Topic: Little things that make you unhappy...about car ads

[blotter]

banner ad at the bottom of this page (they change though) showing a Honda CRV for $62 weekly

VW Jetta.... OWN IT for $134 bi-weekly for 84 months.

[Niklasky]

Seen just now in the banner at the bottom of this page :

SMILE. 2014 Jetta. Own it for just $84 bi-weekly for 84 months.

Also :

Honda Civic DX (entry model) : $39 weekly for a 60 months lease

[Motocharts]

Hey Everyone,
Just wanted you to know that I'm planning on enabling listings on my site next summer and I'm paying CLOSE attention to your gripes! Keep the complaints coming!

[dirtyjeffer]

my biggest pet peeve (and it isn't exclusive to cars, but since that's what we are talking about here) is the description of one thing, but a photo of another.

as mentioned earlier, pretty much every car ad shows "2014 Ford Edge XLT - $29,995 or $399/month", but then have the picture for the Limited model with the nicer wheels, HID lights, etc. that costs $37,995...there should be a law that if you are going to advertise a price on a specific item/model, the photo shown MUST be that trim/version...i am fine if you want to advertise the mid trim model and show how good of a price it has, but use the photo applicable, not the one for another version of it.

[tooscoops]

lately i've had so many people that are trying to trade in cars with high interest loans... what kills me is that their cars are the roughest ones i see... every panel is damaged, pieces are missing, food is ground into the carpet, cigarette burns in the seats. it's as if they have already given up and know the only way for them to get out of debt is to file for bankruptcy.

saw one that made me laugh... "we finance EVERYONE!! (OAC)"....

so which is it?

[quadzilla]

"No credit application refused"

Well of course not.

[Fobroader]

lately i've had so many people that are trying to trade in cars with high interest loans... what kills me is that their cars are the roughest ones i see... every panel is damaged, pieces are missing, food is ground into the carpet, cigarette burns in the seats. it's as if they have already given up and know the only way for them to get out of debt is to file for bankruptcy.

saw one that made me laugh... "we finance EVERYONE!! (OAC)"....

so which is it?

Yeah, they finance everyone....that has approved credit 

[blotter]

see the best (worse) internet banner ad earlier.

Truck + Trailer COMBO DEAL!!!!!!   both for only $129 - all in payment

I clicked on it for giggles:
Headline said 2014 Truck and Trailer COMBO _ LOW PRICE

but details say:
2013 RAM 1500 SLT Hemi 4x4 (note: previous rental)
2014 Heatland Wilderness WD2875BH
(call for location)

note: **Specifications, equipment, technical date, photographs and floor plans are based on information available at time of posting and are subject to change without notice. To verify current product information, please contact


while the banner ad showed a payment.... the actual ad not only doesn't show any payment / financing information but there are NO prices.   

but there is a link for financing from "drivetoday.ca"

[tooscoops]

weekly for 84 plus taxes my guess....

what a deal!

[blotter]

new Honda ads that show a Pilot and Ridgeline with the words $5000 off

yet taking me forever to figure on the their website that only a specific Ridgeline trim is available at $3000 off

[Northernridge]

new Honda ads that show a Pilot and Ridgeline with the words $5000 off

yet taking me forever to figure on the their website that only a specific Ridgeline trim is available at $3000 off

FWIW we got exactly $7,000 off of ours when we bought it. My wife negotiated the deal (she was evil) I would have accepted a $4K discount.

[johngenx]

I see lots of ads from B3 dealers with "$1,000,000 CASH DISCOUNTS"

Of course the fine print (barely) shows that the discount is only applicable on your purchase of a new AirBus A380.

[Julie]

I had a friend/acquaintance that worked for one of the largest banks in the world, his job was to think-tank how to get people who couldn't afford to take on credit card debt to take on credit cards and then go into debt permanently. That isn't an exaggeration, that is exactly what his job task entailed. Get people who shouldn't take out loans and debt to do so and then keep them in debt for the rest of their lives making minimal payments. It wasn't even entirely necessary that those debts get paid back, because the bank could then turn around and leverage that debt and claim it as money they have coming in (even if it never did) to take out loans of their own.

OMG. 

[phazotron]

One thing I noticed about ads for used cars is that they all seem to be "Loaded", then they list the stuff that is pretty much standard equipment for most vehicles sold today. e.g. automatic, power windows, AC, etc...

[tooscoops]

i was going over our autotrader ads this morning... i usually do the text for those.. but our dealer principal has started throwing some"eye grabbing" stuff in there....

noticed "loaded" on multiple ones.... with three !!! no less.... yet they were base or close to base cars... apparently loaded is auto, air, power windows/lock/mirrors...

[blotter]

One thing I noticed about ads for used cars is that they all seem to be "Loaded", then they list the stuff that is pretty much standard equipment for most vehicles sold today. e.g. automatic, power windows, AC, etc...

Good catch. I was looking at the paper today and noticed that every car was "loaded", didn't matter if was a "plane jane" model or a fancy SUV. Yeah, standard equipment means its loaded.

oh ya, Volkwagen started that a while back. 
a big headline stating "42 standard features"  or something like that.

[quadzilla]

VW dealer can't even get the model right.