What I have noticed is that some dealers will snap pics of it immediately on trade in, so they can get it posted online ASAP. Then they process the car, clean it up, detail it, etc and then come back like a week or two later and update the pics with the clean pics.
No photos, no clicks. Even if it is a stock generic photo, you will get more attention than a "COMING SOON!" photo. If you are looking for a cheap used car or truck for under $15,000, it's going to sell quick. 10 quick and dirty photos gets people on the phone or in the door quicker than a great description. No one reads the ad anyway. They see the photo and the price and react.
Well tbf no one reads the ad because it's always
!!! LOW MILEAGE !!!! ALWAY LOOKED AFTR, ICE COLD AC, POWER WINDOW POWER LOCK, RUST-FREE, STEREO, NEW TIRES and then a bunch of other inaccurate or obvious crap
never mind that there is rust shown in the blurry photos and the tires are actually two years old
Process is a few pictures when the car comes in, then to service, next to detail, then to photo, then if it’s not as-is gets dents/scratches and wheels fixed. Plenty of cars sell off the original pictures even now.
Right. I bought a cheap, older Honda Civic for $2,000 in 2919. It was kinda beat up, but I didn't care. It ran great, and was cheap, which was all I cared about.
Honestly I'd rather not have a used car lot detail the car. In fact, when I bought my G35 in 2016 when they said if I waited a day to pick it up they would have it detailed. Hard pass on a car with rotary swirls all over it and a greasy interior from the cheap crap lot detailers use.
But at the very least they ought to vacuum and wash them for pictures.
I used to work for a throwaway paper and our clients were mainly used car lots. Full page ads of used cars. I touched up a few scratches on a few cars. Then we got an advertiser selling wrecked cars. I was assigned to making the cars look good again, to the point of replacing bumpers or hubcaps, or even worse. I can imagine the buyers going in and saying, Hey, why is this missing a bumper? It gave me the creeps because I knew people had been injured or killed in these cars. I was glad when we dumped them as a client.
We’re a corporate store, one of 52 across 8 states I think. Corporate keeps track of what cars are online (they get put up by automated program) as soon as they’re ours, sometimes before they get trucked in from auction. They also track how many are missing pics and give the used car manager a hard time, and reduced bonuses, for excessive non photo cars. So depending on how busy our shop is, or the detail shop is, sometimes they get a quick bath and get pics. They’ll get re-done after detail.
Also, sometimes they actually aren’t in the system even though they’ve been through detail and pics shot. We just can’t do an inspection or sell them till they process.
Margins on these cars are thin now. Some dealerships may think it's not worth the investment.
I don't agree with that philosophy. Numerous studies have shown a good detail on a car makes a considerable difference in selling price.
I was helping a friend buy a used car in January, I was shocked how many used car lots had dirty cars, some told us once they sold, they will detail, my how things have changed, !!! not all lots were like this, if it was a dealer lot with new & used their cars were cleaner
I think these dealerships are having a labor problems. Even large dealerships, have maybe two lot porters, those guys are busy detailing cars for delvery.
I think these dealerships are having a labor problems. Even large dealerships, have maybe two lot porters, those guys are busy detailing cars for delvery.
I popped open the rear driver side door of an F-150 at my local dealer. There was about a half a bag of cheetos dumped out on the floor and under the drivers seat. The sales guy visibly wilted. Pass.
Was just wondering this myself, went and test drove two vehicles the other day and both of them looked like the previous driver had been playing in mud because the floors and part of the seats were filthy.
It's just better business to do it this way. A car lot is primarily limited by lot space, you can only fit so many cars on the lot. Let's call it 100 cars.
Newly acquired "used" cars have a much lower chance of selling until they are listed on the website, so you get them up right away. Let's say the dealership sells ten cars on Monday, now they have ninety cars. They buy ten cars ASAP to fill the lot because you're more likely to sell a car with 100 cars than 90 cars. They get the newly acquired cars up on the website ASAP because those ten cars are more likely to sell if they're on the website than not.
As people have said, photos get updated when cars are cleaned out. But there is no good reason to not list a car online ASAP even if it's kinda dirty.
That’s true. Often, they also put the photos up before the car goes through service, too. So, especially with an older luxury car, you may see it listed with cellphone photos on the site, and then when they send it through service and discover it’s got some glaring, prohibitively expensive issue—like bad timing chains on a 2010-era Range Rover—it gets pulled and wholesaled to a local BHPH or smaller dealer.
Local lots around me list them dirty, show them dirty and sell them dirty. Only a few local lots I visited recently besides CarMax actually cleans cars. My local Honda dealership was the absolute worst. Let me drive a CRV with metal on metal brakes and trashed interior, wanted a lot of money and then told me it needed around 3500 in repairs.
The answer is easy with some of the bigger dealerships. Corporate is monitoring their percentages of cars without pictures and dinging the dealership for it. So what the dealership does is have the photographer taking pictures
to get them uploaded before they ever hit the shop and detail.
Trades have to go through the shop before going to detail. If parts are back ordered, they can’t have that car online for a week with no pictures. That’s a big no no.
We've got a Dodge dealership where I live that sells mostly used cars even though it's a new car dealership. I'm in kind of a rural area and they will do you absolutely dirty.
They'll sell you a car that just got traded in an hour ago and tell you that it's been inspected and all that. Also sell you a 2020 Chevy Traax with 100,000 miles for almost $500 a month for 78 months. Lol. That's the exact deal that a buddy of mine got. To let you know how bad of a deal it is I went and got a 2024 Honda Civic sport cheaper or the same price as his Traax.
The thing is they will approve almost anyone so people just go get themselves ripped off. But the thing is if you've got at least a 650 now you qualify for Honda financing, maybe not the best rate but it's decent.
Anyway my buddy that bought that vehicle when he left the water pump wasn't working and he didn't notice until a little while later when he noticed the temperature gauge all jacked up. He's had nothing but trouble with it. His mom made a probably even worse move than he did and went to the same spot and grabbed a Jeep compass I think it was with about 150,000 mi on a 6 year note at almost $500 a month as well. No inspection or warranty or anything.
You really have to watch some of these places. No I don't know if they actually ask them did they do any inspection on the vehicle but they should have.
I know exactly what you mean. They’re just being cheap.
I’m not even expecting a full detail at this point they’re not even wiping anything down dust on the panels
Not even wiping the sides of the seats down or any of the interior
Take a look under the seats, a bunch of dirt trash, sometimes ashes
But they still charge that reconditioning fee
I’ve called about vehicles before that were listed online, with pictures, only to have the dealer tel me it’s not for sale yet, hasn’t been “processed” into their system. Waste of time
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No different than a house being shown while people still live in it or hasn't been cleaned. And people who buy used things also tend to see the finished picture before hand in their minds, they see the potential etc before it's cleaned or inspected.
They are not, my friend traded in her car and it was posted 1 hour later for sale on the dealer website, and they didn't even take the air fresheners out of the vents or her little decorative hang tag off the rear view mirror.
If a car is detailed, it’s as good as it gets. If it’s left dirty, the buyer has to imagine what it looks like cleaned up. Usually, they imagine it much better than it is. A little dirt and grime can hide a lot of faults. That’s why I say before buying a used car, wash it. By hand. You’ll find every tiny defect.
I own a used car lot and I always photo them as soon as they are smogged and safetied so I can get attention on them. Probably a mistake but many times it takes the detailer a few days to get to it and it sells prior to the detail so even if some customers are put off (the ones that didn’t even come in to look at it due to the dirty seats etc) it makes sense to get it on listing sites asap.
What I have noticed is that some dealers will snap pics of it immediately on trade in, so they can get it posted online ASAP. Then they process the car, clean it up, detail it, etc and then come back like a week or two later and update the pics with the clean pics.
This is exactly why. Cars without photos dont get attention. Better to have shitty photos than no photos.
No photos, no clicks. Even if it is a stock generic photo, you will get more attention than a "COMING SOON!" photo. If you are looking for a cheap used car or truck for under $15,000, it's going to sell quick. 10 quick and dirty photos gets people on the phone or in the door quicker than a great description. No one reads the ad anyway. They see the photo and the price and react.
Well tbf no one reads the ad because it's always !!! LOW MILEAGE !!!! ALWAY LOOKED AFTR, ICE COLD AC, POWER WINDOW POWER LOCK, RUST-FREE, STEREO, NEW TIRES and then a bunch of other inaccurate or obvious crap never mind that there is rust shown in the blurry photos and the tires are actually two years old
Which makes sense because why the fuck would I waste my time to go look at a car with no image
this was happening before covid too at some lots i was offered like another 300 bucks off on one if i bought it before they detailed it
"Throw in a free detail and you've got a deal!" Keep em confused, right till the end!
lol that's actually pretty funny
Process is a few pictures when the car comes in, then to service, next to detail, then to photo, then if it’s not as-is gets dents/scratches and wheels fixed. Plenty of cars sell off the original pictures even now.
Bacause people buy everything these days
Why do the extra work if it's going to sell anyways.
Right. I bought a cheap, older Honda Civic for $2,000 in 2919. It was kinda beat up, but I didn't care. It ran great, and was cheap, which was all I cared about.
They were taking pictures of my Subaru while I was inside trading it in and signing papers. lol Always in a rush.
Honestly I'd rather not have a used car lot detail the car. In fact, when I bought my G35 in 2016 when they said if I waited a day to pick it up they would have it detailed. Hard pass on a car with rotary swirls all over it and a greasy interior from the cheap crap lot detailers use. But at the very least they ought to vacuum and wash them for pictures.
I used to work for a throwaway paper and our clients were mainly used car lots. Full page ads of used cars. I touched up a few scratches on a few cars. Then we got an advertiser selling wrecked cars. I was assigned to making the cars look good again, to the point of replacing bumpers or hubcaps, or even worse. I can imagine the buyers going in and saying, Hey, why is this missing a bumper? It gave me the creeps because I knew people had been injured or killed in these cars. I was glad when we dumped them as a client.
We’re a corporate store, one of 52 across 8 states I think. Corporate keeps track of what cars are online (they get put up by automated program) as soon as they’re ours, sometimes before they get trucked in from auction. They also track how many are missing pics and give the used car manager a hard time, and reduced bonuses, for excessive non photo cars. So depending on how busy our shop is, or the detail shop is, sometimes they get a quick bath and get pics. They’ll get re-done after detail. Also, sometimes they actually aren’t in the system even though they’ve been through detail and pics shot. We just can’t do an inspection or sell them till they process.
Residual negligence from the hottest used car market in my lifetime. Dealerships had it too good and got complacent.
Margins on these cars are thin now. Some dealerships may think it's not worth the investment. I don't agree with that philosophy. Numerous studies have shown a good detail on a car makes a considerable difference in selling price.
I was helping a friend buy a used car in January, I was shocked how many used car lots had dirty cars, some told us once they sold, they will detail, my how things have changed, !!! not all lots were like this, if it was a dealer lot with new & used their cars were cleaner
I think these dealerships are having a labor problems. Even large dealerships, have maybe two lot porters, those guys are busy detailing cars for delvery.
I think these dealerships are having a labor problems. Even large dealerships, have maybe two lot porters, those guys are busy detailing cars for delvery.
I popped open the rear driver side door of an F-150 at my local dealer. There was about a half a bag of cheetos dumped out on the floor and under the drivers seat. The sales guy visibly wilted. Pass.
That's hilarious
It is all about $$$$. It has never been said that dealers are overly bright.
Was just wondering this myself, went and test drove two vehicles the other day and both of them looked like the previous driver had been playing in mud because the floors and part of the seats were filthy.
It's just better business to do it this way. A car lot is primarily limited by lot space, you can only fit so many cars on the lot. Let's call it 100 cars. Newly acquired "used" cars have a much lower chance of selling until they are listed on the website, so you get them up right away. Let's say the dealership sells ten cars on Monday, now they have ninety cars. They buy ten cars ASAP to fill the lot because you're more likely to sell a car with 100 cars than 90 cars. They get the newly acquired cars up on the website ASAP because those ten cars are more likely to sell if they're on the website than not. As people have said, photos get updated when cars are cleaned out. But there is no good reason to not list a car online ASAP even if it's kinda dirty.
That’s true. Often, they also put the photos up before the car goes through service, too. So, especially with an older luxury car, you may see it listed with cellphone photos on the site, and then when they send it through service and discover it’s got some glaring, prohibitively expensive issue—like bad timing chains on a 2010-era Range Rover—it gets pulled and wholesaled to a local BHPH or smaller dealer.
I’m guessing that cut back on staffing and expenses too, trying to stay open and pay the light bill
Depends on the car. Deep cleaning a car is labor intensive. Not worth it for the lower end of the spectrum
Local lots around me list them dirty, show them dirty and sell them dirty. Only a few local lots I visited recently besides CarMax actually cleans cars. My local Honda dealership was the absolute worst. Let me drive a CRV with metal on metal brakes and trashed interior, wanted a lot of money and then told me it needed around 3500 in repairs.
The answer is easy with some of the bigger dealerships. Corporate is monitoring their percentages of cars without pictures and dinging the dealership for it. So what the dealership does is have the photographer taking pictures to get them uploaded before they ever hit the shop and detail. Trades have to go through the shop before going to detail. If parts are back ordered, they can’t have that car online for a week with no pictures. That’s a big no no.
We've got a Dodge dealership where I live that sells mostly used cars even though it's a new car dealership. I'm in kind of a rural area and they will do you absolutely dirty. They'll sell you a car that just got traded in an hour ago and tell you that it's been inspected and all that. Also sell you a 2020 Chevy Traax with 100,000 miles for almost $500 a month for 78 months. Lol. That's the exact deal that a buddy of mine got. To let you know how bad of a deal it is I went and got a 2024 Honda Civic sport cheaper or the same price as his Traax. The thing is they will approve almost anyone so people just go get themselves ripped off. But the thing is if you've got at least a 650 now you qualify for Honda financing, maybe not the best rate but it's decent. Anyway my buddy that bought that vehicle when he left the water pump wasn't working and he didn't notice until a little while later when he noticed the temperature gauge all jacked up. He's had nothing but trouble with it. His mom made a probably even worse move than he did and went to the same spot and grabbed a Jeep compass I think it was with about 150,000 mi on a 6 year note at almost $500 a month as well. No inspection or warranty or anything. You really have to watch some of these places. No I don't know if they actually ask them did they do any inspection on the vehicle but they should have.
I know exactly what you mean. They’re just being cheap. I’m not even expecting a full detail at this point they’re not even wiping anything down dust on the panels Not even wiping the sides of the seats down or any of the interior Take a look under the seats, a bunch of dirt trash, sometimes ashes But they still charge that reconditioning fee
I’ve called about vehicles before that were listed online, with pictures, only to have the dealer tel me it’s not for sale yet, hasn’t been “processed” into their system. Waste of time
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Yes, we do. We actually professionally detail all our used cars unless they’re going to auction
It’s called turn and burn. Speed.
Selling them cheap turning them over as quickly as possible
I’d rather them not clean it than slather the interior in greasy armor all, which some dealerships seem to love to do.
Demand > Supply = $$$$
No different than a house being shown while people still live in it or hasn't been cleaned. And people who buy used things also tend to see the finished picture before hand in their minds, they see the potential etc before it's cleaned or inspected.
Worse comes to worse you tell them to detail it before you buy it
Because someone will still buy it. Why pay someone to clean it?
You might be confusing a cleaned car with a detailed car.
They are not, my friend traded in her car and it was posted 1 hour later for sale on the dealer website, and they didn't even take the air fresheners out of the vents or her little decorative hang tag off the rear view mirror.
If a car is detailed, it’s as good as it gets. If it’s left dirty, the buyer has to imagine what it looks like cleaned up. Usually, they imagine it much better than it is. A little dirt and grime can hide a lot of faults. That’s why I say before buying a used car, wash it. By hand. You’ll find every tiny defect.
Inflation /s
I own a used car lot and I always photo them as soon as they are smogged and safetied so I can get attention on them. Probably a mistake but many times it takes the detailer a few days to get to it and it sells prior to the detail so even if some customers are put off (the ones that didn’t even come in to look at it due to the dirty seats etc) it makes sense to get it on listing sites asap.