Nothing torques my wrench, nothing floods my engine, nothing kills my battery, nothing pisses me the F’ off, like stupid people posting cars for sale on Craigslist. While I find the occasional screw up on details to be funny sometimes, and even big spelling mistakes sometimes make me laugh, those are usually honest mistakes or someone listing a vehicle that really just doesn’t know all the details and is doing their best. But when you have someone list a vehicle without ANY of the important information, it just makes me mad. In the past week I have decided that for my own entertainment value I am going to be responding to any of these ads and asking ALL the important questions in an effort to not only learn something about the vehicle for sale, but also to hopefully make people realize they dropped the ball on their listing so they won’t do it again.
Case in point. Yesterday I sent a text message to the guy who posted this ad on Craigslist. He didn’t want to respond to my text and instead called me “because I didn’t want to wear out my fingers trying to put in all this information”. Wow, maybe you should have spent the time putting that info in the ad in the first place!!!
Here is the text from the ad.
Rough barn find 1970 GMC pickup truck overheated then sat so it needs a mechanic, but Rare and when it runs you won’t have to smog it ever! Call Mark
have clean title and have pink
This is what my text looked like.
Mark, I live in Rancho Cucamonga and would like info on your 70 GMC. Can you give me the important info that wasn’t included in the ad? What engine is in it? What transmission? Is it on non-op or are fees owed? Is the title in your name? Does it have front disc brakes? Is it a C15 or C25? Does it have any rust? Bondo? Any other info would be appreciated.
I’ll give you that a couple of those things aren’t “required”, but most of them are. I would never, ever, ever put a vehicle on Craigslist without giving ALL of that information at the minimum.
So why is it that people just can’t seem to do this right? If you are looking to sell a car on craigslist, why not think about what questions you would have for a seller if you saw this dream car sitting on the corner with a sign and an arrow saying “This is the owner, ask them anything!”
When Mark called me and said he didn’t want to answer these questions via text, he then started to tell me some of the answers but not all. In fact, he wouldn’t shut up long enough for me to ask him hardly any questions, and the info he was spouting on about was of little use to me or anyone else that would be buying this truck. Uuggghhhh!
Also, your car is not a person. It should not get its picture taken with your phone upright like a person. It is called Portrait for a reason. It is for taking pictures of a single person, maybe two. Otherwise turn it on its side and shot the photo. Otherwise you have to take several photos to get the whole truck in the photo, or it is so far away as to be useless anyway.
Do you have a great story about someone not so smart listing a car for sale?
Tell us!
For real stupidity you should go back in time to Britain in the 60s and 70s and look at the buyers who used the typical dodgy car dealer. Sheepskin coat. fingers full of gold rings and an evil-smelling cigar always on the go. The diff is worn out and emits an unearthly scream – no problem just fill it with sawdust. There are a few dents and scratches – “They’ll polish out Guv”. Then the usual major engine explosion soon after purchase when the lack of engine or gearbox oil becomes apparent. But people always came back for more as all they could afford was dodgy “bangers”….
These people are no different from the people who don’t pick up their dog’s shit in the street–lazy and inconsiderate. And they will never, ever go away…
“Tires for sale. Fits chevy”.
“Ran when parked”… well yes, but you parked it in a field 15 years ago and it has been sitting in a field since. Not to mention the interior is now a condominium for mice and rats.
“It’s a numbers matching collector car” – folks, 6 cylinder 4 door 74 Novas are not collector cars. Even with radio delete and your grandmother’s couch for upholstery
“Make me an offer” – Ok genius – I’m offering $1. Oh now your angry – well how about giving me a hint – you know – like: PUT A PRICE ON IT !!
“Just testing the water” – What the hell is this? You’re going to throw it out there in hopes folks will start to throw money at you ?? It’s either for sale or it’s not.
Using pictures of some $100k Hot Rod to show what you could have when you buy their rusty pile of junk and then have a professional build it for you.
“It has a Corvette / Police Interceptor / Factory Tuned – motor”: I’m guessing there are more used cars with Corvette engines than actually came in Corvettes. Of course even the Corvette had some really bad engines in them.
Craigslist photos that are *screen shots* off the user’s iPhone: WTF? Also makes me bonkers when the photos they’ve uploaded are tiny thumbnails, I don’t even know how they make that mistake.
The ones that list a car for sale for a good price and when you read the description it’s a f-ing wanted ad.
“Camero”
how bout the guys who tell you its “not running but should be an easy fix”…
if its easy why arent they doing it? oh, right, they cant even change a battery
but yet they KNOW its “an easy fix”……
It’s the same selling stuff. You list all the information and no one bothers to read any of it.
Why does everybody have to use the same stupid lines…
“Original Miles” As opposed to what?? Non-original?
“Drive Anywhere” Like off a cliff, down a trail at Moab, into a lake? I doubt it’ll make it.
“1 of 1” EVERY car is a 1 of 1 because it’s the only one with that VIN so get over it. Nobody cares.
and of course the bane of any MOPAR guy, the good old…
“frame off restoration” REALLY?? On a muscle era MOPAR?? I highly doubt it!! So you body man uncle Cletus went to the trouble of taking out every last weld of the unibody, fixed every piece and then welded the whole shooting match back together again?? Idiots!!
I hate the “easy fix” in ads or “needs a battery to run”
Seriously? if you really want to sell the thing then how about you do that so called “easy fix” so I can actually hear the thing run and maybe drive it!
I like when they can’t even spell the name of the car they own, It’s ON THE CAR. Just copy it. How many Cameros have you seen for sale? Jeez
HAHA, The Camero thing drives me crazy..
Or how about It\’s in a garage with a cover on it and they uncover like 1 fender for the picture.
The best part is taking a photo of the car inside the house! Really that lazy to go outside?
guy selling some rusty pos with 200k on it – “NO LOWBALLERS I KNOW WHAT I HAVE”
“AC works, just needs recharge.”
Yeah, and a thousand or two in parts.
Here’s one with a picture of someone else phone with the picture of the car on facebook….
https://daytona.craigslist.org/cto/d/rare-monte-carlo/6217629114.html
What a frickin’ turd! I’d be embarrassed to be seen in the same STATE with that car!
That’s extremely meta.
Are the news new? Yup, all but 3! ;-}
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I meant to say: Are the tires new? Yup, all but 3!
(I hate this tablet)
A ‘buddy’ had a 1999 Ford Taurus 3.0L OHV with nearly 200,000 miles. Too rusty and too many issues for him to fix (I sure as hell wasn’t fixing it for free). So he decided to scrap it and he would have $500 to buy a replacement vehicle. Mind you I was not going to do free work to get him something lower cost.
Got on the ‘Letgo’ app. send 30 people offers some replied in the first 3 hours, some not for a week. one guy with a ragged out high mileage 1994 towncar thought he could trade it for an escalade. Say an ad with one poor picture and a retarded description. Only thing we could do was go look at it in person.
The thing needs a complete de-rigging. it has not been worked on by anyone with common since, since it was under warranty. The non car people kept using starting fluid to start it when warm. I had to yell at them not to shut the engine off and not to use starting fluid so I could hear what was going on.
The thing is all goofed up. Someone wrecked it years back. it has a rebuilt salvage branded title. after that it was wrecked again. This time rebuild by people with no clue. Then someone put on 15×6 rally wheels with 205/60/15 blizzark snow tires. passenger side ones with the rotation arrows facing backwards. Then the goofy people that had it last spray painted the body black because one fender and the hood were that color. Yet didn’t do the roof or the tailgate. It was advertised for $650, got it for $500
The ad read something like 1999 Blazer 2dr ruins goo, nees gas pump soon, $650
One issue I fixed after the purchase. The other pull cable was off the throttle body, completely just removed, Suddenly the truck would ‘kick down’ and acted right above 3,000 rpms. Made sure the air inlet hose was back on the TB right. That cured some of the hard to start issues (air has to flow threw the Mass Air Flow sensor). It needs a fuel filter, 235/75/15’s (that’s what the Vin & RPO codes show at a GM dealer). and a bunch of de-rigging. Finding cheep vehicles that will run good enough for non mechanics is hard to do. in that 500 or less price range on craigslist most have a title loan (not legal to sell), or if they are legit with minor issues you have to be the first one there. Because 10 used car dealers will be in line to buy it. You know for the buy-here-pay-here customer that will spend $3,500-$4,000 with payment interest on that same 15-24 year old vehicle.