You can shop at Titanium Motors on Crawfordville Highway or see their cars on Craigslist or Online
I like this 2000 Dodge 1500 - high miles - 318 V8 - way too loud - needs paint
Since the advent of Criaglist - I seldom shop for a car - truck - or scooter - a a dealer because - quite frankly - dealers do not give you deals. But sometimes dealers advertise on Craigslist - and since I was driving to Crawfordville on another Craigslist deal - I stopped by to see this truck.
JR Libby - the general manager - and son of the owner bounded out of the showroom - and did an excellent salesmanship job on me. I was interested in the truck shown here - a 2000 Dodge 1500 4 x 4. The young man showed me the truck - offered a quick ride - etc - etc.
In the showroom was also a Honda Trike. It was garnet in color - was his Dad's old ride - He wanted $16,000 for it. When his Dad - Marty - saw I was interested in scooters - he took me in the back room to see a 2006 Piaggio X9 - one 500c hot scooter. It belonged to an old guy - he died - and his wife was afraid to drive it alone. The X9 is one hot scooter - can easily hit 115 MPH. He wanted $3000 for that. Piaggio makes Vespas - we visited their factory in Pontedera ITALY. This is not cheap Chinese trash.
Back to the truck - it is a high mileage - 141,000 miles - 4 x 4 - which means poor gas mileage truck. It was the Sport version with a 318 V8 - with loud pipes - compared to may Prius. The paint was okay - but the clear coat was peeling. It had big tires and wheels - giving the truck a beastly appearance. There is an old saying about big trucks in comparison to the size of certain parts of the driver - not a good comparison :-) That was humor.
JR wanted to give me his best cash price - did the old routine of running and talking to Dad - even though he was the sales manager. I assured him I had cash - but I must have had sucker tattooed on my forehead - because the price stayed right around the window sticker - $4900. I did not want to haggle because I did not want to be tempted into whipping out cash or a check. NADA says the trade-in price is between $2300 and $3600. With the high miles and a few blems - I am guessing they probably paid $2300 for this one. I would probably be willing to pay $3400. They will probably reject me.
Dealers are smart. They have you over a barrel - they size you up and figure how much they can get out of you.They almost never lose money - because they know what they paid - and they will keep it on the lot until they get their price.
When you deal with private parties - they generally just want to get rid of a car - they are not interested in even washing it to improve its price. In the past - I have bought a car or truck for use for a project - when the project was done - I would put a couple of day's work into the vehicle - in many cases more than doubling my money.
In April of last year - I bought a truck on the first of the month for $2500 - and sold it on the 30th of the month for $6200 - after some serious elbow grease. This is not an April Fool joke. It was a good deal for all.
If I were running a dealership - or used car lot - I would probably want one like Marty and JRLibby's. It was very clean - very organized - they were very personable - not pushy - and it looks like they take pride in their selection of vehicles. JR was cool - he laughed at all my stupid stories - he did not mind me wasting his time. Old retired guys have a way of doing that. Since I gave JR my card - and he gave me his - he will be excited to read my web page. Read the next chapter - $3400.
JR Libby runs a nice shop with his Dad.
Their business is in this really nice pole building along Crawfordville Highway.
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