The Joy of Running an Old Shed

[Lemming Train]

aaron_2000 said:

Lemming Train said:

aaron_2000 said:

My biggest hate is "Is this still available?". I don't bother responding to that.

It's a genuine question and one of things I ask because on many occasions the car has long since sold but they haven't bothered to take down the advert. Saves wasting a whole bunch of time. If you don't respond then it's your loss.

Except it isn't. Anyone genuinely interested should bother to send a message; not the same accidental click message that 99% of them are. Out of 30 of those template messages, I'd say only 2 or 3 were genuine, so yeah, my loss. I don't give my time to people who can't be arsed to say "Hey you still got the car?", anyone who takes 5 seconds to actually type something shows they're interested; anyone who sends "iS tHiS sTiLl AvAiLaBlE?" is more often than not someone who clicked it by mistake and never responds again.

Your post did not mention anywhere that you were specifically referring to the Facebook button . I am speaking in general terms (mainly Gumtree) where in many cases the car is still listed as available but it sold some time ago and is already in the hands of the new owner. This is not unique to cars either, it's a common problem with ad sites in general (auction sites excepted) which may have been the reason why Facebook decided to implement such a button.

[jagnet]

Demelitia said:

Seems like a perfectly valid question to me.

That's always been my first question. Saves wasting everyone's time if it's not.

Perhaps a habit picked up from the days of paper copies of AutoTrader, but it still seems a reasonable question to ask now.

[Lemming Train]

Demelitia said:

There’s two characters difference between the response you won’t entertain and the one you will...

Last thing I bought, my opening question was ‘is this still available?’ The answer was yes, so I bought it.
Other times I’ve asked the same question and the answer has been ‘no sorry, sold’.
Seems like a perfectly valid question to me.

He's on about the Facebook button which gets spammed to death by idiots just stabbing it with little or no intention of buying. I've suffered it myself during my brief foray of using Facebook marketplace so share his annoyance over it.

[Eyersey1234]

BrewsterBear said:

I'm now a member of the shed club. With my Civic gone and the Aston up for sale I have ordered the new CLA45S+ Shooting Brake. Unfortunately it's likely to be January or February before it arrives. Not wanting to drive the old 911 through the winter I needed a car.



1.8 TDCi Zetec. 137k miles, MoT until April, all 4 unmatched tyres have excellent tread. Puts out a big sooty cloud with a shove of the throttle. Once moving it's not as slow as you'd think. I've given it an oil and filter change plus replaced a defective headlight bulb. I'm hoping that's it before it gets punted on in the New Year. It's a joy to have a car where you can park anywhere without any care over damage from the ignorant masses.

Nice looking Focus, what reg is it? The later 1.8tdci engines have a lower wet timing belt instead of a chain.

[Demelitia]

Lemming Train said:

Demelitia said:

There’s two characters difference between the response you won’t entertain and the one you will...

Last thing I bought, my opening question was ‘is this still available?’ The answer was yes, so I bought it.
Other times I’ve asked the same question and the answer has been ‘no sorry, sold’.
Seems like a perfectly valid question to me.

He's on about the Facebook button which gets spammed to death by idiots just stabbing it with little or no intention of buying. I've suffered it myself during my brief foray of using Facebook marketplace so share his annoyance over it.

Part and parcel of selling something online I suppose. The flip side of this is that replying with ‘yes’, is only a split second task. Seems folly to deny a possible chance at selling something because someone has used a feature of the site the item is being sold on to get information as efficiently as possible. Each to their own I suppose.

[aaron_2000]

Lemming Train said:

aaron_2000 said:

Lemming Train said:

aaron_2000 said:

My biggest hate is "Is this still available?". I don't bother responding to that.

It's a genuine question and one of things I ask because on many occasions the car has long since sold but they haven't bothered to take down the advert. Saves wasting a whole bunch of time. If you don't respond then it's your loss.

Except it isn't. Anyone genuinely interested should bother to send a message; not the same accidental click message that 99% of them are. Out of 30 of those template messages, I'd say only 2 or 3 were genuine, so yeah, my loss. I don't give my time to people who can't be arsed to say "Hey you still got the car?", anyone who takes 5 seconds to actually type something shows they're interested; anyone who sends "iS tHiS sTiLl AvAiLaBlE?" is more often than not someone who clicked it by mistake and never responds again.

Your post did not mention anywhere that you were specifically referring to the Facebook button . I am speaking in general terms (mainly Gumtree) where in many cases the car is still listed as available but it sold some time ago and is already in the hands of the new owner. This is not unique to cars either, it's a common problem with ad sites in general (auction sites excepted) which may have been the reason why Facebook decided to implement such a button.

Oh I thought you were on about the set messages on Facebook, in which case I take it back. Any other platform I'd respond to any messages; Facebook has set messages that get spammed constantly which I don't respond to.

[aaron_2000]

Demelitia said:

Part and parcel of selling something online I suppose. The flip side of this is that replying with ‘yes’, is only a split second task. Seems folly to deny a possible chance at selling something because someone has used a feature of the site the item is being sold on to get information as efficiently as possible. Each to their own I suppose.

I've sold enough times over Fb to know that set messages 9/10 times are spam, so I don't waste my time. If I give up 1 person who may have been interested to save myself 9 timewasting s then so be it. I find anyone genuine will usually follow up anyway if I don't respond to show they're genuine. I've been guilty of it a few times and always follow up to actually ask about the car, or if I hit it by mistake then I'll tell them instead of ignoring them. It's why I don't mess around with cars anymore, the selling takes the fun away. It's partly what got me into driving sheds, cars I can use without the hassle of selling afterwards. Only issue being I've got boxes of radios, spares, toolkits and anything else I can take off the car before I scrap them cluttering my garage.

Edited by aaron_2000 on Thursday 14th November 17:44

[magpie215]

Pothole said:

Davie said:

This may be a fine line between unnecessary polishing and actually being able to see more then 20ft in front of the car...





Either way, shockingly bad headlights now less shockingly bad and needless to say, to reward me for my efforts the car is now happily telling me I have a dipped bulb failure when I don't...

Edited by Davie on Thursday 14th November 15:47

Good work, that's a great job.

Nice work if it improves visibility for little cost and effort why not do it.

[Demelitia]

Davie said:

This may be a fine line between unnecessary polishing and actually being able to see more then 20ft in front of the car...





Either way, shockingly bad headlights now less shockingly bad and needless to say, to reward me for my efforts the car is now happily telling me I have a dipped bulb failure when I don't...

Edited by Davie on Thursday 14th November 15:47

Running a car and having it keep going safely and on the minimum budget? I’d say that’s top shedding.

[BrewsterBear]

Eyersey1234 said:

Nice looking Focus, what reg is it? The later 1.8tdci engines have a lower wet timing belt instead of a chain.

It's an 07 plate. Not sure about the belt/chain situation.

[rider73]

magpie215 said:

Pothole said:

Davie said:

This may be a fine line between unnecessary polishing and actually being able to see more then 20ft in front of the car...





Either way, shockingly bad headlights now less shockingly bad and needless to say, to reward me for my efforts the car is now happily telling me I have a dipped bulb failure when I don't...

Edited by Davie on Thursday 14th November 15:47

Good work, that's a great job.

Nice work if it improves visibility for little cost and effort why not do it.

What did you use? mines looked a little ...shady...

[Davie]

rider73 said:

What did you use? mines looked a little ...shady...

Cheers.

On my last V70 I used several grades of emery paper, getting finer as I went then moved to a heavy cutting compound with a rotary buff, then a finishing compound then put some wax on them. Took about an hour per side.

For these, it was cold, my dinner was in the oven so I went straight to it with a cutting compound on the DA polisher and that was it... about 5mins per side and to be honest, the results are pretty much the same!

There's a couple of deeper marks and some slight pitting and whilst I'm sure it could eventually be sanded out, the plastic lenses eould end up being about 1mm thick... so this will suffice. Plus the light throw is significantly better so I'll chalk it up as a success!

[magpie215]

Maintain the one space clearance please :-)

[p4cks]

Wow magpie what a POS - I love it!

[OMITN]

[David Attenborough voiceover]

"And here we have the Shed found in it's natural habitat and displaying its usual calm menace, as all other cars keep their distance knowing what might happen if they get too close to a rust-streaked discoloured door..."

[magpie215]

p4cks said:

Wow magpie what a POS - I love it!

Thanks........I think

[Pothole]

Now I know I want a mismatched replacement door!

[Big Easy]

Pothole said:

Now I know I want a mismatched replacement door!

My shed is likely to need at least one replacement front wing in the next 6 months due to rust, I'll be going out my way to ensure it's wrong colour

[Jaguar steve]

OMITN][David Attenborough voiceover said:

"And here we have the Shed found in it's natural habitat and displaying its usual calm menace, as all other cars keep their distance knowing what might happen if they get too close to a rust-streaked discoloured door..."

That's yet another advantage of Shedding.

You get total respect from everybody in their precious PCP'd up to the eyeballs Uberwagons and nobody in one would even think about junction blocking or pulling out in front of you or trying to push their way into a que.

Best of all because they're kidding themselves a shiny expensive car makes them look rich and succesfull they'll be very dissapointed because they're convinced it ought to be you in your Shed giving them total respect and not the other way round - but hey.

[M3DGE]

I bought a J reg Renault 19 Prima (ie basic) in 2003. Very low mileage, one old boy owner. Paid £1000. Ran it until 2008, spent almost nothing on it. Chipped it in for a new car for a grand under the scrappage scheme - it only just made it to the dealership, with a shock absorber having broken through the rotten floor pan. Best value I have ever had!