A car that changes hands should be fun for both buyer and seller
They could try to sell our man a new Nissan 350Z for a tenner and he would pass it on anyway.
Most are doing well. Okay, even. Informative and succinct. But oh my God, it’s hard to read online car classifieds. I wonder if sellers realize that these say a lot more about the owner than the car itself – and sometimes it’s not free.
Far from the most sensible, there are different styles of ads when sellers go astray. By far my least favorite (they might try to sell me a new Nissan 350Z for a tenner and I would pass it anyway) are the passive-aggressive. Or even the non-passive aggressive.
“Only contact me if you have the asking price, insulting time-wasting offers will not be reported,” wrote the seller of – double-checked – a Lada Riva, before adding: ” these are skyrocketing now and will continue to climb. day after day. In that case, I’ll wait until tomorrow to sell it, man.
Look, I understand. People who say they are going to buy a car and then don’t or offer silly money for it are 60, others are screaming over 100. boring. A guy once asked me if I would take a lower than asking price offer for my Triumph TR2. Sure, I said, but not as much as he suggested via email. He came to look at it and offered me even less, surely knowing that he was wasting his time and mine.
But it was an anomaly. I had faith. Then I got a note from a German who was so awesome and straightforward that I volunteered to tow the car for him, took a look at his collection and made a friend.
“Buying an old car should be a good experience for both people,” he said. Absolutely right. Most people are nice and the idea is that the seller and the buyer love cars. This stuff is meant to bind us.
That said, carefully following the “how dare you have the temerity to look at this car?” advertisements are the ones that get carried away by the grandeur of it all. Look, it’s just a car. But there is a growing trend to start an ad with selected passages from Wikipedia.
“When the E-Type was launched in 1961, it was hands down the finest car the automotive press had ever seen,” a 16-year-old Jaguar XK valued at $ 10,000 advertised.
“The work of the body is incredible. No rust anywhere. A little below the driver’s door in the photo, ”a Saab 900 salesman contradicted.
And while I have no problem with the bad spelling and bad grammar (as Autocar’s sub-editors know), I can’t help but rate this one: “Really clean inside. like outside the owner, “blurted out a Jaguar X-Type owner, before insisting that the 2.2-liter diesel” is becoming collectable now “, for which there is less excuse.
And then there are the “easy projects”, those which “should pass an MOT without problem” and the Ford Mustang without engine or gearbox “but otherwise complete”. Or, excuse the capitals: “IT HAS NOT BEEN USED FOR A FEW YEARS BUT IT RUNS FREELY AND IS SAFE TO OPERATE IN LOOKING CONDITION BUT WILL NEED FRESH FUEL.” What makes you think: why not give it a try? Is new fuel hard to find?
Remember the limits of car ads when they were all in print and you were billed by the word? The internet has freed us from that. But maybe it wasn’t so bad after all.
READ MORE
Matt Prior: I chose the garage of my dreams. Now it’s your turn
Matt Prior: Nobody wants to go from A to B
Matt Prior: What makes some old cars better than others?
More about this article: Read More
Source: www.autocar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-05-20 23:01:25
