Club Dirty Resurgence - Part 2

Talk about an addiction! I check craigslist everyday. Always the "autos by owner" section looking for good deals, monstrosities of wasted time, or the infamous barn find. Its all about the chase, and hopefully I can share some of the excitement about the latest club dirty endeavor: Project E30.

How my $1000 Jeep Wrangler Wasn't A Scam: Part 1

There are many sellers on craigslist that try to rip us off. You see the car of your dreams, and somehow the price is thousands below what similar makes and models normally go for.  They included a picture, but the only thing the description mentions is that the car has ABS brakes and includes an air freshener – nothing else. When you email them they mention that the car is nearby, but they are in some random African country and will need for you to send a money transfer before you can test drive the car. You could give them your credit card to make things easier, if you wanted.

Craigslist Finds: Two RX-7’s, Four Turbos

This Craigslist find features a seller offering not one, but two different 1993 RX-7’s for sale. On top of that, both of them look great and they each have a twin turbo engine!

...Club Dirty.

Craigslist Finds: Custom VW Cabriolet

These kind of deals you cannot find anywhere else but Craigslist. I stumbled across this VW during one of my car dazes on Craigslist. I basically search for anything under $2,000 to see what I find and most always find something interesting.

Craigslist Special: Oldsmobile Alero Turbo

The Oldsmobile Alero is one of the least attractive platforms for any automotive tuner or enthusiast. Personally, I spend a lot of time planning my upgrade path or products that I want to use on my vehicles, down to the point of doing research of possibilities BEFORE I even purchase a car. I cant even image the huge amounts of pain in the ass this Alero would have undergone, from a mechanics perspective, to become a turbo'ed vehicle. 

Craigslist and Cars

Craigslist, if used in the right ways, can feel as good as if you just won the lottery. That might be an exaggeration, but in some cases you have the potential to save thousands of dollars and end up with a fun project.

You can always go to Craigslist.com on any computer to search for local deals in your specified area. A Smartphone is great to finding the extreme deals. With multiple apps available for all phone operating systems, you will be able to check for deals wherever and whenever. Some apps have the function to search across multiple cities, which is great for hard to find items.

The early bird gets the best worms. One of my personal best scores has come from finding an item (or a car in this example) within the first 15 minutes of it posting. This does not mean you have to live on Craigslist or be obsessed with checking. Take a minute or two a couple times a day to check on what you are looking for, and you might get lucky. If you check more than 5 times a day and have an app that displays what time of day the post was made, you sometimes are able to get a general idea of when people make their postings. For vehicles and car parts, my personal experiences have shown that between the 9am-5pm generic work hours is when you see a great volume of good listings. Don't get me wrong, I have found great deals being listed outside of those times as well.

Haggling is also necessary to find good deals, but be careful on how you go about doing this. People are not going to give away their stuff for pennies on the dollar. Also remember that these sellers are real people as well. People skills can make the difference between getting a good deal and a great deal. Pay close attention to similar listings around the area, and use Kelley Blue Book prices as a point of reference when looking at cars for sale. Some items can be well below regular value, due to the car or part needing some work done to make it better. Go in with a realistic approach on how skillful you are and/or how much money you have to put towards the item at hand. I had never painted a car before, but knew how much money I was willing to put towards getting it done or learning the skill myself for one of my Craigslist finds.

You could make a decent living working within the automotive field, just by learning the Craigslist trade.



Have any other tips? Look out for more Craigslist automotive discussion in the future from Club Dirty Auto