I found a car on Craigslist that says it’s $0. Should I avoid that car? It could probably be a scam.
The reason for this:
Many years ago, Craigslist USED to sort by price. So people would put $0 to be at the top. Absolutely stupid IMO.
Nowadays, people put $0 to keep people from scrolling past their ad because they want you to click on it before you see they want too much. That, or they are only looking to trade. Not a scam, but shady advertising.
If an ad shows $0, I scroll right past it.
Lots of cars say $0 you have to click on the listing for the real price they just put it like that half the listings are like that anyways lol usually they are like for example 7000 on autotrader but listed as 0 on craigslist and says 7000 in the description. Doesn't really mean anything.
Anything can be a scam, can you put the listing?
ITS A SCAM
https://www.search-vehicles.com/detail/elantra/2010-Hyundai-Elantra-NO-RESERVE-38K-ORIGINAL_174632879674.html
ITS AN AUCTION CAR, they didn't say it was in the listing.
I flagged the listing
@kerem
Calm down. They're just selling it on both ebay and craiglist, which isn't uncommon. The ebay reserve hasn't been met.
@mountainmanjoe
Isn't it odd that they aren't saying it is an auction car? To me thats a scam and saying "This gorgeous little economy vehicle belonged to a very dear friend of our family.The administrator of the estate has asked us to handle the sale.The vehicle is 100% original and has NO issues." seems misleading.
no it's not odd , because the craigslist ad isn't an auction. Maybe if you make an offer they like, they'll sell it to you and take down the ebay listing.
Or, when the ebay auction ends tomorrow, they will sell it, and take down the craigslist ad.
You guys love drama don't you.
Definitely lol
Lol @mountainmanjoe. Reading your posts is always like reading my own thoughts typed by someone else. I'm with you on this.
good. I'm not crazy then. Or maybe we both are.
I seriously doubt anyone's gonna be giving away any cars on craigslist. Only car I ever gave away was a driving Saturn SL1 with 330K miles, and that was to Goodwill in exchange for some baseball tickets.
Probably best to move on.
Every time I refer to that Saturn, I think I add 5K to the odometer 🤣 ... Great car though.
Edit: After looking at that listing, that is very likely a scam.
Arthritis. Cheeze whiz. What'l they think of next.
I’d be curious how many miles it really had by the end. I had a 1991 (?) SL1 that I bought new for my wife. Back when Saturn really was a different kind of car company. Great little car, too bad the unions killed it.
@Dad2pwd Right around 330K. 1997 SL1, whatever the base trim was with the crank windows. Great car. Only GM product I've ever personally owned, and it has been great.
Which is more likely?
- someone is giving away a free car
- someone was too careless to fill out the price
- other reasons.
And you believe it?
Can you attach the listing?
in the mean time, I have 2 cars I’m selling for $1.00
oooo two for one deal
I emailed the sellers. They said
"This is an estate sale,best offer takes it,thanks"
it just sold on eBay for $6,400
That ain't too shabby for the seller (at least before the Ebay commission)
That's a lot of money for a 11 year old Korean car. I wish the buyer the best of luck.
It might mean $0 down because delaers also advertise on craigslist because craigslist costs nothing to advertise on, as carfax and cargurus have pre fees to list your vehicles. Click on the ad and it will say the price somewhere in the ad. You will never get anything free in America; especially not cars. Cars have certain values and if you see someone on craigslist posting an ad that is way lower that the car's value, it is most likely a scam. If there is no number and just an email, it is most likely a scam. If there is just one phony picture and barely any description of the car, it is a scam.
maybe you should read the other comments. It was listed without a price because it was "best offer takes it".
And please explain how scam car ad on Craigslist works. So , the seller spends a bunch of time making an ad, posting pics etc. Then someone replies "I want your car. Would you take x dollars". And then ....... ?
Oh. It works by them selling it to you without a title, or with different mileage than it says on the odometer, hidden records of the vehicle, or the car could have been extremely wrecked and this wasn't listed in the car's history. THIS is why they make you think you get such a deal but it is probably a piece of junk. You can scam as much as you want because craigslist is free, unlike the other trusted used cars sites.
oh ok. well selling crappy cars is nothing new. "scam" to me means there is no car.
"If there is no number and just an email, it is most likely a scam"
I don't agree. Some people just don't want to give out there numbers , or get stalked after the sale. I don't put my phone number on ads. I wait until I get a serious buyer, and then I give them my number.
Is there such a thing as a "trusted used car site?"
Any ad saying 0 or 12345 or some garbage means you are likely dealing with an idiot (I wanted to type an expletive starting with A) who isn't going to be worth dealing with. Either you know what you want or you dont, or you are trying to sucker someone. I hate ads that waste my time, and for that very reason I would avoid it. Now, in the unlikely event that the person really meant 0 to get it out of their yard, I would take a serious look at what they were selling and decide if they were really serious. I've given away a few cars in my lifetime, one that I was tired of putting money into and another to help someone out. So it's possible, just unlikely.
at least they should have written "O.B.O." in the price
Exactly. Not that hard. I get especially irritated at listings with "I KNOW WHAT I HAVE" when they are listing some pile of rusted out crap that has some 'redeeming' feature, like a late 70s/early 80s beat up camaro limousine I saw once some guy was asking a mint for.
No sweat off my back. Let some other sucker lose his shirt on it.