This could almost go in General Questions, because I’m really looking for a factual-type answer to the question, as opposed to offering a car for sale to you nice gullible folks (which being a commercial offering, I’d like to make exlicit, is NOT what I’m trying to do here.)
But yesterday as I was driving over the GW Bridge, fortunately at the very end of it, my transmission started acting REAL funny, and by the end of the exit ramp was not working at all. I managed to push it to the shoulder of the ramp, and fortunately the ramp was two blocks from my service station, and I got it pulled into the shop in a remarkably quick fashion.
Eyeball diagnosis: prolly need a new transmission, running about 1500$. The car is an eleven-year old van with 120,000 miles and this seems to me a good point to unload it. The mechanic expressed mild surprise that I was giving up that fast: He said he’d seen plenty of '92 vans with 3.5 engines get another 30,000 miles easily, and felt that a 1500 dollar investment at this point made some sense to him. I think he was being honest with me (he’s been a straight shooter in the past) and not just looking for work. (I could be wrong about this though.)
My question is: is there a market for a car whose blue book value is probably not much (if any) above 1500$ that needs 1500$ in repairs to be drivable?
Aside from offering it to my mechanic, who has no personal use for it, how do I find someone willing to take it off my hands, preferably for a small sum in exchange? Am I being greedy in looking to get something back for an otherwise reliable car that isn’t running now? If I am being greedy, then what do I do with this behemoth? Can anyone suggest a plan for divesting me of it, preferably but not necessarily coming out with a few dollars in my pocket?
I’m really not looking forward to running a series of ads to sell a car that doesn’t run, and I’m dreading the thought of putting 1500 dollars into a car only to immediately start running ads to sell a car that does run. I also have no real place to store this one, so I need to do what I’m going to do quickly.