Pop a note on the windscreen - Does it ever work?

[bigstraight6]

Back in 1992 I was looking for a Renault 4 which were getting harder to find even back then, I happened to come across a really tidy A plate example while visiting friends in Somerset so I left a note under a windscreen wiper asking if the owner would consider selling. A few weeks later I had a call from the cars elderly owners who had owned it from new saying they would like to sell as giving up driving due to age, they were also not far away from me in Brixham South Devon.  Yet another car I should have kept!

[andy18s]

I once had a note left on one of my less than pristine Mantas,someone wanted to buy the reg number off it

Offered me £200 for the reg,I offered him the whole car for £250 and he took it

B reg white Gte hatch with some serious rust underneath it,and was being used as a proper workhorse

[Lord Sterling]

Never really left notes on cars per se but I have put notes through doors explaining how nice and rare the cara were and maybe visiting the Rover site I used to frequent. 

I myself have previously left some cars parked up on the street or in parking bays over various periods due to lack of use or having broken down and had people enquiring about them.  I always got back to the enquirer and explained that I wasn't selling.

Strangely, a chap in a late Mk2 Rover Sterling approached me years ago when I had the F-reg bodykitted 827Si, I was working or cleaning the car when he approached me, he wanted to swap his Mk2 Sterling for my car because my car had a towbar. I'd have happily given him the towbar but the LPG filler was on there.  I didn't want to swap even though it was highly tempting as the KV6 Sterling the guy had was much nicer and smoother but back then having heard of KV6s blowing gaskets I turned him down. 

[willswitchengage]

I saw this this morning during my daily exercise instalment. I suspect the owner has received a lot of notes on the windscreen!

[captain_70s]

I've had a few notes left on the cars over the years, but I've never sold them...

[MrSchwifty]

Interesting info from people. I think a polite, well worded note through the door is the way to go - most likely I will hear nothing back and one day it will be gone, but you never know. Car in question is a 1973 Mini, so I am sure there have already been hundreds like me! 

[lesapandre]

Sometimes people put letters away and don't get back until circumstances change. So play a long game. If you do a letter its the kind of thing people will put away. 

Say a little about yourself too to instil confidence - how you live  locally, or local connection etc etc - it's nice dealing with nice people - so much of the grief of selling cars as is well documented on this site is the anti-social folk it seems to attract.

[dozeydustman]

I did put a note on the orange-red GS in my spotted thread but had no reply from the people in the house (if they're actually there). Walking down there earlier this week for government approved recreation and the car is still there but the note has long since gone. Could have been read, could have blown away.

[Split_Pin]

The only note I have ever a note was when I was 13 and I left a Valentines card under the wiper of the girl next doors dad's V reg Fiesta. I never did hear back about that one.

One guy came into my wife's Pharmacy many years ago wanting to buy the Corsa when it was her daily. A few years later when I had taken it over, the same chap left a note under the wiper asking if it was for sale. I replied saying it wasn't but thanks for the interest and we are still friends now!

Often, when I contribute to a thread on a Corsa Facebook page, I'll get a PM asking if it's for sale. It's strange because in the last few years when I have taken it to shows nobody has taken any interest in it, some people have even looked at it disparagingly.

[clayts450]

Someone left a note on the Accord coupe 'is the car for sale?'

Fuck yeah - the MOT is out, needs welding, the brakes are fucked, it's got a leak in the boot and the gearbox is a bit fussy when cold.  Oh, and the bonnet doesn't shut properly, and needs an unobtainium cable, someone has badly bodged in some LED lights in place of the sidelights, and the car is playing cambelt roulette. How does £500 sound, m9...?

In all seriousness, I am giving some consideration as to whether I CBA with it, what with work being so busy and no real need for five cars. I'd probably let it go for 200 quid. Pondering....

 

[Tetleysmooth]

Someone left a note on Mrs Tet's Pajero a couple of weeks back.

She has been making noises about selling it, and was quite tempted to give the bloke a call. My immediate concern was pikeys.

Mrs Tet doesn't know what to replace the Paj with though, so pointless selling it really.

[Minimad5]

Note through the door is how I got a Mk1 Fiesta.

Good luck.

[Christine]

600 notes  got me  my  mk1 fiesta      

 

That child is 18 now !  

 

[Steviemillar]

As a confirmed BMW licker (except when it comes to E39s of course) , I used to occasionally meet a really nice locally registered 1996 Orient Blue E34 525i Auto on my short commute, driven by an older lady. I could never find it parked up anywhere until a couple of years ago when I spotted the E34 on a street not far from my house. I raced back home, wrote a polite, well worded note asking if the car was ever for sale to let me know and put the note on the windscreen in a small plastic bag to keep the note dry. 
I never hear anything until a year ago when I received a phone call from the owner who was looking to sell it. Needless to say I became the E34’s  next owner, the car had deteriorated a bit in the intervening years but still drove fine and passed its MOT a couple of weeks later with only one minor advisory. 

I also managed to secure a few cars in my younger years through a combination of  knocking on doors and/or leaving notes, I found the polite approach to work well, walking away if the vehicle was too expensive, too far gone etc, thanking the owner for their time and apologising for any inconvenience I may have caused them. As I was making unsolicited requests to buy something that was not advertised for sale meant that I feel even today that I am not  really in any position to haggle too much if at all. 

[Cord Fourteener]

Every day, for a while, I cycled past a red Volvo 200 estate of some sort (It was in a farm yard some distance from the road).

I had decided I had to go and either knock or leave a note, however then very moment I had made to my mind to do it for definite it vanished for ever!

Nooooo!!!

[Tadhg Tiogar]

16 hours ago, Christine said:

600 notes  got me  my  mk1 fiesta      

Hmm.....10 sets of horseshoes....

[vaughant]

Done it with some success to be fair but good and bad really.  One was certainly success for them as the car was a bag of wank!!! 

E34 estate 520i, in blue, looked straight enough, in a nice part of town. Scoped it out for a few weeks and it never moved. Left a note, got a call a few weeks later, interested in selling, only getting rid as he had a new baby and wanted a diesel. Sounded legit. 

Went round and the sellers parents were calling the shots, nice enough people but filled the logbook in wrongly for me causing me to not get it taxed, he was a typical old boy, wouldn't trust you to do anything. Told me his son would be around at the weekend to supply all other paperwork which actually consisted of a few receipts and not much else, guy came across as an arrogant prick as well. 

Still, got it mot'ed which it passed pretty easily and after a good clean it looked a decent car. Then it started misfiring so I took it to a local specialist who refused to work on it as the prev owner owed him money to find the misfire it suffered from. Here we go. 

He did eventually look at it but never really cured it properly. 

Convinced myself I'd fixed it by doing a bit of tinkering but it never ran well. 

Took it to Brighton, struggled to get 25mpg but it was a comfy solid car. 

Parked it up in Churchill 1 carpark and nudged the front bumper a bit. Came back, wouldn't start. Tried bump starting it, no good. 

Had to pay for recovery as it was blocking the exit and had no AA. 

Had to hire a car to get back to Kent where we were staying. Asked my mother to borrow her AA details and my Mrs would claim to be her... Mother decided to drive overnight to Brighton as she was panicking the AA would find out, FFS. 

AA boy fixed it, cruise control fuse had blown and this was part of the immobiliser circuit. He insisted we test the brake lights that I knew were a tad dubious but I had devised a back up method of putting the fogs on under heavy breaking. This is Friday lunchtime. 

He wont let me leave until the brake lights are fixed. 

3pm, enter m25 at Friday rush hour. 

2 hrs in traffic by Heathrow, it starts overheating. Explain to the mrs that its a really hot day and totally understandable, she says "well nobody else's car seems to be". Great. 

Another 4 hrs home through stop start traffic. 

Drove it a few more months until I realised my impreza was better on fuel, not much smaller inside, 100% reliable and drove better in every single way. 

Sold it for spares to a complete prick who promised to bring the really expensive battery back and never did, lying cunt. 

Hated it and couldn't wait to get rid. 

Had the knock on the door brigade with my old cossie thinking they'd get it for buttons, even had some utter prick turn up with a trailer telling my mother I'd agreed a sale for a grand and he just* needed the keys and logbook for it. 

Had a few other cheapies over the years this way (mainly Fords) which were usually OK but I find often they're there for a reason, intermittent faults, rust, hiding something etc. It's a bit easier nowadays to check but one thing I've noticed is if a car is spot on for one mot it's not always the case it will be for the next. My old ka had one advisory for rust and by the next year the spare wheel fell out whilst driving as there was no metal left !!