Writing a car listing description that matches the photos (and gets fewer time-wasters)
The photos get the click; the description decides who calls. How to write a used car description that answers the first three questions, matches what the pictures show and filters out the wrong buyers.
Answer the first three questions in the first two lines
Before anything else, a buyer wants the price, the mileage and a one-line summary of condition. Put them at the top, in plain words: "2019, 42,000 miles, two owners, full service history, a few stone chips on the bonnet." Everything a buyer would ask in the first phone call should be in the first two lines, so the call can be about a viewing instead.
Describe what the photos show, in the same order
Walk through the car the way the photos do: outside, inside, boot, details. If the photos lead with a front three-quarter and then the side, the description should mention the paint and the wheels before the seats. A buyer reading and scrolling at the same time should find the words and the pictures agree.
Say what is wrong, specifically
Not "some marks commensurate with age". Say "scuff on the rear bumper corner, about the size of a hand, shown in photo 14". Specific disclosure reads as honesty. Vague disclosure reads as a hint that something is being hidden. The honest photos principle applies to the words as much as the pictures.
Cut the adjectives
Immaculate, stunning, pristine, must be seen. Every listing says it, so none of it means anything, and it makes the specific claims around it less believable. Replace each adjective with a fact. "Immaculate interior" becomes "no wear on the driver's seat bolster, carpets unmarked". Facts sell; superlatives get skimmed.
List the options that matter, not all of them
Buyers care about heated seats, a reversing camera, adaptive cruise, a tow bar, the sound system and whichever features the model is known for. They do not care about the option code for the colour of the roof lining. Pick the eight or ten features that would change a buyer's mind and list those.
State the history plainly
Number of owners, service history (full, partial, or none), when the MOT or inspection runs out, whether there is a spare key, and anything on the history check a buyer would find anyway. If it was a category write-off that has been repaired, say so up front; the history check will say it anyway.
Write it for a phone screen
Most listings are read on a phone, in a queue, in a hurry. Short paragraphs, one idea each. Line breaks between the sections. No block of capitals. If the platform allows it, use a short list for the options rather than running them into a sentence.
End with the next step
Say how to see the car and what to bring: "Viewing by appointment, seven days a week, test drives with a licence." A clear instruction at the end turns a reader into a caller.
Make the words match the lot
Use the same structure on every listing: summary, condition, inside, options, history, next step. When all your descriptions read the same way, buyers who have opened one of your cars know how to read the rest, and the stock list looks like one business, the same way a consistent set of photos does.
Most car descriptions are either a paragraph of capital letters about how immaculate the car is, or a copied list of every option code from the spec sheet. Neither helps a buyer decide. A good description works with the photos: it tells the buyer what they have just seen, answers the questions the pictures cannot, and says plainly what is wrong with the car. Here is how to write one in ten minutes.
Price, mileage and condition first. Follow the photos. Be specific about the marks. Swap adjectives for facts. Short paragraphs, clear ending, same shape every time. It is not clever writing. It is the writing that gets the right people to call.