Maybe stupid question: Selling a very old car

[mathnerd]

My MIL had her driver's license revoked a few months ago. She'll be 85 years old next week, so this isn't a terribly surprising turn of events. Now we're looking at selling her car. We know it won't get a whole lot of money, but we still don't want to get screwed over. It's old enough that KBB and Edmunds don't have a value listed for it, but it's not old enough to be an antique/collectors car. It *might* be worth something to the lowrider crowd, but I'm not sure, which is why I'm reaching out to you guys.

The car is a 1988 Oldsmobile 98 Regency 4-door sedan. It was purchased by MIL new, kept garaged its entire life, and has about 90,000 miles on it. It's in very good to excellent condition both cosmetically and mechanically.

So, is it worth taking our time to sell it? Or should we just sell it to the first offer and not worry about getting any real money for it? What do you guys think?

[Sapphire Silk]

You won't get any real money for it. You might get a couple of grand or you might only get a few hundred bucks for it.

I googled some car sales sites and found a few close to that year with asking prices around $2500-3,000 with mileage similar to your MILs car. So you might start with a price around there and dicker down. I'm sure you'll find a buyer but you may have to weed through some SCs first.

[mathnerd]

I think we're hoping to get $1000-$1500 for it, but MIL lives in a suburb of LA and we're down in San Diego, so the effort of trying to sell it is more than if we were closer. The option of just taking it to CarMax and getting $500 or so has some appeal.

[wolfie]

I hate to say it, but it sounds like that car has been seriously abused. From the model year and mileage, it's been driven around 3200 miles a year - I put more than that on my truck in 2 weeks. What this means for the car is that it's been used almost exclusively for short trips - engine doesn't have time to get up to normal operating temperature, so condensation in the oil doesn't get boiled off. This leads to sludge and acid, which eats the bearings.

Do you have maintenance records (especially oil changes)? For most cars from the '80s, the oil change interval for severe service conditions (short trips qualify as severe service) is 3000 miles/3 months, WHICHEVER COMES FIRST. Unfortunately, a lot of people who aren't mechanically inclined tend to think of "not driving much, and only in town" as regular service (6000 miles/6 months), and change the oil according to the mileage, ignoring the time. This would mean almost 2 years on an oil change.

The stereotype "Owned by a little old lady who only used it to drive to church on Sundays" is an abused car - even if the church wasn't 1/4 mile from the lady's house (often the case when the stereotyped lying salesman gave the stereotyped description of a "cream puff").

BTW, that's one confused car - it's both an 88 and a 98, and it's newer than some 2002 BMWs.

[mathnerd]

88 is the model year. 98 is part of the model name. It's been meticulously maintained, and all the records are available. It is suffering from lack of use. The overwhelming majority of the miles were put on it in the first 15 years of its life. As MIL has gotten older, it's been sitting for more and more time. BF takes it out and drives it, making sure to get it up to operating temperature for at least 30 minutes or so every time he visits, which is about every three months. But it doesn't help that we're talking about suburban Los Angeles and the nightmare traffic the city is so well known for. He also inspects it to make sure there's no brewing trouble and gets it fixed and keeps up with other scheduled maintenance. Other than that, it pretty much just went to the grocery store and church, and sometimes not even that over the last 3-4 years.

[Sapphire Silk]

Wolfie's right about the abuse. When Dad died, Mom couldn't bear to sell the car right away (I had offered to help her, it was paid off). So it sat in the garage for a year until Mom got tired of maneuvering around it.

Problem was the battery had died. I had to bring over my charger and recharge it, and I could definitely tell a difference in how it drove when I took it for a spin. Dad had used it for both short trips to shop, and long trips to see the grand kids, so we didn't have short trip syndrome, and Dad was always good about maintaining his vehicles properly. Once I got it broke back in I was able to sell it in a private sale for about what it was worth Blue Book.

Evil Empryss had a Lincoln Town Car from her MIL that had all the records but the mechanics had ripped the MIL off right and left. Car was in terrible shape. She drove it for about a year. I drove it for about a week when we swapped for my truck when she was moving. Oh LORD what a mistake. Yet she found some sucker who gave her a couple of grand for it when it was worth a couple hundred at best. And she told him about the problems IIRC.

Don't get me started on the Jeep Grand Cherokee she's driving now. She was told the same thing: garaged and not driven much. We thought that was a good thing. Car has been a colossal money pit, and every time she gets behind the wheel she prays someone hits her and totals it so she can get a new car. Two years and still no luck on that

[Aria]

Huh, I thought very little mileage would be a plus. I've only put 2,500k on my car in the six months I've had it. Hmm, it's due an oil change...

[Sapphire Silk]

I know. I thought the same thing for years.

Turns out cars need to be driven regularly to be well maintained.

[protege]

The car is a 1988 Oldsmobile 98 Regency 4-door sedan. It was purchased by MIL new, kept garaged its entire life, and has about 90,000 miles on it. It's in very good to excellent condition both cosmetically and mechanically.

Unfortunately, 1980s vehicles aren't worth a whole lot. However, some of them are starting to become collectible. Not as much as say a Ferrari, but there is some interest. What you could do, is pick up a copy of Hemmings, and see if there are any similar cars in their classifieds. Considering that it's a one-owner car and possibly mint, you might be able to get a bit more for it. It would be a shame if it found its way to the scrapyard

But like the others have said, the low mileage could be a problem. I mean, even though it's been maintained, there are always things that go wrong from sitting. Gaskets dry out, gasoline gets moisture in it (which can cause the tank and other fittings to rot out), tires develop dry rot, carbs gum up, etc. Most of those problems can usually be easily sorted. Meaning, if someone wants to put in the time, they could land a bargain.

Whatever you do, don't try to go to a dealer. I ran into dealers that wouldn't even talk to me when I was trying to unload my grandmother's 1995 Olds Cutlass Ciera in 2007. She could no longer drive, and didn't want to pay to park the car at her apartment complex. The car had some issues--minor accident damage on the passenger side, and some dirt on the driver's seat. Otherwise, it ran like new. Full service history records and other items were provided. Had it not been damaged in the accident (she fell in a restaurant parking lot, hit her head and tried to drive to the hospital. About halfway there, she got blood in her eyes, and veered to the right, and hit a pair of parked cars ), I would have kept it, and sold my knackered Mazda instead.

Anyway, no dealer in the county would touch it. It was too old and they were reluctant to fix the passenger-side damage on a 12-year-old car. Rather than sit on it, my uncle took it back to NJ with him, and he donated it to charity.

[taxguykarl]

Is it an option to donate that vehicle to some kind of charity?

[mathnerd]

Is it an option to donate that vehicle to some kind of charity?

That's another option we've been playing around with. It might be worth more as a tax-write off than a sale. My MIL is on the lower end of upper class, with a high value estate (the house alone is around $3mil.)

We've done the best we could with the "low milage abuse", but we're just far enough away that we can't do much. Since I posted this, there's one potential buyer; a friend of one of my SIL's that has a teenager looking for an inexpensive car for him. He's willing to pay near the bottom end of what Hemmings says it's worth, and that'll be good enough, particularly since if he buys it, the aggravation of trying to sell it goes away.

[Sliceanddice]

You know..... a well maintained late 80s car isn't bad for teen drivers might be the right move

[csquared]

A friend of mine recommended this site for pricing.

[taxguykarl]

That's another option we've been playing around with. It might be worth more as a tax-write off than a sale.

You're welcome to PM with more questions about how this works.