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I wondered what experiences the good people of STW have had in relation to WBAC?
Situation is that, following sad passing of a family member, we have their car to deal with.
It's a low miles (40k) 2011 Peugeot 107 auto bought in 2011. We've had it MOT'd last week and serviced too (FSH).
Popped it onto the usual sites at a price which would allow wriggle-room and a few folks have looked at it but no sale.
Never used WBAC before, but popped details into their site and their initial offer is appealing. However, curious about whether any chance of getting near their 'offer' which is obviously subject to inspection.
Appreciate any feedback. Thanks.
Used them once, they were absolutely fine. Make sure you put in all the details when getting the quote or you might get pushed down as you say. I even had a bit of a nightmare in that I ruined a tyre on the way to see them, they just took off a fair price of a new tyre and did the deal anyway
Not used WBAC but I did use Motorway a while ago. A really good experience, very slick, decent price, no haggling price down upon collecting the car and they cleared the finance within hours. I tracked the car (2yr old Mercedes) and found it for sale in a dealership for only a few hundred quid more than they paid me for it.
I'd happily use them again.
Used them a few years ago, not sure what they paid was competitive as I didn't really check, they knocked a little off for condition which was reasonable but otherwise an easy transaction. I think the horror stories emanate from people with a wildly optimistic appraisal of their cars condition.
For a 2011 plate I'd definitely use them, gone quickly with a reasonable price and no come back.
I've sold them two cars. They will knock off £100 for every paint defect they find (including scuffed wheels). They were not interested in the mechanicals. They did make sure it started but that's all. I don't even think they looked very hard at the interior. Its all about how the car will present at auction as that's how they move them on. WBAC are owned by British Car Auctions.
When they make their offer reject it, the person will then phone their boss and they will come back with a better offer, typically halving the amount they had deducted from the on line valuation. That's as far as they will go though so its take it or leave it time 🙂
It's absolutely quick and painless and you can walk away at any time. Much better than dealing with the public.
I was lucky in that I sold during the peak covid shortage and made a profit. The bloke went through the paperwork so fast there was smoke coming off his pen. I left the car and walked away with the money in 10 minutes.
They were fast and easy when we have used them but they were about 25% below initial offer. We've only used them to get rid of old bangers though and so we were expecting a reduction on inspection. The inspections were not that detailed, only obvious things were picked up.
WBAC - offered £1200 on a 12 year old 160k Galaxy that was well described by me as 'pretty much knackered'. While they had no problem with the condition they reduced the offer by £500 as the service book was missing the delivery inspection and 3k 'check' from when the car was new.....
I part exchanged a week later for the full £1200.
They’ll take £50-100 off for every blemish, scratch or dink they can find.
Sold a car previously - it had a crease in the roof due to a bike/rack car park height restriction ‘interface’ that they didn’t spot 🤣
I tried Motorway recently to sell a car without success but it was a painless 20-30mins to list it so worth a shot. I think their model is bit different to WBAC as in the car gets listed at a price and car dealers basically makes offers for it. If it doesn't sell then they do a bit of a Dutch auction type of thing. Colleagues have had very good expereinces with it.
I think one of my issues was we're a good 1 hr away from bigger dealers and it was a relatively low value car (a few grand) and not a common model so not many in the game for it. I think it would be a decent bet if you're near lots of big population centres.
If it's been on Autotrader and places like that for a while and not sold the price is probably too high. A lot of dealers browse that as well that's how we got rid of ours after trying motorway.
They will not offer top dollar but its a quick and efficient way of getting rid of a car without dealing with the army of tyre kickers and scammers that infest auto trader and the like.
Also a great way to ditch a car that you suspect may be about to crap itself in a particulaly expensive manner.
If I had a relatively new or valuable vehicle I wouldn't use them, but if I wanted to shift something quick and didn't mind taking a hit on the price they offer that exact service.
I was looking at buying a new van a couple of years ago and wbac offered me £3000 more for my van than the dealers did who sold me it. This was on a van worth about £7000, so big difference! Never really heard anything bad about them tbf.
I've used both, motorway was painless; they wanted a lot of detail on cosmetic condition and proof of full service history (receipts) . The offer I got following auction was exactly what their reserve price was.
Wbac was offered a bit less, before having inspected the car, so I'd expect them to be about 20% less than motorway once they'd looked at it as there were lots of bumper scratches.
The dealer trade in was about £100 less than motorway, about £6.5k for 9 year old high mileage Octavia vrs.
The car itself is up for £9.5k at an indy and has been there for about 3 months now...
As I recall it’s all computer generated deductions ie they plug in what they see and computer tells the staff the adjusted price. They tend to do it in front of you or did in my experience.
so as above it does give some scope to negotiate or walk away and await the call back. But for an older and lower value car it may not be worth it to negotiate over £100!
while yes they’ll knock off for issues spotted, by its nature the lower the initial price they offer the less scope there is for them to deduct. Ie surely they’d not try and take £800 off a £1500 car - anyone would walk in that scenario.
5 or 6 years ago - recently bereaved MiL and MrsRNP selling FiL 2 year old very low mileage Passat (he bought it new then been ill)
WBAC took the piss when they took it there. I had to get involved.
The agent keeps (or did) the difference between quoted and what you actually receive.
Things might have moved on but my only interaction with them wasn't favourable.
The agent keeps (or did) the difference between quoted and what you actually receive.
Is that true or an urban myth? Even knocking ~£100 off a car and doing half a dozen cars a day would be a very nice earner
I sold a 4 year old Skoda Citigo a few months ago. We Buy Any Car offered 5600. I got 7400 through Motorway and it was a main dealer that bought the car. It was painless too, I'd use them again
We Buy Any Car. Experiences
They don't buy 'any' car.
<p>I can’t remember the exact figure but they expect any car up to about eighteen years old I think it was to have perfect paintwork. And yes, they will try and knock 50% off their online offer on an older car. </p>
They're pretty picky about bodywork and paperwork in my experience but otherwise fine. When I sold my old Focus (which had a few mechanical issues brewing) I was up front about the big ol' dent so I ended up getting what was offered. Ended up being ~£200 more than the dealer was offering us p/x.
I think if i had a nicer car to sell I'd see what Motorway could do first.
im amazed you cannot sell a 107 auto with such low milage - supply far outstrips demand..... .
get your self onto citybugclub on facebook and pop an add up there - if its not selling there your asking for silly money. - and frankly most folk who are selling on there are asking and getting silly money for anything thats not rotten.
FWIW in todays market if your pricing at "including haggling" then many folk wont even view.
Quick, easy.
Low ball offers.
Expect those things and you won't be disappointed.
I got shot of an elderly car through them. In my case it was worth the lower price to be rid of it.
YMMV!
The comment from a mate of mine after dealing with with We Buy Any Car a few years back was "so do I at that price you c***."
They're probably fine if you just want shut. Otherwise what trail_rat said, it's a seller's market right now.
Pretty positive experience here, wife sold her 6 year old Vauxhall Viva she got 50% back what she paid new for it 6 years ago.
400 quid more than the main dealer offered.
The wbac guy was really good, the car had a tyre pressure warning on the dash and he helped us to try and get it cancelled, turns out we couldn't .
They seemed more concerned about warning lights on the dash than anything.
We still got more than the initial quote as he reckoned the car was in better condition than we stated on the form.
For us a pretty pain free experience and would use again.
sold our 08 focus with a massive dent in the wing painlessly and quick. maybe could have got more privately but didn't want the hassle of being messed about. I'd use them again. depends if you want to get rid or get top whack
Wot hatter said.
I've used them twice to move on tatty old cars. If you're honest when describing the condition, then you'll get the price offered (in my experience).
Weirdly parcel shelves are very important 😀
Motorway gave me a fair bit more than wbac
A mate got offered £100 trade in on a very old Polo
So he tried WBAC. They offered £50 subject to a £49.99 admin fee.
<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">I sold an 130k x5 that was potentially brewing some large mechanical bills very quickly and easily through them. Yes they bartered the price down but it was height of restrictions and I was very happy with the price offered. Not interested in the mechanical side ( as long as no lights on the dash) wanted details of all work done on it eg servicing etc and body inspection only.
</span>
Quick, easy, would probably get a bit more selling second hand yourself but I lacked the time and would use them again.
About to change car and WBAC are offering £2.5k more than the dealer for a trade in .
Even if they take it down a bit , then I’ve got a margin to play with. Motorway were suggesting £1k less.
OK, I can actually report a positive experience.
Got circa 10% less for the car due to a small dent on the lip of a front wing arch (I had contemplated repair before taking the car along) plus some normal stone chips on the bonnet v their online offer. I had not disclosed these.
However, it as still a few hundred £'s more than other online buyers had offered plus the only firm offer we had received from a potential private buyer.
The WBAC chap was actually very decent.
Seems a very 'mechanical' process with focus on the superficial condition of the car, service history, and strangely the parcel shelf (guess another price reduction area).
Certainly a model which relies upon the £49.99 admin fee and high volumes as I seriously cannot think they will be able to turn over much profit on the car based upon what they paid us.
My latest experience was pretty poor. It was an old car and not much value but they were very picky despite me being (I thought) very honest about the car. They offered around 50% of what was originally quoted (bear in mind we're talking £3 figures here and not £4).
I put it on Motorway and got above the original WBAC quote, the car was picked up from my drive 2 days later and the money was in my account before the truck left the road with no haggling at all.
Neither seemed to care about the mechanical state of the car, it was all cosmetics and service history.
I've had similar experiences to Rockhopper, in that they'll seek to reduce their on-line offer when they inspect the car, but it is possible to push back on their deductions to an extent.
From what I've experienced they don't take much account of whether a car is two years old or twelve years old when assessing its cosmetic appearance. I've taken three cars to them over the years, sold two and driven home in the third, when they simply took the mickey on price.
I bought our current car from a garage 200 miles away and the garage gave a PX value for the car we were getting rid of. This was pending their inspection though. WBAC (1 mile away) matched the PX offer so the car went to them. If you have a car they want then you can negotiate. If you're trading in something they aren't keen on then they are not going to give you a good price.
Sold my 2019 Pug 3008 to them 18 months ago got more than I paid for it when it was 9 months old. Sold my late step fathers car to a local dealer who offered me more than WBAC but I think that was probably due to them supplying the car in the first place and knowing its history.
Know a few who have had a good result with Motorway as well. At the end of the day its easy enough to pop it on a few sites and see what they offer.
They undervalued both our last cars by £8k+ each. Arnold Clark paid up well for the wifes Mustang and I sold my mint L200 private
If you use WBAC, how long does it take you to get the friggin ad jingle out of your head?
Went with my mum to sell a tatty Polo (54 plate) about a year ago.
Experience was reasonably fair - about 20-25% of the initial offer knocked off on condition (I don't think that there was a panel without a mark of some sort on it), otherwise it went well.
The guy in the shed in the Homebase carpark (which was their branch), was pretty open, he had some leeway on the deduction made for condition and (said) he'd made the minimum deduction he could have done. There was no pressure to accept his offer, and was happy for us to take time to think.
Money was in our account after a few days.
Happy with the painless process despite the possiblilty we might have made an extra £100 with a private sale. Experience may vary wildly by the staff at your local branch though, pressure / reasonably deductions may also vary if the value of the car is higher.
ETA: They do, however keep sending weekly emails with updates to the value of thier offer, which is irritating.
My wife works for them, well their parent company.
Your experience will vary greatly based on whether you were selling during the car shortage or not and whether they think they can make any money reselling it via one of their trade auctions.
Related question - how much will they knock off for the service light being on?
As in its just rolled over to its scheduled service interval - worth paying for the service myself or just let them knock me down in price a bit?
Related question – how much will they knock off for the service light being on?
As in its just rolled over to its scheduled service interval – worth paying for the service myself or just let them knock me down in price a bit?
Do a Google/YouTube - most cars have a way of resetting the service light by a combination of ignition positions and tripmeter/mileometer resets for example.
Used them a while ago, had no serious interest selling privately, declared all minor issues on the web and they decided a couple weren't worth adding so it went up a little. Money in bank next day, all very easy.
Quote of £8750, real lfe £7400.
Sold mine privately via Autotrader for £15k within 24hrs, pricing it about 15% below dealer listings for similar. Local dealer offered £13.5k or £14k sale or return. Motorway was £14k, WBAC about £12k, both before viewing. So ime, Autotrader experience was pretty good - had a few stupid offers too but you can ignore those. I wouldn't price in haggle room if you want to actually sell it, just price it lower than anything currently listed.