Not For Sale

This is now the second time this has happened to me with my 2022 T4R. In the exactly one year now that I’ve owned my T4R, I recently found a note on my windshield after having been parked in a store parking lot.

Both notes were to the effect- call me if you want to sell your 4RUNNER. And they wrote down their phone number.

Has this ever happened to anyone else? Even regardless of what type of vehicle you had?

Presently, I have no intentions of selling it. If anything, my current thought is something like “Until death do us part”. Lol!

I wonder why, if someone is that interested in a vehicle, why don’t they just wait for the owner to return to their vehicle, if it’s say like in a store parking lot? Personally though, under most circumstances, (such as in a parking lot) I don’t think I could ever get up the courage to ask a stranger if they want to sell their vehicle. Lol. But, you never know I guess.

I initially just took the note and tossed it, on the spot. And proceeded to hop in and drive away. Then, a few seconds later, I felt bad- about being a litter bug, plus I then thought ah crap, someone is exposing their phone number, probably in good faith?

So I circled around and spotted the paper, and then picked it up to dispose of it properly. It might save the person from getting a prank call from some rum dum who would have found their note in the parking lot.

 

I have received these notes multiple times. Every single time it was either a small dealership or a dreamer. Regardless of the type of buyer, they were all very low, insulting offers.

 

Good on you returning to properly dispose of the paper.

Yeah, if i want a vehicle bad enough i might leave a note if i can wait. 4Runner would definitely be one of them if i didn't own one already and couldn't afford new.

 

The first year and a half I owned my 4R I would get cash offers almost every time I went to a dealership (Toyota but others as well) wanting to buy my truck for more than what I paid for (I bought it at MSRP and they were offering me 3k to 10k more). Granted, it happened during the microchip shortage so they were probably desperate to resell it to someone with a “big market adjustment”

I never had a random person do it to me, although I did that myself to someone 10 years ago. Back then I had a “city” car and wanted to have an off-roader as well for not too much money. There was a TJ in the apartment complex where I use to live. I left a note asking to give me a call if they ever planned on selling it. The owner texted me saying that she wasn’t selling anytime soon but she’d let me know if she came across one for sale. I ended up finding one on my own and became friend with the girl and went off-roading with her.

 

No, but I have had women throw themselves at me because of how bad-ass my truck is.

Woman #1 yelled at me while I drove past her "Sweet truck dude, I want to be your next ex-wife!"
Woman #2 left some panties on my windshield. Problem was, the panties were so big, they covered the ENTIRE windshield.

I need to find woman #1 again. She had that "Crazy Hot" look to her. And we men loooooooooove women like that.

 

This happens all the time with my 1st Gen Tundra. The offer would have to be huge for me to even consider selling it. Never happened with the 4R though. Again, the offer would have to be huge if it did happen.

 

I feel kinda left out never have receiving this note on mine. Lol

 

Yes, for my 99. But nope, not for sale.

 

A few times.

In the 2000s I had a 1990 240SX. Anyone that is familiar with this knows that they are sought after because they are well balanced and make a very good drifting car. I was asked several times about selling. The last one was a coworker that I sold to and got almost as much as I paid for it.

I had an Infiniti G-35-6MT coupe. It was a 2005 - and a great car while I had it. Keeping Z rated tires on it got to be expensive because I would typically only get 20k miles out of a set because it was fun to drive hard. And the Sumitomo HTR III s were fantastic tires. Anyway, when I would take the car in for service the dealer was always trying to get me to sell because I took such good care of it.

 

Why would you just throw the note on the ground and leave?

 

True story time. I bought my first house this way. There was a very small neighborhood that my wife (now ex wife) and I wanted to live in and there were no houses advertised for sale.... so I put a nice handwritten note in every mailbox in the neighborhood (there were only a couple of dozen). I got 3 calls within 24 hours and ended up buying one of them.

 

Twice. First time was on my 1990 Acura Legend coupe. Second time was on our 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

 

I've had people knock on my door and ask to buy my E46 BMW

 

I did not have a note but I had someone follow me maybe three miles and stop me at every light and asked me if I wanted to sell an old Accord. They kept saying it’s in such great shape and they were willing to pay more than fair offer.

 

I've had a few people tell me they would want to buy my 4runner and asked what it would take. I've had them throw out some pretty low numbers.

When I tell them I've spent this much on parts and then countless hours of my time and there's so much done to the thing they can't see, don't know about and probably don't understand or can't appreciate, they start to understand that there's no price that would be remotely woth it to both myself and a hypothetical buyer. Those two numbers are absurdly far off.

 

Less than a week after I got mine, it happened to me.

I was on a road trip to my brother's house and stopped for gas. I noticed a lady looking at me as I started to leave... but I couldn't really tell what was on her mind, nor the expression on her face. I wasn't sure if that was a look of "I'll be your next ex-wife," or "I keel you!" Her kid was with her... it's hard to say "kid," because he was about 6'2", despite looking in the face like he was 13.

Then they approached. I rolled down the window about halfway.

My inside voice said, "Eek! She's pissed and I'm outnumbered!" My uber-manly voice managed to say, in the best casual drawl I could muster, "Can I help you with somethin?"

And then it started: "OhMyGoshILoveYourTruck! Wheredidyougetit, howlonghaveyouhadit, howdoyoulikeit, whatisthatcolor" and so forth. I knew I could relax a little, because there was no way she was going to attack me for long, with her jaws flapping like that. (I did keep an eye on the mirrors, though, halfway prepping for a carjacking right there in the middle of suburban Podunk.)

She did finally take a breath and we had a nice conversation for a couple of minutes. She was a damnyankee* it seemed, her family having just moved there for her husband's new job, and she was looking for something to drive "down here."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* Y'all know the difference between a yankee and a damnyankee, right?

 

I had a note a few times on my 2001 Tacoma Prerunner TRD.

 

I don't drive my 4x4s for commuting so I don't have these notes yet.

My run-abouts are not the desirable Toyotas, less to worry about. I prefer my co-workers to not know what I have at home.

 

Nobody actually cares about what you have at home.

 

^^^^

Ehh, sometimes coworkers are quick to give a fella a lot of crap about having nice things.

(Or so, I'm told.)

 

Someone needs a hug! Come here you big grumpy goose!

 

Never happened with the 4R, but several times with the 1986 Toyota PU. I also bought a house this way.

 

Glad you picked up the note & not just to protect note writer's cell #, but because littering is way not cool!!

 

I had a lot of interest when I had a 1st gen Tacoma, but haven’t had any anonymous offers with my 5th Gen. but then there are thousands of 5th gens in my area.

 

That's how I sold my 98 Sr5. I purchased it new with the intention of keeping it forever. It had 230k but was in great shape, always garaged. A guy asked if it was for sale, I said no, he persisted, I said $10k, he bought it. The truck had a sunroof and the center locker, no leaks or rust.

 

This is how I met my last girlfriend. I left a note on her car windshield "Damn baby, you gotta nice butt. Call me if you want to watch football and eat chicken wings."

We had a story book relationship.

 

A friend of mine actually had someone walk up to him with a wad of cash, and offer his an amount he could not refuse for his truck. Drew up a bill of sale on the spot and had to call the wife to come and pick him up.

 

Haven't had this happen with my 4Runner yet, but when Ford Mavericks were still new and unavailable I had a cop follow me home who waited until I exited the vehicle to pull in behind me and start an entire conversation about the truck. There were many others beside the cop. I'd have people ask all sorts of questions about the Maverick at gas stations, parking lots, you name it.

As far as 4Runner moments, went to get bagels one day and as I was getting ready to leave a really handsome older man pulled up in the space in front of me in a blue 4Runner. We both gave one another a big smile then went our separate ways.

 

Never had this happen to me but I am not above doing it myself should I come across the right 1978 or 1979 Bronco in a parking lot.

 

Just saw one on GR Autogallery if you are interested selling on consignment