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I'm tempted to sell my Civic as it has a couple of fairly expensive but cosmetic issues to deal with. £6k is their offer, which isn't bad.
I also looked at Cinch for potential replacement, like a Golf estate. All of them are 2.0 engines or bigger, GTD or R series. Is there a "thing" or people offloading bigger engines potentially facing higher tax or ULEZ charges?
I have no intention of selling my car (only bought it in April or May sort of time) but curious to see what’s occurring.
Jaguar XF Sportbrake cost £18k from Cazoo - 68 plate with just over 20k on the clock. WBAC offer is £20.2k. I grabbed one of the last lower prices portfolio spec ones as I saw prices going north and glad I did now as on autotrader the cheapest identical car (spec / colour / engine)is £26.5k. Crazy!
Keen to see what my own wbac windfall would be I popped the picasso's reg into the website....
...£155
Up yours Schofield, not my fault you dont recognise a classy motor.
they offered £1105 for my Mazda 3. Which is quite a lot more than the last time I checked - but it's worth a lot more than that to me!
<blockquoteThat will hold for a while. They aren’t making any new ones at the moment ( and not for the foreseeable either). Cancelled my order recently and got full refund with no quibbles.
Yeah, our 4 year PCP is up this time next year and just had a letter from them saying if we want to change it for a new one we should think about ordering now.
Won't be though as Covid and a job change has changed our vehicle needs and we don't want to spend so much per month. Trading now would net us a good 5k so it may be possible to cut the monthly car payment altogether for while.
I have no intention of selling my car (only bought it in April or May sort of time) but curious to see what’s occurring.
Jaguar XF Sportbrake cost £18k from Cazoo – 68 plate with just over 20k on the clock. WBAC offer is £20.2k. I grabbed one of the last lower prices portfolio spec ones as I saw prices going north and glad I did now as on autotrader the cheapest identical car (spec / colour / engine)is £26.5k. Crazy!
I'm stunned frankly, I wasn't really aware of how much the market had shifted!
I bought my Car 2.5 years ago, a 2.5 year old nice spec Skoda Superb, with the slightly rare 4x4 190tdi DSG drivetrain. It had 29k miles and from a franchise dealer it cost me £19k.
If I wanted a 2.5 year old Superb in the same spec now, it would cost £5k more, in fact if I wanted to buy the same car I have now, a 5 year old Superb with 50k miles, it would cost me over £20k, technically the thing has appreciated in the time I've had it!
Okay, cars don't work like that, but I've been offered £15k for it from WBAC (prior to their usual games when you actually try to sell it to them), so I've plenty of equity in it, despite the fact I used a PCP to 'buy' it. Of course everything I fancy is so expensive now, I'd have to pay a lot more to buy the equivalent of what I have now.
Well, a scientific assessment saw me put my 2008 Galaxy (Ghia mind) to the test. Bought in March 2018 with 99k otc for £4k (about £1k below market value at the time) it now has 148k. Turns out that not only has it not increased in value, according to them it has actually decreased to a measly £1k. And that's before we get into the massive dent in the bumper (poorly positioned lamppost) and the dents/scratches on the roof/driver-side door (don't try and enter a multistorey with a bike on the roof).
So it's obviously a con
I had a nice chat yesterday with a Guy who is part of a family that run a fairly large car supermarket network here in South Wales.
They're not having a good time at the moment, they were flying through summer, couldn't buy stock fast enough but Business has now fallen off a cliff. For a while the showrooms were busy, but they couldn't sell much. Customers would be keen, happy with the test drive, but once it came to the finance bit it was "how much?!?!?" but now they're not even getting people coming through the doors.
They've cut their margin on existing stock, but if things don't pick up soon, they're be forced to start discounting further, he's worried they're holding a lot of stock they paid too much for and will have to sell at cost or lower to clear.
It's only one seller, they've got 6 sites locally, but I doubt they're alone. I suspect demand is rushing down and will meet supply pretty soon, especially with the cost of living rising so quickly.
Very interesting P-Jay, and that matches my suspicions about a lot of the things which attracted a "covid tax".
Used bike prices have definitely slumped considerably, and they are obviously more responsive to demand than motor vehicles - since there aren't typically middle-men with money tied up in stock attempting to maintain an artificially high price.
I think the house-buying boom has tailed off a lot too.
I think the house-buying boom has tailed off a lot too.
I think that too - we sold our house at the beginning of Sept - loads of interest, viewings and sold for asking price within three days.
Our buyer pulled out last week though, and interest has been very slow since going back on the market (at 5k lower) and only 3 viewings.
Very interesting P-Jay, and that matches my suspicions about a lot of the things which attracted a “covid tax”.
Yeah, I don't know if it was some concerted effort to rise prices, or just a lot of deferred purchases and post lockdown boredom meeting a lack of supply, but I think the 'party' is coming to an end, certainly in the used car world. The News is full of stories of high inflation, tax rises and even another lockdown, asking customers to pay a lot more a month at the moment is a tough sell.
I was really keen to change my car in the next few months, but I've gone right off the idea. Rather than get something flasher and a bit more fun to drive, I'm happier knowing mine has got 4 new tyres and new discs and pads on every corner, it's only me, but I suspect I'm not alone.
i bought a 2017 Golf R at the start of the year, just when prices started to rise. I got it for 25.5k, the usual suspects are offering just shy of 3k more than what i paid for it.
my buddy bought an A45S merc, waited nearly a year for it, got it at a good price of 52k. He recently sold it to WBAC for just under 54k, so basically free motoring. The same car is now for sale at a Merc dealership for 62k. Which is about 6k over list price.
Its crazy. I cant fathom that there are people out there willing to pay so much over the odds for cars (unless of course its an absolute must).
I was tempted to sell my golf, until i realised that i really like it and whatever i replaced it with, i would be paying over the odds for, so there is no financial gain.
The bubble has to pop at some point, and forecourts will be filled with cars sold at either a loss (over the inflated purchase price by the garage) or they will stay overpriced and just wont sell.
WBAC really didn't want my Merc. However just checked again and it's gone up £350 since last week!
The bubble has to pop at some point
Middle of 2023 probably. Manufacturers have slashed production plans for 2022, so there won't be any new ones even when the chip supply eases.
However just checked again and it’s gone up £350 since last week!
That's what they do though - give you the lowest price and they are quids' in if you sell.
My knackered old Mazda is now valued at £950 (originally around £750 two or three weeks ago, then went up to £850).
Those who have got offer prices today, see what happens in a month, they might go up further!!!
Have you got insider knowledge ?
I did an updated price on my van earlier and it’s coming back £1k more than last week . That’s £1300 more than i paid for it 16 months ago..
Shall I hang on a bit more 😂
My £6k valuation has now gone up to £6.5k. But I suspect they'll be a bit more nosey about a dent on the front passenger door and scratches on the bumper.
But if I go to Autotrader and add my car for a valuation against a part exchange - £7080.
Well, it appears the bubble has burst on mine, precious £23k valuation expired last week, got the reminder email to check again, now £20k! So that’s 19.5 to 23 to 20 in a month or so.
Wifes Aygo , has gone up again to £7315.... We only paid £6k for it 3 years ago 🙂 .... Its going in the next few weeks 🙂
I'm hoping the bubble does burst soonish as I need to buy a car fairly soon 😬
I took my car to WBAC for valuation last Tuesday - they said £9.4K... agreed the price and took it back to handover on Friday and they said it had gone up in value in 48 hours and would I be happy with £9.6k?
They voluntarily gave you another £200? Have they got a money tree? Barmy.
I’m hoping the bubble does burst soonish as I need to buy a car fairly soon
Most people recon it'll be 2023...energy prices, chip shortages, high demand at the bottom end of the market - none of which will abate until mid-late 2022, so 2023 until it starts to flatten/reduce.
Most people recon it’ll be 2023…
At least its value shouldn't plummet for the first year we own it then 🙄
My pcp A6 is due to go back in March after 4 years. Bubble payment is £11495. WBAC valuation is £16500. 👍😎
New EV is a lease too and if it’s delayed my work scheme has loaners I can use in the gap.
Been looking for a new car recently, not in a rush so it's looking like buying actually new from a broker will be cheaper than 'almost new and not the exact spec you want'.
@p-jay is there a small chance it's the same chain that sold @molgrips his infamous merc? Might be a starter for ten 🤣
@squirrelking in times of short supply lots of brokers are selling still but getting a lot less vehicles than sold/expected/promised. Many folks have got no car at the last minute, just told to reorder with a price hike and join the queue again. Not saying all but don't 100% rely on it.
Fair warning, thanks. Probably not going for anything wild but will bear that in mind regardless. Not desperate either which helps.
My knackered old Mazda is now valued at £950 (originally around £750 two or three weeks ago, then went up to £850).
It's gone up again - £1,180 now. Unfortunately I would need another car and those are going up equally quickly - £6,500 for an eight year old Fiesta with a similar milage as the Mazda. A year ago I was looking at 3-4 year old ones for that price.
£6,500 for an eight year old Fiesta
Really?! When I started driving k was buying nine or ten year old stuff for a couple of hundred (not that long ago!)
I've not looked for ages as my current one is working well, but eek!!!
WBAC only offering £150 for my 2004 Golf TDI with 193k miles and 3weeks of an unpassasble MOT left, enough dog hair to make yourself some fuzzy slippers and mud all over the headlining from doggo shaking once he gets in the car. 🤷🏼♂️
Rusty
I just got £280 for my 1999 gti 1.8t 208k miles from the local scrap-pick-your-car-up people!
It was one of the ones that recycles as much as they can (by law) and makes the profit margin off the cat
The guy was telling me in the past month (I'm in Hertfordshire) he's been to pick up all sorts of reasonably new cars, eg quite a few sub 10 year old low mileage premium German diesel cars to just go to scrap, the owners all saying "ULEZ". He reckons they've scrapped hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of cars the last couple of weeks. Because it's a scrappage scheme they are not allowed to sell them - they have to be taken apart for metal plastics etc. Madness
Rusty
I just got £280 for my 1999 gti 1.8t 208k miles from the local scrap-pick-your-car-up people!
I paid £400 for it in March - gonna try and break even, or I might rebuild it as I really like it
Stockpiling cars - reducing supply would surely raise the prices of those actually available. There will be a point where simply not releasing cars to market will make absolute commercial sense.
There will be a point where simply not releasing cars to market will make absolute commercial sense.
Really? Surely not selling stock hurts a business more than an increased price?
We're already in a period of short supply for other reasons, prices are already up.
There will be a point where simply not releasing cars to market will make absolute commercial sense.
They would need to:
Be big enough to actually affect the market
Have enough cash lying around to pay day to day bills
Have enough cash lying around to keep buying more stock
.
Especially risky with what is (usually) a depreciating asset.
I'm not saying it's not doable, but I suspect that if they've got a load of stock just as the prices have shot up they've just got lucky rather than deliberately caused this.
Took the wife's Toyota Aygo in today, they had a quick look around it , didn't even open the car to look inside , no test drive etc .. offered me the full amount minus the admin fee straight away , no knocking the price down etc .... Ended up with £1300 more than I paid for it 3 years ago !
Quite a painless experience , and a happy customer 🙂
Stockpiling cars – reducing supply would surely raise the prices of those actually available.
Last Monday I think there were twelve transporters took full loads away from the second site I work on, plus two more from the main site, so at least 126 cars, depending on how many each truck could carry. Most of the transporters were Cinch/BCA. all of those cars were rejected, as not worth refurbishment. I’ll leave it there. 😉
Ended up with £1300 more than I paid for it 3 years ago !
Well I've ended up with 5k more than I paid for my motor (not a Aygo) less than one year ago and 7k miles.
Bonkers.
126 cars, depending on how many each truck could carry. Most of the transporters were Cinch/BCA. all of those cars were rejected, as not worth refurbishment. I’ll leave it there. 😉
that’s because they will be going to auction, BCA have decorated their trucks with Cinch branding as part of a marketing exercise.
Just for clarity of fact…there is no stock piling going on anywhere in the motor industry. In fact the lack of stock is dire and causing some real problems now!
Try running a rental business, where you have legacy agreements with OEM’s for stock on 12 month agreement/buyback…now imagine those agreements are coming to maturity and you cannot replace the old car with a new one due to lack of stock. Anything else you read is complete nonsense I’m afraid
Kind of related, but incidental- BMW are dropping touchscreens from some models due to chip shortages - obviously US is affected, no idea about Europe. Surprised there's only a $500 discount.
I'm looking for a hire car in the states for myself for 3 weeks- a fortnight ago, quotes on Kayak were ~UK1000 via an aggregator, UK1600 direct with Hertz, which was quite staggering- today, same car class is UK650 direct with Hertz.
So in the five months since I posted on here with the crazy mad offer from WBAC offer of 24k, today it was £16k.
Win some
Lost some
I’ve been watching the WBAC price for my 3.5 year old car. Peak was £23k now down to £18k; 4 months older now and mileage up by 4k miles (now 35k) so that will have had an effect of course. But that seems to tally with what others are saying - that buy prices have peaked. However at the same time I’m trying to buy a first car for my soon-to-be-17 son and there’s very little out there. 20 months ago we bought eldest a 3.5 year old Clio for £5.5k. Same age car now would be closer to £8k and there’s not much within 50 miles (I’m looking to buy trade for some level of buyer protection). Same £5.5k budget buys 10-11 year old cars, which is madness!
dc, I guess the market might be behaving differently in different price brackets. People leveling down into lower-end cars (for the same money...), and once you get to a certain point you start making big compromises by leveling down further. Personally I'm choosing between a) pay more for car I want (not happening), b) pay my budget for lower-end car, and c) screw it - slash the budget hugely and get the minimal functional thing.
The car market is getting to an interesting point now. Still huge delays with new cars and the used car market has stagnated. Live near several used car markets that have had the same stock for months now. Spoke to a dealer who said used car market has basically stalled.
Wonder how dealers are coping now they can't get new cars in and they can't shift used cars? They can't even discount them as they bought the cars at overinflated prices in the first place
8 imagine a point will come where they may have to sell some either at a loss, or a reduced margin. It's cash flow that cripples most companies.
Watching with interest as my company car goes back in October. Even if I ordered the replacement now, I doubt I'll see it in time.
Just sold mine to WBAC, estimated value dropped from £16,475 to £16k over a week!
It had 132k on it and a few paint knocks so they did knock a bit more off as well but still felt it was a fair price for it given what I was offered at trade in.
Guy I bought my car off said it had been really busy but to be honest there appeared to be very little change in the stock between visit to check car over and picking it up a week later. I'd been searching on Auto Trader for a while and there are still lots I had looked at over 6 weeks ago still on there.
^ what car is worth £16k with 132k miles on? Wow.
With stock starting to hang around, in wondering if an (no we don't haggle) haggle is worth trying...and could I put up with a purple Leon if it's cheap?
We finally sold the Discovery Sport to WBAC a few weeks back. Peak price was around 30k but that was late last summer from memory? Anyway, they offered £28100, which was the same as Land Rover so went to see them. Knocked another £400 off for a couple of scuffs but they missed others and didn't even check the interior that had housed two kids and a Labrador for over 3 years and was not perfect. Happy enough with that and came out with 5.5k after the PCP was settled, which would have been unheard of before.
As for buying a cheaper car, we set a limit of 7k and I had a good look around. Anything decent got snapped up within days but plenty of snotty cars hung about. Ended up paying £6800 for a very tidy 11 year old X1, which I imagine would have been closer to 5k in the past but my wife likes it so job done.
Do you not worry about expensive failures on an 11 year old BMW?
I can well picture the price of 2nd hand cars will now drop in the short term (down from high highs, so still quite high) because of the effects and uncertainty of Russia's war in the Ukraine - suddenly fuel costs could rocket, the economy disappear into a horrible recession, etc.
If it wasn't for madman Putin and his deranged ideal of a reestablished USSR, I'd have expected 2nd hand car prices to have continued upwards. There's a 2 year dip in availability of new cars, and lack of buying 2 years ago, that will ripple (for 2 years !) Through the car market inc the 2nd hand market (how few Co cars and lease cars taken in mid 2020 with nowhere to go and many Co staring at potential collapse? That lack will flow (not flow !) Through the market.
The only nothing that may happen is fuel gets really really pricey, is for some it may be economic to trade up to something more fuel-economic. But of course you have to have the ££ captial to do that.
It was BMW X5 with 132k on it. Been a great car for us but didn't need the bulk and expense any more, now in an estate instead. I tend to keep cars for a good few years rather than chop them regularly as long as they are fit for purpose.
Do you not worry about expensive failures on an 11 year old BMW?
Nah, it's only an X1 so doesn't have anything especially fancy on it, it's chain rather than belt driven, full service history, got a mate who's a mechanic and gave it the thumbs up + the £500pm we are saving will pay for plenty of repairs.
No real reason it should cost much more than anything else comparable really.