This is all about how to buy and sell your cars – beware of some mechanics. And thanks for checking out the blog today.
I was a mechanic at one point in my life and charge customers for my services. I worked in shops and had a lot of friends in the mechanical industry.
So, I know a lot of what’s happening at mechanic shops and how these mechanics can be a scam.
My dad also grew up in the automotive industry. He worked at a gas station in the early 50’s, which is co-owned by his friend. He told me stories about how the guys at their gas station would scam customers.
They would put a spout in old empty oil cans and leave it on the shelf. If a customer comes in and asks to check the oil in his car, my dad’s friend will hold the dipstick and push it a little.
He doesn’t hold the dipstick all the way down to the engine, so it would look like the car is low on oil. Then, they would get the empty oil cans and pretend they’re filling it up. They charged the customer fifty cents or how much it was at that time, for a quarter of oil.
In another instance, a lady came in and my dad’s friend asked when she last changed the air in her tires. She said she never changed it, so my dad’s friend went around her car to check it.
But what he was actually doing was taking the air out of the tires. He opened the valves, deflated the tires and dropped the car to the ground. He then filled the tires back with air.
The lady was charged twenty five cents for each tire or whatever it costs back then.
I’m telling you all these stories because this happens all the time. Some mechanics might say your car needs something when in fact, it doesn’t. Some people will be glad to pay for a good car care service. But little do they know that they are being ripped off by these mechanics.
When you get into buying and selling cars for profit, you need to know simple mechanics like how to replace a spark plug or how to change the oil.
It’s not necessary to get a degree, be a licensed mechanic or a master mechanic. You just need to learn the basics of your car and what it needs. Then you’ll save yourself time and money.
If you could do it yourself, you don’t even need to leave the house. You can just repair your car in your own garage.
So you don’t need to spend time to take your car over to a mechanic and wait for hours, or maybe the half a day to get it fixed. And pay a huge sum of money for it.
So, it’s best to learn the basics. You’ll then realize how much you’ll save by just doing it yourself.
Now, let me tell you about my moped. It’s a 1998 Honda Elite SR. My daughter and I drove to Montgomery, Texas to pick this up. It was a 467 mile roundtrip drive.
It’s a very sentimental bike to me just like my Yamaha YSR.
I started buying and selling cars from my grandfather’s 1989 Honda Elite. It’s very similar to this model but not as big though and was a little thinner. And, it didn’t have the glove box.
I got this at a very good deal. I paid twelve hundred dollars for it. It had an original owner, with clean title and eight hundred and eight four miles on it.
I must have put ten miles on it since I bought it. It runs like brand new. It runs thirty-eight to forty miles.
I’m not going too crazy on it. I’m just going to do a nice paint job and do an upgrade to the motor.
The original owner took good care of it. It always ran beautifully. He kept it at the back of his RV. They would bring it when they go to campgrounds and use it within the area.
He fell a couple of times on the gravel at the campground while driving it, and the paint got scratched. So it needs a little bit of paint. I’m just going to custom paint it.
I don’t plan on selling it for profit. I’m keeping it to ride around the property and play with it with my daughter.
They wanted to have it tuned-up for the new owner. So, he took this to a mechanic a couple of days before I picked it up. They even gave me the receipts as proof.
He spent two hundred and four dollars on it when it didn’t need a tune-up. The original owner is a nice, honest older man but he didn’t know anything about bike mechanics.
On the receipt it said, it needs a carb job. They need to rebuild the carburetor. The carb job was a hundred seventy five dollars. He also paid for other miscellaneous supplies. He paid a total of two hundred and four dollars.
I guarantee you what they only did was to take the airbox off and start it up. They played with the throttle a little bit and sprayed some carburetor cleaner. That was it.
The owner said he only wanted to have it checked and tuned up. He ended up spending two hundred and four dollars for it when a brand new carburetor on E-bay is eighty to one hundred bucks.
I took the airbox off and checked on the carburetor. It’s an original carburetor. The carburetor is attached to two ten-millimeter bolts so it’s very easy to detach.
It looks like they didn’t even crack the bolts. By looking at the screws, the float bowl was never taken off. If they did a carb job, the gasket should look new.
All they probably did, was to take the air filter box off. But, I don’t think they took the entire thing off to squirt some carburetor cleaner, because when I drove it, there was a little hesitation until it warmed up then it ran great.
So, I can guarantee they did little to this bike and charged two hundred bucks for it.
They also took this moped a year ago to the mechanic, which I’m not going to name, and he paid a total of four hundred and eighty four dollars.
They charged eighty bucks for the battery. Then, they charged three hundred and forty dollars to for the following: Flush and clean the tank, R&R (Remove and Replace): Clean the Carb, R&R (Remove and Replace): Side Panels and Replace the battery.
Then, they also had their front tire changed. They were charged one hundred dollars to put a brand new, fifteen dollar tire.
So, if you add the total amount he spent on maintenance, that’s almost worth more than the bike.
It’s so easy to clean a carburetor. You just have to take the screws out, clean it up with gasoline and put it back in. You don’t have to rebuild it unless your bike is running funny.
When a bolt comes off, you can have the tire off in twenty minutes and have the tire back in about thirty-five minutes or less. Mechanics charge you a hundred dollars for that.
So, again learn the basics of mechanics. It’s not rocket science.
I said this is a sentimental bike for me. This was a popular bike when I was growing up in Hawaii.
We would put a 72cc Polini or a Malossi big bore kit. Then, upgrade to the 28mm OKO carburetor.
Then, change the variator and the clutch. And do a couple of things to make it run sixty to seventy miles an hour.
I also had another one. It was water cooled, 125cc stroker engine. I had the radiator tip coming out of the front. I had little computer fans in the glove box for the fan system and an electronic fuel pump.
They’re just a dream to drive these things. They’re super fun.
I could easily sell this bike for twenty five hundred bucks if I wanted to. But I’m keeping it.
I’ll keep you posted on the progress of this Honda Elite Project. I’ll have some videos riding it and doing some cool stuff to it pretty soon.
I started buying and selling bikes when I was in my teens. So, if you want to buy and sell cars and bikes for profit, check out the F1 AutoCashFormula 2.0 and download the FREE 17-Page Bikini Report.
In the course, I will show you how to do the basics. You’ll learn how to do a tune-up. You’ll learn basic car inspection, so you don’t get scammed when you get a deal.
You’ll be confident to negotiate and grab the deal and do your little spruce ups and then profit from it.
Don’t forget to Comment, Like and Share the video.
I’ll see you soon! Bye!
-Tony
Other Helpful Links:
How To Buy And Sell Cars Important Mind Set Information
How To Spot Cars on Street – How To Buy And Sell Cars
How To Buy And Sell Cars – Negotiation Strategies and Collectables