He guys, I was just looking at some cars for sale, listed on Craigslist
here’s a few funny ones . . .
One lady . . . at least I think so, because her hands with long painted fingernails, are visible in some of the pictures . . . is selling a car that is in great shape, except for an oil leak. She assures us it’s just the oil drain plug
Uh huh . . . if it was that easy, she’d get a cheapo oil change, paying a few bucks extra to have the drain plug replaced. Then she’d hose it off real quick, and tell us it has no leaks whatsoever
In my experience, when the seller says the problem is cheap to fix, you may want to start walking away right then and there
I laugh REAL hard when the ad says that the check engine light is on, but their mechanic assured them it just needed such and such part, and it cost x amount of dollars at autozone. If it were that easy, they’d have had their trusty mechanic fix it already, and they could have sold a car with no check engine light lit, and a fresh smog
The next one shows a car for sale at a dealer. The asking price is $4995. Yet the pictures show the car with $5995 on the front windshield, in big yellow numbers. Makes me think the car’s been sitting on the lot for a few months. Why hasn’t it sold? Was $5995 overpriced, and $4995 is more in line with what the other dealers are asking? Or is it not selling, because the previous prospective buyers saw or discovered something they didn’t like, and the dealer just wants it gone?
I’ve seen a number of those types on ads on Craigslist in this area. Some seller has a car with a badly running engine that a mechanic has assured him is an easy fix. If so, they why did not said mechanic fix it since he was apparently diagnosing it.
I’ve also seen a few of those ads in which the asking price is less than the price marked on the windshield and even a few in which the asking price is higher than what’s on the glass. Go figure…
It’s not auto related but about 5 years ago while perusing the CL ads on musical instruments I saw an ad for a Peavey 60 Watt bass amp which was about 75 miles away from me so I was a bit interested in it. After reading the somewhat lengthy and thorough ad the seller stated at the end:
“Oh by the way, this amp may be hot. I’m pretty sure this amp is stolen so it’s sold as is”.
A few years ago a co-worker was trying to buy a replacement for his son’s wrecked car (the other driver’s fault) and a local dealer refused to take his offer on a certain car saying they would never sell it that cheap. About a week after they bought another car the dealer had reduced the price in the paper to about what my co-worker had offered and they rejected.
I went to look at a car the local Ford dealer had listed on his internet site. When I sat down to work a deal with the salesman, the price quoted magically increased by $1500. Funny thing, I told the salesman which car I wanted to test drive because I had seen it listed on the internet site.
A lot of times the dealers cover their tracks in their advertising by adding a stock number. That cheap price (in shouting or bold print) turns into mumbling or fine print in referring to the stock number.
Once on the lot (the end game actually) that stock number vehicle has been sold but they have another similar vehicle with a different stock number at a higher price of course.
Been helping someone buy a cheap used car. Some of the sellers just amuse me. I really liked the “Yeah, it doesn’t start, you have to push start it, but my mechanic says it’s just a fuse.” Riiiiight.
I see the dealers ads on Autotrader for $2K less than the sticker or the price on their site. I assume the higher price is for anybody who is willing to pay it.
On CL, it is a whole other story. A lot of salvage/branded cars that are clean and “never been in an accident” and just were scrapped due to a fender bender. Yea, the insurance is going to total a $20K car because of a $300 fender job.
The check engine light is always on because of the $5 gas cap, and the owner would not invest that money in the car!
This is more annoying to me now since we need another car and back to the lots again.
I was talking to a sales manager at a dealership about that once. He told me that they put close to their rock-bottom price on the internet ads most of the time, because it’s too easy for people to shop around with a few clicks and find the same car at a lower price elsewhere, and they probably won’t call him to see if he’ll give them a better deal based on the competitor’s price. Whereas if they’re physically at his dealership, they’re less likely to comparison shop and so he can try to get more out of them.
That was probably 10, 12 years ago now. I wonder if the strategy has changed again with the popularity of smart phones. I can easily stand in his dealership and find the price of every equivalent car in town in 5 minutes.
We just hit on the same theory applied to parts and labor pricing ( and hotels, hospitals, phones, cable, etc )…then adding stuff on the bottom lines of the bill.
Same thing here as shadowfax mentioned.
The lowest price possible is shown albeit withOUT the repairs…just to catch your eye.
If that same vehicle were fixed up and spiffed up ready to rock and roll…would that price catch your eye ?
Would joe customer bother to do the math on the unrepaired car vs the repaired one ?
Many years ago I wanted an old pickup to fix up and play around with. An ad in the paper one weekend had a listing for half a dozen old vehicles and included a '58 Apache so I was very interested. Gave the guy a call and he was asking 800 bucks for it stating that it was “in great shape and all there” with only the motor and transmission missing. Cool; not a big deal.
No one was around when I got there but I found the Apache sitting up on blocks. It was missing the interior, rear glass, both front wheels, the entire front suspension and all of the steering gear, and the rear axle. The front windshield was cracked and I didn’t even bother to see if the glass down inside the doors was still there or not. The hood was lying in what was left of a mangled bed…
This goes a bit beyond “fluffing” a potential sale and my aspirations for building one similar to the one a friend built disappeared very quickly.
Had a lady at work selling an older car, I asked what kind of maintenance or upkeep had been done, mentioning oil changes, trans fluid, brakes, tires, alignment etc.
She got really offended and said our car has not required a thing, I said in the flyer it is in good shape. I think it was 12 years old with 40k as far as my recollection goes.
The Craigslist auto adds are really fun. I saw one recently ( 1995 Toyota camry needs restored but here is a chance to make serious profit ) . The picture of it showed faded paint, dents and a really sorry interior.
The real estate section can be fun too. An add stated( like new hoe for sale ) .
even if you got the car for free, and your labor was free . . . because you did all the repairs yourself . . . there’s no “serious profit” to be made on a 1995 Camry
It was about dark when I got there but even in the fading light it looked like what was there was eaten up with rust and yes, it was a 20 mile drive through traffic to get there.
No telling what it looked like in the sunshine.
What a time waster.
I had hopes of putting something together like a buddy did. His was a '55 but had a 389 HO Pontiac under the hood with a 4 speed auto transmission and 5:12 or so rear end gears.
It wasn’t much for the highway due to the gear ratio but would shift 3 times while crossing an intersection when floored; and it would cross an intersection in a heartbeat.
It’s an early big block used back in the '60s on quite a few Pontiac models; Bonnevilles, Catalinas, GTOs, and so on. They’re strong running engines even bone stock and there are a lot of variations on this engine.
