Parker's and What Car Price Guides - Any Good?

[ianpicknell]

Has anyone bought or sold a second-hand Boxster recently? How has the price you paid compared with that quoted in the Parker's or What Car price guides?

There just seems to be a large gap between these guide prices and avertised prices, and I wondered if the difference also existed when compared to actual prices.

Take an 1999-registered manual Boxster 2.7, for example. Parker's give a good-condition private-sale guide price of £25,535 for a 1999/V with average mileage; What Car's equivalent guide price is £25,395.

The six cars matching cars on www.autotrader.co.uk right now have an average advertised price of £28,564 - £3,000 over the guide prices. Applying the mileage adjustments still leaves them £2,500 'over-priced', on average.

Are advertises building in £2,500 negotiating room? Are they adding £2,500 for the options they've got over the base model? Or are Parker's and What Car just out-of-touch with Boxster pricing?



>>> Edited by ianpicknell on Sunday 5th January 10:35

[Martyn911]

I have always found that Parkers etc undervalue. It always seems that I get less than what they say but pay a lot more for what I want. With Porsche its also a case of supply and demand, at the moment good cars are scarce.

Martyn

[mightydquinn]

As they say its a guide I feel its not a good one autotrader is the best place to get an idea
A new boxster is £31450 and a year old one at dealers is £36000 ish depending on the spec
thats because most new ones cost £36000-£40000 when they are speced up.
2.7s are more expensive but a better buy from around £28000

[ianpicknell]

Shame. I was hoping you were all going to say, "everyone expects to be negotiated down 10% or so".

It seems odd that Parker's (and What Car) bother printing their 'guides' if they're so inaccurate. It wouldn't be so bad if they quoted a rough price like "27-29K". But they quote a price to the nearest pound, and suggest the cars value increases/decreases by 75 quid or so given 1,000 fewer/extra miles on the clock.

Ho hum - I guess I'll just have to adjust my budget accordingly.

[Basil Brush]

I have always worked on the basis of lowest acceptable price plus 10% when buying and selling cars privately.

[Mr Fix it]

I recently saw a boxster s for sale from a local dealler, it went for a few quid less than they were advertising it for, and this was about the same price as the whatcar guide price. I expect that they would have got a few k more for it in the summer, so nearer to the sticker price.
Dave

[M@H]

Glass's Guide says: PORSCHE , BOXSTER 2.7 (99-)
Age : Retail : Excellent : Ave : Below : Benchmark Mileage
1999 V : 27560 : 23000 : 20750 : 18100 : 20000
2000 V : 28285 : 23500 : 21250 : 18600 : 18000
2000 W : 29070 : 24250 : 22000 : 19400 : 17000
2000 X : 30055 : 25250 : 23000 : 20250 : 14000
2001 X : 30840 : 26000 : 23750 : 21000 : 12000
2001 Y : 32275 : 27250 : 24750 : 21750 : 11000
2001 51 : 32800 : 28250 : 25500 : 22500 : 8000
2002 51 : 33625 : 29000 : 26250 : 23250 : 6000

[earwig100]

In my experience Boxster prices have fallen significantly over the last 4 months due to the introduction of the 2003 model, the economic downturn and winter months. Ultimately it all comes down to supply/demand and right now I've seen lots of supply and very little demand - as a potential Boxster S buyer myself I would estimate that most privately advertised cars go unsold - at least judging from my experience of enquiring about them, sometimes a couple of months after they have first been advertised.
I'm still looking for the right spec car, but certainly I've seen reasonable spec Boxster S low miles 2001 Y models at £30K, and virtually new 2002 cars at £33K.

[ianpicknell]

The Glass's prices are interesting. I know that they're intended for dealer-use only (i.e. the retail prices are what a dealer would sell at and the others are what the dealer would buy at).

Advertised OPC prices look to be within 5% of the Glass's retail price - in the case of 2000/X and 2001/Y cars they're within 1%. Accurate indeed.

Do Glass's quote any mileage adjustment figures? I assume Glass's update their figures monthly, like Parker's and What Car. Are these January's figures?

[M@H]

Hi,

The Glass's prices are indeed the latest prices and they are updated monthly I believe... The website I got these from doesn't list mileage adjustments for this model though..

Cheers
Matt.


PS.. Yes you can indeed get up to date Glass's guide prices on the open internet.. !
Matt.

[bif]

Confirm previous message, Glass`s Guide only shows prices and unusually, does not show mileage adjustment, happy to look up prices if you need further info
Regards
Barry

[ianpicknell]

Thanks Barry.

[adrian jaye]

your better off with a CAP book, usually trade, but as a guide

Average 99 v boxster runs between 19,600-23,500 depending on millage and thats "DEALER" price

[M@H]

bif said: Confirm previous message, Glass`s Guide only shows prices and unusually, does not show mileage adjustment, happy to look up prices if you need further info
Regards
Barry

It does for a lot of car models, the source I have just didn't list them for that particular car.. most mainstream cars lsited have mileage agjustment figures available.

Cheers
Matt