I’m selling our ’05 Recon ES to help fund a new Rancher AT IRS. I’ve placed the ad on Craigslist and had several calls. One younger guy (20s) called from about 45 miles away and wanted me to meet him near the halfway point at a mall. My response was, "I don’t need to drive 20 miles one way to waste my time. How serious are you?" He assured me he’d bring the full amount in cash. My general policy is to never do this, but for once I relented, fired up the Recon and drove it up the ramps and into the back of my pickup for the drive down.
Got there a little early and waited for the prospective buyer. When he arrived, he’s all fast talking and starts to dink with the ATV, pulling the dipstick, pulling off the seat to look at the air filter, etc., without asking permission. I watch him closely, and it’s evident he knows more about ATVs and Honda ATVs than he’s willing to admit. So, now it’s time to get the Recon off of the back of the truck, so I try to start it… and it won’t start. Crap! Couldn’t see any obvious problems and of course the buyer won’t shut up so I can think. The guy says, "I want to check blow by," and unscrews the oil dipstick, then cranks it. "Oh, look at this! Your rings are shot!" as he puts his hand over the oil filler hole and shows how the air is pulsing out. (Of course, there’s no blow by… the engine isn’t running, just cranking, and the puffs of air are being displaced by the cylinder traveling up and down. And, this is a motor that does NOT smoke.) Then he pulls out his phone and wants to pay KBB for a TM (not the TE) variant… or almost $1,000 below what I’m asking (I’m asking in the low $2K range for a pristine Recon ES, about the average of what private sales ask, and way less than the dealers are posting on ATVTrader). We pulled it down anyway to get better access to it… not a big deal with ramps, and gravity is on your side.
In short, we didn’t make the sale. I finally told him I wasn’t going to give the ATV away, even though I’d come down a little on the price, but since he couldn’t get the bargain he was angling for, he left after helping me load it up… and it’s a lot harder to push one up a ramp than drive it up!
I spent this afternoon thinking about the incident, and then went out to look at the Recon, still in the back of my pickup. Still wouldn’t start, so I coasted back down the ramps and then pulled the seat and side panel. I loosened the drain screw on the carb… plenty of gas (and no water) in the carb. I then pulled the plug and put in a new one I had on hand. No start. I then put the old plug back in the boot, and placed the threads up against the cylinder head for a ground and cranked… no spark! Hmmm… started following the plug wire back to the coil… and spotted a bare spade lug on the outside edge. Peered a little closer, saw the spade connector, pushed it back onto the coil… and now we have a spark! Pulled the old plug out of the boot, put the boot back on the new plug installed in the cylinder head, and of course it fired up IMMEDIATELY.
I have to think the purchaser popped the wire off as he pulled the seat off and then pulled the filter cover off… and I think it was intentional. My new rule is: you don’t touch the bike until I’ve gotten it started. That’s why he was still willing to buy and came up to $100 below my low offer and wouldn’t budge… he though I’d give in because any dealer would charge more than that to look at the bike.
Anyone ever had a prospective buyer try to pull a fast one like that on them?
