Automotive Deal-breakers

Crisps in the carpet.
 
Traces of rust - self explanatory, particularly on newer cars
badly maintained interior - the mechanic is probably taken care of in the same way.
stinking interior - well, your dog or your cigarettes are all yours, not mine.
clear signs of repairing - if -I- can see it, then it's not done properly or it was too damaged to begin with.
too many kms on the clock - every car has "natural" km/year ratio that you can expect. More than that is usually not worth the price.
modifications - they are mostly illegal here, and I can never know the whole list of what the former owner has done. The car might also have been riced or abused.
twisted, bumpy or battered licence plate - it's a visible sign that something didn't go all too well in the past, and I'd be curious to know what.
sellers that try to fool you. Very bad race.
too foggy headlights or backlights - what have the car gone through?
too battered rims - I try to imagine the joints and suspensions conditions
automatic gearbox - my father got very unlucky with them, three of them broke on his car in 120.000 km (75.000 m). Plus, I like manuals.
 
misaligned badging or badging in the wrong spot on the trunk/front doors/liftgate: This bugs the living snot out of me...seeing badging where each letter is visibly crooked, badging on one side is higher or lower than the other side, or the whole set is too high or low on the car drives me insane. Obviously something happened, yet the driver is oblivious to it...

I saw a sight like this on a 2nd gen Stratus:

rear_emblems.JPG


Except the subaru part obviously said "Stratus"...like how could one not notice that before buying the car.
 
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phoenixsac said:
So no G8 GT or GXP for you then?
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Nope. Didn't get the big deal. Interiors, while better than previous Pontiacs, still not all that great...also, dull styling. Not "nice" dull...like...Impala dull.

Deal breaker: pinstriping.
 
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The seller. How he describes the vehicle in the ad, behaves to me, and presents the car.

"A real head turner" - So what? I'm usually looking for a specific model car, all of them are headturners, your job is to differentiate yours by condition and price.
"Has some rust/mechanical issues/niggles, but that's to be expected from a car that's XX years old." - No, it's not. What's expected is that it's perfect. Your job is to list what's wrong with yours so that the buyer can decide if the price is fair in comparison.
"Hasn't been inspected since it's been in storage, but you should get a pass real easy." - Right. If it's so easy why don't you have it inspected and increase the car's value by a lot more than the price of an inspection?
"Further information/pictures only by request!" - The car's probably crap then.
"My phone number is X and my e-mail is Y. Real buyers call!" - No. Real buyers want more, detailed information in a written format.
"When was the timing chain last changed? I've no idea. Why would you care? It's a double chain, it lasts forever!" - Right. Have a nice day.
"This is the real deal, not some American/German/Japanese import." - So it's been melting away on the local salt roads for the past few decades and wasn't that great to begin with, since pretty much no Finnish car is ordered with nice toys, due to their price. Nice selling point you got there.
"You're driving a somethingorother, and you're telling me?what I should price my car at, or what's wrong with it. How dare you?"
etc.
 
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Jupix mentioned this but I also don't consider a car ad that says "needs inspection"
 
phoenixsac said:
Yep, it has a tramp stamp - deal's off.
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Have them drop the price another 100$ for that and remove it ... no big deal, money saved.

[...]what are some things that would turn you off of a car that you want? Assuming that everything else is what you're looking for
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Dishonest sellers. As simple as that. One can talk about a lot (in terms of discount), one can repair a lot ... but once you get to a point where the seller tells you stuff like "never had an accident" and you then find evidence that this is untrue ... walk away. Or another favorite of mine - dealers that sell as private persons (to not have liability like the law requires them to) or have their relatives legally own the cars on their sale-yard for the same reason and then act like they are selling it up untill the point where they tell you that you are actually buying from a private person and they legally have nothing to do with the whole thing ...
 
rickhamilton620 said:
misaligned badging or badging in the wrong spot on the trunk/front doors/liftgate: This bugs the living snot out of me...seeing badging where each letter is visibly crooked, badging on one side is higher or lower than the other side, or the whole set is too high or low on the car drives me insane. Obviously something happened, yet the driver is oblivious to it...

I saw a sight like this on a 2nd gen Stratus:

rear_emblems.JPG


Except the subaru part obviously said "Stratus"...like how could one not notice that before buying the car.
Click to expand...
Probably the owner did that because he thought it was fun.

Rust, lack of AC, lack of cruise, modifications, dirty interior, misaligned vents, V8's, the usual.
:may:
 
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Like Interrobang and Jupix wrote, a dishonest/idiot/asshole seller is a deal breaker. A lot of times I just get turned off by the ad, without even seeing the car in person. Seller used cap locks to write the ad? Nope. There's a supposedly minor, easily fixed problem on a car that's had a bunch of other work done on it? Hell no. Car interior smells like an ashtray? No thanks. Other than that, I'll buy just about anything. :lol:
 
AiR said:
Probably the owner did that because he thought it was fun.
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I see stuff like that on too many otherwise fine looking cars to believe that all of it was fun :p
 
Lastsoul said:
Rust.

And yeah, both of my cars had rust when I bought them. Well, the Mazda still does, but I'll deal with it next week. Why do I always think "Well.. I can fix that" :p
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I have the same problem. I think, "Oh, well, I can fix that". Then I promptly get in over my head. I'll never buy another car that has rust issues.*



*I say this now. But who knows.
 
I just read a craigslist for a "rotary V6" Mazda 6.

Actually, I bet a non trivial number of Mazda ads have the word "rotary" in them, regardless of the car.
 
One of my biggest dealbreakers is a lack of pictures in the ad. I want to be able to see all sides of the car, interior front and rear. If there are pics missing, like no pics from the left side, the seller has something to hide there. Another one for me is short ads. I don't get people trying to sell their car with just a four-line ad basically saying model, year and that's it.
 
Ooh, yes: modifications. When I was looking at dealer cars where I had no idea if the person before me did them right or not, any evidence of modding a car (aftermarket wheels, stereo, whatever) = "zomg what if the previous owner had it riced out?!"

I don't mind the idea of buying a modified car if I know its history and if I know those mods are all things I wouldn't mind having. If the previous owner knew what they were doing or took it to someone else who knew what they were doing to install everything, great. Those still better be mods that make the car drive better, though, because I will always cringe at the sight of an aftermarket stereo. :lol:
 
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You know it is a Rambler because it has skulls painted on it and says "Rambler" on the hood.
 
It says American on the back too.
 
Incase you forget it is in America obviously.

It has the corps of George Romney in the trunk so you know it is an AMC.
 
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I wondered what that smell was. :p
 
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