Accurate car valuations?

Soldato
Joined
27 Aug 2003
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9,799
Location
West Midlands
Hey guys,

What's the best place for accurate car valuations these days? Or who has access to a decent valuation service?

Looking to potentially buy a car off a friend for "less than it's worth" but want to be sure :)

Thanks.
 
Associate
Joined
19 May 2009
Posts
1,508
Location
Nottingham
Yeah WBAC is above what he's asking for it - but can't help but not trust WBAC :D

I've always found we buy any car to offer increadibly low values in my experience. I ran my 66 plate mondeo through it just out of curiosity at one point and the price offered was a good 25% lower than the chepaest current equivalent offered on auto trader. Whilst I appreciate you would try and haggle down when buying I always though WBAC were essentially offering the lowest you would every be likely to get as a trade off for the convenience. If your getting the chance to buy a car for less than WBAC offer then I'd have thought that's the chepaest you are every likely to get that car for. Paticualrey as you could but it, then sell it to WBAC the same day for a profit!
 
Caporegime
Joined
17 Jul 2010
Posts
25,659
WBAC give a very cheap price, it goes through the auction at £500 more than they've bought it for, or maybe £1k depending on age/condition etc. The used car dealer then puts another £1k on the price and hopes there's nothing terminal wrong with it to eat into that profit.

My car (62 Plate Mk 3 Focus Zetec S Ecoboost 182, just ticked over 60k miles) is on WBAC for £5,110. There are older Mk 2 Focuses (Focii?) with higher miles up for more money both privately and from a dealer. This one is very similar. Same age and roughly same mileage but mine doesn't have the red interior (thankfully. Ewww), heated seats or rear parking sensors. Both very rare options but unlikely to make a huge difference in the price, perhaps £200. Mine does have four still good Continental tyres though!

It's up for a £5 shy of £7k. I wouldn't expect to see a car similar to mine for less than £6k easily, more likely £6.5k and perhaps beat the dealer down by a couple of hundred. There's £1k or more in there to be split between WBAC and the dealer.
 
Soldato
Joined
8 Nov 2006
Posts
22,966
Location
London
Buying and selling cars and valuing cars are not the same thing. How do you not get that?

What determines value other than buying and selling?

On a slightly separate note, someone that buys and sells cars probably knows more about the value of the cars they trade in than some computer algorithm.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
159,534
What determines value other than buying and selling?

On a slightly separate note, someone that buys and sells cars probably knows more about the value of the cars they trade in than some computer algorithm.

They are trading cars in based largely on what that algorithm says...
 
Soldato
Joined
19 Oct 2008
Posts
5,949
Ebay sold prices for similar cars.
Yep. I've not looked at ebay recently but could also stick on ebay auctions and let the market determine it's value.
Difficult to accurately value a car until someone buys it . It's worth as much as someone is willing to pay within the timeframe someone wishes to sell. Want a quick sale without too many timewasters? Slap a low value on it.
I used autotrader valuation recently and for the trade-in value it was actually a little less than a dealer offered me, but only £100 or so in it.
 
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Soldato
Joined
8 Nov 2006
Posts
22,966
Location
London
They are trading cars in based largely on what that algorithm says...

I'm not saying the algorithm is crap. But the idea that traders rigidly stick to that algorithm for cars they actually know about, that isn't true.

Even WBAC deviates from Glass valuations (positively and negatively) based on their own experience.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Feb 2006
Posts
3,919
Location
Lincolnshire
I've always found we buy any car to offer increadibly low values in my experience. I ran my 66 plate mondeo through it just out of curiosity at one point and the price offered was a good 25% lower than the chepaest current equivalent offered on auto trader. Whilst I appreciate you would try and haggle down when buying I always though WBAC were essentially offering the lowest you would every be likely to get as a trade off for the convenience. If your getting the chance to buy a car for less than WBAC offer then I'd have thought that's the chepaest you are every likely to get that car for. Paticualrey as you could but it, then sell it to WBAC the same day for a profit!
Just valued my car with both autotrader and WBAC and there was a £2k difference with WBAC coming out the best....
 
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