Am I asking too much....

[ray von]

when inquiring about cars for sale, when I ask the seller if he would mind taking a few photos of any scratches, chips, wear etc to save me travelling 300 miles just for a look at, another (maybe) mis described car.
edit to add where are all the decent cars at?

[chibbard]

No, not an unreasonable request at all. PS, all the good ones aren't for sale. Although the one on eBay looks nice but that's 34k!!

[Ironman]

Hi

No absolutely not - honesty is the best policy and all that - From a 'dealer/specialist' or 'privately' I would be specific about the areas of concern - if buying from a specialist and they miss something you spot and are not happy with, remedial work is not normally a problem.

Personally - whilst looking for my last TVR

STR8SIX
FERNHURST
HHC
RACING GREEN

were honest with their descriptions backed up with photos when requested


Where are all the good cars -

I have one - STR8SIX

Best of luck with your hunt!!

IM

[ray von]

Must admit it was a private seller. Re the £34k car if you list the ebay ones high to low I've seen two Chims on that page. One was not for me, the other was the biggest heap I've seen, ever.

[TVRinBFG]

You are not being unreasonable, but the problem with photos is they make stonechips/scratches/wear all appear much worse than they are, if they are taken properly. So if you rely on them, they will put you off the car; and you WILL miss cars that perhaps you should have bought.
(People also see things in photos that are just not there too eg "the paint looks like it's scratched", but it's the reflection of telephone wires over head; or the more common one, it is amourfended.)

Annoyingly, if photos are taken from a slight distance/different angle, the car can still look fine. So again if you rely on photos and then travel, you still end up viewing rubbish cars. And even more annoyingly, I also find more and more people are "photoshopping" cars.....

So if you want to buy a specialist car, you've got to try and get a feel from speaking to the owner and then travel.....

[ray von]

Agree with all you say James, just thought if the seller point blank refused to take any pics then he can keep the car Agree with the photoshopping as well what are they hoping to achieve?

[citizen smith]

From my experience, what looks good on the surface can be a pile of rot underneath. You really need detailed information about the car (including if its garaged) because the camera can lie, this information can save a great deal of expense and time .

Photos, don,t show worn out diffs, engine issues, noisy wheel bearing etc, etc.

The owner, if they want to sell the car should be willing to give you any information that you may ask!, if they are evasive etc. then I personally would pass them by.

[Chuffmeister]

Photos of TVR should include shots of the chassis, wishbones etc, interior (carpets and seats) and engine bay. I am always more suspicious ads that don't have these as standard, unless they're from one of the recognised dealers as listed above. This is more important that photographings a wallet of receipts IMO!