You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Ok so I am getting towards the time to sell our car and out of interest I stuck the reg in we buy any car and got a vaguely tempting offer, bearing in mind the lack of hassle/tyre kickers etc etc. Normally however I would sell privately, so I am wondering how much more, if anything, I could reasonably expect a private sale to fetch. Is there a rough figure out there? 10%, 20%? Second hand prices are crazy now it seems!
What are people's experiences?
Depends on the value of the car... If it's a £30,000 car then 10% is a lot...
If it's a £500 car, i'd care less about £50.
I believe a rough guide is about £750 more for private and £1500 for traders. Very rough guide. I would stick it on at about £2k more and if no bites slowly reduce it down.
I suppose it depends on how much you want a quick sale?
And as above. It would depend on the value of the car
Also beware Webuyanycar will try to knock whatever they can off the value of the car when they view it, unless it's pristine forget the email offer.
We sold our Polo to VW 2 years ago for £10.5k. I probably could have got nearly £1k more for it privately and they had it up for 2k more than they paid us, I can’t remember what WBAC were offering but I’m sure I would have checked. It was hassle free and quick.
(But it was covid times so didn’t really like the idea of sitting in the car doing test drives).
Also beware Webuyanycar will try to knock whatever they can off the value of the car when they view it, unless it’s pristine forget the email offer.
I was going to ask this - they have just valued my 15 yr old Mazda 3 Sport at £1,000. It has a good service history, long MOT and two keys (and we have owned it from new) however it is 15 years old so, even though it only has 64k on the clock, it naturally has some wear and tear - there is little bit of rust showing, there's a couple of minor scuffs and the alloys look a mess because lots of the coating has come off. Could I expect them to knock lots off for that? Surely they should make allowances for the age of the vehicle?
I’m pretty sure they knock a set amount off per knackered alloy, it might be as much as £50.
If you declare everything honestly when you get a quote then you’re more likely to not have anything knocked off.
Also look for other Local garages that buy cars - we have We Buy AYRSHIRE Cars around here and I’ve used them a couple of times, both times I was happy with the price vs ease of use.
I looked at my 2010 Mondeo on WBAC & was quoted £795. They would’ve knocked loads off when they saw it as it had a bodywork issue (patched sill)
Put it on Marketplace for £1400, stating no idiots & tyre kickers. A lad came round, had a drive, I told him all I knew regarding probs & he took it away for £1200.
Don't forgert to try other places. I valued my 4 yr old Skoda on WBAC and Arnold Clark and Clark was 2k higher. I have sold cars to both and Arnold Clark were less picky and closer to their email offer.
Sold my van a few weeks back.
We Buy Any Van offered me £2k
Sold privately for £4k to the first person that came to see it
They prey on the gullible and desperate
Sold my car a seven years old Renault Captur to WBAC in summer 2021. Got an online offer of £5700 took the car to their office they inspected it and made me an offer of £5700 which I accepted.
Biggest hassle was getting the bus back from the office in Inverness to home in Fort William
@johndoh I would but something like that on Ebay or FB market place. Sure you may get a few idiots but I have sold a few like that for family.
In my experience WBAC were pretty fair. We moved overseas and drove down to the airport, dropped out bags at the hotel, then met a WBAC bloke in a business estate next to Heathrow at 7pm. Seemed dodgy as owt, but he was alright. Quick glance around the car, noticed the gaping hole in the bumper (should have fixed before, tbf) then we did the paperwork. It was dark, he had a small torch, the car was filthy. Knocked a bit off for the bumper, but it was an 15 year old V70 with 250k on the clock, we'd had our money out of it.
You'll get more private, but depends how desperate you are/how much buyer faff you can tolerate.
I would but something like that on Ebay or FB market place.
Yeah I wondered if that might be the better option.
I was selling a car in the summer which WBAC offered 10k approx. Motorway offered 10700. As they visit you i thought why not, and let them come around. The buyer couldn’t find any issues then said most they would pay is 10k.
I spent what felt like an excessive amount on an autotrader advert and it sold within a couple days for 12250. Guy phoned up for insurance and took it away there and then.
I sold a car to WBAC a few years ago - basically they start at low book price and knock £50 off for every flaw they find, even stuff that could be polished out. Fortunately they didn’t notice the crease in the roof panel from when I ripped the roof bars off with bike on roof 🤣 BTW the bike was fine.
Beware! I got shafted by wbac- the price they initially offer gets knocked down and knocked down for all kinds of tiny marks, alloys etc.
Just be very careful…
Never have I wanted to smash a guy's face in than when MrsRNP and my MIL had to get me involved with the sale of recently deceased FIL's mint condition nearly new car.
I'd only sell something to WBAC if I knew there was sawdust in the gearbox and massive issues/bodges/dash warning lights removed/big steaming turd in the glovebox.
I sold my 10 year old A4 estate to WBAC as it had an underlying problem with the engine that I knew they'd not pick up. A good garage would have done, and I didn't want to hide the truth from a private buyer.
Very quick and hassle free but as others have said, you lose out for every dint, bash etc. If I had a banger I'd use them again, if I had a car of value I wouldn't. When I was there a fella was selling what must have been a £50k Porsche - guessing he'd have missed on some cash by being a lazy ****er!
my 15 yr old Mazda 3 Sport at £1,000. It has a good service history, long MOT and two keys (and we have owned it from new) however it is 15 years old so, even though it only has 64k on the clock, it naturally has some wear and tear
I'd bite your arm off for that at £1k!
If I didn't already have a perfectly good 2009 Mazda 3, that is...
My brother recently sold a diesel vw Bora/Jetta to cazoo for what seemed a great price, I was surprised. He had a completely painless experience. Iirc the car fetched about £3100, his estimate was he might have got 10% more private sale.
We recently sold our 7 year old Volvo diesel. WBAC gave us a quote as did a couple of similar competitors. In the end we sold via Motorway.co.uk. They set a reserve you are happy to with and then run an online dealer auction. We were pretty happy and received 15% more than Webuyanycar offered before they got a chance to beat us down. I would highly recommend. May have got more in a private sale but couldn't deal with timewasters
Can’t remember the exact age, think it might be seventeen years but they expect cars younger than that to be cosmetically perfect. They’ll knock off £100 for every bodywork fault or wheel scuff they find.
But always reject their first offer. They do the phone the manager thing and come back and half what they originally wanted to knock off. Don’t push any further as that’s the most they’ll do.
I got shafted by wbac- the price they initially offer gets knocked down and knocked down for all kinds of tiny marks, alloys etc.
As others have said, it can depend how honest you've been about condition and also whether it has much value or is a cheap one; we looked at selling my wife's PCP when the dealers were being (we thought) a bit tight and they didn't haggle much. But made us realise dealers were being mainly fair and so we went with them in the end. Absolutely we could have got more privately, but then there's the hassle.....
For the effort, I'd put it on WBAC and even take it to them for a look; as for getting shafted if they cut the price too much then walk away. You aren't obliged to sell to them after valuation. Might be worth your time saving, might convince you a private sale is better.
How were you shafted? They didn’t force you to accept their offer. You could have walked away and sold it privately.
Depends on how sought after your car is I guess?
We sold our Disco Sport to WBAC earlier this year and even though they knocked a few quid off we still got pretty much what the main dealer, Motorway, etc had offered so we were happy.
Last time I sold a car via ebay was 4 or so years ago, a 14 reg Kuga. Massive pain in the bum and little interest until a dealer turned up and basically offered us PX money.
WBAC offered me £1200. I got £2450 privately thru Autotrader. Super-easy sale too.
Going off on a wee tangent, when I was looking to sell my van 2 years ago wbac offered me nearly £4000 more for it than the dealer I bought it from.
Also beware Webuyanycar will try to knock whatever they can off the value of the car when they view it, unless it’s pristine forget the email offer.
This++. Any paint repairs you were unaware of when you bought it? Offer reduced. Misdescription in your spec? Offer reduced. Interior wear and tear scuffs (sills, seat backs)? Offer reduced.
They’re not unreasonable, but there are aspects of both bait and switch and
Nickel and diming from the ‘offer, sight unseen’ operators that leave the usual ‘ripped off’ feeling of car dealings.
Saying that, when I traded in my car earlier this year I was pleasantly surprised to get about 30% more than its GFV. This was not a WBAC transaction.
Just sold my car on carwow this week...I got 4k more than wbac.com offered...I would only use wbac if you need the money fast, but if you can wait a week or so then carwow is better
My wife sold her 2.4 Mustang last December for an amazing price, I think we would struggle to get more private. She went with Arnold Clark in the end but they were all similar. We made like £10k in the year and bit we owned it. Replaced with a Marc EQA EV (brains won over heart in the end)..
12m on I am selling my Mits L200, mint 2017 with 38k due to lack of use mainly as the EV is being used so much. I was offered £11k and £13k, I know I can get north of £16k no problem
alloys look a mess because lots of the coating has come off
Bit late for you but you could have had new ones from Mazda under warranty. We had a 57 Mazda 3 and the alloys were knackered (no kerbing). A new guy started at work & had a 3 that had the same issue- his had been replaced as it was a manufacturing issue. Despite having our car serviced at Mazda they never brought it up. I booked the car in for them to check- all they did was take photos to send to HQ for the OK to change. Within 5 minutes of driving home I got a call to say replacement was approved & to book it in. Fortunately I was in the last month of warranty.
Fortunately I was in the last month of warranty.
They were fine when under warranty - it's 15 years old now so I doubt I'd have a case 😂
This++. Any paint repairs you were unaware of when you bought it? Offer reduced. Misdescription in your spec? Offer reduced. Interior wear and tear scuffs (sills, seat backs)? Offer reduced.
Again, I reckon it depends on the car and what value. Ours was 3.5 years old and they didn't even look in the vehicle, bloke said he didn't need to.