Just wanted to have your thoughts on an incident I experienced today.
I am in the process of selling my mum's 2007 SLK 55 AMG that she owned for the past 10 years. The car has been meticulously maintained at the main dealer and cosmetically/ mechanically is in excellent condition. The car is a 13 year old car with just under 60 K miles.
Someone came to have a look at the car, took it for a test drive and arranged to have it inspected the following day. Before leaving, he asked me about the price. I told him that it was as advertised but he gave me a background story on how he only has X amount and it is the most he can pay. I tell him that there is no point in talking about price pre inspection just in case something serious shows up and only then would I consider possibly reducing the price. He insists and I agree, saying that I won't go any lower ( at this point we've taken approx. 1,000 pounds).
Come inspection day, car is inspected and the following shows up on the report:
- Slow coolant leak from radiator/ possibly replace radiator
- Replace 2 rubber bushings on rear suspension
- Replace 2 airbag sensors
- Check engine/ gearbox mounts
Man says that he really wants the car but is worried about having to spend money on replacement parts and asks to reduce the price by another 1,000 pounds to cover the above (car was already priced very low to sell).
My POV is that this is a 13 year old car and the observations noted in the report are all consumables with no effect on the integrity of the car and that this is not something that I should be reducing from the price. He then tells me to either pay the 200 pounds for the inspection or for me to accept the 1000 pound reduction in the already reduced price.
This really got me pi$$ed and I told him to not F around and waste my time.
My questions:
Shouldn't the customer be covering the inspection fees as his/ her own protection? With the only exception being if the seller mislead the customer about something that the seller had already known/ the seller pulled out of the sale/ the seller did not honour the selling price?
Did the observations above warrant the need to take more money off the car? I know that this is under the sellers discretion but as someone that has bought a lot of used cars, these observations would have been the rule and not the exception.
Cheers