In late January, we received a submission online from Gabi and Scott, who were interested in finding out if Carma Services could help with a 2001 VW Passat that needed not just to be sold, but also to be pushed out of the garage in which it had been sitting idle for months.

Within hours of the request, I called Gabi and learned that she and her husband suspected that the starter needed to be replaced. She had been quoted $500-600 from their trusted mechanic to replace the starter, but there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t discover any other issues once the car was running. With this knowledge, she and Scott’s plan before contacting Carma was to donate it to Kars4Kids in exchange for a modest tax deduction.

Their Passat had a lot going for it, as it relates to adding value to a private sale with Carma Services. At just over 70k miles, we would be putting a rarity on the market. Some people love low mileage vehicles and would likely pay significantly more than the Big Box retailer ever would. (For illustration purposes, our objective is to seek out local stories in which our services blow away the 7-day offer with regularity and this one likely would have been more than a $2000 spread.) This made this opportunity all the more enticing and it also meant potentially a much larger donation once finalizing a sale.

After the conversation with Gabi, we decided that I would stop by the following day to check out the car in more detail and possibly take a few pictures after seeing if we could not woo the starter back to life with a technique I had heard about, but never tried. Apparently, you can sometimes get another start or two out of a defective starter by hitting it gently with a hammer. I guess that’s why many of us beat up a bit on finicky electronics. (I know my Nintendo back in the day would take a licking and then come back to life!)

All joking aside, we had serious work to do in getting it looked at and sold in a timely fashion. The next afternoon, Scott was available to meet with me in the garage for a brief Q&A about the car. This Volkwagen had apparently just stopped starting in the fall and they hadn’t gotten around to dealing with getting it fixed.

I asked Scott if he saw the video I had emailed him the night before about “tapping” the starter to see if we could not get at least one last start to avoid the hassle of a tow. He said that he had heard of that but thought that because getting to the part was more involved that he wanted to get, as it involved jacking up the car and removing a wheel, we may want to skip that option. I understood; not having a mechanical bone in my body, I did not feel comfortable going that path alone.

Scott let me know that since it was just an extra vehicle, they saw little urgency in finding out what was causing this issue and had been sitting on it for months. The impression I got was that he was an otherwise busy guy who would rather have spent his free time on other matters unrelated to used cars. This was one of the reasons I was thrilled to be invited into their process of finding it a new home. While it had been a good car in the two years they owned it, it did have some rather strange “blemishes” throughout the interior. It almost looked as if someone had exploded several ketchup packets in the front and back seating area. Not only were the seats stained, but other upholstered areas had a reddish brown discoloration that seemed hard to explain. When I asked Scott he suggested it was possibly age related, but I had never seen anything like it and was unsure how it might affect the value someone might be willing to pay for the vehicle.

Scott had a few questions about what he could expect working with Carma Services. I assured him that I appreciated the opportunity to help sell this car while raising money and generating another story so much that I would do everything I could to make this process as easy for him as possible. I let him know that my goal was to do everything he and Gabi did not want to do, and he let me know that they just wanted it gone and the idea of just having Kars4Kids come and get it was appealing because they did not want to deal with it much more. I also let him know that I would be as minimally invasive in their lives as possible while doing all the leg work, from getting it checked out by both potential buyers and a mechanic, to prepping the car with a quick detail. I explained that besides signing paperwork (which I obviously could not personally do), I could handle as much as possible on their behalf.

After our quick chat, Scott gave me permission to hang out in the garage and take some pictures of our prize. Although the angles were tight, I was able to capture a handful of pictures to show prospective buyers what was about to come to market. Even without it running, we could start raising awareness from it and look to our community for suggestions as to good local operations that could assist us in transporting and potentially getting this old timer back to running condition with some replacement parts.

I left Gabi and Scott’s house that day excited to have the chance to do the work that keeps calling me and a bit unsure about how we could best solve their extra car problem while giving back to the community. Used cars can be tricky to begin with, but to be facing one that could not even be driven posed another layer of complexity to this process.

Not long after getting home, I began looking into options for helping get this Passat out of Gabi and Scott’s garage. This process was even more complicated than usual, based on the mechanical issues that needed to be addressed before we could get it into a shop without being able to start it. In this particular case, my clients were offering to donate 100% of any dollars they made from the sale to 6000 Moms, one of our mutually valued local charities. I was so floored by this act of generosity that I wanted to donate our services entirely as well. One thing they did not want to do was put any more money into this car, as they had just had to renew the vehicle sticker in November and had been paying insurance premiums on it the whole time it lay dormant.

I understand their desire not to dump another dollar into this vehicle as there was no guarantee that after replacing the starter that we would not find more problems once running after months of inactivity. Our past stories have highlighted more than one check engine light that we had to overcome on the way to a sale after a car had sat idle, and in the case of the Passat, this could be one of the least of our worries, considering how expensive it can be to work on many European models.

At this point, we had only two choices when it came to a traditional private used car sale. The first was to sell the car “as-is” and hope that someone saw the potential of picking up a German engineered vehicle with extraordinarily low mileage, or get it in for service and capture thousands more in our red hot used car market. The more “profitable” option involved having the starter replaced and performing any other necessary repairs to get it running before offering it as a “drive-ready” used car.

If we could get the Passat running, I estimated that CarMax would likely appraise it for somewhere around $1000-1500. That meant that we would be looking at selling it at close to $3000 on the private market quickly! I could not let the chance to make our largest donation ever pass us by, so I figured that if all that was needed to get it saleable for a respectable amount was a new starter, Carma Services could cover the cost of the work.

At this point Gabi and Scott pretty much gave me full discretion on handling this transaction. While this was a liberating feeling in getting this done, it also put a tremendous amount of pressure on me to make the right decisions, as the outcomes would fall squarely on my shoulders.
The challenge was to find a way to get as much as we could for this car, while not investing too much into getting it running. Every dollar we spent getting it ready for sale would ultimately come out of the donation amount we would end up making after the sale. This meant we needed to find the right people and resources to do what needed to be done in this slightly more challenging case.

The next step in selling the Passat was to get approval from Gabi and Scott to post a request seeking out solutions to some of our selling obstacles, particularly getting the car transported to a local shop that would provide us with quality service at a fair price. Ideally, we could partner with a locally owned business that, after learning how we planned to donate all the money from our sale, might consider doing the work at or near their costs.

Within hours, we had multiple people share with us different shops and services that could help us get this car ready for sale. The two suggested options closest to Gabi and Scott were the Napa Autocare Center and Carlton Auto Repair, both in Wheaton. Carlton was only a couple of blocks from Gabi and Scott’s house, and it got me thinking about ways to avoid having it towed such a short distance. I offered to use my AAA insurance to get the vehicle moved if needed, but asked their thoughts on me pushing it to Carlton if they proved to be the best value. Again, Gabi and Scott said they trusted me to give it a push, and this flexibility was very much appreciated.

Within the comments on our social media posts thus far, a few individuals had expressed interest in seeing the car in its current state. Before moving the car anywhere, I wanted to give these interested parties a chance to come take a look with the hopes that I might find someone willing to make an “as-is” offer we could not refuse. Gabi and Scott allowed me to schedule an “open house” for the following day. All they asked was that no one park in the driveway, as they may need access during that time.

Not only did all of our prospects show up within a 5 minute window, all of them followed the directions to park in the street. Steve was first to arrive, and was kind enough to bring his jump box to rule out a battery issue. Unfortunately, not even that could turn the engine, and we spent a few minutes just “kicking the tires.” Steve let me know that he was a mechanic and thought he could fix this car on the cheap and have a winter beater, allowing him to keep the salt off of his brand new truck. He also pointed out that the driver’s side front tire was buried deep in the wheel well, implying that a spring had broken, which would add to our potential repair costs.

Although two other prospects came and went, Steve was the last to leave. He let me know he needed to look into some expenses and he would get back to me. He also asked that I send him a picture of the spots on the upholstery that all three of the guys seemed convinced were a visible mold issue. Not convinced that we were looking at mold, I expressed my relief that there were no unusual odors accompanying the strange appearance.

I left feeling hopeful that Steve would be able to make a respectable offer and we could simply sell the car without the uncertainty of getting transported and fixed.

Not long after Sunday’s Open House, Steve messaged me to let me know that after crunching the numbers, he could not justify making an offer much beyond scrap value. He said that for $300 he could come get the car within a day. This option did have the advantage of allowing us to make a quick donation without all of the hassles that can come with dealing with a car that had not started in months.

I told him that I completely understood and joked that buying a car that does not start is like the show “Storage Wars.” He could have replaced the starter and spring and had a great low-mileage vehicle on the cheap, or he could come to find out that the engine was in need of serious repair and he would have to junk the car entirely. Since the potential remained to find a shop and get some service that helped us get the car running while preserving most of our donation, I felt declining his offer was the right move until we knew more.

The next step was to look into the two top recommendations that were submitted through our Nextdoor post. I was especially interested in Napa because the person who suggested them said they had helped out with charitable work in the past. I stopped in and spoke with Scott, who seemed a bit unsure about my idea to donate the car and services in search of a larger donation to our local charity. He wrote down what I needed and the cause that was to benefit from our work and said he would call me back that day to discuss.

After leaving Napa, I immediately dropped by Carlton, which was only a stone’s throw from Gabi and Scott’s. I spoke with Russ and was initially told that we would be charged a little over $100 to diagnose the issue, and since it hadn’t been running for some time, we may face thousands more once we got it running. This was concerning, because although I had agreed to replacing the starter (and would have even considered covering the suspension work), I knew that if it was much more than that, this transaction would not make much economic sense.

At this point, I reiterated our charitable angle in selling the Passat and asked Russ if he could simply help us figure out if the starter was the issue and what that and the suspension work would run without dinging us for the diagnostic fee. I figured that if we ultimately needed to call a scrapper, if we could avoid paying for the diagnostics, we could at least get a few hundred dollars in full to donate instead of having to reduce our donation to less than $200 just to recover this cost. After thinking about it for a moment, Russ agreed to help us out (and if not for Covid concerns I would have given him a big hug on the spot!).

After leaving Carlton, I got a call from Scott at Napa letting me know that a starter on a car like this would run nearly $700 installed. This seemed high, based on the $500-600 that Gabi and Scott’s mechanic had quoted them before we met. I also found it interesting that one shop was going to charge a diagnostic fee and the other did not require that step. I thanked Scott for his time and let him know we would be in touch if we decided to move forward with Napa.

The following day, my wife and I dropped by Gabi and Scott’s to take on our next challenge: to move the Passat out of Gabi and Scott’s garage and down the street a few blocks to Carlton. Although the distance was not very far, the tires were in desperate need of air and the power steering – without any battery power – was obviously not functional. We met Scott in the driveway to grab the car key, and with my wife behind the wheel, Scott helped me push it out of the garage toward the end of his long driveway. To my grateful surprise, he continued pushing with me as we inched around the corner and down the street towards our chosen shop.

I was even more grateful that I was not pushing alone as we discovered that there was the slightest of inclines about halfway down the block, which made it incredibly difficult for the two of us to gain enough momentum to keep moving the car forward, and would have made it utterly impossible for me to have moved on my own.

After a couple of rest sessions to catch our breath, we encountered a Wheaton police officer who had been visiting a friend in the neighborhood who asked us where we were headed. At first, I thought maybe we were violating a city ordinance or something, and let him know that we were heading around the corner to Carlton. He said he wanted to be sure we weren’t pushing it to St. Charles. After a quick laugh, he and his friend jumped in alongside Scott and me to continue our journey. Now that we had four people pushing, the work seemed almost easy, and in no time, my wife expertly maneuvered her four-manpower chariot into an open space in the small lot at the rear of the shop.

After thanking Scott and our good samaritans for their efforts, I slid the key into the dropbox slot at the front door. That evening, while we waited for Russ to report back with the Passat’s diagnostic fate, I was contacted through Nextdoor by a new prospect who was interested in buying it “as-is.” Pablo, I learned, was looking for an inexpensive car that he could fix himself and give to his two sons who had recently started driving. I let Pablo know that we did just drop the Passat off at a shop and were awaiting word on what needed to be done to make it driveable, and assured him that I’d call him back with more details as soon as we received the diagnostics from Russ.

The following morning, I received a call from Russ at Carlton confirming that the starter indeed needed to be replaced. He quoted a little over $450 for the starter (more than $200 less than I was quoted at Napa). Additionally, the suspension work would run about $500, and the battery was shot and would add $270 to our bill if we decided to move forward with the repairs in pursuit of a traditional private sale.

This wasn’t exactly the news I was hoping for, especially since there was no way of knowing that after these repairs, we would not discover a check engine light or something far more serious wrong with this vehicle. The worst case scenario would be that we would invest over $1200 and end up with a car that was worth only a few hundred dollars as scrap.

Russ asked me to please let him know right away about how we wanted to proceed, as the car was currently sitting in one of the few spots available in the shop’s bay. I told him I needed to verify with our clients and would get back to him as soon as I could. I also asked him if he had recommendations to have someone get the car for scrap value if Pablo did not come through. Russ recommended Windy City Autowreckers and told me to talk to Gene.

After texting back and forth with Gabi and Scott, we decided it made more sense to try to move their Passat without investing any more money. I told them I would keep them posted on any developments with our private sale to Pablo, and if this option fell through, what our next steps to have it scrapped would be. I was relieved that they both seemed content with either option, as long as it wasn’t going back into their garage and wasn’t taking up space in Russ’s crowded lot.
Next, I called Gene, and after explaining the situation to him, he was kind enough to quote me $425 over the phone to come get the car as soon as he could. However, considering we had just been hit with several inches of fresh snowfall, he said it may take two days for him to get to us. As his offer was more than we had expected as scrap. I pleaded with him to please see if he could get us on his books for the following day (assuming we did not sell it privately before then).

That evening, I met with Pablo’s brother in the Carlton lot after the shop had closed for the day. After our brief meeting, Pablo phoned me that he was interested and wanted to buy it for $750. After some back and forth, he agreed to $850 since I was willing to use my AAA membership to get it towed to him at Route 59 and Roosevelt Road, saving him that expense after buying it. This was great news because Russ had made it clear that he wanted to free up the limited space in his parking lot ASAP.

Pablo and I scheduled to meet at Carlton that night, after he got off work at 8:30. I then called AAA to set up a tow for our buyer, but after speaking with the representative from AAA, I learned they do not tow from closed businesses without verifying that the business has provided permission to do so. Since I did not have an invoice or any proof to allow us to haul the car away, I rescheduled to meet with Pablo at 9:30 the following morning to hopefully close the deal.

The following morning, I contacted Gabi and Scott to let them know that I would be heading over to meet our potential buyer at Carlton after dropping my daughter off at school. I confirmed that they would be available to sign some paperwork and relinquish the title if the sale completed and Pablo wanted to take the car on the spot. I also shared with them that since Russ had already kept the car in his lot overnight, in the case that the sale fell through, we should plan to have it scrapped that day. Gabi and Scott agreed, and I called Gene at Windy City to reiterate our predicament and the urgency of having it scrapped ASAP if the car did not sell at 9:30 that morning.

As I was driving to our appointment, Pablo texted me saying he had stopped by earlier to look at the vehicle and to speak with the technicians at Carlton. After his visit, he had decided to pass on this opportunity. As I pulled into Carlton’s parking lot, I called Pablo to see what had changed, and he said that the most he could offer now was $500. By this point, I thanked Pablo for his interest, but decided that I think we were best served by going with Windy City’s guaranteed offer of $425.

In an effort to keep Russ at Carlton from regretting helping us out, I called Gene to let him know that we would need his services as soon as he was able to send a tow truck out to us. He took my contact info and said he would have his driver call before he left. Around 11:00am, I received a call confirming that we had a tow truck on its way, so I contacted Gabi and Scott to ask them to meet me at Carlton to sign off on the title transfer and collect the payment.

Gabi and Scott expressed their gratitude for the work that went into this process. I let them know that I would have liked to have gotten the car running, as it would have likely sold for close to $3000 in this market. In addition to a much larger donation, our story would have included more details about how much CarMax would have offered so we could have better illustrated the difference between their wholesale offer and what one could expect using Carma Services.

All things considered, we were able to help Gabi and Scott to sell their unneeded, inoperable vehicle to reduce some recurring expenses and to free up some space in their garage. Working with Carma Services allowed them to be able to support a local charity that means a lot to them while getting the tax write-off they had sought when donating their car.