You know, scott brought up an excellent idea. Buy him a rennlist membership, and tell him to log on. it will clear your concience, and give him a great opportunity for the future in terms of maintenance help for his car. I bet a bunch of rennlisters from his area would be willing to have a timing belt/waterpump party to help out.

 

I agree with Ralph. $250 isnt much and your reputation in a small town is worth at least $250. This elevates you from good guy to great guy.

 

The Kid needs a new mechanic. You'll save him a lot more then $250 over the long haul by getting him to the right mechanic upfront. Through in the $250 to keep the kids friends from taking revenge on your truck in the school lot. They are high-school kids after all. Then as a teacher you can look back at all the valuable lessons the lad has just learned.

 

Give him the name of your mechanic and tell him to go there

 

Right, your mechanic should be happy to give the kid a deal to get a new customer, and he owes you already.

 

Giving him $250 doesn't teach much of a life lesson now does it.


Wish I could go back to the PO and get a few bucks too....but he knows I am way too old for that.


Whacha gonna do when he comes back next week with an odometer that doesnt work or a cooling fan that just won't turn on?

 

Clarification - the $250 would square the deal, and your conscience, if you felt that you might have unintentionally misrepresented the car's condition.

Of course, once the title changes hands there are no guarantees - and everyone should know that. I always get it in writing just to be clear and safe.

 

Aren't waterpump rebuilds like $105 bucks from Pelican?

At any rate...not your problem. You gave the buyer all the info, and it was a car nearing 170,000 miles. That kinda thing happens!

 

I am only 3 years older then the kid u sold ur car to and got my 944 about 1 1/2 years ago. My car is in show room condition w/ now 37,000 miles on it and still learned the price of owning a porsche when i updated the maintnace like timing belt ect... BUt i knew what i was getting into when i got the car. Becides that i think he should ahve known the price of owning a porsche which u did warn him about so u are off the hook. If u want to make u feel better you can give him some money to help balance out the price but i like two of the other idea mentioned earlier better.

Get him signed up for the pca and/or rennlist and also point him in the direction of a good mechanic which is pricless for cars as old as ours.

 

I got mine for $79.95 from Zims.

 

Oh yead the Cookhouse is going strong. I always take my out of town visitors there for the authentic lumberjack experience.

 

LOL. Like I said, small town, word gets around. I am pretty well liked in the community and by the students, and I also have a reputation as a mean m-f, so I would probably know who did it and they would be regretting it for the rest of their lives. I hold grudges.

Besides, if they keyed my 1987 Toyota Landcruiser FJ60 with 245k miles they would probably be doing it a favor. They just might find it parked on top of their beater Honda the next morning. Naw, I would just make their academic life a living hell...

 

Well, here's what I've decided, and I do want to thank everybody for all the smart advice. I started out leaning toward giving him about $250 for the water pump and mount kit. The belts etc. were full disclosed to him. But now I'm thinking the following:

1) $3500 was a very good price for this car, considering that the only issue was the belts/reseal, warn 1st and 2nd syncros (minor), and the usual exterior blemishes but zero rust. It has a $600 stereo system, $550 set of tires, 4 new injectors ($325), new shocks/structs, ball joints, tie rod ends, driver's side axle assembly, springs, plug wires, K&N, rotors, FPR and dampener, and god knows all kinds of other new parts etc. Interior was really good.

2) Daddy has to be in control. The kid was impulsive. He was gonna buy it without even driving it! I insisted he drive it before purchase (this is when his eyes got huge ). PPI is buyer's responsibility and dad should be counseling his son to that effect, but the kid just wanted the car, then and there.

3) I fully disclosed everything I knew was needed to be done on the car. This is more than any buyer could hope for. What if I said nothing about the belts? An experienced buyer would of course assume they simply had to be done de rigeur.

4) I did some price checking and, as you have all indicated, the parts $$ his mechanic is quoting him is more than twice what online suppliers charge. The quote of $700-800 from my mechanic did not include the water pump but did include labor and parts on the reseal and belts, so I'm not so sure they are much better than his mechanic. There are really only two mechanics that work on Porsches in the whole county, mine and his.

So, I'm going to tell him about the more reasonable sources for parts and recommend that he consider doing it himself and that he get help from his dad and from you all here on Rennlist. The least I can do as a fellow P-head is to key him into all the ways we save $$$ with these cars. If he doesn't want to tackle it himself, he should try to talk his mechanic down, talk to mine, or buy the parts himself and just have the mechanic install them.

Well, that's enough. Thanks again. Now I'm off to adjust valves and bondo some rust spots this weekend on my truck.... Never had to do that on the 944. Hmmm....

Peace out,
B

 

I see you've resolved the issue in your mind. I'm replying to perhaps keep your mind at ease.

I'm a real believer in honor and try to defend and protect mine at all costs. So, this is where I'm coming from.

Let me get this straight. The kid wanted to buy your car and you disclosed all that you knew about it in good faith. The crux of this as I understand it is that because the kid's mechanic quoted him a different price he has some issue with this? If this is so, it's not your responsibility to price out the kid's repairs. If you deceived this kid either overtly or through omission, that would be one thing. But he's got a quote from one mechanic that is more than your estimate and if he feels you owe him something, he is wrong. Perhaps there is another mechanic nearby who would do it for less thatn your estimate. Your honor is clean. If you feel the price you sold your car for is fair, your honor is clean.

If you want to help him in any way, such as pointing out better sources, directing him to Rennlist, or any of a myriad of things because you're a nice guy, fine. The world needs nice guys. But don't do it because you feel your honor may be sullied.

 

Everybody gets this screwed up....

Give a man a fish and he eats for a day.

Teach a man to fish and he'll spend the whole damned day on a boat drinking beer.