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Matt No VAT
January 21st, 2008, 03:21 AM
Well, it was a slightly sad moment when I drove my Hawk Stratos up the ramps and into the trailer unit of the a articulated lorry. Once safely and securely strapped into place she now on her way to Italy.

Mixed emotions were the order of the day, a car that I've spent six and a half years on heading off to her new owner. But then the garage is free and the floor was painted within hours of the car going. Just got to wait for it to dry and set for 48 hrs before bringing in Stratos No.2 to be started.

Should I crack a bottle of Cider across her back end now to signify the official start? :D

I must say that dealing with the Italian buyer was a totally pleasurable experience, which was the complete opposite of dealing with the UK buyer!

I am going to name and shame the worst offender just so that any other people that may be selling their cars will know to avoid the total timewaster that is Kevin McDonald registered on here as Tyr7, from Lee-on-Solent. And I still see him lurking on here from time to time...so beware!

After taking up three hours of my time at a weekend viewing and test driving my car, he made an offer by email which I later accepted as a number of people were interested and made offers by way of sealed bid.

I accepted his offer and said I'd contact him after speaking with the other parties to inform them that they had been unsuccesful.
This is when Mr McDonald disappeared off the face of the earth. Not returning my phone calls, ignoring voice messages and not returning emails.

My assumption is that Mr McDonald had no intention of buying a Stratos rather he only wanted to drive a Stratos. If he had been genuinly interested and his circumstances of mind had been changed then I see no reason why he couldn't have simply told me rather than avoid speaking to be and being up front and honest. I find that attitude rather pathetic and very childish.

Anyway, my car has gone to a much more deserving owner and I am keen to start the next build. If I sell the next one then I'd be asking for people to bring £1000 before any test drive to deter the dreamers & timewasters.

OK - Grumble over! ;)

strat6v
January 21st, 2008, 04:00 AM
Not a bad idea Matt, too many test pilots and dreamers who have no intention of buying or just try and blag a ride in tasty cars. After the ride they say great, love it, then offer a joke amount of cash, as if you are desperate to sell and they are the only 'interested party' :mad:

Chris J
January 21st, 2008, 04:36 AM
Hawk Stratos up the ramps and into the trailer unit of the a articulated lorry. Once safely and securely strapped into place she now on her way to Italy.


That all sounds very familiar. Although, I had supply my own ramps and push the car up.

'Looks very small in the back of an artic doesn't it Matt?

Matt No VAT
January 21st, 2008, 05:35 AM
Hi Chris, yes it does look very small in the back of an empty artic.

I also had a major pucker factor going on when I drove it up the ramps.

The ramps were just cut down steel U beams which dont provide much traction with damp tires, if the wheels started spinning I had visions of the back end twisting with the torque and sliding sideways off the ramps. Arrrgghh!!

Massive relief to get it in without a hitch :D

richard
January 22nd, 2008, 04:28 AM
Hi Matt,

Glad to hear that things worked out well.

Seems odd to bother putting in a bid if you never intended to buy? I can only assume he bottled when he realised how much money it is.

Not sure what you expect to get out of making someone turn up carrying £1000 though. I mean, I turned up with my wife and you weren't keeping her after the test drive either :D

Matt No VAT
January 22nd, 2008, 06:59 AM
Hi Richard,

I trust you are well,

The issue I have is they guy knew how much the car was before he came up to test drive it as I'd spent 30 mins on the phone going through it all with him, it was a case of just spinning a convincing line to enable him having a shot in a Stratos I reckon.

The £1000 is just to show people are serious and not just playing at test pilots.

And to be honest I couldn't keep your wife - I already felt embarrassed enough following "the perils of the wayward screw-driver" debacle! :o :( :o

richard
January 23rd, 2008, 04:35 AM
Hi Matt,

In good health thanks, hope you are the same.

The thing with the £1000 is that it would have to be cash to mean anything, and personally I wouldn't want to walk around with that amount of cash under any circumstances. So you end up putting off potential valid purchasers. The people I have known with serious money never carry a penny! It is a difficult problem, I have heard similar tales before and not seen a good answer yet :(

Interestingly, looking back at my test drive I don't really think about the screwdriver induced breakdown as much as having difficulty seeing out the window & operating the clutch with your seat settings :)

Swamprat33
January 23rd, 2008, 09:01 AM
So Matt, the question is, are you going to renew your SEC membership now you have another kit to play with???? :D

Cheers

Tim

SUSIT
January 23rd, 2008, 09:13 AM
Hi Matt,

In good health thanks, hope you are the same.

The thing with the £1000 is that it would have to be cash to mean anything, and personally I wouldn't want to walk around with that amount of cash under any circumstances. So you end up putting off potential valid purchasers. The people I have known with serious money never carry a penny! It is a difficult problem, I have heard similar tales before and not seen a good answer yet :(

Interestingly, looking back at my test drive I don't really think about the screwdriver induced breakdown as much as having difficulty seeing out the window & operating the clutch with your seat settings :)

Cash is trhe only way to deal Richard, on a good few occassions I have got a steal by placing a large ( several thousand pounds) on the dash of the car following a test drive and said thats it, the offer is there take it or leave it but there is no more, Its even better if you do it in tens and twenties.
You could take a large friend for protection but I dont normally

rutthenut
January 26th, 2008, 01:25 AM
are you going to renew your SEC membership now you have another kit to play with????

Hey Tim, you need to be a bit more appealing/convincing than that to get people joining the SEC. Not saying that anyone shouldn't join, but you might not want to pop up with these comments quite so quickly in the forum.

A better approach is to continue to show people why they would want to join the club - newsletter, contacts, club meets, etc. And let them come to you, don't go fishing without offering some interesting bait.

IMHO

Matt No VAT
January 26th, 2008, 01:45 AM
So Matt, the question is, are you going to renew your SEC membership now you have another kit to play with???? :D


Tim,
I'll not be renewing my membership with the SEC, the forum is an excellent place for exchanging technical / build advice and as we all know the forum is not part of the SEC.

During the build process I cannot attend any SEC related events with my car as its incomplete, so I cannot not see the benefit/value of joining.

Additionally, if the truth be known and there have been what I thought were some inconsiderate comments made on a public forum, which I feel would have been better said in private. I'm thick skinned enough so it doesn't bother me a great deal but what it did change was my opinion on my club membership.

At the end of the day I am still hugely passionate about the Stratos and other Lancias, especially as I just got my 2 Litre Beta Coupe back from the paint shop. I doubt anything will ever change that.

The new Stratos is now in the garage and about to be started.... So I'm head down and spanners out
:D
Thats the important thing for me :)

Swamprat33
January 26th, 2008, 03:14 PM
John, You are obviously well qualified, so I bow to your better judgetment :D

rutthenut
January 27th, 2008, 10:44 AM
John, You are obviously well qualified
:D :p :D