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Autotrader - Fake prices rant
dan8400 - 9/11/10 at 03:26 PM

As title. I am looking for a cheap run around while i sort out a mortgage (so funds are tight). I keep looking on autotrader and seeing cars advertised for, say, £850 and then a crappy "sorry I meant £2850" in the text.

Wastes alot of time looking for cars and having to read the text of EVERY car that might be of interest. Also if my budget is a grand... why would I want a car that is £2850??? Really annoys me.

Rant over

Dan


EDIT: can i report these people to autotrader? Might sit down one night and report as many as possible. Gotta be better than watching soaps with the missus!!

[Edited on 9/11/10 by dan8400]


scootz - 9/11/10 at 03:36 PM

Same with mileage... you search for cars under, say 20k miles, and you first have to wade through the dozens of adverts who list their mileage as 88, 112, 165, etc!

And then there's the likes of Douglas Valley breakers who spam the PH adverts section! You go on to source a part and they have 3 million adverts all advertising the same type of car! If you have some Elise S1 bits, then just place up an ad telling us... we don't need to see it 10 zillion times... aaaaaarrrrrrrggggghhhhh!


IanBrace - 9/11/10 at 03:43 PM

Same here, I was looking for a car last night and it was driving me mad... About time trading standards stepped in. Word would soon get around if someone was forced to sell their £2850 motor for £850!


handyandy - 9/11/10 at 03:48 PM

A runaround for a grand

Thats a luxury motor to me

Yes, its very annoying, its a sneaky way of getting the ad in the cheaper section & hope a buyre will spend more than they want to etc.



cheers
andy


AndyW - 9/11/10 at 03:48 PM

an advertised price in legal terms is merely an "invitation to treat" and there is no binding agreement til you have made an offer and they have accepted. So reporting them will make no difference, nor will they ever have to honour the advertised price unless both parties agree.


dan8400 - 9/11/10 at 03:49 PM

Sorry not a run around for a grand.... just was searching in £1000 or less category

Thanks
Dan


mcerd1 - 9/11/10 at 04:51 PM

quote:
Originally posted by scootz
Same with mileage... you search for cars under, say 20k miles, and you first have to wade through the dozens of adverts who list their mileage as 88, 112, 165, etc!

And then there's the likes of Douglas Valley breakers who spam the PH adverts section! You go on to source a part and they have 3 million adverts all advertising the same type of car! If you have some Elise S1 bits, then just place up an ad telling us... we don't need to see it 10 zillion times... aaaaaarrrrrrrggggghhhhh!


^^ I've spent the last couple of months fighting my way through all that - in the end I bought new shocks for the one I've got instead (so I'll have to keep it for a while now)


morcus - 9/11/10 at 05:17 PM

Report them to autotrader and they disapear usually within 48 hours. These really wee me off so I quite frequently go out looking for them to report (Sad I know) and autotrader is usually pretty swift. I particuly hate people do this but also include no offers and no time wasters after they've just put the wrong price in and wasted our time. The last one I reported was priced at 500 but said 5000 in the add and all the no time wasters stuff, I sent the guy 3 emails offering him £600 if he'd deliver.

Report them, it's the only way. They will loose out as they'll have paid for a pulled ad.


BigFaceDave - 9/11/10 at 09:06 PM

You would be amazed at how many free minutes on your mobile you can get through by calling the numbers and then double checking all the details with them and sound as if your really interested and then say "and all that for only £250!" They dont seem to have a sence of humour then! Guess how I know!

[Edited on 9/11/10 by BigFaceDave]


morcus - 9/11/10 at 11:54 PM

It's even better if you ask if they're open to offers and offer about £200 pounds, if they just say no say £250 it is when can I pick it up.


Alan B - 10/11/10 at 02:06 AM

Do know if UK ads are the same, I left England 16 years ago, but over here in Florida they have an annoying habit of advertising a car for say $12,000...brand new....then at the bottom is an asterisk saying "*assumes $7,500 deposit or trade-in"....really annoying...

Alan


morcus - 11/11/10 at 12:55 AM

Alot of trade places have a habit of putting up adds for a pound, they're mostly wanted ads or really expensive new cars. There are also alot that put up new cars for small money then say thats the deposit.


mcerd1 - 11/11/10 at 08:28 AM

I went to have a look at one the other day in a certain main dealer (big national chain)

on autotrader at £3990, but when you ask about it they wanted an extra £199 admin fee


Ninehigh - 13/11/10 at 02:03 AM

quote:
Originally posted by morcus
Alot of trade places have a habit of putting up adds for a pound, they're mostly wanted ads or really expensive new cars. There are also alot that put up new cars for small money then say thats the deposit.


I rung them up, asked them about the Veyron for sale, and how big is it..

Obviously confused them, they said it's full size. I said I'll come down with the £75 and take it. Then I have to go into pedantic mode explaining to dealers of £500k+ cars the difference between a deposit and a price


morcus - 13/11/10 at 07:29 AM

It's such a great game aint it.

Auto trader is at least better than Ebay motors where you search for 'x' and all the adds that it picks up start not 'x', and all claim to be ideal first cars even though they've been ruined and rendered uninssurable (And are usually being run under false info).