Descriptions of bodywork condition
Discussion
When sellers describe the condition of the vehicle they have for sale, they tend to use: mint/showroom, excellent, vgc, good, fair/average, poor etc. to give an indication.
Does anyone on here know of any attempt to set out what each of these terms should mean - perhaps in Glass's guide or another traders' publication?
Personally, I'd expect mint or showroom to mean just that, absolutely perfect, excellent would allow for some minor stone chipping sensitively touched in and a good but not perfect lacquer condition, vgc might have some light kerbing to alloys and trace lacquer scratching or a PDR-able parking ding or two, good maybe one small but touched-in scuff, fair/average (here it starts to vary with age!) would have some obvious damage, maybe some corrosion, and so on.
What do you guys think?
And is there any sort of standard anywhere? If a seller claims vgc, is it just down to opinion? Or can they actually be held to a standard to justify that contractual description?
Tol
Does anyone on here know of any attempt to set out what each of these terms should mean - perhaps in Glass's guide or another traders' publication?
Personally, I'd expect mint or showroom to mean just that, absolutely perfect, excellent would allow for some minor stone chipping sensitively touched in and a good but not perfect lacquer condition, vgc might have some light kerbing to alloys and trace lacquer scratching or a PDR-able parking ding or two, good maybe one small but touched-in scuff, fair/average (here it starts to vary with age!) would have some obvious damage, maybe some corrosion, and so on.
What do you guys think?
And is there any sort of standard anywhere? If a seller claims vgc, is it just down to opinion? Or can they actually be held to a standard to justify that contractual description?
Tol
Entirely subjective I'd say - one man's "vgc" is another's "tired old knacker" but if a car's described as being faultless then that's how it should be if you're going by dictionary definition.
Then again, faults are the starting point for negotiation or walking away when looking at a car - and the former's a lot of fun if you know what you're doing!
I looked at a lot of "mint" 205's when I bought mine and most were tired old dogs to be frank with a quick coat of Autoglym and a squirt of Back to Black but if they were described absolutely honestly you'd probably never get a viewing. Hard call really.
Car dealers now have to prove that any faults claimed by a customer were not present when they sold the car as the Sale of Goods Act changed some time ago (if you already know that then apologies foe teaching you to suck eggs) and "sold as seen" is no longer accepteble terminology to use.
Then again, faults are the starting point for negotiation or walking away when looking at a car - and the former's a lot of fun if you know what you're doing!
I looked at a lot of "mint" 205's when I bought mine and most were tired old dogs to be frank with a quick coat of Autoglym and a squirt of Back to Black but if they were described absolutely honestly you'd probably never get a viewing. Hard call really.
Car dealers now have to prove that any faults claimed by a customer were not present when they sold the car as the Sale of Goods Act changed some time ago (if you already know that then apologies foe teaching you to suck eggs) and "sold as seen" is no longer accepteble terminology to use.
Edited by AndyMI16 on Wednesday 24th September 13:33
To be honest they mean nothing.
I recently bought a car described as vgc, it has laquer flaking, bits of rust, interior doorcard hanging off, headlining torn.
It is so hard to advertise a used car though, advertise it as "really lovely car, in brilliant condition, just some tiny stone chips on leading edge of bonnet, 1 tiny chip behind passenger door and a tiny dent on front wing" and I got zero viewings on my Audi coupe at £1000.
I then touched in the chips and polished them up left the dent and advertised it as split mint for £1750 it sold for £1700 and had loads and loads of calls. Go figure. Same car, same basic condition, 2 weeks between adverts, £700 difference. Bloody great car though.
I recently bought a car described as vgc, it has laquer flaking, bits of rust, interior doorcard hanging off, headlining torn.
It is so hard to advertise a used car though, advertise it as "really lovely car, in brilliant condition, just some tiny stone chips on leading edge of bonnet, 1 tiny chip behind passenger door and a tiny dent on front wing" and I got zero viewings on my Audi coupe at £1000.
I then touched in the chips and polished them up left the dent and advertised it as split mint for £1750 it sold for £1700 and had loads and loads of calls. Go figure. Same car, same basic condition, 2 weeks between adverts, £700 difference. Bloody great car though.
I would rather that a paint depth chart was made available to buyers, and if possible the ability to look under a car before even going on a test drive. Personally I like to see if a car has been clayed, see if there is any overspray / orange peel and then look at panel alignment. If a private sale have a look in the sellers garage if possible to see what is used to clean and condition the paintwork on the topside and take a long angled mirror to look undernath arches, jacking points, side skirts and behind the brake disks etc.
Tough to give a accurate description of mint, A1, Concourse etc unless sellers provide some guide or have examples of trophies, materials used etc.
Tough to give a accurate description of mint, A1, Concourse etc unless sellers provide some guide or have examples of trophies, materials used etc.
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