Car prices - real world vs listed prices/part ex values

If you're 'nervous', why do you need to change at the current time?

Forget what a dealer may or may not attempt to sell your car for. That is irrelevant to you.

What matters to you is what they BUY your car for, from you. Becuase thats what affects your cost to change.

Get on motorway/WBAC/go drop in your local dealer and simply find out what they will give you. Then you can make your informed decision.

If you’re ‘nervous’, why do you need to change at the current time?

Not 'nervous' at all - just wanted to get some real world examples of what the car market is doing compared to advertised prices.

It'll be the main factor affecting if I change. If I only get £16k for mine and a new car is £28k then that's a no go, but if I can get £20k for mine then that changes things.

I'm in the position where I don't 'need' to change though which is good for getting the best price for mine.

just had to deal with this -- sort of.

Skoda Kamiq 1.5 DSG SE L written off in december, 18 months old, 27k miles. cost of similar spec/age/mileage replacements at dealers/autotrader etc (when i could find one) - approx £22500. insurers offered £20750 as they found ONE similarly priced somewhere like cinch or someplace, AND that was the book value. i checked and there was one on sale at that price with a slightly highr mileage.

WBAC were still offering £19500 so pretty much had to accept that £20750 was the best offer i'd get.

2nd hand prices are crazy right now, new cars on long lead times, nearly new depreciating a lot slower than previously.

Just sold my Skoda Fabia to a dealer (via a private add on Autotrader)...
I purchased it in 21 for 12k
Sold to dealer for 11k (I had put 4k miles on it)
Dealer has put it up for 13k

Not sure if any of that helps. I think some people are trying it on but a car is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. Good time to sell as long as you don't need to buy a replacement! (we have gone from 3 to 2 vehicles).

Put the reg of the one for sale and your reg into WBAC - that +£1-1.5k is around the market value of the car. You'll know the absolute base price it can be sold for. Then you can upwards from there looking at the market and whats available.

Car values seem to be all over the place at the moment, has anyone sold privately/traded in/bought a newish car recently and can comment on what the market is doing?

As above, deprecation is slow, new prices are higher, nothing looks like changing for a few years.

I bought recently. Mine was under book price, but not by that much. Cazoo, if that helps, they were fairly keenly priced and meant I could look nationwide.

Also, I couldn't find much at all that was <3yrs and <30k. I did find <5yrs and <20k though.

I do think quite a number of people are flying a flag and seeing if they get a bite.

I do think quite a number of people are flying a flag and seeing if they get a bite.

Yeah I think there is a lot of that, especially in the private sales.

Ok, WBAC for my car gives £16800.

An example of a car I'm looking at, gives WBAC price of £22700, advertised for £26000.

So yeah, around £18-19k for mine privately would be a realistic price, and I'd hope for a grand less as part ex. Which is about what I was expecting.

Fyi, I paid £18,500 from a main dealer in October 2019 for my car.

the autotrader swingometer of doom compares to other advertised prices. it suggests that £20kish is a typical price.

if you partx it you should expect to see it re-sold for ~10% more than you sold it for.

Speaking more generally with dealer vs. private sales, I'd expect you'd see private prices lower as they are more responsive to demand than dealers who have money sunk into stock and need to secure a certain margin (or at least not take a bath).

That certainly seems to be the case with vans at the mo, though obvs there are some rather ambitious private prices which are unlikely to be met.

It's all relative - I'd not be worried at what price a dealer put my car up for, as long as the overall deal suited me.

And let's be honest there aren't many people prepared to spend £20k+ privately (unless it's niche or rare vehicle) - too many risks and no comeback.

We sold my wifes Seat Ibiza to a dealer through motorway. Got £16001 (Only paid £15000 for it new in 2021) and the new dealer have sold it already at £18k

I traded in a Polo last year. I thought I’d get £6k private sale or £4.5k - £5k trade in. I didn’t want to sell privately as there were a couple of things wrong and didn’t want hassles with private buyers. Was surprised and happy when the main dealer gave me £6k for it.

Worth remembering that wbac will low ball the values of certain cars that they don't really want to deal with. Would be fine with mainstream cars like Superbs etc, but not so good for others e.g. old petrol cars with big engines etc - at least that is my understanding of how they operate

Yeah, that should correlate to what's selling well though, big 5.0l v8's probably aren't too hot right now 🤣

I think in general part ex prices are fairly decent - ie not worth the hassle of going private to get another £1k. Not sure what there is in terms of haggling on used cars, when I bought my Superb they knocked £500 off and that was it. Does the old trick of taking out finance then cancelling it within 14 days get you a better deal?

Yeah, that should correlate to what’s selling well though, big 5.0l v8’s probably aren’t too hot right now

Indeed. However, I sold my bigger 6.0l V8 within a week to a dealer (private sale) so anything can happen 🤣

not worth the hassle of going private to get another £1k. Not sure what there is in terms of haggling on used cars, when I bought my Superb they knocked £500 off and that was it. Does the old trick of taking out finance then cancelling it within 14 days get you a better deal?

Cost-to-change is always the one I worry about rather than focus on getting a higher trade-in or money off the vehicle I'm buying. One offsets the other. I didn't get any price reduction buying my silly V8 years ago, but I did get a tremendous trade-in value for my old car. So tremendous that the dealer ended up dropping the advertised price on my old car to less than the trade-in value he gave me. I think he was just relieved to get rid of the old, thirsty, rusty V8 TBH.

Id be keeping what you got and putting the 'new car ' money in the savings account.
Saying this as owner of a 2011 skoda superb estate with 135k on it. And I'm a tight arse.

Cost-to-change is always the one I worry about rather than focus on getting a higher trade-in or money off the vehicle I’m buying.

Completely agree and it's this that will determine whether or not I do change.

The cars I'm looking at seem to be £25-27k and £10k to change would be my absolute upper limit. I'd prefer more like £6k, though.

We sold my wifes Seat Ibiza to a dealer through motorway. Got £16001 (Only paid £15000 for it new in 2021) and the new dealer have sold it already at £18k

@Renton - how was Motorway to deal with?

@Renton – how was Motorway to deal with?

Absolutely fine to be honest.

All communication was good and they came when they said they would etc.

Would definitely use again.

^ ta

Id be keeping what you got and putting the ‘new car ‘ money in the savings account.
Saying this as owner of a 2011 skoda superb estate with 135k on it. And I’m a tight arse.

That's definitely an option, I don't buy things without really, really thinking about it - which does make me a bit of a tightarse too.

My car is fully paid for, zero owing on it. But I'm doing minimal miles each year (4500 last year between MOTs) with round 75% of that being MTB trips or driving places to ride and I'd like something that's more suited for its main purpose and gives me more flexibility in being able to go away for a weekend.

I could change cars just using savings or I could get a cheap rate loan and I'd not really notice the monthly payments. I am currently putting away a large chunk of money a month towards getting a hefty sized house deposit together, however it's not like money spent on a car is lost, I'll still have an asset worth 15-20k in a few years time which I can sell to add to my deposit fund if required. Obviously it'll lose money rather than gain it compared to savings but that's no different to the £17-18k I have sat on the driveway at the moment.

In your situation I'd keep the car if it's running fine and you're happy with it. Especially if you are saving for a house deposit.

And a car is never an asset - unless its a Ferrari 250 GTO! 🙂

I sold my A6 last year with motorway. No hassles, just be very thorough with any damage and pictures of it.

In your situation I’d keep the car if it’s running fine and you’re happy with it. Especially if you are saving for a house deposit.

And a car is never an asset – unless its a Ferrari 250 GTO!

It is running fine, and I'm very happy with it - but on the other hand it's no longer ideally suited for its main use.

When I bought it I was coming from a 2006 Legacy with 22mpg and impending costs, and I was doing 10-15k miles a year, with 7k of that being commuting to work, another 2k general usage then 3-5k MTB trips.

Now, it's 4-5k on MTB trips and maybe 1-2k on other usage. I commute 1 day a month, less than 250 miles a year...

Anyway that's something for me to decide, if I can find a good enough deal and I'm happy with the slight downgrade on a new car along with the cost to change over...

I’ll still have an asset worth 15-20k in a few years

Prices are only high as new car manufacturing as at a 60year low (according to R4 today) due to lack of semiconductor supply. Once that catches up/new manufacturing options come on stream the arse will fall out of used car prices.

The current prices are just absolutely insane and not sustainable.

I commute 1 day a month, less than 250 miles a year…

Well you could knock that on the head too, it's only 10 miles each way, go on your bike! 😁

My car is fully paid for, zero owing on it. But I’m doing minimal miles each year (4500 last year between MOTs) with round 75% of that being MTB trips or driving places to ride and I’d like something that’s more suited for its main purpose

What am I missing? I'd have thought a largeish estate car is ideal for biking trips?

Although if it was me, I'd probably want something about a decade older than that, so I wasn't worried about trashing it...

Car adverts tell you what someone is trying to sell a car for, not what it sells for.

Keep it.

My Saloon car is 22 now. Still goes etc, has satnav and a reversing camera so 'current'. I don't use it much, other than in summer for hauling bikes, or long drives. Did 3k miles last year. I cycle to work.

What am I missing? I’d have thought a largeish estate car is ideal for biking trips?

Basically, bike has to go on the towbar carrier whenever I drive anywhere to ride, which isn't an issue as such, and if I'm just taking 1 bike and not much luggage it'll go in the boot.

But, on longer trips the boot is full of luggage/bike kit so getting a single bike inside is a pain, forget 2 bikes which I like to take on 1-2 week trips. If I can't put the bikes inside I'm then limited to accomodation with bike storage which is really hard to find in most areas. Can't camp with the bikes on the rack, and can't stay at a cheap hotel overnight say, on the way back from Torridon to Kent. In remote Scotland I'm fine with bikes on the back but not regularly.

So, a van/van based MPV would let me drive to ride easier (no extra faff with attaching the boot rack etc), would open up about 2x/3x the amount of accommodation to stay at when I've got a bike or 2 with me and/or on longer trips and would let me sleep in the van alongside a bike meaning I can use campsites at £10-30 a night Vs Airbnb/hotels at £60-100 a night. Which all means I can sod off to Wales/Peaks etc for a weekend at a moment's notice with just a campsite booking needed. This year I want to get away more and ride loads more places in the UK.

I've considered a roof tent for my car, but the crux is the only way I can get my bike in the car is front wheel off, laid down - and if I've got my normal couple of boxes of riding gear, plus a weekend bag etc it's really not ideal. And a roof tent is £3k with some roof bars.

^some good Man maths in action!

Keep using whatever car you have, step away from the rooftent/camping idea, stay in a hotel/b&b and save the money for your house deposit.

Keep using whatever car you have, step away from the rooftent/camping idea, stay in a hotel/b&b and save the money for your house deposit.

I've considered that too, and in places like the Tweed valley it's not an issue finding somewhere to stay with storage, but other places it's a massive pain. I'm up in Torridon for a few nights before a guided trip up there and when booking a place for 3 days I could not find anywhere with storage.

I haven't worked out where I'm going to stay on the drive back, I'll probably put the bikes in the boot with the bike carrier still on the car and hope it's OK in a cheap hotel somewhere.

In general it limits my choice of places to stay massively.

A couple of bike bags and store your bikes in your hotel room?

I haven’t worked out where I’m going to stay on the drive back

Travelodges - bikes in room.

big estate?
seats down
front wheels off
both bikes in
job jobbed

or, travelodge as mentioned, bike in room

I’d look at pricing to sell on evans halshaw & cazoo both are reported to be paying more than wbac at present, obviously be honest on the car’s condition to avoid chipping.

Travelodge - bikes in room

Are they generally OK with this? Tbh it's been ages since I've stayed in one and it was for work so never posed the question. Would make life easier for sure.

What bags are people using (for a 1350mm wheelbase Geometron G1 29er)?

Not sure about Travelodge but Premier Inn are fine with bikes in the room, their policy is as long as the bikes are clean and it causes no damage. I use Premier Inns a lot for this reason.

I have almost encyclopedic knowledge of the closest premier inn to a riding destination. Shame it doesn't come up in the pub quiz 🙂

And let’s be honest there aren’t many people prepared to spend £20k+ privately (unless it’s niche or rare vehicle) – too many risks and no comeback.

This, very much so. Last time I tried to sell a car that was worth a decent amount privately I researched how much it was realistically worth, posted it up for around that and got absolutely no interest. Dropped the price a few times before I finally sold it to a bloke who turned out to be a dealer for basically PX money.

TBF I wouldn't spend 10k+ on a private sale either, unless it was a niche car.