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Coleroad

Coleroad

New member
Things in used car ads I get tired of reading.

has all new breaks. Are you going to fix them, or is that why you`re selling it? By people who don`t know the difference between break and brake.

New tires, only 10,000 miles on them. Just say how many miles are on them. They are not new.

no mods/car is completely original, except wheels, cold air intake, lowering springs, etc.

car has never seen rain/snow. Then I`m the third owner bought with 96,000 miles. All you know is since you`ve owned it. Then go on to read got a new daily driver.

Using the the word pristine to describe the whole car. Excellent condition and pristine are two different things. Let`s face it even brand new cars aren`t always in pristine condition.

Headgasket blown, only a $30 part.

The engine has a tick/knock since I bought it. It`s never gotten worse.

The car started the the last time I drove it two months ago. Well I would think it started if you drove it. Statement means nothing about the car.
 
Used cars are like people (or pets): beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Clever wordage/verbiage/descriptions are key to selling a car. There is an art to literary deception, but as the saying goes, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" or "What you say and what I see are two completely different things."

Your humorous, but true, explanations to the car-selling phases we all see in used car for sale ad listings and postings are appreciated.

My favorites?
"Adult driven" ~With a lead foot? Like Mario Andretti?
"Mostly highway miles" At 90 miles-an-hour? In stop-and-go traffic every day?? Towing a boat or heavy trailer??
"Always maintained" What?- no service records or "I did the work myself", but the vehicle fluids look dirty or the engine compartment is "dirty".

Side question:
How many of you who shopped for a used car from a private party or even a used car dealer had it inspected by your trusted mechanic or knowledgeable car person or a state-certified and licensed vehicle inspector??
OR , you yourself brought tools to remove a spark plug and a fiber optic inspection camera to look inside the engine or a lift jack to look under the car?
 
AC works great, just needs recharge.
XXXX broken, really simple to fix...
runs good but rough, just needs a tuneup
Runs great, CEL is on because of bad sensor.

But what really makes me crazy is the people that won`t even wash the car before they take pictures. Wheels caked with brake dust and trash all inside....yeah, well taken care of....
 
I love "It`s never needed anything."

Nay nay - Just because you never did any repairs, doesn`t mean it didn`t/doesn`t need them...
 
Lonnie said:
Side question:
How many of you who shopped for a used car from a private party or even a used car dealer had it inspected by your trusted mechanic or knowledgeable car person or a state-certified and licensed vehicle inspector??
OR , you yourself brought tools to remove a spark plug and a fiber optic inspection camera to look inside the engine or a lift jack to look under the car?
Click to expand...

I used to pay for PPIs but I got very mixed results. I now have a checklist I`ve put together that works well for me. It relies heavily on service records and interview of the PO if available. Add some observations and OBD2/manufacturer specific scans will get you favorable odds. Last but not least a paint gauge to check for accident damage.

Well taken care of cars stand out. And they are the best deals as well. People fool themselves into thinking the cheapest car is the best deal. It never is, especially if you are a perfectionist. The price difference between average condition and excellent is tiny.
 
The guy who cuts my hair is shopping..and I`ve had to talk him down from his first few ideas (including talking him out of a Crown Vic, which I kinda hated to do, would *NOT* have talked him out of it were he, say...16, just would`ve inspected his possibles for him).

Every used car that`s for sale is for sale for a REASON. And unless you`re looking for a Project, it`s rare for that reason to not make that vehicle a "pass". (MY ex-DOJ/BOP Crown Vic really was an exception, but I spent years looking at scads of `em before I found it, and even it had/has a few little issues.. at least for a guy like me.) Although if I sell the S8 somebody`s gonna get a basically new, zero-issue car with just a few little cosmetics from the Deer Incident.
 
Lonnie said:
.Side question:
How many of you who shopped for a used car from a private party or even a used car dealer...[used].. a lift jack to look under the car?
Click to expand...

With all most postings about Undercarriages, you can imagine how I am about that ;) The last time I bought a used vehicle without a thorough undercarriage inspection was in the early `80s, and I learned my (somewhat pricey) lesson well. I warn the seller how I`m gonna be about that, often rules that vehicle out in the first few minutes on the phone.
 
Accumulator said:
Every used car that`s for sale is for sale for a REASON. And unless you`re looking for a Project, it`s rare for that reason to not make that vehicle a "pass". (MY ex-DOJ/BOP Crown Vic really was an exception, but I spent years looking at scads of `em before I found it, and even it had/has a few little issues.. at least for a guy like me.) Although if I sell the S8 somebody`s gonna get a basically new, zero-issue car with just a few little cosmetics from the Deer Incident.
Click to expand...

Accumulator, that`s what my dad always says... you`re buying someone else`s problems! But then you have guys like me that just get rid of cars beause they are bored!
 
Dan- Heh heh, yeah...but finding those "sold purely due to owner disinterest" ones can be hard!

Buying other people`s problems...heh heh heh, BTDT and *intentionally* too! The `93 Audi`s original owner has more money than God, but she couldn`t justify fixing that car`s issues any more so she quit about, oh..I dunno...?maybe $20K? short of the finish line.
 
Accumulator said:
Dan- Heh heh, yeah...but finding those "sold purely due to owner disinterest" ones can be hard!

Buying other people`s problems...heh heh heh, BTDT and *intentionally* too! The `93 Audi`s original owner has more money than God, but she couldn`t justify fixing that car`s issues any more so she quit about, oh..I dunno...?maybe $20K? short of the finish line.
Click to expand...

Agree, the search can be long, gotta be patient, a virtue that isn`t very common.
 
Dan said:
... the search can be long, gotta be patient...
Click to expand...
I made an admittedly expensive game out of it. After doing as much as I could long-distance, I`d fly there to check the car out in person, staying at a nice place and treating myself to an indulgent evening either before or after the inspection (sometimes both). If I found some deal-breaker issue, I`d either buy another airline ticket or rent something nice and drive home, having had a swell little vacation. I had some great times doing that, and never got [ticked] off when the car was a disappointment because I was having fun no matter how the deal went. Gave me an edge going into the inspection/bargaining too as the sellers usually seemed more interested in the deal going through than I was.

People would say I was wasting a lot of money doing that, but IMO it was cheaper than buying the wrong car, and hey..those same people spend plenty taking *their* vacations too. And I was having a *blast*. Whether buying new or used, I always enjoyed (note past-tense, I have too many of the right vehicles now!) the get-a-car process and IMO that`s what it`s all about.

It bums me out when people bemoan how they hate buying a car, the ownership experience really oughta be FUN right from the jump.

EDIT: I had Fermani (where is he anyhow?) check out a vehicle for me once, and was actually glad he gave it a thumbs-down. While I trusted him completely, the remote-control car purchase wasn`t really my idea of fun. I bought the Tahoe sight-unseen, and while that turned out OK, it wasn`t really *fun* either..lesson learned, never again.
 
Yeah I learned my lesson with long distance purchases. Grill (and I do mean GRILL with objective questions) the seller to weed out the obvious ones and then send out SGS Auto inspection.
 
Accumulator said:
Ah, I gather they do an OK job. I`d always wondered which (if any) such service was, uhm...up to spec.
Click to expand...

SGS is like Carfax, they`ll weed out the true turds (in case your seller is a good liar, and car dealers are!) They provide pictures and an objective report with what is wrong with the car. They do not report on mechanical condition though, the next step after SGS is there is to get an independent mechanical inspection or show up and look at the car yourself.
 
Coleroad said:
Things in used car ads I get tired of reading...
Click to expand...

Great stuff.

I also like it when they brag about a late model car having A/C, power windows, and cruise control. I`m pretty sure every vehicle for at east the last 20 years have had those options unless it is a stripped down, commercial grade work truck.

Pictures are fun at times too. I once went to look at a used Honda Accord which was in "excellent" condition and had great pictures of the front, rear, driver`s side and interior. What you didn`t see in the pictures was both fenders on the passenger side were totally rusted through. Made me wonder how the entire car could be in such great shape, EXCEPT for the passenger side....

The thing that chaps my hide worse than anything else is dealership mistakes in their adds. I get a private owner may be sloppy with their adds, but at a dealership their one job is to sell cars and they have salesmen and marketing departments being paid to do adds correctly. Things like the VIN not matching the car in the pictures...some not even the right model! Options being mentioned on the car which visibly are not present in the picture is good for an eye roll. The best of them all is dealerships messing up the type of transmission in car. I lost count of how many times I`d look at a car because it was listed as having a manual, only to discover the pictures clearly show an automatic.
 
Desertnate said:
Great stuff.

I also like it when they brag about a late model car having A/C, power windows, and cruise control. I`m pretty sure every vehicle for at east the last 20 years have had those options unless it is a stripped down, commercial grade work truck.

Pictures are fun at times too. I once went to look at a used Honda Accord which was in "excellent" condition and had great pictures of the front, rear, driver`s side and interior. What you didn`t see in the pictures was both fenders on the passenger side were totally rusted through. Made me wonder how the entire car could be in such great shape, EXCEPT for the passenger side....

The thing that chaps my hide worse than anything else is dealership mistakes in their adds. I get a private owner may be sloppy with their adds, but at a dealership their one job is to sell cars and they have salesmen and marketing departments being paid to do adds correctly. Things like the VIN not matching the car in the pictures...some not even the right model! Options being mentioned on the car which visibly are not present in the picture is good for an eye roll. The best of them all is dealerships messing up the type of transmission in car. I lost count of how many times I`d look at a car because it was listed as having a manual, only to discover the pictures clearly show an automatic.
Click to expand...


the transmission mistake by the dealership, been there done that. Except none of the pictures showed the pedals, or shifter. It was at a dealer in Denver. This was when we lived in Kansas, a long drive to make. I don`t feel comfortable driving a manual anymore because of the limited use I have of one hand. I can still, but probably not the best thing . So was looking at a 911. The ad said automatic transmission. Get there and it`s a manual transmission. I was upset driving five hours one way to find out it wasn`t what the ad said. Even worse after telling them about the ad being wrong and what we drove to see it. The next week I looked it up and it was still listed as an automatic transmission. So obviously they don`t care as long as you come to there lot. They tried to show me other cars but I declined to do so. We looked at other lots that day, but didn`t find anything.
 
Recently bought a used car for my son. What struck me during our search were the photos. Filthy exteriors, interiors with trash strewn about. No way I`m going to take time to even look at a car from someone who can`t be bothered to at least clean it up a bit. For the car we finally settled on, we received service records and had a PPI done. Then after the purchase we changed every fluid in the car. So far so good. Fingers crossed for the kid -- he loves the car.
 
dmath- Sounds like you did it right! I bet your son learned some things in the course of that search. Glad he loves it, hope that translates into taking good care of it :D
 
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