Real deal or phony baloney

Here is a San Diego Craigslist ad for a 1976 Chrysler Town & Country with 88,000 miles on it for $500:

"The San Diego Automotive Museum is selling a 1976 Town & Country Station Wagon. It is running condition although it does need a little work. The engine is in good condition with the exception of needing new valve cover gaskets. Electric windows and locks and air conditioning. This is a good deal. The car has 88,811 miles on it."

No contact info. Why would a museum sell a running car that looks pretty good in the photos for salvage price? This doesn't pass the smell test to me, but here is the Craigslist ad address:

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/cto/2697160015.html

If genuine, seems like a smoking good deal.

 

I agree, there's something fishy here. :16suspect1:

 

I don't trust this ad one bit. They'd likely go to eBay or at least have a telephone number listed. Not to mention, they're missing a zero off that price and it'd still be a good deal.

 

The listing is from National City (we call it "Nasty City"!) and the museum is located in Balboa Park ..... miles apart .... I wouldnt know where to send the down payment!

 

Well, there really is a San Diego Automotive Museum.

http://sdautomuseum.org/

Their contact number is 619-231-2886. It would the matter of all of a few minutes to call them and see if they're really selling this car. If they are, you can go after it with some confidence. If not, they'd probably really appreciate knowing that someone is using their name to sell a car.

 

Even if the museum really is selling it, that doesn't automatically mean the car is actually at the museum. It might have been moved elsewhere for any number of reasons.

 

OK, I called the museum just now (3:50 p.m. Pacific time--they're open until 5), and the guy I spoke with didn't know as he only started working there on Friday. He said I needed to call back during the day tomorrow to speak with one of the regular staffers. He said I was the second person to call about a car being sold by the museum.

 

No it doesnt mean the car is at the Museum but it would seem the ad would originate from the business office which is located at the museum .... unless the car was a donatioin and the museum folks have a independant carsalesman listing it for them, in which case he would put a more realistic value on it.

I am betting the listing price is wrong .... or the listing is bogus.

 

I e maled them my phone number. We'll see if anyone calls. I have a buddy in the area that maybe can take a look at it for me.

 

I'm not sure on this one...

On one hand, I can see an Auto Museum auctioning a vehicle like this - Non-profit auto museums get cars donated to them all the time, but it doesn't mean they all are of 'museum quality' - they would just sell something like this off. I can also understand that while the museum is in Balboa Park (near downtown), maybe they have a warehouse somewhere else- and National City has a lot of industrial type areas.

On the other hand, I'm puzzled why they wouldn't just put a phone number in the ad. The price also seems incredibly low......

 

Museums are hurting for money because corporate donations are down with the economy like it is. I remember the Crawford Auto Museum in Cleveland auctioned some of its donated cars recently, in order to help support some of the non-automotive exhibits in its other museums. That caused a bit of a stink among those who thought the car museum should keep its cars.

It just seems weird that any museum would virtually give away one of its cars like this. So, if the ad really is legit, then I would hope it has a typo and the price is really $5,000 instead of $500, for the sake of the museum and whoever donated this car to it.

 

One reason might be that here in CA, anything built after 1974 will need to be smogged...

Dan

 

Let me put it this way.....in looking at that car, if it is as nice as it looks, I would pay 500 bux for it if it had no engine!

 

Still waiting for a call back. Don't really think I'll get one though.

 

I've seen that kind of misrepresenting ad by lots of small dealers and people over the years. They deliberately leave off one zero to generate interest and draw people in.

I just don't trust sellers that do that. No way can it be an honest mistake like they claim because they're posting an ad to sell their cars and i'm sure read through a few times to get the wording right and then preview the ad before posting.