Am I just a fussy so and so?

[irocfan]

Is it just me or am I being too fussy to want a vendor to have pictures that 'sell' the car? I mean it's bad enough when details are wrong from a seller but surely it's not difficult to take some nice photos so I can get an idea of how nice a car is/n't? Is it asking too much to ask for more than one or two pictures? If I'm looking to spend 25/30k is it too much to ask that some care goes into the advert?

To my way of thinking a messy/careless advert just shows a lack of care which (IMO) will be reflected in the treatment of the car (if a private seller) or me as a client (if a dealer). Am I unreasonable or too picky?


dirty
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/advertgalle...

poor quality pictures
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/advertgalle...
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/advertgalle...

poor quality picture (but a nice advert)
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/advertgalle...


careless advertising (duplicated pictures)
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/j...


Good advert (if I was ultra-picky I'd say no details of FSH previous owners etc)
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/j...


The thing is though it doesn't just apply to cars, service and care taken by vendors seems to be shocking these days

[kambites]

However good the pictures are, you can't really tell the condition of a car from them so I don't think it really matters.

[bigandclever]

Would lovely pictures taken (say) 3 years ago be preferable to fuzzy pictures of the car yesterday?

[Risotto]

Different folks find different things odd. Personally I've never understood why so many people find it impossible to take a photo of a car without including a huge shadow of themselves.

Adverts like the one in the OP aren't the best way to sell a car but in some ways it can work in a buyer's favour. Some people are so judgmental that they wouldn't consider viewing a car that's advertised by someone who can't spell or operate a camera.

If, on the other hand, you take the view that these skills have no bearing on whether the vendor has maintained their car; you can often pick up a good car at a bargain price.

[Number 5]

irocfan said:

Is it just me or am I being too fussy to want a vendor to have pictures that 'sell' the car? I mean it's bad enough when details are wrong from a seller but surely it's not difficult to take some nice photos so I can get an idea of how nice a car is/n't? Is it asking too much to ask for more than one or two pictures? If I'm looking to spend 25/30k is it too much to ask that some care goes into the advert?

To my way of thinking a messy/careless advert just shows a lack of care which (IMO) will be reflected in the treatment of the car (if a private seller) or me as a client (if a dealer). Am I unreasonable or too picky?


dirty
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/advertgalle...

poor quality pictures
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/advertgalle...
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/advertgalle...

poor quality picture (but a nice advert)
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/advertgalle...


careless advertising (duplicated pictures)
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/j...


Good advert (if I was ultra-picky I'd say no details of FSH previous owners etc)
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/j...


The thing is though it doesn't just apply to cars, service and care taken by vendors seems to be shocking these days

Regardless of opinions on here you need to go with your gut feeling otherwise you will always have doubts about the car you buy if you do anything other than that.

[Leebo310]

Definitely agree mate, these days it's so easy to take a good picture that there's no excuse not to, other than plain lazyness. If someone cannot be bothered to take a decent picture (or even clean the car!) it rings alarm bells with me as to how much they then have actually cared for the car.
Have seen adverts stating "great condition" and "careful owner" and then the interior photo shows an empty crisp packet in the footwell or something! Really annoys me!

[Si_man306]

Haha...

Totally agree. If they can't be bothered to hoover it/ clean it (free) then they're unlikely to take much care over the things that cost money.

Also, if someone is incapable of taking a good picture and attaching said picture to their advert then they're an idiot. And why would you buy a car from an idiot?

/my2p

[philmots]

I take good quality (recent) pictures and they form part of a very informative advert..

The less things you can do to put various people off is for the better IMO.

[RVVUNM]

I always think that if someone can't be bothered to have good photo's/discription then they probably can't be bothered to look after anything properly and say "sod it that'll be OK". Puts me right off a car.

[kambites]

Si_man306 said:

If they can't be bothered to hoover it/ clean it (free) then they're unlikely to take much care over the things that cost money.

I disagree. My car gets washed maybe once a year but I take extremely good care of the oily bits.

[Si_man306]

kambites said:

I disagree. My car gets washed maybe once a year but I take extremely good care of the oily bits.

With all due respect, there are more things to go wrong on a car than the oily bits- rust for example? Not to mention damage to alloys by brake dust corrosion etc. Not essentials I know but I like my cars to be spot on and a dirty car says to me (and I would suggest most others) that all areas have been neglected, not just the paintwork. You're probably the exception rather than the rule, and why take the risk when buying something worth that much?

[kambites]

Si_man306 said:

kambites said:

I disagree. My car gets washed maybe once a year but I take extremely good care of the oily bits.

With all due respect, there are more things to go wrong on a car than the oily bits- rust for example? Not to mention damage to alloys by brake dust corrosion etc. Not essentials I know but I like my cars to be spot on and a dirty car says to me (and I would suggest most others) that all areas have been neglected, not just the paintwork. You're probably the exception rather than the rule, and why take the risk when buying something worth that much?

I'd be interested to know what you think it going to rust on my car.

[Risotto]

kambites said:

Si_man306 said:

If they can't be bothered to hoover it/ clean it (free) then they're unlikely to take much care over the things that cost money.

I disagree. My car gets washed maybe once a year but I take extremely good care of the oily bits.

Same here - I tend to wash a car when I buy it, then again when I sell it. Doesn't mean I don't attend to the mechanicals. In 15 - 20 sales, I've only once failed to convince the first viewer to buy the car.

Ironically, I take the time to write a good advert and often end up selling these (previously filthy) cars to overly-fussy types who were lured in by the decent adverts!

[MysteryLemon]

I always see it that if the seller can't be bothered to advertise the car well (be that decent pictures of decent desctiption) then they probably don't care about the car.

I'm not expecting perfectly balanced and composed pictures but any compact or phone can take a semi decent, in focus picture these days. Not really much of an effort to walk around the car and take some pictures in daylight.

Obviously you can't tell a cars condition totally from the pictures but they often allow me to wittle out the ones I don't want to bother looking at. If the pictures are crap, I'll just assume the car is too.

[obob]

I like crap adverts, because they put people off so I can go and get a bargain

[Leebo310]

kambites said:

I disagree. My car gets washed maybe once a year but I take extremely good care of the oily bits.

Fair enough, I suppose it's different people's interpretations of looking after a car.
Yep the mechanical side of things is a must, but I also think keeping it cleaned inside and out is very important too. Cleaning, polishing and waxing help preserve the exterior of the car and given that's the first thing that people see then why would you ignore it? Protects it from the weather, and all manor of other cr@p that can damage the paint so to me that's almost as important as the internal mechanicals.
Same with dust on the brake pads and alloys and stuff, and then cleaning and treating the leather/interior. All of those things are part of maintaining a car in the best possible condition and I generally want to buy a car from a person who thinks the same!

[kambites]

Leebo310 said:

kambites said:

I disagree. My car gets washed maybe once a year but I take extremely good care of the oily bits.

Fair enough, I suppose it's different people's interpretations of looking after a car.
Yep the mechanical side of things is a must, but I also think keeping it cleaned inside and out is very important too. Cleaning, polishing and waxing help preserve the exterior of the car and given that's the first thing that people see then why would you ignore it? Protects it from the weather, and all manor of other cr@p that can damage the paint so to me that's almost as important as the internal mechanicals.
Same with dust on the brake pads and alloys and stuff, and then cleaning and treating the leather/interior. All of those things are part of maintaining a car in the best possible condition and I generally want to buy a car from a person who thinks the same!

Fair enough, each to their own. I buy my cars to drive rather than to look at.

I'd be interested to know how much correlation there is between how clean a car is when photos are taken for a sale, and how clean it's kept in normal usage, though.

[mrslowly]

I don't understand why sellers, especially dealers, feel that showing a dirty car is going to attract a sale. When I see a dirty car in an advert, or a poorly taken picture, by a dealer it makes me wonder what their customer service would be like, and so I would be less likely to buy a car from them.

[kambites]

Actually from a dealer, I'd tend to agree. It does should a certain lack of... professionalism, I suppose.

[Leebo310]

kambites said:

Fair enough, each to their own. I buy my cars to drive rather than to look at.

Hey, I'm not saying that I don't care how it drives, I'm just saying that the paintwork is a pretty important bit of the car and requires regular maintenance!
Yeah the car has to drive well, but there's nothing wrong with wanting it to be clean too.

Edited by Leebo310 on Wednesday 20th February 14:36