Turns out the Trans Am which I thought needed a new Optispark distributor simply had a bad spark plug wire. 
Oh well, live and learn. I could’ve had this fixed months ago, but the plugs on the LT1 are a royal pain in the butt. Oh well.
This morning, Grandpop, Grandma, the kids & I went strawberry picking at Vollmer Farm in Bunn, NC. We came home with 3 buckets full. The berries are plump, red and sweet!
This afternoon, Grandpop Frank & I took the boys to see Iron Man. Usually I don’t see movies the weekend they have been released, but I promised the boys I’d take them today. The movie was AWESOME! Adan & Marco loved it, as did I.
Then finally this evening, I drove the Trans Am to it’s new owner at RDU.
I had to relist the Trans Am after the non-paying bidder fiasco, but this time it sold! The money has been collected.
I created pages on cardomain.com for my cars.
Mazdaspeed3
Trans Am
So the winning bidder motorcyclessparker showed up to pick up the car this afternoon. Then asks “how negotiable is the price?” First of all it’s ebay and you put in a bid, but I’ll be nice. I replied “I was hoping to get the winning bid: $3,050.” He looks the car over, gets in and starts it. He continues to let it run while looking around the car.
I let him take it for a test drive. He returns, says “wow, it misses through the gears” referring to the fact that the car runs rough and needs a new distributor. Well no shit! Did you read the post?
The car starts but runs rough. I’ve been told it needs a new Optispark distributor. The car also has an oil leak from the front of the oil pan. The 6-speed manual transmission is strong and works great. The ABS INOP light comes on occasionally, needs a new sensor on the passenger side, but brakes work just fine as I’ve driven it this way for more than 8 years.
So he proceeds to offer me $2,500. I’m annoyed now and tell him “no way, I turned down an offer from a guy on Friday for $2,600. Best I can do is let it go for $2,950 which is the price of the next ebay bidder.” Turns out I was wrong the next ebay bidder was $3,000 and the one before that $2,900, but oh well. Dude then mumbles something about “I didn’t want to put that much money into it.” Should’ve thought about that BEFORE he bid. He continues, “How about $2,750″. To which I replied, “nope, $2,950 is the best I’ll do”. At this point, I’m done. He walks away. Being the nice guy I am I tell him, “, sorry it didn’t work out. It was nice to meet you.” He says, “likewise, I might turn around halfway “. The thought that went through my head was “Yeah right!”
I get in the Trans Am, start it back up, and back it into the garage, then go inside. The guy sits on my driveway for a good bit on the phone and chatting with his father. Probably trying to decide if $2,950 was a good price or not. Then he drives away.
Then, at around 6pm he called my cell phone (which I had left upstairs and missed his calls). He left me a voice message, “Jesus, listen. About half way home I was gonna turn around, but I got a call and had to come home. But I’d come over if you let the car go for $2,950.”
Seriously? You’re kidding right? So he expects me to still honor that price? HA! Yeah right. F*** off dude! If anything, the price goes UP! I haven’t called him back and don’t plan to either. I’ll give him negative feedback on ebay and mark him as a non-paying bidder, then offer the car to the other two buyers. If that doesn’t pan out, I’ll relist it and keep this @$$hole from bidding.
The part that gets my goat is he had a chance to see the car when it was on craigslist. But since he didn’t show up, I put it on ebay. Had he shown up that day, I would’ve let the car go for $2,500, but not now, especially not to him. Well, that’s the risk you take when selling on ebay.
The Mazdaspeed3 has an AUX input in the arm rest for use with digital audio players like my iPod. The car also has Sirius satellite radio (though I have not and do not plan to activate it). I bought a cool Monster iCarCharger and an audio cable for the AUX input. I connect it all up this morning and I get NADA! NOTHING! ZILCH! I break open the manual and follow the instructions. Still nothing.
I checked my connection and noticed the big white sticker in the arm rest that clearly states “This vehicle is equipped with Sirius satellite radio, …. AUX input has been disabled… Call your local Mazda dealer for part number TD13-79-CFZ”.
That’s when I had the “You’ve got to be $!#!#*& kidding me!” This is definitely a feature created by a business guy “Hey I know how we can get more money, let’s upsell them the AUX input” because no engineer worth their weight in gold would EVER do something as stupid as this (at least not without pressure from managers and business folks).
So I call up Capital Mazda of Cary and they said the part is $142 + tax!!! That’s BULLSH*T! If I’m going to pay that much for audio parts I’m going to Crutchfield not the Mazda dealer.
A quick google search reveals a few forums all with the same problem:
Tonight I finally fixed the window in the Trans Am and replaced the door panel. The guide wheel came off the window when the metal on the window base broke. I had to fashion a new bracket to place the guide wheel on and screwed it to the window base. Here’s my first prototype. The final one had the cut coming in from the right side instead of the bottom. Works great.
In the process, I actually locked the keys in the car. Yes, I know stupid. The door wasn’t quite closed all the way, so I took a coat hanger bent the tip, and used it to push the power lock button. 
drivers door pannel fixed, originally uploaded by jmrodri.
After almost 3 years with no door panel, I finally fixed the window and replaced the door panel.
edmunds InsideLine reports the possibility of a Pontiac G8 coupe. This is one kick ass car. And I think I actually like the Orange color.
I also agree with the editors comments “What this means to you: We don’t care if they call it GTO or Firebird or Powder Puff. We still want this Corvette-motored coupe much more than a revival of the el Camino. — Daniel Pund, Senior Editor, Detroit “
Seriously would you want to drive an el Camino again?
