The quality of for sale adverts

Adam

Adam

Adam

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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I know this is quite general and doesn't just apply to cars, but as I'm in the market for a new car I have stumbled across some appalling examples along the way.

It seems some people can't be bothered to put the time or effort in to creating an informative advert, whether this is through ignorance or laziness I don't know.

I have seen adverts with no text, no pictures (there is no excuse for this) or ridiculously poor pictures. Examples being interior shots through the window, half of the car cut out, pictures where the car is on the drive and they can't be bothered to move it for a decent picture etc.

Just now I have seen someone spend an extra 35p on eBay to advertise the fact that the tax is about to run out :confused: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2000-FORD...4574429?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item2320d34e5d

Crazy stuff, it's hard enough to sell things as it is right now especially cars. I see the same cars sitting there for weeks and weeks on autotrader etc so you'd think people would give themselves the best chance possible to sell their car.
 
Just to chime in as well, people love to post pics of the exterior but never of the interior which is always a pain
 
Same can be applied for property.

If you want to rent/sell you property it would be nice to actually see a few images before being forced to turn up for an appointment with the agency only for the agent to not turn up
 
Just be happy, safe in the knowledge that it will take a long time to sell (wasting ebay fees in the process) and they'll get below market value for it, if it shifts at all :)
 
Old habits die hard im afraid, many people are still used to the old classified where you only got a few lines in which to put a description on.

My dads the same, a quick pic and a few lines stating model, year,MOT/Tax and thats it.With buyers being so choosy, even with cheap run of the mill crap, you cannot afford not to do a decent advert.
 
There are always a few clues that should begin to ring alarm bells when reading through certain adverts. One thing I've noticed more and more is advertisers both trade and private not listing or even slightly mentioning the mileage the vehicle concerned has covered. This usually means it's sky high for its age.

And phrases like "genuine car" have always puzzled me. What is a "genuine car"?. One that is a car as opposed to a loaf of bread for example, which would be a "non-genuine car" I imagine?.
 
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Use it to your advantage. A car with a really poor advert shouldn't get as much interest as an identical car with a reasonable ad, so you should be able to knock them down more.
 
I assume you know what you want? If you do it shouldn't matter about the advert really unless you are just window shopping.
 
This winds me up so much, you either seem to get one extreme or the other. I'm looking for a very specific set of optional extras (it's the only way I can actually be bothered to change car, as I'm pretty happy with mine bar wanting a larger engine), which means I need close-ups of the dash/center console, as well as a good description. 9 times out of 10 you get no detail at all bar the usual "high spec example!!1112" (of which if this is stated, it typically has all the optional extras of a grapefruit), and then every now and then you get an advert that goes into detail of how often the wipers are changed, and how each parking ding was recieved, but little information about the car's specifics :mad:

Another one that gets me is the unwillingness to show the reg. You either get private adverts with blurred/photoshopped plates, or garages that feel the need to put their initials/name where the reg should be. Great, except I can find out useful stuff from the reg (even simple things like knowing if a 2009 is a 58 or an 09).
 
maccapacca said:
I assume you know what you want? If you do it shouldn't matter about the advert really unless you are just window shopping.
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It does matter about the advert - you can use an adverts quality or lack thereof to guage whether the seller is somebody you wish to buy a car from.
 
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paradigm said:
and then every now and then you get an advert that goes into detail of how often the wipers are changed, and how each parking ding was recieved, but little information about the car's specifics :mad:
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Writing a good advert is definitely a balancing act, depending on car, price and the intended audience.

Now and then you see an almost perfect advert, where the chap has taken the time to make an effort, but alas many sellers haven't a clue.

I struggled the last time I sold a car, I had several work colleagues critique the advert until we had something that wasn't too wordy, but had all the relevant info. It took some debating though.
 
[TW]Fox;22524587 said:
It does matter about the advert - you can use an adverts quality or lack thereof to guage whether the seller is somebody you wish to buy a car from.
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So you're judging a car based on the owners grasp of say how to lay out an Autotrader advert and also how to use a digital camera and how to use a PC.

I'm only taking my latest experience as an example, poor advert, three blurry pictures and two line of text, what it actually was was a 65 year old retired finance guy in a very nice detached house in a private estate who kept the car in a heated carpeted garage, only used it on weekends and trips to the 'yacht club' and 'ski chalet' (as labelled in the sat nav), the only reason he was selling privately was he fell out with BMW, he had never sold a car privately before.

I do agree though the adverts that say too much put me off, all I want to see it the specs of the car and some decent photos
 
I see plenty of great adverts on the facebook selling pages, usually 1 pic and "selling my astra, it's got mot, message me for details" :rolleyes:
 
Had a few bargains due to awful awful eBay listings

It can be seen as a gamble but I see it as "if it's bad then someone was still willing to pay £10 less than me even with this awful listing"
 
maccapacca said:
So you're judging a car based on the owners grasp of say how to lay out an Autotrader advert and also how to use a digital camera and how to use a PC.
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I have to agree with this, if the seller can't string a sentence along, I don't want to buy his car or waste my time.

Obviously this depends greatly on the car in question. For a £500 runabout, I may care less about his grasp of the queen's english. For something expensive and/or niche - the advert and the way it is constructed means almost everything.
 
maccapacca said:
So you're judging a car based on the owners grasp of say how to lay out an Autotrader advert and also how to use a digital camera and how to use a PC.

I'm only taking my latest experience as an example, poor advert, three blurry pictures and two line of text, what it actually was was a 65 year old retired finance guy in a very nice detached house in a private estate who kept the car in a heated carpeted garage, only used it on weekends and trips to the 'yacht club' and 'ski chalet' (as labelled in the sat nav), the only reason he was selling privately was he fell out with BMW, he had never sold a car privately before.

I do agree though the adverts that say too much put me off, all I want to see it the specs of the car and some decent photos
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Generally speaking you can tell the difference between computer illiterate people and the "innit bruv" scumbags we all try to avoid.
 
I agree it can be used to your advantage but generally speaking it puts me off and makes me run a mile. I may come back to it eventually, but first impressions count for a lot.

I have bought many cars privately since I passed my test and I'd say as a general rule of thumb the attitude and helpfulness of the seller normally says a lot about the car. People buy people after all.
 
Run a mile, if they can't be arsed to write an advert and take some decent pictures then they probably couldn't be arsed to look after their car properly, rarely serviced on time, ditchfinder tyres, washed with a bucket of gritty water and a sponge by an Armenian immigrant etc.
 
When I sold the fiesta I had tto massively cut down the advert as it was too long :P

Sold it for a high price and now its no longer insured 2 years later :(
Shame it was a lovely car that
 
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