Why can’t they JUST list the options?
Discussion
I’m having the exact same trouble with used car dealers. Trying to find a car with specific options that I want, however the only ones that are listed in the advert are just the standard trim specs, no dealers seem to list what other extras are on the car.
Find myself having to zoom in on pictures to see if I can see buttons for heated seats/steering wheel etc, real pain.
Find myself having to zoom in on pictures to see if I can see buttons for heated seats/steering wheel etc, real pain.
Timoo said:
I’m having the exact same trouble with used car dealers. Trying to find a car with specific options that I want, however the only ones that are listed in the advert are just the standard trim specs, no dealers seem to list what other extras are on the car.
Find myself having to zoom in on pictures to see if I can see buttons for heated seats/steering wheel etc, real pain.
I’m finding many on Autotrader write a whole paragraph rambling on about how awesome they are or how much of a family business they are or how good their Covid protocols are, none of which I could care less about and there is barely any information about the car.Find myself having to zoom in on pictures to see if I can see buttons for heated seats/steering wheel etc, real pain.
I couldn’t give a monkeys if you’ve sanitised the car but it would be handy to know if X, Y or Z options are on the car
Timoo said:
I’m having the exact same trouble with used car dealers. Trying to find a car with specific options that I want, however the only ones that are listed in the advert are just the standard trim specs, no dealers seem to list what other extras are on the car.
Find myself having to zoom in on pictures to see if I can see buttons for heated seats/steering wheel etc, real pain.
+1Find myself having to zoom in on pictures to see if I can see buttons for heated seats/steering wheel etc, real pain.
I’m looking for an A7 with adaptive cruise which comes with the Tour Pack, but they rarely mention it so I have to look for the ‘radars’ in the grille.
Had the same issue when I was looking for my Tiguan. The VW website is crap, as our most manufacturers used car sites really. Sometimes they list options and you can clearly see it's wrong. The other issue is that a lot of the dealers didn't have a clue either. In some cases I knew they didn't have a clue and were just making it up as they went along. Might get past 80% of customers but I wasn't having it. Wish they were just honest and if they didn't know something, say and find out.
Half the time a dealer attempts to list options, they're wrong anyway. Time consuming though it is, it's better to do your own due diligence from photographs or using a VIN decoder.
It's pretty rare, even in main dealers, to find a salesperson with sufficient product knowledge who can look at a car and tell you what options it has fitted.
It's pretty rare, even in main dealers, to find a salesperson with sufficient product knowledge who can look at a car and tell you what options it has fitted.
DSLiverpool said:
Looking at a pre reg suv and wanting a loaded one as they are all the same sort of price - again it’s just not clear what’s fitted, what’s standard it does my head in.
Dealer adverts are pretty shoddy most of the time. Often it seems to me like the typical dealer is no better than the typical private seller when it comes to advertising, despite selling cars being their job. Has anyone else found this?I imagine many dealers think they don’t have time to check what’s fitted, but I’m sure they could sell many cars faster/for more money by promoting the valuable options fitted, so this doesn’t make any sense to me; it’s like an estate agent advertising a four-bedroom house as having only three because they didn’t bother to check whether there was a loft conversion - surely they’d sell for more by bothering to mention these extras.
I’m specifically looking for a car with upgraded speakers and it’s damn hard to find which ones have these, unless there are obvious additional speakers that you can spot in the images...very few dealers mention anything.
Having just advertised a V70 on Auto Trader, I made sure to outline the number of services (with pictures, showing the dealer stamps and exact dates and mileages for all of these), when the next cambelt change is due and all the optional extras (having double checked these with a quick call to Volvo). It’s really not hard!
ollyprice87 said:
Had the same issue when I was looking for my Tiguan. The VW website is crap, as our most manufacturers used car sites really. Sometimes they list options and you can clearly see it's wrong. The other issue is that a lot of the dealers didn't have a clue either. In some cases I knew they didn't have a clue and were just making it up as they went along. Might get past 80% of customers but I wasn't having it. Wish they were just honest and if they didn't know something, say and find out.
We nearly ended up with a new one Tiguan without (basic) cruise control as the dealer told us it was standard and it wasn't - they only made it standard right at the very end of the mk1's (late 2015).Volvo UK website is pretty good for this aspect.
If you've searched for a list of vehicles then near top of page rhs for an individual vehicle there are three links, Description, Specification, Equipment.
The equipment one steers you down the page to where there are two sections, "Standard equipment" which I've found to be fairly comprehensive and pretty accurate in comparison with spec and price lists. Guess it's pulled from some database.
The second section is "Optional" i.e. equipment fitted to this vehicle and seems to be a mixture from what I suspect is from the build spec plus some additional stuff dealers put in, like "our demonstrator, 500 mile exchange guarantee and twaddle like that. Odd things sometimes amuse, like the V90 I'm looking at has "000 happy customers each year, buy with confidence" LoL
But if there's a particular option you really want, e.g. rear heated seats, heated steering wheel, you can check the list then cross check with the photos to see the controls and buttons for whatever.
If you've searched for a list of vehicles then near top of page rhs for an individual vehicle there are three links, Description, Specification, Equipment.
The equipment one steers you down the page to where there are two sections, "Standard equipment" which I've found to be fairly comprehensive and pretty accurate in comparison with spec and price lists. Guess it's pulled from some database.
The second section is "Optional" i.e. equipment fitted to this vehicle and seems to be a mixture from what I suspect is from the build spec plus some additional stuff dealers put in, like "our demonstrator, 500 mile exchange guarantee and twaddle like that. Odd things sometimes amuse, like the V90 I'm looking at has "000 happy customers each year, buy with confidence" LoL
But if there's a particular option you really want, e.g. rear heated seats, heated steering wheel, you can check the list then cross check with the photos to see the controls and buttons for whatever.
Don't forget we also went through a phase where car makers realised they could bump the sale price up significantly with near-endless options and customisation tweaks. That, thankfully, should change as newer cars move into the used market; because they now have to test the impact every option has on the WLTP tests, they're grouping them into 'packs'. It's less costly to test a car with 4 different pack combinations than it is with 50+ individual options. Should mean that as those cars come up used, it'll be easy to see it has 'x' or 'y' pack(s) etc.
Having come from an independent specialist of a particular brand we would always list the options first, then the key standard features. No point in wasting time adding electric windows etc. The issue with Autotrader and even their own website it's only as good as the data input. Sometimes we would go to list a feature on Autotrader and they just wouldn't have the option to tick it so we would have to write it in the description. It's quite time consuming. Especially if you don't know the brand. If we sold a car we didn't specialise in I would have to spend time going through the brochure and find the options based on what I could see on the car. BMW M cars were a nightmare as they all look so similar (apart from the obvious differences with the competition models).
If you, as a salesman, have no interest in finding out about the car which sadly a lot don't as they just want to sell sell sell then things can get listed wrong or not at all. It all depends on how much the inputter wants to get it right.
When I was buying for the dealer I used to spend ages looking at adverts to see missed options from private sellers and items they assumed were standard to see if I could find something special. Worked quite well and we got a LOT of our stock from private classifieds.
If you, as a salesman, have no interest in finding out about the car which sadly a lot don't as they just want to sell sell sell then things can get listed wrong or not at all. It all depends on how much the inputter wants to get it right.
When I was buying for the dealer I used to spend ages looking at adverts to see missed options from private sellers and items they assumed were standard to see if I could find something special. Worked quite well and we got a LOT of our stock from private classifieds.
Totally agree with what has been said. Plenty of guff about how they pay the best px prices and have the friendliest people but nothing about what the car has.
The other one which I'm finding irritating and no solution to anytime soon it seems, is an indication of whether a car was over the 40k VED bracket when it was registered. It's frustrating when looking at stuff which was on the border before options, because without the proper listing of options, it's hard to work out if it would have gone over. New VED rules have been in over 4 years but even now I never really see adverts confirming if the additional 40k+ VED applies.
The other one which I'm finding irritating and no solution to anytime soon it seems, is an indication of whether a car was over the 40k VED bracket when it was registered. It's frustrating when looking at stuff which was on the border before options, because without the proper listing of options, it's hard to work out if it would have gone over. New VED rules have been in over 4 years but even now I never really see adverts confirming if the additional 40k+ VED applies.
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