car dealers with "coming soon" stock

[davidbeaumont]

Also "just arrived, pictures to follow", "being prepared", "image coming soon". Anyone know the reasons for this practice by car dealers? I ask because I have a few such cars in my favourites to buy, but they sit for many days or weeks with no pics forthcoming.

In the absence of other ideas I am assuming the car has been bought from a salvage company and is being repaired, am I being too cynical? It's just that I can't see a wash and photo session taking more than a day, or minor cosmetic repairs taking more than a few days.

Some ads even run for over a year and then end with no pictures eg www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203614724069 or www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203672523090 . What's that about?

Edited by davidbeaumont on Monday 26th December 15:18

[Carguy44]

Phone them up or go and visit them.

[davidbeaumont]

thanks hadn't thought of that.......

"Hi I'm calling about the car for sale and why there are no pics yet?"
"Hello sir, it's just we don't want to photograph it until the roof pillars are straightened and we've put resisitors into the air bag circuits. Also it is taking a while to clean away the blood"
"Click."

Edited by davidbeaumont on Tuesday 27th December 01:39

[Draxindustries1]

We do it. They're advertised th is way to get them on the market as soon as possible. We can't always prep trade ins straight away. In most cases we use a specialist detailer who has his/hers own schedule.
In any case it gives opportunity to see a car as is.,

[Pica-Pica]

I would imagine they are part exchange vehicles, and the person trading the car in (for a newer model) has not found time to take it in to the dealer for photos.

[anonymous-user]

Sometimes dealers are a bit cheeky and advertise a great car at a low price but the car doesn't really exist. So you make an app to go see it or whatever and they'll offer you a naffer car at a higher price.

[Rozzers]

As per the above…

They are usually part exchange or bulk/ auction bought cars that are secured, but haven’t arrived and been valeted and photographed yet.

As soon as they are secured they get them advertised.

[nick1871]

Sometimes they will sell the car without the effort of having to take and upload photos/videos.

[valiant]

Early bird catches the worm and all that.

Dealer gets a car in and advertises it straight away as there’s probably a punter looking for that exact spec, colour and price whilst he sorts out photos and any prep and whatnot.

Don’t think there’s anything untoward going on except a hurry to get it sold and to appear top in the ‘newly listed’ segment of AutoTrader.

[Benmac]

The most annoying aspect of this (getting it on the market asap is a perfectly reasonable reason to do it) is when they just copy and paste the spec list in the description which weirdly never seems to include the paint colour. Several times I’ve seen an ad like this when looking, phoned up and found out it’s a colour I wouldn’t consider. My time wasted and the dealer’s, especially if they and convince me I do want that colour or phone me back later to see if I’ve changed my mind.

[Condi]

valiant said:

Dealer gets a car in and advertises it straight away as there’s probably a punter looking for that exact spec, colour and price whilst he sorts out photos and any prep and whatnot.

Thing is, without photos it's hard if not impossible to know the exact colour and spec. Unless it's super common then chances of a single spec/colour/price combination being so unique it can't wait a couple of days then its incredibly annoying and off putting when there are no photos or just loads of stock photos "RAC approved seller" or whatever. It annoys the hell out of me, because the cars appear on the Autotrader email of new adverts, but without photos you can't find out much about them!

[NMNeil]

The dealers are hoping that you will contact them, and the first thing they will do is get your phone number and e-mail address, because you are a prize, someone actively looking to buy a car.
Expect plenty of calls and even more e-mails, even from other dealers because your info will be sold.
Very common practice.

[Bemmer]

NMNeil said:

The dealers are hoping that you will contact them, and the first thing they will do is get your phone number and e-mail address, because you are a prize, someone actively looking to buy a car.
Expect plenty of calls and even more e-mails, even from other dealers because your info will be sold.
Very common practice.

Link please to evidence this common practice.....? The last thing a dealer does is share any contact details they have generated with another competitor dealer....

[Mark83]

My first C63 was such a car. It had been traded in but not prepared. It was a fairly rare spec at a main dealer so went and viewed it. It needed a proper valet, had a brake pad dash light on and needed new tyres. I bought it the following week after it had been serviced, consumables addressed and proper valet inside and out.

Coincidentally happened with another C63 this year, local main dealer had advised it after it was secured at auction hut yet to arrive at the dealership.

Both times the dealership weren't shy about it when I asked.

[Condi]

NMNeil said:

The dealers are hoping that you will contact them, and the first thing they will do is get your phone number and e-mail address, because you are a prize, someone actively looking to buy a car.
Expect plenty of calls and even more e-mails, even from other dealers because your info will be sold.
Very common practice.

I've been looking for a specific car for about 3 months. If the dealers are sharing my details they're doing a very poor job of finding one!

Under GDPR it would be completely illegal anyway.

[Franco5]

pocketspring said:

Sometimes dealers are a bit cheeky and advertise a great car at a low price but the car doesn't really exist. So you make an app to go see it or whatever and they'll offer you a naffer car at a higher price.

Two can play that game. String them along as if you’re interested and waste as much of their time as possible.

[NMNeil]

Bemmer said:

Link please to evidence this common practice.....? The last thing a dealer does is share any contact details they have generated with another competitor dealer....

They don't share, they sell the info.
I went looking for an EV a few months ago, and a dealer in Lubbock had a Chevy Bolt. Not my first choice but I sent an e-mail from one of my throwaway e-mail accounts asking if they still had it in stock. The reply to my e-mail started with, please give us your phone number so that one of our sales professionals can call you. I went onto the on line chat and all they did was ask for my phone number so their sales team could contact me, but wouldn't tell me if they still had it available for sale.
The last time I looked my throwaway account had over 60 e-mails from dealerships as far away as Florida wanting me to call their sales team. They could have only got my e-mail from the first inquiry.
Random ad from my local Nissan dealership. Note the lack of any prices but just a constant "Contact us". Fill it in and they will never let go of a possible sale.
https://www.roswellnissan.com/VehicleSearchResults...

[robemcdonald]

I sold my car on motorway.

The winning dealer had it listed on their site about 5 minutes after I had the phone call saying it was sold and a week before the collection date.

Must be a few like that.

[LudaMusser]

I work for a main dealer. We sold a Trade car recently to a huge car centre, I had a look on their site the next day as I was curious what it would be up for and the whole advert, service history, spec etc was there but no photos

I assume it’s because they want to get interest in the car ASAP but it hadn’t been valeted and wheels refurbed etc so no photos

[Cootuk3]

Do dealers get bulk discounts on AT so it makes sense to list asap?