Annoying classic car dealers
Discussion
If a particular car is well known it can often have a queue of potential buyers before its owner has even thought about selling it so it's not unusual for classics to sell within hours of being advertised, especially if the dealer's ad reads, "Coming soon..." That's if a car gets that far, many swap 'custodians' privately.
Riley Blue said:
If a particular car is well known it can often have a queue of potential buyers before its owner has even thought about selling it so it's not unusual for classics to sell within hours of being advertised, especially if the dealer's ad reads, "Coming soon..." That's if a car gets that far, many swap 'custodians' privately.
Building on this, it’s worth not showing your annoyance and trying to build a good rapport with the dealers. This way you can discuss what you’re after and asking them to contact you if there’s a whiff of a car coming in. Also, is there an owners’ club relevant to the car you’re after? Perhaps posting on their forum stating that you’re looking for a car might just yield a positive response from someone who’s thinking of selling. If it's a particular make/model you're after then likely you won't be the only one looking.
Had the same when I was looking for a particular make/model of boat a few years ago.
Very popular & rarely came up for sale & ringing the morning the ad appeared was usually met by 'Sorry, the phone's been ringing off the hook, we've had a lot of emails & it's sold'.
Eventually found one - which I've still got - which had had no interest as it was advertised on a yacht broker's website & not easily found.
Had the same when I was looking for a particular make/model of boat a few years ago.
Very popular & rarely came up for sale & ringing the morning the ad appeared was usually met by 'Sorry, the phone's been ringing off the hook, we've had a lot of emails & it's sold'.
Eventually found one - which I've still got - which had had no interest as it was advertised on a yacht broker's website & not easily found.
There are a couple of annoying traits classic car dealers seem to have in common. One is the cliched descriptions e.g. Mk 2 jaguar the bank robbers' favourite and the other is the tendency to write the full history of the development of the model being advertised. If I'm looking, for example, for anXJ6, I know the history, thanks, They often make it worse by giving a skimpy description of the actual car for sale.
lornemalvo said:
There are a couple of annoying traits classic car dealers seem to have in common. One is the cliched descriptions e.g. Mk 2 jaguar the bank robbers' favourite and the other is the tendency to write the full history of the development of the model being advertised. If I'm looking, for example, for anXJ6, I know the history, thanks, They often make it worse by giving a skimpy description of the actual car for sale.
The ones that wind me up and sometimes make me laugh in equal measure are the dealers who put up the 
descriptions giving the, supposedly true, history of the previous owners. Such as Martin, who was evidently a reknowned heart surgeon and bought the car as a gift for his wife, who rarely drove the car over the 10 years they owned it, before they made the heart wrenching decision to sell after retiring overseas. They found the perfect buyer in Chris, a retired investment banker who fell in love with the car immediately and knew that it was destined to sit alongside his collection of classic cars in his rural Cotswold retreat. Now after X years Chris has made the difficult decision to sell / scale back his collection and has tasked us with finding a new, hopefully forever, home for his pride and joy.
AlexRS2782 said:
lornemalvo said:
There are a couple of annoying traits classic car dealers seem to have in common. One is the cliched descriptions e.g. Mk 2 jaguar the bank robbers' favourite and the other is the tendency to write the full history of the development of the model being advertised. If I'm looking, for example, for anXJ6, I know the history, thanks, They often make it worse by giving a skimpy description of the actual car for sale.
The ones that wind me up and sometimes make me laugh in equal measure are the dealers who put up the descriptions giving the, supposedly true, history of the previous owners. Such as Martin, who was evidently a reknowned heart surgeon and bought the car as a gift for his wife, who rarely drove the car over the 10 years they owned it, before they made the heart wrenching decision to sell after retiring overseas. They found the perfect buyer in Chris, a retired investment banker who fell in love with the car immediately and knew that it was destined to sit alongside his collection of classic cars in his rural Cotswold retreat. Now after X years Chris has made the difficult decision to sell / scale back his collection and has tasked us with finding a new, hopefully forever, home for his pride and joy.
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