I met Pepe last Spring at my first gas station stop last year, looking for opportunities to spread the word on Carma Services’ many offers. Unlike most people I encountered at various stations, he listened to my proposal and agreed to let me engage with his customers at The Pride BP in Carol Stream in the weeks and months ahead.

It was at Pepe’s gas station that we met Scotty the cat last year and helped him find a new home with a local veterinarian. It was also at this location that we found Pepe’s 2004 Audi A6, an ideal Carma Car. I would often see him drive his car across the street to visit the affiliated car wash and check in with his staff working there.

Earlier this year, I noticed his A6 sitting for a number of days at the car wash and asked the employee on duty if he knew why this was. He let me know that Pepe had gotten a new car and was housing his Audi on-site for the time being. This got me excited because despite my many attempts to compensate Pepe for his willingness to allow me to hang out at his place of business with regularity, he always refused my gestures (he even turned down an Italian Beef from Augestino’s Deli across the street!).

During my next visit, I let Pepe know that if he did not have plans for it, I could take care of it for him and donate my resources in getting it done. This would allow me to have another opportunity to tell a successful selling story and show my appreciation to him for trusting me with my rather strange request months earlier upon introducing myself out of the blue one rainy afternoon.

After speaking with him about his plans for the car, Pepe seemed interested in selling it as the plates were set to expire in weeks and he knew it needed some work. I was surprised to learn that he was considering either scrapping it or simply giving it away to be done with it, but I told him that after getting it appraised we would know more about its condition and related potential monetary value. I was so excited at the chance that I offered to abandon my plans to hand out scratchers that day and take it to CarMax myself to get not only the offer, but the reports on his vehicle’s history and current conditions that we could leverage if he chose to take me up on my offer to help him sell.

Having taken Pepe’s Audi to the nearest CarMax, about 20 minutes away, I was able to share with him the useful information the investment of a little time had brought us. Not only was CarMax offering him $1000 in wholesale value (which was double what he thought it was worth), but we could now see that the history report showed that the car had a rebuilt title, likely as a result of a “severe” accident that had taken place way back in 2006. This meant that a significant event had occurred somewhere along the line, that would result in the title being branded and potentially making it more difficult to sell. This was a first for Carma Services, having yet to list a “rebuilt” car to sell. I was confident we could not only handle it, but get at least twice as much before the plates were set to expire in just weeks.

Once we had Pepe’s Audi inspected at CarMax, I offered to post his vehicle online. After taking some pictures and creating/posting his ad, I let him know that he could expect to hear from me when we either set up times for interested prospects to come to see it at his location or if I received any questions that I could not answer.

It wasn’t long before we had our first prospect come to see the vehicle. After a quick test drive, however, he seemed unimpressed and was questioning how the transmission shifted. Fortunately, I was able to pull up our CarMax inspection from just days earlier to show him that they had given it a clean bill of health. He let me know that he was not ready to make an offer and had more cars on his “shopping list” before heading off on his way. This meant we were back to the “waiting game” after dropping our asking price online.

On Saturday, I received a call from Larry. He explained that he had driven up from St. Louis looking for a car for his niece back home, and had just checked out another similar Audi in our area. He sounded a little stressed as he shared that the initial vehicle was not worth the trip due to some undisclosed issues, and now he was in a bind looking to find something that met his nieces’ specifications. Since it was a weekend, I tried to put him off until Monday (when Pepe would likely already be at work), but Larry reminded me that he was only in town for the day before heading home. After texting Pepe with the news, we agreed to meet that afternoon at the carwash to see if we could hash out a deal.

Upon my arrival, I noticed a black minivan with Missouri plates pulling in. Moments later, I greeted Larry and his passenger as they climbed out and took their first look at the Audi. Larry proceeded to take a few pictures of the extensive rust to send to his niece. Not long after, Pepe arrived and handed us the keys. I breathed a sigh of relief when it started right up, even after sitting for a few cold days!

As Larry was looking under the hood to inspect the integrity of the contents, his niece called and was recoiling at the thought of owning the rust bucket she saw in the pictures he had just sent her way. Her uncle let her know that it was in much better shape than the first Audi he had looked at that day and that they could find replacement doors at a scrap yard, to which Pepe chimed in letting him know that he had looked into it already and was quoted $250 per door, which seemed very reasonable.

Larry and I pulled out for a test drive and it did not take long before we reached “highway” speeds. My heart raced a bit as he approached 70 MPH from Geneva to St. Charles Roads on Gary Avenue. After turning on St. Charles Larry relaxed his driving style and began talking numbers, which is always a good sign!

As we neared the conclusion of our test drive, Larry made an offer to buy Pepe’s Audi for $2400. Since Pepe had pulled me aside and suggested we take any offer more than CarMax’s $1000 during our first showing days earlier, I made little effort to get Larry to increase his offer closer to our ask of $2900. After accepting his offer, he requested a chance to head to the ATM at the gas station to pull out a few hundred to make up the difference of what he had with him. As we waited for Larry’s return to the carwash, with cash in hand, Pepe let me know that this was a relief because he believed that he was going to have to relocate the Audi shortly because his leaving it there could become an issue in the coming days.

Before we could complete our transaction, we needed to pick up my lovely wife, Stacey, from my home a few minutes away as she had been able to create/print our bill of sale and would help us navigate the paperwork and cash counting to come. Stacey always does such a terrific job and consistently adds fun to the celebratory closing process! Pepe was so pleased that he handed her $200 after all was said and done. She politely refused as I reminded him that this was on me, but he insisted and she took him up on his generous offer. She asked him for a hug and Pepe reached out warmly.

Pepe then went on to hand me $1000 out of his remaining $2200 to put back into the community through our charitable work. This left him with 20% more than CarMax’s offer, but I think he was most relieved to be done with having to deal with multiple vehicles. From this $1000 we were already able to share $350 with our friends at the Wheaton VFW, which would have been my commission on a sale that came in $1400 over the dealer offer as this one did. It also means we need to find a home for the remaining $650 and look forward to sharing that giving story with you too before long as we explore possibilities!