Selling the Alpha

We had forgotten the joy of selling a car privately. The last time we updated we traded in the old car but this time we wanted to sell my Alpha Romeo and Lesley's KA to buy a small car that she and I could both drive AND fit the dogs in.

There was no way they would fit in the back of the Alpha and besides which we couldn't get Lesley on the insurance for it. They could (just) get into the KA but it was a real performance trying to persuade them to hop into the back so it made sense to change both cars at once.

But first we had to sell the Alpha - you would not believe the number of mad men out there who are trawling Auto Trader looking for Alphas. Dave had put a really good advert on their site, comprehensive description and lots of snazzy photos but we still had phone calls ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, although the best had to be;

Hi are you selling an Alpha? yes Is it a Lusso? No Does it have leather seats? No it has Alpha badged cloth seats - only the Lusso has leather So it's not a Lusso then? No it's a GTV So what shade of red is it? Its silver Shit I've phoned the wrong advert......

We eventually sold it to a chap from Sheffield who travelled over on the train in a snow storm to buy it - the guy from Cornwall who thought that Runcorn was somewhere in East Anglia presumably thought that it was a bit too far to travel to buy the car as a surprise for his wife (without even seeing it!) - bless!