Things that put me right off

[mat777]

4 minutes ago, grogee said:

It's almost worth buying this to see if it's possible to drive it using the brake discs as wheels

I mean, it works for trains 🤣

 

With regards to dishonesty on this here forum - I'd like to think that we're a tight enough community that anyone taking the piss would get a verbal shoeing. I've bought/swapped/acquired 3 cars from fellow shiters now and even when one threw an MIL on a test drive I still bought it because I had a trustworthy feeling from them (and I was luckily right, it was just having a sulk after a period of inactivity). Likewise I strive to be honest on my ads - I can talk a good talk about the potential in a car but I'd never hide any actual faults. I believe in CarAd Karma! 

 

Phrases that annoy me - will fly though MOT. Well JFDI then! 

[grogee]

2 minutes ago, mat777 said:

With regards to dishonesty on this here forum - I'd like to think that we're a tight enough community that anyone taking the piss would get a verbal shoeing.

+1, I've bought and sold a few for me and friends/fambleh. Never been disappointed. And met some lovely shiters along the way. 

I have heard stories of bum deals on here but luckily never been a victim. 

[Knotty Ash Towers]

Surprised you didn't mention Huyton! I would also like to add the whole of Greater Manchester and Neston.

On 26/06/2025 at 04:59, New POD said:

Skelmersdale, Netherton, Croxteth, Fazakerley.

Apologies to any members that live in those parts of museryside/lancashire 

 

[Knotty Ash Towers]

When a car is advertised as being totally original, but has been plate-raped - kind of defeats the object really. Similarly, a car is advertised at £10k for example and the seller adds 'for £13k you can have it with the original registration number'. Absolute philistines. 

[bigfella2]

I don't know if this has been mentioned earlier, but another bugbear of mine is pictures of the said car with people in them, usually chavs, the proud owner or the mother in law or even the dog. Especially ferocious looking dogs too.

[sheffcortinacentre]

The more ferocious the dog the more it ups their testosterone/Virility ( only side effect is iq drop but that doesn't matter).

[Pieman]

27 minutes ago, sheffcortinacentre said:

The more ferocious the dog the more it ups their testosterone/Virility ( only side effect is iq drop but that doesn't matter).

From my experience, anyone who owns a dog primarily for the "look 'ow 'ard I am, innit" factor is the sort of person who deserves to be eaten by it.

[Knotty Ash Towers]

'Never been out in the rain' - yeah, right. Every time it clouded over you must've snapped your fingers and teleported it back into your garage 

[EspenO]

Six pages in, and I’m wondering how anyone ever buys a car on here 😄

[sierraman]

18 hours ago, mat777 said:

I mean, it works for trains 🤣

 

With regards to dishonesty on this here forum - I'd like to think that we're a tight enough community that anyone taking the piss would get a verbal shoeing. I've bought/swapped/acquired 3 cars from fellow shiters now and even when one threw an MIL on a test drive I still bought it because I had a trustworthy feeling from them (and I was luckily right, it was just having a sulk after a period of inactivity). Likewise I strive to be honest on my ads - I can talk a good talk about the potential in a car but I'd never hide any actual faults. I believe in CarAd Karma! 

 

Phrases that annoy me - will fly though MOT. Well JFDI then! 

There’s a lot of bullshit goes off on here I suspect. Seems to be quite common for someone to buy off here and then it FTP a week later. 

[sierraman]

25 minutes ago, EspenO said:

Six pages in, and I’m wondering how anyone ever buys a car on here 😄

It’s not easy, it narrows down 80% of the ads. 😂

[sierraman]

16 hours ago, Knotty Ash Towers said:

Surprised you didn't mention Huyton! I would also like to add the whole of Greater Manchester and Neston.

 

Those dealers on the Gorton Road on way into Manchester on the A57. 😂

[purplebargeken]

The no V5 and not MOT’d but it will definitely pass comments are particularly swerve worthy. As are clean the crap from the inside of your shitbox before you take photos of it for the ad you lazy cunts.

[MiniMinorMk3]

Companies that only have a facebook page and not a proper website.

[Brigsy]

A few ring a bell but start with the classic from the old admag adverts

"Not for the faint hearted" - the fuckk does this even mean? 

"Eml on but runs fine" - cant be bothered to fix it

"Never missed a beat" - never spent any money on it.

Also any high res show pics on for sale add, with advert saying its got different wheels on now etc - can get to fuck itll be a pile of steaming turd when viewed

[bezzabsa]

seventybillion pics of the outside and None of the interior

or pics of it with the bonnet up and 4 chavs in the pic hands down trousers and a gallon oil container sat by front wheel...

or you read through the ad and think wow this is great - then right at the bottom is "just needs....xyz" or No MOT due to ......

 

[sierraman]

3 hours ago, Brigsy said:

A few ring a bell but start with the classic from the old admag adverts

"Not for the faint hearted" - the fuckk does this even mean? 

"Eml on but runs fine" - cant be bothered to fix it

"Never missed a beat" - never spent any money on it.

Also any high res show pics on for sale add, with advert saying its got different wheels on now etc - can get to fuck itll be a pile of steaming turd when viewed

Not for the faint hearted I would take to mean you’ll probably fall to your knees clutching your chest when you get the bill for extinguishing the engine management light. 

[Marm Toastsmith]

7 hours ago, EspenO said:

Six pages in, and I’m wondering how anyone ever buys a car on here 😄

I dunno, but weirdly this thread is making me want to have a look on Gumtree.

[Marm Toastsmith]

5 minutes ago, Marm Toastsmith said:

I dunno, but weirdly this thread is making me want to have a look on Gumtree.

Ah, and I just remembered "Featured Ads" - I skip past them.

[SiC]

[Tenmil Socket]

1 hour ago, SiC said:

That reminds me of a story I posted on the forum a little while back… basically, if one of my colleagues was selling his car, it would be listed as a Vauxhall Golf.

[Metal Guru]

Have we had introducing your vehicle like it’s a member of your family?

”Here we have Mabel our beloved campervan who’s accompanied us on many a memorable holiday and needs a new home where she will be loved as much as we’ve loved her..”

Normally followed by “needs some TLC” by which they mean , it’s well and truly fucked and more likely to cost a fortune rather than get you to the Costa del Sol.

 

[mat777]

19 hours ago, sierraman said:

There’s a lot of bullshit goes off on here I suspect. Seems to be quite common for someone to buy off here and then it FTP a week later. 

How much of that though is seller dishonesty and how much of it is because this is a forum with a high percentage of knackered old crocs we're  trying revive? 😅 

[sierraman]

21 minutes ago, mat777 said:

How much of that though is seller dishonesty and how much of it is because this is a forum with a high percentage of knackered old crocs we're  trying revive? 😅 

I think there’s a degree of naivety in there as well. 😂

[Marm Toastsmith]

Some people on here enjoy the adventure of driving an utter shitheap. I agree that breakdowns and an element of risk/unknown can be fun. Also it’s rewarding to drive and maintain a tired vehicle with mechanical sensitivity. And it’s good to keep old cars on the road.

As noble as it may be to describe every fault on a 200000 mile Peugeot, I do think realistic expectations come into it. I’ve got rid of plenty of cars that kept going in my ownership but where I started to get the fear that my luck might run out. Shit just breaks on old cars, you never really know.

 I’ve bought stuff blind  off here that was worse than expected but never anything that was intentionally misdescribed. Also stuff that was better than expected.

Ultimately I think it comes down to how tired overall a car is, which is hard to quantify or describe and sometimes seems to defy logic. Also the feel of a car doesn’t always align with how likely it is to break. Some cars are just ungrateful and others seem to soldier on. OTOH sometimes they need some love and they’ll be brilliant.

As this thread alludes, you have to go with your gut, and any seasoned shiter should have the experience and stomach to be philosophical when things go wrong, learn from it and move on.

[SiC]

3 hours ago, mat777 said:

How much of that though is seller dishonesty and how much of it is because this is a forum with a high percentage of knackered old crocs we're  trying revive? 😅 

There is also that cars have a habit of doing weird stuff when changing owners. Also some just go "new car!" and then gloss over their experiences. Others go into much more detail on their life with it. 

I'm in the latter camp and I often feel a bit conflicted as I know 99.99% of the time if something has broken it was bad luck and not the previous owners fault. But then it could look bad on the previous owner despite me trying to reiterate it's just bad luck. 

Case in point is what I'm going through with my recent Z4 at the moment. The electric power steering is a known issue on them and always had the potential to fail. I have no doubt that @95 quid Peugeot didn't know it was going to happen when he sold it and just bad luck on my part when it now has played up.

Likewise despite trying to make sure not, stuff goes wrong on things I sell sometimes. Like the Audi TT MK1 I sold to @NorfolkNWeigh where the coil pack and starter motor failed in the first month or so. I'd driven that car thousands of miles without issue and even on a faultless 500+ mile roundtrip not long before I sold it. I would have readily changed those parts if I even had an inkling they were going to fail. 

[New POD]

On 28/06/2025 at 10:49, Knotty Ash Towers said:

'Never been out in the rain' - yeah, right. Every time it clouded over you must've snapped your fingers and teleported it back into your garage 

My father in law bought a mk4 astra new.  He never took it out if it looked like rain, if there was likely to be salt on the road, or if the journey was less than 7 miles.  He'd take the bus, the train or walk.

In the event that the car did get wet he would wait until it was dry and washed and polished before he put it back in the garage. 

He would wash it and wax it every other week. 

He did 13k in 12 years. 

Gave it to my son, who washed it twice in 10 years having taken it to 85k. 

I T-cut it before he advertised it. It was pogweasal pink due to being left out in all weather. 

[chaseracer]

9 hours ago, Marm Toastsmith said:

As noble as it may be to describe every fault on a 200000 mile Peugeot...

All we need to know here is whether there's 20p in the handbrake.

[Mrcento]

On 27/06/2025 at 22:32, bigfella2 said:

I don't know if this has been mentioned earlier, but another bugbear of mine is pictures of the said car with people in them, usually chavs, the proud owner or the mother in law or even the dog. Especially ferocious looking dogs too.

I always laugh when i see an ad and they've taken a pic of the car with somebody sitting in it. Always makes me think they've been out, realised something is wrong and want rid of the car ASAP. Nothing says 'car clinging on for dear life' quite like somebody that has pulled over somewhere and went 'Wait a minute luv, need a pic for an ad to get this heap gone before it goes bang'. Why would you not wait until you were home or at least didn't have someone sat in it?, Screams of nah, fuck this it's dead.

Adverts with pictures where the owner couldn't be fucked leaving the house, so just took a picture from their window. Extra points of the window wasn't even clean.

Interior pics that always, without fail, every fucking ad now, has a open/old can of something in the cup holder. Usually some cheap shitey happy shopper energy drink, a monster or a red bull. How fucking difficult would it have been to just take it out of shot so it didn't make the interior look like a skip?

And car with a short MOT with the phrase 'Will pass no bother'. Had it up on ramps, have you?, Read as, It's fucked. If it would pass 'no bother' they'd stick it in, £50 later, they'd have a years MOT on it and probably get another 4 or 500 quid.