Fake prices on Autotrader

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
View Threaded
Fri 29 Jan 2010 16:08
Fake prices on Autotrader - Niallster
For example if you search for a VW Bora some onanist set the search price at £999 and then says in the text the real price is £1,350.

This seems to be getting more and more prevalent these days and I find it SO ANNOYING.

Surely it must be against Autotrader terms and conditions?
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 29 Jan 2010 16:12
Fake prices on Autotrader - SteveLee
You also see cars that are far too cheap to be true as well, I'm considering buying another Range Rover, I saw a BMW engined Rangey advertised for silly money in South London - I suspect it's one of those scams where you turn up with the dosh and then they rob you.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 29 Jan 2010 16:15
Fake prices on Autotrader - bazomis
I find the deliberate mis-quoting of mileages equally annoying (e.g. 1 or 100 instead of 100,000) on Autotrader as they tend to come at the top of every search and you can end up having to scroll down several pages before you find a real match.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 29 Jan 2010 16:17
Fake prices on Autotrader - gordonbennet
Hopefully decent honest buyers avoid these like the plague therefore the seller involved gets exactly the sort of equally unscrupulous buyer they deserve.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 29 Jan 2010 16:58
Fake prices on Autotrader - movilogo
Car below £1000 attracts a lower fee in Auto Trader.

Any abrupt rise (rather than a linear one) always bound to raise such deceptions.

Edited by movilogo on 29/01/2010 at 16:59

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 29 Jan 2010 17:03
Fake prices on Autotrader - turbo11
Surely Autotrader owe it to their loyal customers to prevent these adverts being placed in the first place. Maybe they are only interested in the advertising fee.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 29 Jan 2010 17:25
Fake prices on Autotrader - CraigP
Surely Autotrader owe it to their *paying* customers


There, fixed that for ya :-)
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 29 Jan 2010 22:24
Fake prices on Autotrader - malteser
Autotrader execs have been learning from eBay on how to screw their users.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 29 Jan 2010 22:37
Fake prices on Autotrader - Rattle
When I was looking cars this time last year I found that the under £2K section was very difficult. I wasted too much time going to see sheds.

However one way I had of filtering out some of the sheds was to avoid adds with this sort of trick.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 29 Jan 2010 22:44
Fake prices on Autotrader - audiA6tdi
Ive noticed a large increase in cars that are really cheap i.e. BMW 5 series 12 months old for £8000, but their is never a phone number, just an email. I dare say if you emailed the seller he would be wanting to ship it from Nigeria.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 29 Jan 2010 23:18
Fake prices on Autotrader - bell boy
if you think fake prices are bad can you consider getting texts off customers saying things like
"hi yooze got kar4 sale eyes want to buy "
i mean what is the point of a worthless text like this?
why dont they speak and say they want to buy the dammed thing?

as for cars being offered at one price and then it shows another price halfway down i usually see these are related to certain places and areas that i wouldnt travel to if i was a private mush anyway
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 30 Jan 2010 00:07
Fake prices on Autotrader - Lygonos
Some of these will be dealers who will take the £999 for cash, but will want £1350 if you are p/x-ing.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 30 Jan 2010 08:57
Fake prices on Autotrader - DP
Some Autotrader ads have "scam" written all over them. Take this for example. I mean, it doesn't take a genius to work out this doesn't quite add up, does it?

Link temporarily removed. It's for a 2006 BMW X5 3.0d Sport 5dr Auto, £3000. Smokie

I am surprised Autotrader don't police their ads a little more thoroughly. Or even at all.

Edited by smokie on 30/01/2010 at 11:57

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 30 Jan 2010 09:19
Fake prices on Autotrader - WorkshopTech
They put them in at 999 because the ads cost less and they pop up in the search and then the hope is the customer will 'stretch' to the higher price.
Many dealers also advertise 'phantom' cars at a low price and when customer calls up its gone but they have another at a higher price.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 30 Jan 2010 11:02
Fake prices on Autotrader - drbe
Some Autotrader ads have "scam" written all over them. >>


It says in the ad 'contact by email only'. what happens if you ring on the landline number shown?
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 30 Jan 2010 11:07
Fake prices on Autotrader - SteelSpark
>> Some Autotrader ads have "scam" written all over them. >>
It says in the ad 'contact by email only'. what happens if you ring on
the landline number shown?


Well, if Google is to be believed, somebody from The Patrick Kavanagh pub in Birmingham will answer.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 30 Jan 2010 11:39
Fake prices on Autotrader - bristol01
The slightest whiff of deception or someone telling porkies would be enough for me to cross that particular possible purchase off my list very quickly...

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 30 Jan 2010 12:02
Fake prices on Autotrader - old crocks
Well if Google is to be believed somebody from The Patrick Kavanagh pub in Birmingham
will answer.


Well done SS. I would never had thought of that, but it's so easy when you know how.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 31 Jan 2010 12:52
Fake prices on Autotrader - AlanGowdy
I find the deliberate mis-quoting of mileages equally annoying (e.g. 1 or 100 instead of
100 000) on Autotrader as they tend to come at the top of every search
and you can end up having to scroll down several pages before you find a
real match.

Thank goodness I'm not the only one who finds this really annoying. I want to see, at a glance and at the beginning of the ad, that a car has done 50,000 miles, not 50 as written. I don't want to waste my time scrolling to the end of the ad to find the real figure. Dealers are the main offenders. Perhaps they consider it an acceptable shorthand. I don't.

I complained to Autotrader about it many months ago. I'm still waiting for their reply.

Edited by Dynamic Dave on 31/01/2010 at 18:14

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 31 Jan 2010 17:38
Fake prices on Autotrader - drbe
I don't want to waste my time scrolling to the end of the ad to find the real figure. Dealers are the main offenders. Perhaps they consider it an acceptable shorthand. I don't.


Quite a few of the ads don't show the correct mileage anywhere in the ad. One car I looked had the mileage as '142', Elsewhere in the ad there was a photo of the service book with two pages of stamps by a dealer, so the real mileage was quite obviously 142,000 miles. It is a ploy to get the car under the various mileage filters.

The remedy is in our hands, either we don't view those cars, or perhaps better still, phone the dealer and explain that because we consider that he has deliberately mis-represented the mileage, we have removed that car from our list of possible purchases - he will probably just laugh.

I don't think Autotrader are bothered as long as they get their money.

Edited by drbe on 31/01/2010 at 17:39

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 31 Jan 2010 13:05
Fake prices on Autotrader - teabelly
What bugs me more than anything is all the dealer finance quoted monthly prices so if you look for a cheap car you end with a load of new cars listed first. I don't want those. I want the *full* price not the finance monthly price.

I suspect the suspiciously cheap cars are strongly correlated with the DVLA V5 theft...


Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 31 Mar 2013 07:11
Fake prices on Autotrader - autotrader needs to be policed

This forum post is the number 1 hit for the search term "report fake prices on Autotrader"; rather than Auto trader itself which is interesting.

I was annoyed enough by Autotrader to follow the search and register with the forum to add to the conversation. I don't suggest that we are going to change the world here ;) but if enough people who read this page and follow these actions (or something like them) then maybe they’ll have a performance review that's so uncomfortable that things will change.

I followed the Online feedback form :

http://ecustomeropinions.com/survey/survey.php?sid=211688937

(if this doesn’t work it’s on the contact page: www.autotrader.co.uk/common/mytrader/contact_us.jsp)

….and offered generally back feedback, then for the main questions I added this

Have you encountered any specific problems? Please tell us more…..

I find that dealers who misrepresent the cars they are selling in the search terms (such as price, mileage) incredibly obnoxious, whether they correct it in the actual advertisement or not. I wonder how seriously Autotrader considers customer service.

What improvements and features would you like to see on our website in the future?

I would like these listings to be policed by Autotrader, I would like the option of users to conveniently report offences to Autotrader. I would like sellers on Autotrader to receive a warning before receiving bans from possible future listings.

Edited by autotrader needs to be policed on 31/03/2013 at 07:12

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 31 Mar 2013 07:39
Fake prices on Autotrader - madf

You can already report adverts on Autotrader : I have used it for years...

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 31 Mar 2013 10:01
Fake prices on Autotrader - daveyK_UK

The rivals to autotrader are:

gumtree

ebay motors

physical auctions (BCA/mainheim/etc)

local paper classified

manufacturer used car website listings

Are there any others?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 31 Mar 2013 15:22
Fake prices on Autotrader - jamie745

More supplements than rivals though aren't they?

If someone's willing to put the wrong price up just to save £10 then how have they treated the car? I understand these are 'tough economic times' as we keep saying but they really do shoot themselves in the foot. For starters if I'm looking for a £4,000 Skoda then I'll be looking at cars in that price range, not in the sub-1k category.

All they do is hide their ad from the people looking for what they're selling. Mad.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link