(cont)
The next week sometime (I can’t remember the exact day) I even go over to Miles’ place to give him a lift to AutoZone b/c the lug key on the lugs that he got with his new wheels broke halfway through taking them off and he needed another one. He also was going to take his front brake rotors off and either replace them or have them turned, as the buyer said that the Acura tech inspection said the rotors were warped. He also needed new brake pads, which were going to need to be replaced as well. Since he didn’t know what he was doing (he usually has another friend do his brakes for him), after I gave him a lift, I did one side and showed him how to do the other. I also looked over the rotors and didn’t see any real need to turn them just yet. So he called the buyer and told him that. As he was on the phone, I noticed what may have been a hairline crack in one, which I showed him.



After getting the brakes finished, I had to leave, but Miles was determined to put the defouler on. I asked him if the guy knew that this exhaust wouldn’t pass emissions (which I had asked before I think), and he said that the buyer was confident that it would be fine with the defouler. At any time during this day Miles could have told me that he never got the buyer to pay more, at which point I would have pulled the exhaust off myself on the spot. He, however, did not see fit to bring it up at that time.

The next Saturday, the buyer came and picked the car up, and the following Monday I called Miles and asked about the sale. It went like this:

Me: So did he take the car?

 Miles: Yeah, he was happy with it.

 Me: How much did you guys ultimately settle on?

 Miles: $8000.

 Me: Really? (I was a bit confused by this) Well you can bring the money for the exhaust by whenever you get around to it. I know you don’t have a car n’ all.

Miles: (kinda pissed) What do you want me to do, tear this check in half?

 Me: Huh? No, you can cash it or whatever. No rush or anything.

 Miles: Well I didn’t make as much on it as I had thought, what with all the money I just spent on it (referring to the wheels, tires, brake pads, etc).

 Me: Well we can figure this out a bit later. (I wanted to do it face to face) I need to get my jack stands and floor jack.

 Miles: I can bring them by.

 Me: Ok.

So he brings them by, but not alone, and I didn’t really want to fight about this in front of our mutual friends, so I didn’t say anything then about it. Over the next several weeks, I talked to Miles here and there about various things, during which I find out the he has decided to get a $20 diesel truck. I know that he really wants one, so I don’t want to ruin his chances by insisting on the $300 from he exhaust until he gets his truck. He finally gets it, and I ask him to stop by with it, which he doesn’t do. I got various reasons for him not stopping by, and I’m sure all of them were real, but I was getting the feeling that Miles was avoiding me.

Finally as Miles is leaving the IA meet (11/12), I walk with him to his truck away from everyone else, and bring the money up (right after he yells something back to the group about going to get $400 from the guy he bought the truck from to cover the messed up glow plugs he just paid for). It goes something like this:

Me: So we need to figure this $300 out.

 Miles: Yes we do.

 Me: I didn’t want to bring it up until you got your truck so that it wouldn’t mess that up, but we need to settle up at some point.

 Miles: Well I already told you that I didn’t make anything on the car, so I can’t give you any money.

 Me: We had agreed that you would give me $300 if you sold the car with the exhaust on it. Remember, that is what we decided underneath the S2K right before you sold the car.

 Miles: I remember that, but I already gave you $300 for it.

 Me: You gave me $200.

 Miles: I thought you paid something like $297 for it in Augusta.

 Me: It was $197. I took $200 out of the $300 that you got for the other exhaust.

 Miles: So you haven’t actually lost any money then?

 Me: No, but that wasn’t the deal that we had made.

 Miles: It sounds like you are trying to make me give you $300 for nothing. You haven’t lost any money on this. I just can’t give you $300 for nothing.

 Me: The deal we had was for you to either give me back the exhaust before you sold the car or for you to give me $300 after you sold it. Since you didn’t give me back the exhaust before you sold it, that’s where the $300 comes from.

 Miles: If I had taken it off, I would have had to spend $80 more for a stock exhaust, on top of all the other stuff.

 Me: Regardless we had agreed that if you didn’t give it back you would pay me the rest of what the exhaust was worth.

 Miles: It is only worth $200. That’s what you paid for it.

 Me: But that’s not what I agreed to sell it for. If I would have sold it, I would have sold it for more than $200.

 Miles: But since that’s all you paid for it you haven’t actually lost any money.

 Me: No, but I lost the exhaust which will cost me more that $200 to get another one.

 Miles: But you haven’t actually lost any money. I can’t give you $300 for nothing.

And then this just sorta repeated for a while. At one point miles said that the buyer had contacted him asking for the stock headers, as he has messed the header up on a pot hole. I then suggested that, since Miles wasn’t going to give me the $300 to make this right, he should get in touch with the guy and get the exhaust back in exchange for the $200 that I would have given back to Miles as well as a full stock exhaust. Then I left.

Later that evening Miles called me as said that he had spoken to several people, all of whom agreed that he could not give me $300 for nothing. Eventually I pointed out the following:

Me: Basically what you are saying is that you bought the exhaust from me for the $200 that I paid for it. That’s not entirely correct, as the deal was you could have it for the $200 if and only if you promised to let me have it back for the same $200 in the event you were no longer interested in owning it.

 Miles: But since we never took it off, that didn’t happen. Coulda, shoulda, woulda, but didn’t.

 Me: True, but we agreed that if we didn’t, you would pay me $300 for not making good on your promise. In the end you would have either gotten the exhaust for $200 and a promise, or $200 plus the $300 restitution for not keeping your word.

 Miles: I just can’t give you $300. (note he never states he can’t afford it, but rather it is the principle of the thing)

 Me: I’m not as interested in the money as I am in actually having the exhaust back. I would rather you come up with a way to make up for not keeping your end of the deal. The one that we had agreed upon is the $300, which you will not make good on either. So in the end you are really taking advantage of me if you do nothing.

Miles: I already told you that I didn’t make money on the sale. You forced me into buying that exhaust in the first place. You said that you going to buy it regardless.

 Me: Yeah, I did. You didn’t buy it from JHot, I did. I then agreed to, for lack of a better term, “sell” it to you for $200 and a promise. You still owe me the promise, which is what I’m pissed about. I helped you out quite a bit on that car, and saved you a bunch of money as a result.

 Miles: After I got that exhaust the car had nothing but problems.

 Me: It was a POS when you got it. Those problems were already there. If you thought it was the exhaust, then you should have taken it off and put a stock one back on.

Miles: But that didn’t happen. So you what do you want me to do? I can’t give you them money.

 Me: It’s not about the money.

 Miles: I can’t go back in time and do things differently. What do you want me to do?

 Me: I don’t know. Think of something to make up for the fact that you knowingly went back on the deal we had.

 Miles: You want me to whore myself out on the corner? Is that going to make this better?

 Me: Get real. Calling that guy back would be a good start. Busting your ass and getting the exhaust back would be even better.

 Miles: Even if I do, I don’t think I can be around you without feeling weird.

 Me: I think we are way past that point.

Then Miles proceeds to make bitchy, passive-aggressive comments about this in the meet thread, and I’m sure to other members. But as far as I can recall, that’s how it went down. In the end, if you look at the overall fiscal balance sheet between us, it goes like this:

IAC valve: $50

 El Cheapo test pipe: $25

 Tanabe Hyper Medallion: $300

 Mugen twinloop deal:-$200

 JDM catalytic converter: $-90

 2x O2 Bunging: -$35

 Fixed idle: $0

 Fixed 4Runner starter: $0

 ½ brake job: $0

Total as it stands (including what it cost to get exhaust onto car): $50