Most stupid things car buyers say
Discussion
A thread on the most stupid things car sellers say was started a while back. What about the most stupid things car buyers say?
I'll start with some of my pet peeves that I got when selling a cheap car recently.
"Best price?" I got like 15 times. What am I supposed to reply to that? Usually indicates a lowballer.
Or asking something really, really basic that's written in the ad. I've got no problem at all with genuine questions, but asking something really basic that's in the ad is just lazy. I got loads asking what the mileage was and it was in the photos, title, and description.
Car buyers can be just as bad if not worse than car sellers.
I'll start with some of my pet peeves that I got when selling a cheap car recently.
"Best price?" I got like 15 times. What am I supposed to reply to that? Usually indicates a lowballer.
Or asking something really, really basic that's written in the ad. I've got no problem at all with genuine questions, but asking something really basic that's in the ad is just lazy. I got loads asking what the mileage was and it was in the photos, title, and description.
Car buyers can be just as bad if not worse than car sellers.
Selling two cars at the moment, and hating every second of it.
The same questions which are answered in the ad asked over and over again, the stupid 'how much to collect today' and the rest of it just boils my piss.
Half a mind to accept one of these silly offers, have them drive out here to collect then give them the middle finger
It's just such a ballache, no wonder WBAC are doing so well.
The same questions which are answered in the ad asked over and over again, the stupid 'how much to collect today' and the rest of it just boils my piss.
Half a mind to accept one of these silly offers, have them drive out here to collect then give them the middle finger
It's just such a ballache, no wonder WBAC are doing so well.
It's not say as much, as most people would never actually dream of picking up the phone and speak to an actual real person. The internet has enabled all these dreamers and timewasters who feel entitled to waste your time from the comfort of their sofa as there is a layer of anonymity between you and them.
The "Best price?" or "£400 in hand cash today?" people are easy to deal with, you literally just ignore them and don't reply. In my experience anyone who is trying to negotiate the price before seeing the car is either never going to come and see it, or will be an absolute pain to deal with.
Then you get the people who will email you a list of 20 questions as if they are buying a £250K Ferrari, such as "What brand of oil was it last serviced with", "What is the DOT code on the tyres", "Why was a service in 2010 a week late" etc. and always finish with "I have several to look at". Again total dreamers and time wasters who will never reply if you bother to answer all their stupid questions.
Then you get the sob stories, the "I work as a key worker", "My dad is in hospital in Scotland and I need to see him today", "My car was written off this morning and I need to visit my children in Newcastle and I only have £1000". The people who seem to have a knack of somehow making their problem, your problem.
They all know their rights, they all think they are getting a brand new car with full warranty for life with a full money back guarantee if they change their mind and they want you to virtually give the car away to them.
The cheaper the car, the worse it is, I honestly feel sorry for anyone who has to deal with these sort of people day in and day out.
Most stupid thing I have been asked is "Has the car had a new clutch?" When I replied it hadn't and was still on the original which was absolutely fine and didn't slip their response was "Oh, so it might need one?" and I never heard back from them.
The "Best price?" or "£400 in hand cash today?" people are easy to deal with, you literally just ignore them and don't reply. In my experience anyone who is trying to negotiate the price before seeing the car is either never going to come and see it, or will be an absolute pain to deal with.
Then you get the people who will email you a list of 20 questions as if they are buying a £250K Ferrari, such as "What brand of oil was it last serviced with", "What is the DOT code on the tyres", "Why was a service in 2010 a week late" etc. and always finish with "I have several to look at". Again total dreamers and time wasters who will never reply if you bother to answer all their stupid questions.
Then you get the sob stories, the "I work as a key worker", "My dad is in hospital in Scotland and I need to see him today", "My car was written off this morning and I need to visit my children in Newcastle and I only have £1000". The people who seem to have a knack of somehow making their problem, your problem.
They all know their rights, they all think they are getting a brand new car with full warranty for life with a full money back guarantee if they change their mind and they want you to virtually give the car away to them.
The cheaper the car, the worse it is, I honestly feel sorry for anyone who has to deal with these sort of people day in and day out.
Most stupid thing I have been asked is "Has the car had a new clutch?" When I replied it hadn't and was still on the original which was absolutely fine and didn't slip their response was "Oh, so it might need one?" and I never heard back from them.
mattyprice4004 said:
Selling two cars at the moment, and hating every second of it.
The same questions which are answered in the ad asked over and over again, the stupid 'how much to collect today' and the rest of it just boils my piss.
Half a mind to accept one of these silly offers, have them drive out here to collect then give them the middle finger
It's just such a ballache, no wonder WBAC are doing so well.
Honestly, I was half tempted to scrap the darn thing!The same questions which are answered in the ad asked over and over again, the stupid 'how much to collect today' and the rest of it just boils my piss.
Half a mind to accept one of these silly offers, have them drive out here to collect then give them the middle finger
It's just such a ballache, no wonder WBAC are doing so well.
In the end, a nice guy came to view it, was honest and offered me a fair price close to my asking price. But apparently loads of internet experts told me it was worth scrap value...
Joey Deacon said:
It's not say as much, as most people would never actually dream of picking up the phone and speak to an actual real person. The internet has enabled all these dreamers and timewasters who feel entitled to waste your time from the comfort of their sofa as there is a layer of anonymity between you and them.
The "Best price?" or "£400 in hand cash today?" people are easy to deal with, you literally just ignore them and don't reply. In my experience anyone who is trying to negotiate the price before seeing the car is either never going to come and see it, or will be an absolute pain to deal with.
Then you get the people who will email you a list of 20 questions as if they are buying a £250K Ferrari, such as "What brand of oil was it last serviced with", "What is the DOT code on the tyres", "Why was a service in 2010 a week late" etc. and always finish with "I have several to look at". Again total dreamers and time wasters who will never reply if you bother to answer all their stupid questions.
Then you get the sob stories, the "I work as a key worker", "My dad is in hospital in Scotland and I need to see him today", "My car was written off this morning and I need to visit my children in Newcastle and I only have £1000". The people who seem to have a knack of somehow making their problem, your problem.
They all know their rights, they all think they are getting a brand new car with full warranty for life with a full money back guarantee if they change their mind and they want you to virtually give the car away to them.
The cheaper the car, the worse it is, I honestly feel sorry for anyone who has to deal with these sort of people day in and day out.
Most stupid thing I have been asked is "Has the car had a new clutch?" When I replied it hadn't and was still on the original which was absolutely fine and didn't slip their response was "Oh, so it might need one?" and I never heard back from them.
Couldn't agree more!The "Best price?" or "£400 in hand cash today?" people are easy to deal with, you literally just ignore them and don't reply. In my experience anyone who is trying to negotiate the price before seeing the car is either never going to come and see it, or will be an absolute pain to deal with.
Then you get the people who will email you a list of 20 questions as if they are buying a £250K Ferrari, such as "What brand of oil was it last serviced with", "What is the DOT code on the tyres", "Why was a service in 2010 a week late" etc. and always finish with "I have several to look at". Again total dreamers and time wasters who will never reply if you bother to answer all their stupid questions.
Then you get the sob stories, the "I work as a key worker", "My dad is in hospital in Scotland and I need to see him today", "My car was written off this morning and I need to visit my children in Newcastle and I only have £1000". The people who seem to have a knack of somehow making their problem, your problem.
They all know their rights, they all think they are getting a brand new car with full warranty for life with a full money back guarantee if they change their mind and they want you to virtually give the car away to them.
The cheaper the car, the worse it is, I honestly feel sorry for anyone who has to deal with these sort of people day in and day out.
Most stupid thing I have been asked is "Has the car had a new clutch?" When I replied it hadn't and was still on the original which was absolutely fine and didn't slip their response was "Oh, so it might need one?" and I never heard back from them.
When you have a car up for sale and answer a call, and the first thing the potential buyer asks is, 'what's your best price' / 'Will you take £x,xxx'?
I respond with the same answer every time. 'If you'd like to make the effort to come and view it and point out any flaws or problems which affect the value, then I'd be happy to consider any offer.'
I respond with the same answer every time. 'If you'd like to make the effort to come and view it and point out any flaws or problems which affect the value, then I'd be happy to consider any offer.'
I have found that the "Best Price" question is typically from very small scale (backstreet or home based) low rent (lazy) car traders doing an initial desktop scour of new adverts on ebay for something they can then punt on, hoping that by asking this, they inadvertently stumble across something that the seller has undervalued. No doubt, they then turn up and look for more money off. In my experience of selling cars on ebay, i've found the hoards of people that do that will all ask within the first couple of days of the listing, then it calms down....always quite easy to spot these sorts (who rarely attempt to form a sentence) and simply ignore.
Biggy Stardust said:
mike13 said:
I don't mind the what is your best price question, it's the lowest I'm going to accept and I'd have a figure in mind, saves time with negotiation.
But no matter what you say they'll immediately make a lower offer.mike13 said:
I don't mind the what is your best price question, it's the lowest I'm going to accept and I'd have a figure in mind, saves time with negotiation.
Why on earth would you want to give away the lowest price you're going to accept? 
To be clear; you are theoretically selling a car for £7000. The lowest you will accept is £6000. The highest the buyer will pay is £6500. You are happy with selling at £6000 and losing £500 to "save time with negotiation"
It's the fear of negotiation which makes a lot of private sales go wrong. People seem completely petrified nowadays to have a conversation with someone where they actually have to negotiate a deal.
Most stupid thing I had asked was "can you deliver it to me and does it come with a warranty?"
Private sale my friend.....I am not Cazoo.
I had someone do the "Best Price" on me a couple of years ago then trying to low ball me further on a Volvo V60 I was selling, quickly told him where to go and he changed his tune apologising for trying to mess me about and said he would pay asking price, wanted to come and view with his family etc, I told him I wouldn't sell the car to him at that point and I sold it to a car buying service instead.
The other one I hate is "best price for cash" how else would you be paying for the car? magic beans? I'd much prefer a buyer pays by bank transfer anyway, saves me going to the bank myself to pay in a load of notes.
The other one I hate is "best price for cash" how else would you be paying for the car? magic beans? I'd much prefer a buyer pays by bank transfer anyway, saves me going to the bank myself to pay in a load of notes.
aceofspades1 said:
Honestly, I was half tempted to scrap the darn thing!
In the end, a nice guy came to view it, was honest and offered me a fair price close to my asking price. But apparently loads of internet experts told me it was worth scrap value...
This is quite literally what I'm dealing with - but I've been promised a call from an enthusiast in the marque later. In the end, a nice guy came to view it, was honest and offered me a fair price close to my asking price. But apparently loads of internet experts told me it was worth scrap value...
Fingers crossed...
Dan W. said:
most annoying one for me.
Its not the colour I wanted or really like, Despite seeing multiple images on the web and knowing the actual colour.
I had someone view my old Rover 75 many moons ago - despite that ad showing numerous pictures of the various scratches and dents, the chap moaned his face off about 'how the neighbours wouldn't like it in that condition' and proceeded to try and get more money off.Its not the colour I wanted or really like, Despite seeing multiple images on the web and knowing the actual colour.
When I told him that they were clearly pictured, he moaned a little more then asked me to cover his train fare home!
Apparently he had absolutely no 'plan B' for if he didn't like the car, and that was now my problem.
Muzzer79 said:
mike13 said:
I don't mind the what is your best price question, it's the lowest I'm going to accept and I'd have a figure in mind, saves time with negotiation.
Why on earth would you want to give away the lowest price you're going to accept? To be clear; you are theoretically selling a car for £7000. The lowest you will accept is £6000. The highest the buyer will pay is £6500. You are happy with selling at £6000 and losing £500 to "save time with negotiation"
It's the fear of negotiation which makes a lot of private sales go wrong. People seem completely petrified nowadays to have a conversation with someone where they actually have to negotiate a deal.
Most stupid thing I had asked was "can you deliver it to me and does it come with a warranty?"
Private sale my friend.....I am not Cazoo.
Nope, I've already got a price in mind that I'm happy with, advertise it for more because people expect money off, my lowest offer is what I want for the car, it's always worked for me and as I said I can't remember a bad experience.
People post on TikTok, Snap, YouTube and FaceBook how they got a bargain s
tbox 3000 for £500, failing to mention that it's a Cat S, has mechanical issues, but the bodywork looks immaculate. No-one is going to post "I bought a car for a FAIR or ABOVE AVERAGE price!" And because of that people think that these magical cars exist everywhere and that every seller will bite their hand off, because # tiksnapinstafbook #bargain #itsme #vip #flip #dealerinme. What they fail to realise is that not everyone needs the cash for their next meal and will slice off thousands.
tbox 3000 for £500, failing to mention that it's a Cat S, has mechanical issues, but the bodywork looks immaculate. No-one is going to post "I bought a car for a FAIR or ABOVE AVERAGE price!" And because of that people think that these magical cars exist everywhere and that every seller will bite their hand off, because # tiksnapinstafbook #bargain #itsme #vip #flip #dealerinme. What they fail to realise is that not everyone needs the cash for their next meal and will slice off thousands.Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff