Few car purchases offer the opportunity to make money on the deal, but that’s just what you get with today’s Nice Price or No Dice Accord Donutmobile. Let’s see if its price will seriously eat into the future profits.
Reading through the comments on yesterday’s 1995 BMW 325i, the biggest complaint raised about the otherwise clean and well-presented car was that it was located in Florida. It would seem that no one wants to go to Florida. After considering the numerous shipping options available, the car’s $9,500 asking price seemed to the majority of you to be a fair deal, earning the little E36 a respectable 68 percent Nice Price win.
Have you jumped on the auto-based gig economy bandwagon yet? You know, that’s where you get paid for piecemeal work driving around either people or food, and where work/life balance isn’t really a thing because to make ends meet, your entire life needs to be work.
If you haven’t, then this 1997 Honda Accord wagon may be a ready-made entry into this exciting, lucrative, and benefits-free work category. To make that a reality, the wagon is already set up to vend something its present owner calls “precooked state fair mini donuts.” Those are probably just as delicious as the description sounds.
Of course, to be successful a business needs to advertise, and this Accord already does that too. It’s festooned with inviting mini donut imagery and words like “FRESH” and “HOT” down its sides. In the front, it wears a monobrow of the tasty baked treats giving the car a bit of a look as though it stopped too quickly and all the donuts piled up on the hood. The most notable piece of kitsch, however, is the not-so-mini donut bolted to the roof. That should not only serve to attract mini-donut aficionados from miles around but also might serve handy for impromptu games of cornhole when things get slow.
The interior is fitted with storage for the stock in the hatch area along with a conveyor heater and a small seat in front of the selling shelf mounted in the curb-side rear-door window. That all makes for a tight environment and the seller even notes that anyone over 6 feet tall might find the ceiling height a bit limiting. If you suffer from claustrophobia, this may not be the career path for you.
All of that equipment inside requires juice. The ad says that the donut heater and the lights can be run either by plugging into an outlet or, should you be more than an extension cord away from power, it all can run off of the Honda generator that rides dirty on the back of the hatch.
Packaged together, this “Donutmobile” is just a health inspection and a business license away from having a new proprietor rolling in the dough. It may not be all sprinkles and mock proposals using a mini donut as a ring, though.
The seller says the car has 197,000 miles on the clock. That’s a lot, even for a stalwart like an Accord. And those miles have already taken a victim — the Honda’s A/C system. Per the seller, that’s gone belly up so plan on sweating while driving between summer state fairs. On the plus side, the battery, alternator, and that donut oven are all said to be recent replacements. Typical of Facebook Marketplace, we don’t get any information on the title, but seeing that the car shows current tags in one of the pics, we can at least assume it’s ok.
What we can’t assume is the return on investment that a business opportunity like this might offer. The present owner claims that COVID caused the vending business to dry up, as a result, forcing them to take a regular job like a common schmo. Now apparently the Donutmobile just sits fallow, not bringing any joy to a nation of Homer Simpson wannabes.
That’s too bad, and, with the Pandemic situation seemingly getting better ( it is, right?), maybe it’s time to break out the mini donuts and bring warm, tasty treats to the sugar-starved masses.
To do that, you’ll need to come up with some mini donut stock. You’ll also have to raise $6,000, since that’s the asking price for the car and hence the business. That’s quite a low price to get into a money-making effort, but it’s a lot for an old one-trick-pony Accord, even if it’s a desirable wagon.
What’s your take on the Donutmobile and that $6,000 price? Does that seem like a sweet deal? Or, for that much, would you feel like you weren’t getting the donut, just the hole?
You decide!
Facebook Marketplace out of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Ryan Lee for the hookup!
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