Craigslist wouldn't allow this critical post to stay up on their car sales site !!! Buyer tries to tell sellers what bothers buyers. Ad got flagged !

Car listed as if it is somehow repairable and driveable.

I put an ad on Craigslist because I and my girlfriend are tired of dealing with people who sell  cars and don't remove the ads, people who don't return emails or calls, people who sell wrecked cars as being in good shape for premium prices, etc.

Yet a post which seemed to make perfect sense to me, was removed by CL because someone didn't like a BUYER being critical of the practices by car sellers.

The ad talked about people who sell cars with no engines, no transmissions, non working batteries or systems and who try to sell them as if there is nothing wrong with them.

Furthermore, cars that have been in accidents are sold as if the damage is of no import even when the buyer is going to have to pay a lot of money to fix the car should they buy it.

I guess someone on CL objected to the idea of constructive criticism of car sellers. Maybe even Craigslist itself.

Here's what I said :

A message to car sellers :

This guy wants $ 1500 for the above car even though it's probably not repairable, even though he could sell it for parts.

We've been saving up for a used Prius and have noticed some things that really bother us.

1)  IF your car doesn't run, you shouldn't try to be getting top dollar for it.

    IF you've had the engine fried, the battery system or the transmission, the car is going to need a lot of expensive repair.

    It also means that you shouldn't expect top dollar if the car is missing an engine, battery system or transmission, which I've seen far too often.

    LOWER the price.

     I saw one today where the seller was trying to sell it as if it was a primo car, yet the entire left back door was crushed in.

    IF it's been hit. LOWER the price.

    A lot !

2)   I see ads where the entire ad is in Spanish,
      While California may seem to have become a province of Mexico or part of Latin America, most buyers aren't there yet.
      Put the ad in ENGLISH, please !

      If you don't know any ENGLISH, get an English speaking friend to help you write your ad.

3)  Some sellers have it set up so that the only way to contact them is either using CL's email or their personal email.  The problem with that is that all too frequently they don't answer their email for days, don't answer it at all or if they have a phone number, don't answer their phone either.
      This drives buyers nuts as a lot of sellers take forever to answer emails as well.
       Answer your emails and do it promptly.
       There might be someone who NEEDS a car, has the cash ready and is ready to buy yours/
       Also, this IS the day of  voice mail, unlimited long distance calling, and it's a lot easier for someone to get a hold of you if they can call you. Playing voice mail or email tag with someone is annoying as hell and wastes the time of the buyer who could be moving on to purchase another car if they can't buy yours because YOU won't answer messages.

4)   IF you're selling a car, don't put $ 12 as the price of the car instead of $12000. Its dishonest and misleading. How hard is it to type out the full price ?

5)   IF your car has been in an accident, it's going to take a lot of money to repair it.
      Don't expect to get top dollar for it.
      Lower the price.

6)   If the car is leaking oil, transmission fluid, water, has a bad battery or battery system is not a good car. It's going to take money to fix. Please be honest and let people know the full condition of the car and don't expect to sell it for full value just because it's a Prius with some " issues ".
       We once bought a Saturn on CL & they guy told us the AC ran cool and he had spilled some coolant on the engine but it ran fine.
       We were naive enough to believe him and the car's engine seized after 2 months and died.
       Never again.

7)    Finally, people on and off here are selling Prius'es for waaaaaaay above what a dealer would pay for them in trade.
       As an example, we've seen a 2001 Prius that blue books for $4500 as the maximum price a dealer would pay list here for as much as $ 10000 !
      A 12 year old Prius is NOT a classic that needs restoration and is simply not worth twice blue book or more.

Thank you for your attention.

I thought the post was a reasonable one.

But someone flagged it for removal.

I can only draw the conclusion that dishonest sellers or Craigslist itself removed it because they dare not see a potential buyer list the flaws and shady practices of Craigslist sellers.

What is CL afraid of ?

Honesty ?