Our Son’s Car Fiasco: How to Sell A Car Privately Safely

Last updated on December 12th, 2025

I have a confession to make… I’m not perfect! Recently, our youngest son sold his car. Since he was out of town at the time, my wife and I were the middleman for the deal. Well, it was a learning experience.

The car was a rusted, used, and abused 1998 VW Jetta. Our older son bought the car for cheap transportation, then after getting married (his  wife had a much better car), he sold it to his younger brother. The car was transportation – not much more.

So, this fall our youngest wanted to sell the car as a parts car (drivable, but not suitable for a daily driver), which he advertised on Facebook Marketplace. The sale price that was agreed upon was $250. My wife and I were excited to have the car out of our yard. I was out of town the day that the guy stopped by to look at the car, and he bought it! Paid cash, and now the car was gone.

A couple days later I deposited the money in our son’s account, and the $100 bill was a counterfeit!! My wife and I reported it to the police. Since we were the ones who accepted the money, we replaced that bill for our son.

About a week later, we get a call from the police saying that our son’s car had been abandoned on the side of the highway and was getting towed! Since the guy had not registered the car, it was still our son’s car.

After tracking down the car and where it was towed to, we found that there was a daily storage fee accumulating on the car. Again, our son’s responsibility! The car was sent to the junkyard in exchange for the storage fees. My wife felt bad for our son and paid the towing fee.

A question I asked myself many times during this ordeal was, “How did  this happen?!?” How did our son sell his car to someone for $250, only to have my wife and I also pay $250, yet he only received $250?

After spending time dealing with this situation, helping our son navigate it, and reflecting on what went wrong, I have some lessons and takeaways to share from this crazy story.

Takeaway #1: Emotions Are Blinding

Our son was wanting his car off his hands and we were wanting the car out of our yard. The desire to get rid of the car possibly caused us to not see any red flags with the deal. We wanted the car sold too much. It is better to tap the brakes on a deal and have the deal fall apart than for the deal to happen and it end up much worse than expected.

My wife gave me the cash when I got home, and I counted it – it was all there. I did not think of the plastic bills as being counterfeit. If I had been the one accepting the cash from the buyer, would I have recognized it as a fake? I don’t know. Now, I am wiser to the possibility.

Takeaway #2: Accepting Cash

Will I still accept cash? Yes. But, I will look closer at the bills. If a  bill does not look right, I will simply refuse to accept it. We don’t have to make a big deal out of. I’ll simply treat it as if someone was paying with a card and the card was declined. “Do you have another way to pay?”

Takeaway #3: Report Counterfeit Cash

If we do receive counterfeit money, the best thing we can do is to report (and hand it in) to the police. That way they can investigate where it came from. If the authorities don’t know there is a problem, they can’t do anything about it. Also, you will not get in trouble by reporting it.

Takeaway #4: The Ownership Transfer

A vehicle is yours until it is transferred into the new owner’s name. Usually, that is called registering the vehicle. If you are selling to someone you don’t know, you could go together and get the paperwork registered.

Alternately, when you sell a vehicle you may be able to submit paperwork directly to the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles). This does not transfer the ownership, although it does alert them to your intentions.

Takeaway #5: Get Buyer’s Complete Info

In my wife’s defense, she has not bought or sold a car on her own. She only got the buyer’s signature (scribble) on the transfer form. When  selling a car, make sure you get all of the buyer’s info – name, address, and driver’s license number.

Takeaway #6: Junkyards Are A Solution

They may be your best option with low-value cars. Every vehicle my wife and I have ever owned, we purchased used. Some were VERY used! We have sold a few vehicles to the junkyard as they had reached the end of  their life. Helping our son sell his car taught me that if a car is  worth less than $1,000 I will simply just sell it to a junkyard unless I  know someone who wants it for parts, a demolition derby, or some other use. I’m not going to waste my time and risk taking on headaches.

I got curious about why the vehicles I had sold to junkyards never came back to haunt me. Apparently junkyards / auto wreckers / recyclers (or whatever you call them) are dealers, so they can handle the needed paperwork themselves.

While you still have current plates on the car, simply drive it to the junkyard. This gets the car to its destination, and there is virtually no extra charge involved. The junkyards I’ve worked with handled all paperwork within 24 hours – no abandoned vehicles, no towing fees, no counterfeit bills.

Bonus: Even if the junkyard won’t pay anything for it, you can still ask if they would be willing to give you a part in exchange for your old car.

Takeaway #7: Follow-up with Police ASAP

If your vehicle gets towed, follow-up as soon as you can with the police. Act like it is costing you money to wait – because it is costing you EVERY SINGLE DAY! This also applies to other situations in life. Follow-up right away so you can move on with your life.

Takeaway #8: Keep Learning and Improving

When we are learning and growing, we will make mistakes. That is a sign that you are doing new things. Don’t take them personally. Look at them as life lessons and carry on. Going forward you will be further ahead for your experience.

Conclusion

I didn’t want to share this story at first because it was embarrassing. How can a guy who is helping people improve their finances get sucked into a such frustrating situation? I’m here to say that I hope that this  story along with the takeaways will help you avoid a similar problem in your life.

At the same time, I hope you go out and try new things. Life is for living! We can celebrate the good experiences and look for lessons in the unfortunate experiences. This is a crucial factor in what allows me to be unshakable in a world that can be shaky.