“Greenie” is a 1996 Honda Accord from Los Angeles, California. It is 21 years old, has driven for almost 150,000 miles—and only just recently, in its old age, got into acting.
The old jalopy played itself, starring in the short film, “Used Car Commercial // 1996 Honda Accord,” by Max Lanman, which was posted to YouTube on Nov. 2.
Lanman and his now-fiancée decided it was time to sell Greenie and took advantage of the power of the Internet. The couple made a high-end video for a low-end vehicle, and people loved it. Their short film soon received more than 6 million YouTube hits, and one huge offer: $20,000 for Greenie, which was originally listed for $499. That’s 40 times the asking price.
Officials at used-car buyer CarMax saw something in Greenie. They saw a cat-friendly space, built-in coffee pot features, and most importantly of all, Greenie’s style and ease.
CarMax even went as far as making their own video response to Lanman, explaining why they wanted the vehicle.
“Greenie left a 1996 Honda Accord-sized hole in our heart, and we just had to have it. To join in the fun Max started, we knew we needed to offer something special to get his attention,” CarMax spokeswoman Claire Hunter said in an interview. “We tweeted our video offer to him and were happy he took us up on it! However, no one should have to work that hard to sell a car! That’s why we make it easy at CarMax and will buy all the cars.”
CarMax wasn’t the only buyer interested in Greenie. Lanman uploaded pictures of the car, along with a link to the video, onto e-commerce giant eBay. It didn’t take long for the bidding to reach $150,000.
Confused eBay officials took the listing down. However, one company vice president realized what was going on. He contacted Lanman, apologized, and allowed him to relist the car.
Now, Greenie belongs to CarMax, Lanman and his fiancée are $20,000 richer, and everyone involved has made national news after ABC’s Good Morning America showed the video. And everyone else is left to ask… why didn’t I think of this?