We Buy Any Car Valuation, Surely Not?.....

[clockworks]

My car was collected yesterday. I put it on a few different websites. Best offer came from The Car Buying Group, via Wizzle.
WBAC "offered" £110 more, but I'd have to drive it to their site 23 miles away, and arrange a lift home. I'd also have to pay the admin fee, and run the risk of being chipped on the price.

I placed the ads last Thursday afternoon, deal was done on the phone Saturday morning, car collected Wednesday. That's pretty good, seeing as how I live at the far end of Cornwall.

The driver turned up exactly on time, having caught 2 trains and 2 buses to get here. I got an email from the buyer as soon as the driver had done his initial check, asking for my bank details. The money was in my account 15 minutes later, before he'd even finished uploading the pre-collection photos to his employer.

The whole process took less than 30 minutes. Would've been quicker, but the mobile signal is rubbish where I live, no 4g. Solved by him logging onto my wifi.

This is definitely the way forward for selling relatively new/low mileage cars.

[mythdat]

Seems like WBAC offering strong prices may be coming to an end, or maybe just paused for now

On a BMW forum I visit, most people are seeing a 5-10% reduction in the last week, my own car has gone from £32k last week to £28k this week

[Welshbeef]

mythdat said:

Seems like WBAC offering strong prices may be coming to an end, or maybe just paused for now

On a BMW forum I visit, most people are seeing a 5-10% reduction in the last week, my own car has gone from £32k last week to £28k this week

Strange isn’t it.

The chip issue isn’t resolved and is 6m to a year if not longer away.

[Dan W.]

Welshbeef said:

mythdat said:

Seems like WBAC offering strong prices may be coming to an end, or maybe just paused for now

On a BMW forum I visit, most people are seeing a 5-10% reduction in the last week, my own car has gone from £32k last week to £28k this week

Strange isn’t it.

The chip issue isn’t resolved and is 6m to a year if not longer away.

Trade always dies down a bit this time of year, we are seeing footfall dropping off and less people buying

[FishAndChips]

When does it normally pick again?

[clockworks]

FishAndChips said:

When does it normally pick again?

I had a chat with the guy that put the offer in for my Kia. He said that the market has slowed, just like it always does at this time of year.
He said he expected it to pick up again like normal too - over the Christmas/new year break, and take off in January once the Christmas credit card balance is paid off.

Pretty much the same as the travel business. As soon as families have time to sit, think and talk after the table has been cleared and there's nothing any good on the telly, plans are drawn up for next year's holidays and other big purchases.

[Dan W.]

FishAndChips said:

When does it normally pick again?

January usually, Or start of feb ready for the march new plate

[FishAndChips]

Thanks both, I'm waiting for a new VW Tiguan which I think will appear shortly and gave a Merc to offload. Sounds like sit on the Merc and await to the new year now.

[LosingGrip]

LosingGrip said:

Yeah slightly more but no slots within a week for them to collect and closest place was two hours away.

Be interesting to see how much they put it up for.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202111249887756

Found it.

Strangely it has no service history but I sold it will full service history. Be interesting to see if it sells for what they want.

[AudiMan9000]

My 3 month old Q5 Sportback is £1k positive equity when comparing WBAC vs settlement figure. That would never have been the case pre-Covid.

[R56Cooper]

Already posted on the thread but I sold my Mini to Motorway for £5,800 (having paid £6,000 18 months ago).

A few days after the sale, I found the car on the dealer's website listed for £8,400!

Just checked and it's gone already! Just goes to show how strong the used car market is at the moment.

I was made up with the price I got for it and fair play to the dealer, they've had a nice bit of profit out of it too.

[bmwmike]

I've noticed I can get two different prices for my 2012 5 series - 9800 and 9500 - with wbac. One browser is inconito mode, so they presumably use cookies to see if you have a history of looking at the price rather than keying off the reg server side.

[babelfish]

R56Cooper said:

Already posted on the thread but I sold my Mini to Motorway for £5,800 (having paid £6,000 18 months ago).

A few days after the sale, I found the car on the dealer's website listed for £8,400!

Just checked and it's gone already! Just goes to show how strong the used car market is at the moment.

I was made up with the price I got for it and fair play to the dealer, they've had a nice bit of profit out of it too.

You got: 5800
Dealer got: 8150?
Motorway fees: 500-1000?
Expenses to repair and prep the car: ?

Profit: ?

Can anyone help fill in the blanks/questions? Unless a dealer has big turn over or big profits I don't see how it works.

[Wilmslowboy]

babelfish said:

You got: 5800
Dealer got: 8150?
Motorway fees: 500-1000?
Expenses to repair and prep the car: ?

Profit: ?

Can anyone help fill in the blanks/questions? Unless a dealer has big turn over or big profits I don't see how it works.

Typical industry margins on used cars is around 10% - On a car sold for £8,150 - that's just over £800

Working backwards

Retail price - £8,150
Margin - £815
VAT - £163

That leaves £1,372 for motorway fees, prep, transport etc


Note margin, not profit, after other expenses e.g. property, people, head office and marketing, large dealer groups are down to sub 2% profit.

The answer is to sell a lot of cars, ideally with extra such as Gap insurance and finance.

[mfmman]

mfmman in July 2021 said:

Due to this thread I have valued my 330i a few times, but not really selling it

I paid £19,400 from a non-BMW but main dealer in Sept last year. I can't be bothered with detailing damage etc so prices are probably a few hundred quid up on a real offer

Six weeks ago £18,250
Four weeks ago £18,250
Two weeks ago £18,500
This week £18,325.

It's gained about 1500 miles in that period

Arguably its worth more this week than last week as it now has 12 months MOT and just has it's second full dealer service

I have done around 12000 miles in 10 months so could be the best value car I have ever had, except of course I probably would be paying top money to replace it.

I dug up this old post of mine to look at the values (there might be a newer one in the thread, can't remember). WBAC have kept up the flow of texts and emails which I have been ignoring. Today I decided to update it. £18,665 . As before I haven't bothered detailing the damage so perhaps £18k for a car I have owned for 18 months and put about 16k on. What prompted the check today was that for health reasons my wife is unlikely to be able to drive at all in the next 5/6 months. Her Focus (66reg, 1.0t, 39500) will be sat out the front. £9,500 (again with no damage listed so probably closer to £9k, we paid £10,300 in Aug 2019! Very tempting if I thought the situation on supply would have changed to allow a suitable purchase when she can drive again without having to overpay for a replacement.

Edited by mfmman on Wednesday 26th January 17:22

[LBMD]

I’ve been a long time lurker watching prices of the used market closely lately as considering selling my 2017 Fiesta ST due to largely now WFH in my employment.

For those interested I had the following valuations from Motorway on the following dates:

October 2021
£14,153

December 2021
£13,423

As of today January 26 2022
£14,753

Looks like prices are back on the up after Christmas?

Admittedly my vehicle is 1 owner, FSH and low mileage for its age, but they are now offering me £653 more than I paid new for the car nearly 5 years ago!

[griffter]

LBMD said:

I’ve been a long time lurker watching prices of the used market closely lately as considering selling my 2017 Fiesta ST due to largely now WFH in my employment.

For those interested I had the following valuations from Motorway on the following dates:

October 2021
£14,153

December 2021
£13,423

As of today January 26 2022
£14,753

Looks like prices are back on the up after Christmas?

Admittedly my vehicle is 1 owner, FSH and low mileage for its age, but they are now offering me £653 more than I paid new for the car nearly 5 years ago!

In my experience what Motorway tell you online and what Motorway tell you on the phone are two different things.

WBAC valuation held up over the last 6 months though although Cazoo is now lower.

[adccl8z]

LBMD said:

I’ve been a long time lurker watching prices of the used market closely lately as considering selling my 2017 Fiesta ST due to largely now WFH in my employment.

For those interested I had the following valuations from Motorway on the following dates:

October 2021
£14,153

December 2021
£13,423

As of today January 26 2022
£14,753

Looks like prices are back on the up after Christmas?

Admittedly my vehicle is 1 owner, FSH and low mileage for its age, but they are now offering me £653 more than I paid new for the car nearly 5 years ago!

Is yours a mk8 or st200? My 2017 st3 on 32k is coming up at £12.6k

[LBMD]

griffter said:

In my experience what Motorway tell you online and what Motorway tell you on the phone are two different things.

WBAC valuation held up over the last 6 months though although Cazoo is now lower.

Oh I certainly don’t expect them to just give me the valuation from the website without trying to knock the price down. The beauty now of the likes of Motorway is you can get offers for the vehicle without having to physically take the vehicle anywhere with it all being done online and so if you don’t like their price you can just refuse to sell the vehicle to them.

adccl8z said:

Is yours a mk8 or st200? My 2017 st3 on 32k is coming up at £12.6k

Last of the MK 7.5 also ST3 - my mileage is just under 18k which will explain the price difference being offered between our two vehicles.

[adccl8z]

LBMD said:

Last of the MK 7.5 also ST3 - my mileage is just under 18k which will explain the price difference being offered between our two vehicles.

Yes it does explain it but personally i dont think it justifies it. Good for you though (and still not bad for me either)

I used Motorway to sell my pre-ST car (polo gti) and it was the smoothest simplest car sale I've had. Definitely use them again if the situation arises.