Jesus! I feel the need to rant. I have been doing a little online shopping for a potential new ride and I am so tired of the ads where the seller tries to paint a word picture, using 1000 words, of how much I am going to enjoy the car and how wonderful the driving experience, etc. etc. Make me want to throw up. Maybe I'm Joe Friday but I MUCH prefer bullet point type ads that list the equipment and the work done on the car. Here is an example: (Hen's tooth! LOL!) If you've ever had the pleasure of driving a Tri-Five, (55-57), Chevy, you know how great the view is from behind the wheel. The wide curved glass windshield and the high seating position make the outside world into a panorama, like a widescreen TV that you can drive right through. A Bel Air or 210 is almost the world's best road trip car. Almost? Enter the Chevy Nomad. It's got all the style and chrome of the famous Bel Air, but that station wagon rear makes you want to throw a surfboard on the roof, a friend or five in the back, and spend an entire summer, or maybe a lifetime just traveling the country watching the world over that chrome jet on the hood. 1955 when men were men and cars were...well big steel and chrome sculpted into iconic designs, that's what! For consignment, from 1955, the Chevrolet Nomad and this low number production "milestone car" made in a mere 8,530 examples is now gracing our main showroom. Perhaps it was the desire to own a sporty two door, or the practicality of a wagon, or maybe both? Either way, a hen's tooth in beautiful mid 50's design is right here for the taking. After all that, they then produce wordy paragraphs describing the Interior, Exterior, Drivetrain, etc. Make me want to puke. What do y'all say? Do you enjoy reading someone's****ed up idea of how much you're going to like buying the car they are selling?
Here's a link if you want to subject yourself to this torment. https://classiccars.com/listings/vi...air-for-sale-in-morgantown-pennsylvania-19543
I am more of a "For Sale- 55 Chevy, 283 w/4speed, good body and interior, clean****le, $XXXX" type of guy. Keep the fluff out of it.
Those ads are intended to convince your wife that withdrawing $ from your 401k to buy a "classic car" is a wise investment.
I hate those fluffed up ads as well. You're marketing to car guys for crying out loud. If we are looking at your ad, we probably already know who the designer was, how it performed, the colors that were available, the various models in the line-up that year. In the words of Sgt. Friday on Dragnet, "Just the facts, Ma'm."
As long as we’re ranting…. I always get annoyed when the guy tells you a bunch of***** you could care less about. Like “I was going to make this Fairlane a Thunderbolt tribute car…. Well, ya didn’t, so who cares.
A few things need attention. Easy fixes. If they were so easy, why didn't you fix 'em before you tried to sell it.
I'm sure the asking price has been jacket up well over 100% of what they paid, and the********* advertising is a way to try and justify it. It's an old Chevy not some true Classic from the 1930's.
@lothiandon1940 those ads are more likely directed to car guy wannabes that want to get in on the action, not knowledgeable enthusiasts. No real knowledge of what they are looking at but they have a pocket full of cash, can’t tell you anything about their car and complain if it isn’t chosen to get a $3 trophy. Back in the ‘80’s we hosted an evening show at a mom and pop drive -in. A guy pulls up with an enclosed trailer big enough for two cars, he’s by himself. I’m on the gate and he asks where he can put the trailer and he seemed offended when I said park it somewhere across the street, pull your hot rod in once you unload it. He brought not one, but two high dollar ‘32’s! A real rodder would have left one home and driven to the show even if he had zip code cars.
That place isn't far from me. Besides the long winded descriptions, I've found mistakes in the ads in the past. And they sell on consignment, they don't own the cars.
That is that AI*********. If you sell stuff online and start writing a description, most sites now come up with "Do you want AI to write a concise description for you"? , so the terminally stupid or just lazy will hit "yes", and you will get half a page of the most stupid, sickly sweet,***** crawling sales***** that you have ever seen. For a laugh, try getting AI to decribe a 1/2" flat washer, it will spill out such***** as "this washer is exactly the same colour as fasteners used on the space shuttle! The diameter of the central hole, 1/2", is EXACTLY 50% of it's larger cousin, the 1" washer! If you are located in a metric country, this can be used on ANY fastener, whose outside dimension is MORE THAN 12.7mm! These 1/2" holes are EXACTLY the same as used on military fighter jets!
I know a couple of places that advertises like this, they don't sell to car guys, because car guys know who they are and will never buy one of their overpriced glittered turd. Car guys get the word out. They sell to people who know nothing : either the guy who want his first classic or the guy who want to show off. Worst part is they're still in business after so many years at least 20 years for one of them.
I’m with you, Brother! I HATE those types of ads. Typical BS to attract who knows what kind of buyer. I start to read it and just move on.
That particular outfit always does a word salad in their adds with way too much BS and history and not enough just solid facts but I have to think that is the market that they want to sell to. That isn't long time car hobby folks It is the the guy who finally has life in order to where he can now buy his dream car and wants one that is ready to drive and take for show and tell.
The first rule of writing an ad is knowing who your potential customer is and aiming the copy at him (or her). An ad in Hemmings is going to have a different take than an ad in the HAMB classifieds. If you're not in the market for what I'm selling, I could care less what your opinion on my ad writing style projects.
Why be upset? They have saved you a lot of time. The purple prose makes it immediately clear they are selling a story, an overpriced fantasy, not a reasonably priced car. As Mr48chev and others have said, their target audience is not a car guy who knows value.
I have seen it both ways. Ads with hardly any information where the seller wants you to do their damn job for them for the privilege of handing over $30 to $40k! I'll take the wordy ones. At least somewhere in all the words I hope to find enough of the relevant information to make a decision about it being a possible purchase or not. Oh, and add to this rant the dipshits that are so lazy they cannot even pull the car cover off the damn car before taking pictures!
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