Will Coronavirus hit used car prices?

[jamoor]

ChasW said:

Most houses in my road have between 2 and 3 cars on the drive. One has 4 only because their early 20s kids have moved back in due to redundancy etc. There is only one property out of 13 where the drive is ever empty these days. It won't be long before people start questioning the need for multiple vehicles in a household so some of these cars will hit the used market and not be replaced. The same applies to me but I plan to buy a weekend toy instead.

Personally with there being serious talk about a vaccine it may be that people just wait it out another <12 months.

[Backtobasics]

Vroomer said:

One week into Lockdown 2, does anyone have an update on WBAC offers? Some posters had an excellent historical track of offers which clearly illustrated price trends.

Tried to get a quote a few days ago, the site was not giving quotes at that point

[gizlaroc]

Mirinjawbro said:

thought id give WBAC a try , even though reviews are bad and you usually only hear the bad ones.


£16,190 offered online

appointed offered £14,144

4 x alloy fixes -£384 ( a few scuffs so ok fine)
1 x service dash light -£451 ( needs a service but not -£451 worth)
2 x body panel fixes - £802 nope - couple of very light dings from shopping
smart repair -£94 nope
admin fee -£75 you already hire someone to input this, why charge an admin fee

condtion report total -£1733

"it needs to be in mint condition when we sell it"

a 4 year old car is not going to be in mint condition

goodbye

Why didn't you sort these things out beforehand?

It is a 4 year old car. It should be pretty near mint, at least in very decent condition. A few little stone chips, which I would expect to be touched in.

But certainly no dents or no scuffed alloys, and to take it in with it showing a service light is just dumb. They don't care where it was done, a local indy for £100 could have sorted that.


No wonder WBAC get such a bad name.

[Gman20]

gizlaroc said:

Why didn't you sort these things out beforehand?

It is a 4 year old car. It should be pretty near mint, at least in very decent condition. A few little stone chips, which I would expect to be touched in.

But certainly no dents or no scuffed alloys, and to take it in with it showing a service light is just dumb. They don't care where it was done, a local indy for £100 could have sorted that.


No wonder WBAC get such a bad name.

He is selling into the motor trade.
Why would someone pay retail price to fix issues the buyer would be able to fix at trade prices, and offset against the vat margin.
It's going to go to auction, it's probably going to fetch up to £500 less than an absolutely mint one that requires no prep, but no less than a typical one.

[jammy-git]

Gman20 said:

He is selling into the motor trade.
Why would someone pay retail price to fix issues the buyer would be able to fix at trade prices, and offset against the vat margin.
It's going to go to auction, it's probably going to fetch up to £500 less than an absolutely mint one that requires no prep, but no less than a typical one.

Because most people know WBAC will take any excuse to remove large amounts of money from their valuation of your car.

If you want to sell your car to them, the most effective way to do it and maximise your sale price is to at least fix the easy stuff to fix.

[Gman20]

jammy-git said:

Because most people know WBAC will take any excuse to remove large amounts of money from their valuation of your car.

If you want to sell your car to them, the most effective way to do it and maximise your sale price is to at least fix the easy stuff to fix.

I don't think everyone does know that.
In the early days many people were surprised to find they didn't operate like that and they have built up a reputation for actually paying out what they said.
That may not be the case now, but then the solution surely is to go elsewhere, not prep the car yourself as they are meant to be saving you that hassle.

[sixor8]

My sister wanted rid of here '63 plate Focus Ecoboost (125), only 50k miles but a bit scruffy and missing service stamps. She's having a company car.

WBAC offered £4600 online, she was truthful in the description. I went with her (it was in July) and they knocked it down initially to £3700 due to some scuffs and a low tyre. They 'did here a favour' upping it to £4100. She owed more than that in finance and then there was the 'admin fee,' so it was no thanks. They seem to be trying to lowball these days, it was not always the case.

Sellyoucartojack offered £4300, local delivery and no admin fee the next week, so it went there.

[Deep Thought]

Gman20 said:

gizlaroc said:

Why didn't you sort these things out beforehand?

It is a 4 year old car. It should be pretty near mint, at least in very decent condition. A few little stone chips, which I would expect to be touched in.

But certainly no dents or no scuffed alloys, and to take it in with it showing a service light is just dumb. They don't care where it was done, a local indy for £100 could have sorted that.


No wonder WBAC get such a bad name.

He is selling into the motor trade.
Why would someone pay retail price to fix issues the buyer would be able to fix at trade prices, and offset against the vat margin.
It's going to go to auction, it's probably going to fetch up to £500 less than an absolutely mint one that requires no prep, but no less than a typical one.

Exactly - they're deducting retail prices for work they have absolutely no intention of doing themselves and, as you say, when it goes to auction it certainly wont make that much less than a mint car.

BUT, lets be honest, thats their model and thats how they catch people.

Describing incredibly accurately will give you a closer to true price on the day, but still not infallable.

[Hub]

Vroomer said:

One week into Lockdown 2, does anyone have an update on WBAC offers? Some posters had an excellent historical track of offers which clearly illustrated price trends.

2012/62 Focus ST estate... doing such minimal mileage as to not make any difference!

Sept 2019: £6,750
20 March 2020: £5,420
24 June: £7,175
14 July: £7,000
26 August £7,285
7 September £7,000
10 October £6,620
23 October £6,500
12 November £6,000

[Deep Thought]

Vroomer said:

One week into Lockdown 2, does anyone have an update on WBAC offers? Some posters had an excellent historical track of offers which clearly illustrated price trends.

Interestingly, just tried for our 2019 M140i and got this...

[A.J.M]

In the end, I bought a new car.
Due to a few factors in my favour, I bought it for £2309 less than average prices for its age and spec.

I collect Saturday so looking forward to it.

[Hub]

Deep Thought said:

Interestingly, just tried for our 2019 M140i and got this...

Interesting. I had an email yesterday saying "Selected branches are now open on a click and drop basis which means you still have a safe way to sell your FORD. Click 'GO' for a free valuation", which is the link I used to get the valuation.

[Vroomer]

Hub said:

Vroomer said:

One week into Lockdown 2, does anyone have an update on WBAC offers? Some posters had an excellent historical track of offers which clearly illustrated price trends.

2012/62 Focus ST estate... doing such minimal mileage as to not make any difference!

Sept 2019: £6,750
20 March 2020: £5,420
24 June: £7,175
14 July: £7,000
26 August £7,285
7 September £7,000
10 October £6,620
23 October £6,500
12 November £6,000

Exactly what I was looking for! This sort of trend data is really fascinating.

[Deep Thought]

Hub said:

Deep Thought said:

Interestingly, just tried for our 2019 M140i and got this...

Interesting. I had an email yesterday saying "Selected branches are now open on a click and drop basis which means you still have a safe way to sell your FORD. Click 'GO' for a free valuation", which is the link I used to get the valuation.

Yeah i think its likely car / model specific. M140is are never that popular in the trade so not much of a surprise that its one of the first cars they say no to valuing.

[TurboHatchback]

I can say that the cars I keep an eye on are still at least as expensive as they were a year ago going by advertised prices, sometimes more. These are 2016+ euro6 3.0l barges. I'm keeping my eye on the market because I'd quite like to buy one at some point but with the continued uncertainty and prices where they are it still seems like a bad time for making substantial car purchases.

[Auto810graphy]

Deep Thought said:

Yeah i think its likely car / model specific. M140is are never that popular in the trade so not much of a surprise that its one of the first cars they say no to valuing.

A trader one told me there is never an unpopular car, just one that’s to expensive for the market.

Late M140’s should be levelling out on depreciation since they cleared the stock and the new car is seen by some as less desirable.

As for prices the last few weeks, most dealers I know are not buying unless it’s similar to something they have sold however the auction prices still seem strong. IMO this is partly down to some vendors holding back entering their stock therefore reducing supply and the auctions still pushing cars to provisional and possibly beyond.

There is this strange optimism in the trade that car sales will pick up again at the end of lockdown like earlier this year but I am feeling a long slow winter and a spring reality that stock prices need to be reduced.

On the other hand in the event of a no deal Brexit there might be cases of panic buying of sub 3 year old European stuff as people fear the market will rise with the 10% tariffs on new.

[gizlaroc]

Gman20 said:

gizlaroc said:

Why didn't you sort these things out beforehand?

It is a 4 year old car. It should be pretty near mint, at least in very decent condition. A few little stone chips, which I would expect to be touched in.

But certainly no dents or no scuffed alloys, and to take it in with it showing a service light is just dumb. They don't care where it was done, a local indy for £100 could have sorted that.


No wonder WBAC get such a bad name.

He is selling into the motor trade.
Why would someone pay retail price to fix issues the buyer would be able to fix at trade prices, and offset against the vat margin.
It's going to go to auction, it's probably going to fetch up to £500 less than an absolutely mint one that requires no prep, but no less than a typical one.

Because he is trading into WBAC. We all know how they work, so play the game.

The guy said he knew how they work. Hence, why not get the bits done?

Dent man £100, cheap alloy refurb for selling £160, service at a local place or even kwikfit £100.

£360

Better than £1733 from WBAC.

[HTP99]

gizlaroc said:

Gman20 said:

gizlaroc said:

Why didn't you sort these things out beforehand?

It is a 4 year old car. It should be pretty near mint, at least in very decent condition. A few little stone chips, which I would expect to be touched in.

But certainly no dents or no scuffed alloys, and to take it in with it showing a service light is just dumb. They don't care where it was done, a local indy for £100 could have sorted that.


No wonder WBAC get such a bad name.

He is selling into the motor trade.
Why would someone pay retail price to fix issues the buyer would be able to fix at trade prices, and offset against the vat margin.
It's going to go to auction, it's probably going to fetch up to £500 less than an absolutely mint one that requires no prep, but no less than a typical one.

Because he is trading into WBAC. We all know how they work, so play the game.

The guy said he knew how they work. Hence, why not get the bits done?

Dent man £100, cheap alloy refurb for selling £160, service at a local place or even kwikfit £100.

£360

Better than £1733 from WBAC.

Took the wife's 2011 Fiat 500 into WBAC yesterday, got a figure of £2135, based on part history and 2m MOT, the site wouldn't let me add damage, it let me select it but it wouldn't let me update the initial quote. It has a no paint damage horizontal dent which would be a Mr Dent type thing and a damaged sill which would be a bodyshop job so was thinking £250 tops.

There is also knocking N/F/S suspension and a broken microswitch so the boot doesn't open from the handle, it does open from the key. I know they don't drive it (he'd didn't), so the suspension noise wouldn't be detected and prior to arrival they phone you to let you know the procedure; open bonnet, leave paperwork on the seat etc, so I also opened the boot, the broken switch wasn't detected by him.

I was offered £1400, upon being asked why that low, he said "all the damage", I reiterated I told him about the sill and arch, he said there was loads more. This "damage" was a few stone chips on the bonnet and the odd one or 2 as a car of that age and mileage would have, he said I should have noted it all, FFS its a 9 year old car with 62k miles, it was all age related, there were no dents or scuffs over and above what I told him about. If I had appraised a similar car at work, I wouldn't have noted the few stone chips as they are to be expected of a car that age.

I sold it later in the day to a trader I know for £1700, he saw it and drove it, I told him about the suspension (he heard it anyway) and also told him about the boot switch. Upon telling him about the WBAC quote he said "they were taking the piss".

[Gman20]

gizlaroc said:

Because he is trading into WBAC. We all know how they work, so play the game.

The guy said he knew how they work. Hence, why not get the bits done?

Dent man £100, cheap alloy refurb for selling £160, service at a local place or even kwikfit £100.

£360

Better than £1733 from WBAC.

Someone's else has already had this conversation.
The the guy didn't say he knew how they worked he said he had seen bad reviews, but you only hear about the bad experiences so wanted to try for himself.
If he got the dodgy repairs you talk about, even if they could be done at the prices you say, nothing to say they won't come up with some other reason to knock the price down a similar amount, or worse spot the dodgy fixes and decide it's worth even less.
As you say 'we all know how they work' so we won't need to discuss the likelyhood of them paying out full price if you show up with a genuinely mint fully serviced car, because we all know the answer.

[Anonymous-poster]

Gman20 said:

Someone's else has already had this conversation.
The the guy didn't say he knew how they worked he said he had seen bad reviews, but you only hear about the bad experiences so wanted to try for himself.
If he got the dodgy repairs you talk about, even if they could be done at the prices you say, nothing to say they won't come up with some other reason to knock the price down a similar amount, or worse spot the dodgy fixes and decide it's worth even less.
As you say 'we all know how they work' so we won't need to discuss the likelyhood of them paying out full price if you show up with a genuinely mint fully serviced car, because we all know the answer.

Sold my mothers car to WBAC after been let down by private buyer and got full price they quoted which was £2.5k more than trade in price from Audi main dealer against another Audi.