MotorPooUSA

Since I put my MINI up for sale, I have received very few calls. A few, but nothing serious. After posting to AutoTrader.com about a month ago, however, I received an unsolicited call from someone at MotorZooUSA. They left a message asking me to call back if I was interested in selling my car at $2000 above the asking price.

Well who wouldn't? I called back and left a message asking for more information.

A couple of weeks went by - nothing.* Just 15 minutes ago, I received a call from Mikhail at MotorZooUSA, touting their unique webpages custom tailored to each vehicle and advanced search engine listings. How they work with Capital One to help buyers finance their purchases. How when buyers go through financing they are much more willing to pay more for a vehicle b/c they are only focused on the monthly payments. (my skepti-radar perked up at this) How all advertisements are run until the car is sold. How they don't even make money off the sale of my car, that they profit off of the financing costs. Mikhail said all I would have to do is cover some minor advertisement costs.

I was then transferred to Jerry for an estimate on how much these advertising costs would be. "Well, for an '04 MINI Cooper that will run about $800. Now of course we wouldn't ask you to pay that much... *chuckle* ... instead you would be responsible for $400 of that. How does that sound?"

I said that sounded pretty darned high. Jerry said we could list my car at $2400 above the asking price, to recoup advertising costs. (Now who in their right mind would pay that much for my car when they can buy a brand new MINI for about that much?) I said I needed some time to think about this and find out more about the company. Jerry remained cordial, but I could definitely hear the frustration in his voice.

After the call, I did some research. First of all, their website is very basic and unimpressive. The information on their website is optimistic and vague. So I googled them and was rewarded with a very insightful consumer review. Apparently this company has been scamming people since 2004. Similar stories, most from people less fortunate than I. Yes, there appear to be a lot of legal loopholes that allow this business to stay afloat (B, maybe you can investigate during your free time?), but that doesn't make them an honest business. Long story short, I think I'll let others be suckered into paying for inflated salaries, aHEM, I mean advertisement costs. BEWARE!!


* Unfortunately for MotorPoo, during that time I began reading Influence - Science and Practice, which described the many ways in which salespeople can manipulate future customers. My heightened awareness of these practices undoubtedly kept me from talking to them for longer than necessary. I advise anyone interested in NOT being suckered to read this. It's not just another boring self-help book, I swear.