Price for selling a 1978 4cyl coupe?

[lparsons]

I've been trying to sell my 1978 coupe for some time now (4cyl, T5 tranny). I've been trying to sell it on the internet rather than just put an ad in the paper and let some kid destroy it.

110,000 miles on the car
~35,000 on the engine
~10,000 on the T5 transmission
No visible body rust
Starts easily, runs well

I've been asking $1,800 and I keep getting emails from 15 year old kids (often in 'txt msg speak') who want to know how little I will sell it for so their mommies and daddies can buy it for them.

Granted, I know it isn't worth a ton of money. But I'd like to at least find a good home for it. I'm contemplating two strategies:
Increase the price to something I know I won't get - like $3,000 or so. That should filter out the people who don't know squat about the II and maybe help find either a good buyer or someone with more money than brains.
Decrease the price even more and just let go of it. Maybe drop it to $1,200 and just say "take it or leave it".

I did say in the ad "$1,800 or best offer". But frankly I find it insulting that people want to negotiate the price before even seeing the car. I reply by saying "I will negotiate on price only after you have seen the car, or sent someone on your behalf to see it in person".

Any ideas? I posted it here on stangnet classifieds as well as mustangclassifieds.com.

 

[Mustang5L5]

I did say in the ad "$1,800 or best offer". But frankly I find it insulting that people want to negotiate the price before even seeing the car. I reply by saying "I will negotiate on price only after you have seen the car, or sent someone on your behalf to see it in person".

I agree. I've been getting that a lot on my car. I don't understand how someone's first questions are how much i would take for the car before they even see it.

 

[lparsons]

Does anyone even have a wild guess what I should ask for this coupe? Is my price actually too high, or is it too low?
Or am I on drugs for trying to sell a 30 year-old 4cyl coupe anyways? I know there isn't much of a market for it, but how do I find a buyer?

 

[Dano78]

You've got a tough situation here and I can understand it. I guess the first question you need to ask youreslf, is how bad do I need it gone? You've got sentimental value into this car and that makes it tough. I end up the same way with most my cars. You just want to see your efforts go to a good home.

I'm not a big coupe guy and 4bangers aren't my thing either. Althought due to the price of gas and the fact you have swapped in a T-5 you've got a couple good things going that seperate you from the rest of the crowd. I suppose the rest depends on the condition of the car. If you could post pics, that would be great. Demographics plays a big part too. Seems as if you can sell a Mustang II a heck of alot easier and for more $$$ on the eastern 1/2 of the US versus here on the western half. Basically coupes don't sell up in my neck of the woods.
For example. the latest coupe I sold was a '78 V6/Auto Ghia, Black on Black. I spent months on it cleaning it up, putting in another engine and tranny (engine recently rebuilt), restoring the emissions system and cleaning up and repairing the interior. It was a real sharp daily driver car that ran and drove really good and everything worked. The paint was aged and it wasnt' perfect by any means. I ended up giving that thing away for $900.
Same with '75 Ghia I had a bit before the black one. This was a V8/auto car with 62k on the clock. It's demise was a jumped timing chain which resulted putting in another rebuilt 302. This car ran and drove like it was off the showroom floor. interior was very nice ad the panit looked pretty good but was showing age in small places. Anyways, ended up giving that thig away for $2000 if I remember right. Heck over $1400 was in the engine alone.

So i guess what I'm trying to say is, look around in your area and see if you can find some coupes for sale and see what they are asking for them. Then adjust accordingly. Check in your local craigslist listings too. You are in a narrow market, dealing with IIs, you'll just have to be patient and keep advertising.

I do find it insulting to question an asking price before they come look at the car. It's shows that they are lazy-asses and have no respect. I usually tell them that I'll make them a deal and tell them a price $500 more then what I was asking. I always try to talk money face to face, but sometimes that cannot be done.

Try advertising on E-Bay, Craigslist (I do alot), post it here on SN and also post it over in the mustangii.net site aswell. Pretty good following of II owners over there. Probably a few that'd be interested in it.

Anyways, hopefully I've given you a little insight. Good luck with your sale!

 

[lparsons]

Thank you for the reply.

You pretty much told me what I was afraid I would hear - that the only sure way to sell it is to sell it for peanuts. And of course as you guessed, the car is worth a lot more to me than to any marginally sane prospective buyer.

I hadn't thought to try craigslist, I'll give that a shot this weekend. I tried the mustangii.org list, and nobody there was interested. I guess I could sign up for the .net list as well, and see if I get any better luck over there. (I've been on the .org list for almost 10 years now - I was on it before they moved it to yahoo groups)

And as for the region, well I have no idea if the II is selling out here. I have seen maybe 2 or 3 of them on the road since I moved out to central NY three years ago. And I don't recall ever seeing one for sale in person or otherwise. I suspect that much like so many other areas, >> 99% of them have been de-commissioned one way or another.

And one thing that makes life a little more difficult is that when I moved, the car did not move with me. I have the car back in MN, so I'm trying to sell a car that is 1,000 miles from where I live. Not sure if it matters though, as I have yet to get a single person who wanted to go to MN to see it, even ignoring my own ability to get to it altogether (I have relatives there who can show it for me).

And to answer your first question last, I'd rather not sell it, if I didn't have to. I bought a 95 GT a few years back to become by daily driver, but I very much prefer the ride of the II. Though of course, the 95 GT has far more power as well as much improved creature comforts. However, the II isn't getting any younger or prettier sitting around, and neither am I. I looked into driving it from where it is to where I am, but the insurance costs for two months coverage to do that were insane. And fuel prices don't help driving or transporting it, either...

Indeed I would be happy to sell it for peanuts to a good buyer. I keep getting emails from 15 and 16 year old kids (some of them writing in text-message speak) that simply makes my stomach turn at the thought of how short the car's life would likely be in their hands. If I was still living in MN I'd probably be seriously looking into parting it out, so that at least the parts could go to good homes.

 

[Dano78]

Man i hear you loud and clear. Of course you have to look at the other side of the coin too.

As you, I dread selling any of my cars to these numbnut kids these days. Seems like they just don't have respect for stuff anymore. My worst fear is that I sell one and the kid takes off in it bruning tires down the street screetches down the corner and then you hear a loud *WHAM* and you just know what that was. I'm sure it's any person's worst fear when thay have an attachment with their car.
However- you may never know you could sell it to a kid like me (or when I was one, 29 now) that has a little bit of pride for their things.
Being a dumb teenage kid - I remember my 1st car a '67 Ranchero that I bought for $250 when I was 14. Dad helped me out a little here and there, got it restored with the $$ I earned from my paper route I had for about 4 years. I had that car on the road about 3 months after I got my license and *WHAM* pulled out in front of some little old lady in a '63 Belvedere. Well she hit hard and my Ranchero barely limped away. I was heart broken but refused to sell it and just fixed it up again. A year after that, a friend and I were goofing off and we were rushing to get somewhere and I came backing out of a friends driveway as he was backing down the street and *WHAM* get a 1970 Mustang imprented into the RR quarter of my Ranchero. This was REALLY bad and most people would have scrapped the thing. Not me, I didn't drive it much after that but later located a parts car and hung new quarters, inside and out. And to this day, I still have the Ranchero. It's in my shop and hopefully soon all the prepwork will be done and it will be repainted once again.
I guess my point is yeah I distroyed that car but in turn I refused to give up on it and kept reviving it. In the process, the crazy repairs honed my skills and pushed them to the limits. I have learned so much from that thing, you just couldn't imagine. If you were to come see it today, you'd never even know it was in two serious accidents unless I told you and pointed out the non-factory spot-welds.

Also- you might be depriving one of these kids a posibility of becoming another die-hard II fan aswell. I know, I don't understand the whole Text-Talk crap either and to me seems insulting It's so impersonal text messaging. IMO it takes longer to type the message than to dial the number and TALK into the same device.... I could never understand why you'd need to type messages on a TELEPHONE.

But give craigslist a try and see what you get. I've always had good luck with them. Might need to relist it afew times to capture the whole audience as some don't look every week (or every day like I do) so you might miss a few prospective buyers.

 

[itsaMustangtoo]

Let me know how you make out, I am not having any luck selling my cobra either??

 

[Wart]

Heres a selling point:

The four banger unitbodies are the least stressed out there so if you want to build a V8 II it's the body you want.

 

[lparsons42]

Let me know how you make out, I am not having any luck selling my cobra either??

I can't seem to access my old account anymore (and I know, it has been a long time since I started this thread). However I would like to say that last summer I did sell the 78 coupe. I took $1300 for it. A couple drove from Ohio to central Minnesota with check in hand to buy the car. They towed it home on a UHaul car carrier and I sent them the title after the check cleared.

I never heard from them again ...

I had the car listed on craigslist (in more than one location) as well as on mustangclassifieds.com. Craigs only brought me flaky people who would blow smoke up my a$$ and then fall off the face of the earth (only one or two craigslist replies even went far enough to go see the car in person). The .com site, on the other hand, lead to an actual sale. I'm pretty sure I had it listed here as well and never heard anything...

I can also say the worst place I listed it - even worse than craigs - was a local (as in MN) mustang club. I posted it on their forums and got derogatory reply after derogatory reply. Why people felt it was worth their time to post a reply to trash my car I'm not sure.

 

[78CobraII]

Congrats on the sale. I would say that your patience may have saved another Mustang II from an early death!