absolutely fantastic — a true joy that brightens even the cloudiest of days.

Anyway, that’s the whole article. Someone drove 10 hours round trip to see my Jeep, only to decide the price he’d agreed upon was, in his eyes, too much for the car he was now seeing in-person. He was apologetic for changing his mind, I was apologetic that I assumed he had a good understanding of the Jeep’s condition, and in the end we parted ways amicably. Me with one too many Jeeps and him with ten too-few hours. Alas…

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