How to gauge the true values of a second hand car.

[Sinbad1900]

I’m currently have search alerts set on Autotrader for a couple of different models of car that interest me. As most might know, Autotrader have a price guide feature indicting results like “good price”, “higher price”, “fair price”, etc.

In the past I used to use Parkers as a pricing tool. But when comparing the same car, the difference in value is quite varied. Here’s an example:

2017 SEAT Leon 2.0 TSI Cupra 300 ST DSG 4Drive

• Autotrader says: “good price” at £18,990
• Parkers: Dealer Price £11,115 - £11,890 (using the reg number of the car advertised on Autotrader)

These figures are miles apart.

So what is the true value of this car? Should I be looking elsewhere for a true valuation figure?

Thanks

[Tracklover]

Something like that has a broad spectrum of value, depending on it's condition and who is selling it.

It's a spectrum from "Main dealer selling a mint one" through to "Council estate Dave needing a rough one gone in 24 hours to pay his dealer"

[E-bmw]

Sinbad1900 said:

• Autotrader says: good price at £18,990 - Price for you to BUY through AT
• Parkers: Dealer Price £11,115 - £11,890 - Price for dealer to buy off you

[ABMA]

Issue is AutoTrader had the most number of cars and dealers price their cars accordingly so, I would imagine it reflects more the car’s value.
From your example Parker’s valuation is close to trade in/ part exchange value.

[sixor8]

So many valuation tools want email address to bombard you / sell on details, but the confused one doesn't:

https://carvaluation.confused.com/

It tends to be on the low side IMHO, stating prices that are exceeded by every trader for something similar, but it is at least a 2nd opinion.

[fflump]

The price you pay for a car is set by the market but you buy a single car so n=1 not a population distribution. Autorader's guides are good insofar as they relate the asking price to other similar cars for sale but that's as far as it goes. Parkers and other guides are fairly useless IMO as often differ from guide to guide and may not reflect the real world. The only reliable data is CAP trade but even that does not indicate what a private seller or buyer can expect to pay.

I'd not overthink it as there's no such thing as 'true value' when it comes to a single car-spec, history, colour, owner number are all factors as are the buyer's and sellers urgency. Just look at the car and age/spec you like on AT/PH, rank by price and work out the candidates worth investigating. No one loses or wins at life by paying over or under what Parkers or any other guide happen to have in that months edition.

[paul_c123]

Auto Trader and HPI/CAP are realistically the only ones which have a large enough dataset, and take into account details like spec, to make them even vaguely accurate. They don't properly adjust for lower/higher than average mileage; auto; colour; length of remaining MoT (if old/cheap) or service history (if quite new) though.

[Sinbad1900]

Thanks all for the replies.

Back to the Autotrader website then....