Fully discuss the legal position of the parties?

Jones, a car dealer, owned a 1957 Ford Thunderbird and put the following ad in the newspaper:"l957 Ford Thunderbird, good shape, $10,000," accompanied by his phone number.Smith, a regular customer of Jones, saw the ad and went to Jones' car lot to see the car.After some discussions Smith said that he would pay $5000 for it, but Jones said it was not enough. Jones said that he would sell it for $8000 and include financing.Smith said that he would need some time to think about it.Accordingly, Jones wrote on a sheet of paper as follows:I, R. Jones, agree to sell to J. Smith my car for $8000, usual financing terms apply.In exchange for Mr. Smith's promise to give this offer due consideration, I agree to hold the offer open until Friday noon, September 24" (signed) R. Jones (dated) Monday, September 20.

Smith took this document home with him and on Tuesday morning Jones was offered $10,000 for the car by Brown, which he accepted.He immediately wrote Smith a letter revoking the offer. In the meantime Smith decided to accept the offer and sent Jones a letter to that effect on Monday evening.This letter was addressed to Jones and stated, "After due consideration of your offer to sell me a 1957 Ford Thunderbird I hereby accept, delivery to be at my home, Friday, September 24 at 5:00 pm".Smith received the letter of revocation on Wednesday morning.Jones received the letter of acceptance on Thursday afternoon.On Thursday morning Jones discovered that Brown was bankrupt and thus could not go through with the deal.Jones phoned Smith and told him to ignore the letter of revocation.Smith responded that while he had already sent his letter of acceptance, he had changed his mind since he had lost his job that morning and could no longer afford to purchase the car.Jones insisted that Smith go through with the deal and hung up.He received the letter of acceptance about three hours after this telephone call.

Jones then took the vehicle on the specified Friday with the intention of delivering it to Smith, but on the way he fell asleep at the wheel and the car was destroyed in the resulting crash.In the meantime Smith had discovered that he could resell the car for $10,000 and so was looking forward to the delivery.When the car was not delivered, he sued Jones for breach of contract.