Sometimes I wish I were just a normal car owner who could trade in their car to a dealership and get something new, repeating that cycle every few years until I die. This way, I’d never have to deal with the agonies of selling a car privately again. In my experience, selling a car is the least exciting, least enjoyable part of the ownership experience.
I’ve owned dozens of different cars, from worthless trashboxes that barely ran to fairly clean, desirable performance machines. But I’ve never once had an easy, pleasant time selling a car. Instead, I’ve had to deal with disorganized, flaky, and often rude buyers who end up ghosting me after a few Facebook Marketplace messages. It’s been much of the same so far while trying to sell my Miata.
Things are made far less convenient by my location. I live in New York City, which means organizing viewings, snagging pictures for prospective buyers, and test drives are far more difficult than they’d be anywhere else in the country. Here’s why.
Here’s the thing about New York: Driveways and in-building parking garages are reserved for the wealthy. Homes with included parking are exceedingly rare, and if your apartment building happens to have a parking garage under it, a spot costs several hundred dollars per month. My apartment building doesn’t have any parking, which means if I want to keep a car nearby, I have to park it on the street.
For many years, that’s exactly what I did. While there was some level of convenience, the cons of having a car living out in the cold outweighed the pros. Not only did I constantly have to worry about moving my car to avoid street parking tickets, but I also regularly dealt with damage caused by other motorists. I didn’t want to subject my Miata to that, so I managed to find an off-street parking spot that I paid to have access to.
Like I said, those spots are expensive. But they get cheaper the farther away from the main island of Manhattan you get. My spot is in Brooklyn, two subway stops away from my home. I’d get something closer, but it was the only one I could afford.
See where the problem is, right? If someone wants to come take a look at the car, I can’t just give them my address and have them show up at my house. Instead, I have to call ahead to the garage to have them get it out of storage (this is a valet-only lot, which means I don’t park it), and pay $2.90 in subway fare to present the Miata to anyone interested.
I have the same issue if someone messages me asking for a specific type of picture of my Miata. Because I’m not near the car, I can’t just snag a quick photo of the brake pads or film a video of a cold start. That would involve a 45-minute round trip and cost me $5.80. It’s impeccably annoying.
Downtown Brooklyn, where my Miata is parked, isn’t exactly the most hospitable place for cars. There’s lots of traffic, plenty of bikers, numerous pedestrians, and the speed limit is 25 miles per hour. Not to mention the quality of the pavement is among the worst in the state.
Those factors, all combined, make the area a pretty terrible place to drive, much less to test a vehicle to ensure it’s working properly. If I were test-driving a car, this is the last place I’d want to do it. And prospective buyers likely feel the same way. So far, I’ve had three curious customers show up to check out my car. But none of them have been able to get out of third gear, much less experience the car’s handling or braking attributes.
I can understand why none of them made me a real offer. Even if the car drives fine at 30 mph, how can they tell if everything works without getting up to highway speeds? I made the mistake of buying a car without checking how it ran at high speeds once, and only discovered the problem (a heavily worn-out wheel bearing) once I got on the highway to drive home. Never again.
As (bad) luck would have it, I’m losing my parking spot at the end of November. That means in the next month or so, I’ll have to find a new home for the Miata if it doesn’t sell. Instead of continuing to let strangers on the internet drive the car a few blocks only for them to ghost me the next day, I’ve come up with a different plan.
In fact, I’ve already set this plan into motion. After I bashed my eye socket on the Miata’s tow hook this past weekend, I left the car at my parents’ house in upstate New York, electing to take my Range Rover home instead. That might seem counterintuitive, seeing as how the car is now even further away from me than it was before. Just hear me out.
With my dad at his house, he can just sell the car for me. All I have to do is arrange the meetup, and he’ll be the person to present the car and give out test drives (what a great guy, right?). This also solves the cityscape test drive problem, as my parents’ house is out in the suburbs, where there’s plenty of room for people to stretch the Miata’s legs.
I’ve done this type of move in the past, but usually for car parts, not whole cars. So I’m a bit uneasy about it. But I also trust my dad not to get scammed by people, so I’m confident things will go just fine. Whether I’ll be able to make any money on the Miata upon its sale, well, that’s an entirely different story. So stay tuned.
Top graphic images: Brian Silvestro
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Point taken, but remember that the car in question has a known history of violence…
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