Looking To the Past, Looking To the Future
A couple of nights ago I was browsing through old cars on Craigslist when I came across a weird one. Not a weird car, it was a ‘72 Scout, but it was being sold by a franchised Volkswagen dealer. There’s gotta be a story there.
The next morning I drove over to have a look. An upbeat young salesman came out to greet me and I asked him about the car. He didn’t seem to know a lot about it other than that it belonged to the owner of the dealership. He told me that it was stored over at their used car location, about a mile away. Once arriving there, the guy on staff couldn’t tell me a lot about it either, but he did drop an important clue. It turns out the VW dealership had recently been sold, and although this Scout “belonged” to the previous owner, it was now included in the inventory that had been bought along with everything else.
I got the feeling that no-one there had much of a connection to this car at all, kind of like a stray that they now had to find a home for.
I did like this Scout. I’d had a handful of them over the years and this particular one had a very cool hidden feature attached: An old sticker on the back showed that it had once been sold by Bisio Motors.
Bisio Motors was the last International Harvester dealer left in the world when it closed for good in 2008. Ernie Bisio had started his business in 1948 and he is now remembered as a legend in Scout circles, as well as among Portland dealers. He had held his dealer’s license for 60 continuous years, longer than anyone else in town at the time. IH ceased production in 1980, but that didn’t seem to stop Ernie. He held on to the last batch of new Scouts, slowly selling them over the following decade if the price was right. His pre-owned inventory and parts business kept him busy for the next two decades after that. Ernie died peacefully in 2011 at the age of 93. Portland moved on. The original site of Bisio Motors on Sandy Blvd. is now an apartment complex.
So, I liked this Scout. After giving it a good look over I drove back to see the salesman at their main location and told him that I’d like to make an offer on it. He said that he’d be glad to bring my offer to his sales manager. Ugh. I let him know that I’m a dealer and told him that we could all save time by having the three of us meet together instead. He agreed.
I gave the sales manager my card, talked a bit about what I do and then told him my price, which was quite a bit lower than their ask. He simply nodded, and replied that he’d call me in an hour. All business. I liked that, actually. Our meeting had lasted 15 seconds.
What I didn’t have time to tell him was that I had actually done some research on this Scout. In my business, information is everything. Before I go look at any car I do a Google search for the VIN. Turns out that this Scout had been sold on Bring a Trailer in 2022, which gave me a deep insight into not only price, but what the commenters on BaT had thought of it. Of course, my plan was to list it on BaT myself, but with this information I was able to make an offer that was guided by an invaluable peek at the crystal ball.
Funny thing is, I actually knew the seller from 2022 on BaT pretty well. He’s one of the old-school Portland dealers, and we first got to know each other about 15 years ago. This guy has a lot of interesting career stories, and a big personality to match. But after the presidential election of 2016, our frequent conversations started to reveal that we were two very different people, and we mutually went our separate ways.
That said, one of the things we did have in common was that we were both competitive people. Now, I’m not looking to beat the price that he first sold it for, in fact, if it just repeats it I’m fine. But what I can do is put on a better auction. In his listing back in 2022, he never answered any questions in the comments section, and his first and only comment came in the auction’s final moments. Early requests for a driving video went unheeded. I know I can do better than that.
My phone rang. It was the young guy from the VW dealership. “My boss said yes to your offer. We’ll get the car moved over to our main location, come on down and get it.”
I wrote the check and we did the paperwork. I was out behind the wheel of the Scout 15 minutes later.
The VW dealership’s previous owner had only put about 40 miles on the car from when he bought it. Still, it drove great on the ride back to my shop. After the rain clears next week I’ll get my pictures done, and then do a driving video. Factor in a week after I submit it to BaT, and this Scout auction should be going live sometime in the early part of March.
Stars align. Orbits overlap. The coincidence attached to this Scout is just one of those random things that happen sometimes. But it did make me remember the good things about my friend, and then of the differences that separated us. Portland’s not really a small town, but sometimes it feels that way.
Update: 3-7-25. After failing to meet the reserve in a particularly spectacular, gut-wrenching manner, the high bidder and I reached a deal using BaT's offer feature, where they grant only the high bidder the chance to make a post-auction deal if the reserve is not met. We agreed to $40k - not the home run I was hoping for, but sometimes you have to be satisfied with a simple base hit.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1972-international-harvester-scout-ii-65/
I enjoyed learning about Ernie Bisio. Good luck on the sale. I'm betting you do well.
Nice work getting the truck for much less than the dealer's ask. Sounds like, if all goes according to form, there'll be a nice margin for you.
Without asking you to spill the details on $ paid, I'll ask this: what was the delta between the (initial) offer they accepted and the most you likely would have paid? As a corollary, you were pretty straight about your lane and business. Why do you think the dealer accepted your first number without, effectively, countering it?