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How about this - several months ago I was helping my sister to buy a second-hand car and we spotted a nice little Mitsubishi Colt at a local dealer. Had a look round it and all seemed well so I requested a test drive. The salesman then spent the next ten minutes trying to make me promise that we'd buy it. If I didn't promise, he said I couldn't have a test drive!! I then spent a couple more minutes trying to explain that I wanted the test drive to help me decide if I was going to buy it but to no avail. Needless to say we took our money elsewhere..
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I think it's fair enough in an online auction and not especially offensive otherwise - certainly not enough to get huffy and miss something that looks like a bargain.
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Sorry, I disagree - I think the mere inclusion of such phraseology indicates a certain level of intelligence and corresponding social skills. It equates with me to the more moronic adverts on ebay which tell you little about the car but have reams of text such as "you are bidding to buy not to look", "contact me first if you have a negative","I reserve the right to remove bids etc". I'd give any car a miss which went on about timewasters & tyrekickers, chances are the car hasn't been propoery looked after. All these comments are, of course, simply my opinions.
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I agree , and also particularly hate the expression "drives beautiful" and suchlike in private car ads, usually indicating that it's a trader masquerading as a private seller and one under the mistaken opinion that such phrases denote quality and sophistication.
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I well remember a couple of year ago I was looking for a nice used Mercedes S-class. A dealer about 100 miles away had one. I rang, asked a few questions about the car and told him I'd come and look at it.
Arrived following Saturday at 9am (having driven about 100 miles). Looked around the car, found a few minor faults, but basically OK.
Then asked for a test drive. "We can only give you a test drive if you agree to buy - we only give test drives to serious buyers" !!!
In the end I walked away, appalled at their attitude, and drove the 100 miles home. The salesman made no effort to persuade me not to leave. I saw the car still advertised for a couple of months afterwards.
Incidentally, I wasn't in scruffy clothes either - I was smartly dressed, turned up in a near new car and had my 12 year old son with me (also smartly dressed).
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Originally posted by Mike H
It equates with me to the more moronic adverts on eBay which tell you little about the car but have reams of text such as "you are bidding to buy not to look", "contact me first if you have a negative","I reserve the right to remove bids etc".
You are clearly either very lucky seller or never sold anything on eBay. Unfortunately starting online auction costs money, and the more car is worth the more money you have to pay after the auction is over. What you call "moronic adverts" is simply the only way to avoid the mess place like eBay can make to your sale.
Unlike normal auction, at online places everyone is brave and feels they can do what they want. Since anyone can register new account you will have sellers of cars identical to yours bidding for your car just to make it look more expensive than theirs. You will have 16 year old kids bidding "for their m8" after long night in a pub. Regular nuts that will then tell you they were just trying to win the auction but intend to pay half the price. Scammers from Nigeria and Indonesia that "will send you a genuine cheque for £2000 more and you organize shipping". The "moronic adverts" disclaimers as you call them are the only defence against "moronic bidders". And every time such sale doesn't go through you will loose £30, £40, £50 in fees knowing that the genuinely interested buyer could be just few bids down.
"No tyre kickers" is today?s "No canvassers". It's not rude; it's not there to make you feel smaller. It's there because times and human behaviour dictates so. You'd be surprised but there are people that come around just to say "not really interested in the beemer but how much for the alloys". I might be fine with it, for me it might be just another buyer, but there are people out there with busy schedules. If I had to cancel appointments and rush miles from work every day just to hear "yeah you said car was red in the advert, my daughter wants red fiesta, I though I would come around to see how if Ford Mondeo is anything similar" I would probably be the first one to put "no tyre kickers" in my adverts.
davemar's post is actually funny but leaves sellers with:
FIAT PUNTO, red, old.
On similar note - have any of you guys noticed how every trade advert in Autotrader is written by Germans capitalising everything and everywhere? Eg:
Lada Samara, 1989, Red, Five Speed, Fool Service History, Passenger Assisted Steering, Rare Wiper, Front Windscreen Washers, Funeral Violet Cloth Interior. Bargin. /here price/
On the other hand, typical Loot advert is more of a Bletchley Park challenge:
Citroen XM,P,PAS,FEW,ESR,EM,RW/W,VROOM,PFFT,Zzz,/here price/OVNO
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I don't have a problem with the point you are making, and the comments in the ads are valid, but when they occupy 90% of the advert, leaving just a few words about the car, it's ridiculous. And I'm afraid many of them appear to be written in a literary fashion which is not exactly queen's english....as you point out, no regard for proper capitalisation, punctuation, spelling etc - speaking personally, it just puts me off the product.
But perhaps at 50 I'm just old fashioned....!
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You're not old-fashioned, Mike, you just have taste and common sense, which are in decreasing supply (as every generation says).
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