The Jensen Owners' Club

Over the years, there have been quite a few examples of poor Jensen for sale adverts. Thought it might be worth sharing some thoughts. What jars most when you see a poor advert?

Mine include:

Not fully closing the bonnet before taking the picture. Suggesting the bonnet is a poor fit (which of course it might be!)

Mentioning the fatal words 'no expense spared in attending to every detail during the restoration' - only to fit, for example, the wrong Radio /8-track, or black wiper blades to the stainless arms.

Leaving oily hand marks on the door cards when photographing the car at some aspirational location.

You get the idea, let's help each other by sharing our no nos...

Mine musing is usually found on an auction site or Car & Classic.

90% Copy & Paste and just a few lines about the car in question.

Another has to be ‘Princess Anne had one’

Back to the BBQ

John P

Princess Ann had one.

Has to be my biggest gripe

I've even seen this in an Auto magazine last year. Donuts

For sale, Jensen Interceptor

I tried to spell Jensen with an o’ but for some reason it corrects the spelling when posted.

What about when they list.. power steering, alloys, air-con, leather trim etc.. all the stuff that is all Standard anyway!!!

The cars I find funny are what some people think is '' fully restored'' In some cases it means a lot of filler before a fresh blow over so it looks good to the unsuspecting.

A car I went to look at last year for a potential buyer had this description. What he missed out was when it was '' fully restored'' I think it was done about 25 years ago as there was not one feature of this car that looked any good and the test drive was an eye opener, the brakes were terrible, the gearbox only had 2 of its gears, the engine felt like it was running on 5 or maybe 6 cylinders, the interior had the consistency of cardboard and the only electrical things I could find that worked was the drivers window and the rev counter. He had an explanation for everything of course and when I parked it up one of the hoses let go so it was enveloped in a cloud of steam. On the plus side it did not look that rusty in all the usual places but we know how deceptive they can be at hiding this. The price £40k and apparently with a bit of work it will be worth twice that.

Needles to say the buyer didn't even make an offer.

Steve

My gripe is POA, give us a clue as to what you want for it. Why should I have to make a call, at my cost, to ask you what stupid price you are asking for it.

Wish I could have a BBQ and a drink , working flat out at the moment, and as from next Thursday will be doing 4 on & 4 off shifts including nights. Getting bits done on the cars, but is slow going at the moment. Have the whole fuel lines and tank out at the moment, sorting the pipes, fuel and brake, from front to back, getting them secured properly on the brackets, instead of all cable tied together .

Most of mine have been mentioned already.

Back wiper blades drive me mad as they look so wrong, but are very easy and cheap to change, lazy copy and paste of useless information and POA.

I must add cars that have been restored then hardly used over many years, what was the point if you are just going to look at it.

Kevin Birch wrote:My gripe is POA, give us a clue as to what you want for it. Why should I have to make a call, at my cost, to ask you what stupid price you are asking for it.

Wish I could have a BBQ and a drink , working flat out at the moment, and as from next Thursday will be doing 4 on & 4 off shifts including nights. Getting bits done on the cars, but is slow going at the moment. Have the whole fuel lines and tank out at the moment, sorting the pipes, fuel and brake, from front to back, getting them secured properly on the brackets, instead of all cable tied together .

Hats off to Kev, your doing a grand job at the NEC.

Also make sure you post plenty of pictures of the copper fuel lines.

This is something I have been collecting from actual advertisements for a while.

"Genuine reason for sale" - always seems a stupid thing to say.
"no current MOT, but will pass one"
"was running when last on the road"
“Was once a daily driver.”
“Car hasn't run in quite a while, but looks like it would.”
“Worth a lot more when finished.”
“I’ve seen worse.”
“If I personally was looking for a restoration project this would be it!”
“Ran well before parked”

A phrase I've seen recurring recently is "original miles".
What would be an unoriginal mile?

Richie wrote:A phrase I've seen recurring recently is "original miles".
What would be an unoriginal mile?

A Welsh one? Or a Country one?

A favourite of mine is “previous owner a Doctor” im not sure why that would add anything to its value.

DPP wrote:A favourite of mine is “previous owner a Doctor” im not sure why that would add anything to its value.

And also a school teacher, would probably be badly maintained going by some of the teachers cars I know of.

Steve