After being unable to sell my 1985 Jeep J10 in California — a place that requires emissions tests and that does not tolerate even minor rust — I decided to ship my truck to Michigan to find a buyer. “This truck is clean,” I told myself. “It will sell in the rustbelt in no time!” I was wrong. Very wrong. Months later, my truck still languishes in The Mitten, with buyer after buyer just kicking tires, my friend growing tired of storing the vehicle, and just when I thought it couldn’t get worse: A tree fell on the Jeep.
The idea was actually not a bad one. My Jeep J10, by California standards, is so rusty and so unlikely to pass emissions that people wanted to buy it as a parts car. The J10 isn’t quite a Bring a Trailer/Cars & Bids quality machine, but it certainly isn’t a parts car — it’s a mostly rust-free (in the eyes of a Midwesterner), low-mileage machine with a perfect powertrain and drivetrain that drove all the way from Michigan to California with no problems. It could be someone’s daily driver. A truck like this is rare in Michigan and tends to command a premium, which is why I paid $1,450 to ship the machine from LA to The Motor Suburb.
And at first, my idea seemed genius! I had loads of interest, with plenty of folks even looking at the Jeep in-person at my friend Jamie’s place in Ann Arbor. One gentleman named Todd seemed very interested; he showed up, took a look at the truck, and then sent me an offer via text. He and I negotiated a little from the $8800 I had the truck listed at, but ultimately I came more towards him than towards my list-price, and he agreed. “I will go the 7250,” he replied.
Hot damn. I had the truck sold! $7250 was a bit lower than I’d hoped for a rare, low-mileage truck. Hop on Auto Trader, and you’ll find a bunch of trucks in worse shape asking way more. But that’s OK; it’s one thing to ask and it’s another thing to sell. Plus, this basically pays for the Jeep Comanche I replaced my J10 with, so I’m happy.
Fast forward a few days, and Todd comes to purchase the Jeep.
“Your guy Todd just bailed,” my friend Jamie messaged me.
“And by bailed, you mean left or literally bailed?” I replied.
“Literal bail. Passed on the sale,” he said.
Apparently Todd had brought his son, who talked him out of buying the truck.
Months later, Todd continues to message me about the truck, but he wants to pay less than $5,000 for it. To a friend, maybe I’d give such a deal, but to someone who agreed to buy a vehicle only to bail? I’m just not feeling it.
Then things got worse. Jamie had sent me this photo with the caption “Bless my neighbor”:
Luckily, Jamie’s neighbor is able to store my Jeep without issue. This seemed great, as it allows me some time to find the right buyer for this niche vehicle without stressing out Jamie or his family. But then, a few days later:
“Carb fine. Slight squish of filter. Running perfectly,” Jamie messaged me. “Thankfully the roof and glass were spared. I’ll pop the hood damage up as best I can. I’m so sorry man.”
I assured Jamie that he isn’t accountable for an act of nature, and that I owe him big-time for storing my Jeep all this time.
Jamie, amazing man that he is, built a jig out of wood, set it onto my frame rails, and gently lowered the hood onto it to pop out the dent:
The results are actually quite impressive, all things considered!:
Anyway, shipping my Jeep from California to Michigan to find a buyer has proven to be been a disaster so far. It’s crazy to think that, had the prospective buyer, Todd, not brought his son to see the truck, I would have thought it was genius.
Alas, I took the risk, and it seems this one may go down in the L-column. You win some, you lose some.
I have a BMW that would be a nice car if it didn’t have more problems than any sane person would buy into, and I don’t have the time or patience to fix it. I’m strongly considering a Craigslist ad of “Best offer by Saturday takes it”. Then take the couple hundred I get for it and put it towards a Honda that just works and I don’t have to nervously look at the temperature gauge every few minutes.
Ask Mark Tucker to run it head-to-head against a comparable pickup, and see how it does.
You’re a Jeep guy trying to sell to non-Jeep people.
It won’t happen unless you’re pricing competitively against a Ford Ranger.
Unless you wish upon your friend to store this until that special Jeep person shows up at the door, and you’re hoping this article brings attention to your plight.
I don’t want to pile on, but there’s some good advice in these comments.
For sure. The thing about these J trucks is that they’re known for getting rust holes in their bedsides. when that happens you’re pretty much screwed; you’re going to have to pay at least $5000 to have that repaired. to the person who wants a good restoration candidate without spending 15 grand on one that’s perfectly rust free this truck makes a lot of sense, but whether I find that person is another question lol!
Sell that thing for the next offer you get! A crêpe truck is a crêpe truck regardless of location.
I like crêpes.
Perhaps selling them from the truck would bring all the boys to the yard.
It already has a sliding side window. Crêpe ready.
Maybe David should offer the next potential buyer free crêpes with the purchase of a ‘clean’-not-clean Jeep J10
Todd saw the car in person. Todd negotiated the price for a later pickup date. Todd, at that point, should have been asked for a non-refundable deposit unless, of course, the seller was prepared to sell it out from under Todd if a better offer appeared in the meantime.
No I don’t do that.
I didn’t think you did but you SHOULD be asking for a deposit to ensure they have some skin in the game while you are holding it for them. It separates the serious buyers from the tirekickers AND removes the last minute haggle reflex that some buyers seem to have on pick-up day.
True!
“and just when I thought it couldn’t get worse: A tree fell on the Jeep.”
BAAA HA HA HA HA HA…
Ummm… sorry for your misfortu— BAAAAAA HAAAAA HAAAA HAAA.
*clears throat*
Sorry about that… where was I… your misfortune… sorry for your mis… HAAAAA HAAA HA HA HA.
“Hop on Auto Trader, and you’ll find a bunch of trucks in worse shape asking way more. “
They may be asking for more than you, hence the reason why they’re still unsold. “They think they know what they’ve got”… and what they’ve got isn’t worth what they think… especially with how fuel prices recently spiked.
And while you say “This truck is clean”, when I look at the pictures, it doesn’t meet my definition of ‘clean’.. or rust free.
And I have to say that if a family member was looking to buy that truck, I would be exactly like Todd’s son.
Sorry.
I, too, would just tell my family member to spend the $15 grand on the completely-rust-free truck, if I’m being honest.
So now the truck has a little more character, not that it needed any more.
Let Jamie sell it for what he feels like, claim $1450 and split the rest with him. At this rate, you need the peace of mind more than the money.
Bro, it’s rusty. Accept it. You can see through the floor. As for selling it, there must have been a reason they didn’t make many to begin with, and I doubt it was really high demand.
When a vehicle needs to go, it needs to GO. Do not be sentimental, do not be greedy just sell the damned thing for whatever you can get for it. Every additional month you own it costs you in insurance, registration, mental energy, and the largess of friends in this case.
The truck is not selling because you are asking rust-free prices for a truck that is not rust-free…
You cannot advertise a truck as rust-free when there are visible holes in the floor; it is simply not accurate.
My squarebody has solid floors and is SUPER clean for a truck in the Midwest, but I could never advertise it as rust-free because it is not.
That was my impression seeing the actual ad. Maybe it’s the Californian in me but the condition I saw with my eyes didn’t seem to match the words that went along with them.
This.
If I saw an ad for anything that was listed as “rust free” and saw an example like that Jeep, well…let’s just say lying is not a confidence builder.
My bullshit meter would be pegged for sure.
Anything the owner-seller said after that would be the equivalent of me believing a damn word that the Big Orange Turd has to say.
Fool me once, and all that crap…
For real, this ad is delusional level of “I know what I’ve got!”
Maybe Michigan is the wrong market. Rust free cars might get a premium but the north east seems to be where you send your rust buckets especially semi rusty jeeps to get top dollar.
To most potential buyers (non-Jeep nerds), it’s a 40-year-old truck from a defunct automaker in decent condition. They’re cross-shopping a lot of Fords, Chevys, and Dodges of the same age in a similar condition. It’s only worth what “the market” (one buyer) says it’s worth, not what you believe that it deserves to be worth.
Maybe you are already doing this, but in any of the listings, are you linking to all of the articles about this car? While many buyers won’t care, there are people who will pay a few bucks more for a vehicle that has a story behind it, especially one with articles that the guy can point to and say “that’s my truck! I own that now!”
It might make the difference between $4-5k and the $7k you want for the car.
Including the one where the speedometer leaked oil on the driver? That’s all I can think of when thinking of this truck. https://www.jalopnik.com/my-truck-has-a-dangerous-speedometer-leak-and-yes-you-r-1843718764/
Vehicles have a different value in some P-A-R-T-S.
Yeah… in some places, people can S-C-R-A-Pe together more money than in other places.
We all eat the bar sometimes. This is your time my friend.
Surely you’ve met some movie people out there by now who need a functional, macho vehicle for a show or movie. This truck would be great in one of those “Yellowstone” spin-offs. Paging Taylor Sheridan …
Did you buy it for $7-8K or have you invested that much in it? Sell it for the $5K if the guy still wants it with the dented hood. If not, it’ll ware on your friend’s generosity in the long run.
I just don’t wanna drop it too far below other similar-condition J10s. But we’ll see; niche vehicles like this take time to find their new owners. But I’m open to flexing a bit, probably after I have that primer on the bedsides sanded off and the truck detailed a bit.
But as you said – you can ASK all you want – what are similar Jeeps actually selling for in the real world? It’s not pretty but it runs good is a hard sell. It’s really not that much more to get one that is pretty when you consider what paint and body work costs these days. Mechanicals are CHEAP for old American vehicles.
I feel like $5K is PLENTY for this thing. It’s a project, even if it’s a running and driving one. And it has more than enough rust to be a concern to this former Mainah, even if it doesn’t have many holes. Rust in something like this is not that hard to fix. It’s making it pretty after that’s a pain in the ass, and this needs ALL of the making pretty done regardless. If I am going to bother taking on a project, I am getting a *legitimately* completely rust-free one from down south or out west. Or just buying one where it’s all done already for dimes on the dollars spent.
The floorboards aren’t intact, and you’re considering having the truck detailed? To be perfectly candid, any Jeep J10 fan who’s willing to overlook the rust isn’t going to care much whether it’s been detailed or not, as it’s likely going to be a restoration project for them. Save the time/money you would use to get the detailing done, and just sell the danged thing as is, where is.
Niche vehicles? Its a rusty old Jeep nobody wanted when it was new. They sold 40,000 of them in 4 years. Ford sold 1,000,000 trucks in 1978 alone.
Woh woh woh, don’t defile the mighty J10!
You need to drop it to what other similar-condition J10’s actuall SELL for. Unlike ebay or BAT, you can’t search Craigslist or FBM for actual sold prices…But they are surely not selling for their asking price. Every month it’s advertised should take abother 10% off the price.
Sometimes you just gotta take a hit and the longer it sits the harder it is to sell.
How much is your friend charging for storage?
How much is insurance charging monthly, if he’s keeping it road-legal?
This is another good example of how to ruin a friendship.
Especially the longer this thing lives in his yard, and life…
I’ve seen this truck pop up on Marketplace from time to time. I hate to say it, but it really doesn’t present well, and now.. well.. I think this is really a $2500 truck, maybe a bit more but even with its rarity the audience is small, and it’s pretty rough man.
It’s just gonna need to find its buyer. $2500 in the J10 world gets you a truck with rust holes in the bedsides and a motor that needs work. But we shall see! Definitely needs the primer removed from the bedsides and a bit of a detail.
Honestly, this was a Cars & Bids / Bring a Trailer vehicle. Uncommon niche model in decent, but not pristine, condition. Definitely a good base for a build or restore. Especially with being documented on a website.
Agree- I don’t think it would have brought big bucks but it would have presented it to people outside of California who’d make the trek to get it (I myself bid on a W123 wagon in SoCal once because the prospect of picking it up and road tripping it back was almost as exciting as the car itself).
$7k without having to ship it to Michigan is better than $8k or whatever he was hoping for minus the trouble and shipping costs.
Oh definitely, I’m sure it would have sold for SOMETHING.
I took the risk on going the rustbelt route, it nearly worked out! But alas: I publicly proclaim my own foolishness, as I have no shame.
Hindsight is 20/20!
Hopefully as the weather turns you’d get some serious interest.