webuyanycar VS retail prices = huge difference these days

[stewieyan]

Not sure if this was brought up before, but for many years the typical difference between an advertised price of a used car and what webuyanycar would pay for it was around 7-10%. Now I mostly see 20%+ and up to 30-40% for more expensive cars! Curious to understand why is that and where's the logic here, it's a huge difference.

[ChrisH72]

The gap is more than it was but I don’t believe it was ever 7-10%. At that margin there’d be nothing in it for them.

[Sunday Drive]

Increased risk due to economic climate - recession and interest rates.

[Tagteam]

We buy can see the market falls , retail are holding on to anything before moving prices down

[______]

I got a new defender 90 which wife didn’t get on with so sold it after 4 weeks + 800 miles, dealer group offered 8k under list another wouldn’t bid, wbac offered 2k over list. Let wbac have it.

[stewieyan]

Absolutely ridiculous gap!
To me this means that upon buying a used car one instantly looses tons of money!!

Any real examples where the gap is reasonable within 10% like it was a year ago?

E.g. just extracted these figures now very randomly:

2019 Yaris 1.5 petrol manual 14k miles = £12.7k as approved used; £9.7 at webuyanycar (30% difference!!)

2018 BMW 118i 20k miles = £28k as approved used; £18k at webuyanycar (55% difference!!!)
WHAT THIS COULD MEAN: if I buy this car now and sell in a few months, I'll loose £10,000!!!

2016 Macan GTS 38k miles = £45k as approved used; £33k at webuyanycar (36% difference!!)

2017 Jag XE SE 200ps petrol 13k miles = £18k as approved used; £14k at webuyanycar (28% difference!!)

Edited by stewieyan on Sunday 27th November 10:09

Edited by stewieyan on Sunday 27th November 10:10

Edited by stewieyan on Sunday 27th November 10:11

Edited by stewieyan on Sunday 27th November 10:23

[______]

stewieyan said:

Absolutely ridiculous gap!
And this means that upon buying a used car one instantly looses tons of money!!

E.g. just extracted these figures now very randomly:

2019 Yaris 1.5 14k miles = £12.7k as approved used; £9.7 at webuyanycar (30% difference!!)

2018 BMW 118i 20k miles = £28k as approved used; £18k at webuyanycar; (55% difference!!!)

2016 Macan GTS 38k miles = £45k as approved used; £33k at webuyanycar; (36% difference!!)

2017 Jag XE SE 200ps 13k miles = £18k as approved used; £14k at webuyanycar (28% difference!!)

You do realise 90% of what they buy is put through their BCA auction arm, when the dealer has bought, they need to inspect, recondition, service and warranty for 12-24 months….. so you are normally selling sub trade to BCA but sometimes they are paying above odds.

[ChocolateFrog]

stewieyan said:

Not sure if this was brought up before, but for many years the typical difference between an advertised price of a used car and what webuyanycar would pay for it was around 7-10%. Now I mostly see 20%+ and up to 30-40% for more expensive cars! Curious to understand why is that and where's the logic here, it's a huge difference.

Factoring in uncertainty.

[sandman77]

stewieyan said:

Absolutely ridiculous gap!
And this means that upon buying a used car one instantly looses tons of money!!

E.g. just extracted these figures now very randomly:

2019 Yaris 1.5 petrol manual 14k miles = £12.7k as approved used; £9.7 at webuyanycar (30% difference!!)

2018 BMW 118i 20k miles = £28k as approved used; £18k at webuyanycar; (55% difference!!!)

2016 Macan GTS 38k miles = £45k as approved used; £33k at webuyanycar; (36% difference!!)

2017 Jag XE SE 200ps petrol 13k miles = £18k as approved used; £14k at webuyanycar (28% difference!!)

Ridiculous?? If you owned your own company would you not try to maximise your profits? If you don’t like their offer you can sell elsewhere.

[stewieyan]

sandman77 said:

Ridiculous?? If you owned your own company would you not try to maximise your profits? If you don’t like their offer you can sell elsewhere.

What I am saying is, it doesn't make any sense to buy a used car when upon buying you're loosing 50% of it's value. Unless you disagree then please go ahead and buy haha.

[stewieyan]

A year ago the difference was around 10% max. I even bought a great car where it was like 5%.

These days as can be seen it's reaching almost 60% at times!

This means that you buy a used car and immediately loose TONS of money which doesn't make any sense.

Example: you put a £5k deposit for a PCP on one of those cars, then sell the car in 6 months time = you loose your £5k in the best case scenario.

[Jordie Barretts sock]

stewieyan said:

What I am saying is, it doesn't make any sense to buy a used car when upon buying you're loosing 50% of it's value. Unless you disagree then please go ahead and buy haha.

No, what you are posting makes no sense at all.

When you buy a car, you don't immediately think about selling it. Usually you buy a car for a long period of time. Perhaps three or four years. Does it matter if my £25k car is worth £18k ten minutes after I drive it off the forecourt? Not at all, can you tell me what it will be worth when I want to sell it in four years time with another 45k miles on it?

Of course you can't.

[stewieyan]

Jordie Barretts sock said:

No, what you are posting makes no sense at all.

When you buy a car, you don't immediately think about selling it. Usually you buy a car for a long period of time. Perhaps three or four years. Does it matter if my £25k car is worth £18k ten minutes after I drive it off the forecourt? Not at all, can you tell me what it will be worth when I want to sell it in four years time with another 45k miles on it?

Of course you can't.

If you're buying a car for 4-5 years and you're not particularly good with money = then yes, it doesn't matter.

However if you intend to change cars reasonably frequently, e.g. once a year or less, then you're in a big trouble AS OPPOSED TO what the situation was like previously.

[______]

stewieyan said:

If you're buying a car for 4-5 years and you're not particularly good with money = then yes, it doesn't matter.

However if you intend to change cars reasonably frequently, e.g. once a year or less, then you're in a big trouble AS OPPOSED TO what the situation was like previously.

If you intend to change frequently, then as always you buy as cheaply as possible, often privately and for cash.

We’ve been in a very odd bubble for 2-3 years that’s absolutely not normal, but yes of course you’d expect a car to be worth significantly less if you buy from a approved retailer and sell to a company who supplies the auction houses that trade buys from.

[Muzzer79]

stewieyan said:

Jordie Barretts sock said:

No, what you are posting makes no sense at all.

When you buy a car, you don't immediately think about selling it. Usually you buy a car for a long period of time. Perhaps three or four years. Does it matter if my £25k car is worth £18k ten minutes after I drive it off the forecourt? Not at all, can you tell me what it will be worth when I want to sell it in four years time with another 45k miles on it?

Of course you can't.

If you're buying a car for 4-5 years and you're not particularly good with money = then yes, it doesn't matter.

However if you intend to change cars reasonably frequently, e.g. once a year or less, then you're in a big trouble AS OPPOSED TO what the situation was like previously.

If you’re buying and selling cars in less than 12 months, you’ve always been exposed to big losses, prior to COVID supply chain issues hiking prices.

Where is this fantasyland place where you buy a used car and only lose 5% when driving off the forecourt? It’s never happened.

[Mandat]

stewieyan said:

Not sure if this was brought up before, but for many years the typical difference between an advertised price of a used car and what webuyanycar would pay for it was around 7-10%. Now I mostly see 20%+ and up to 30-40% for more expensive cars! Curious to understand why is that and where's the logic here, it's a huge difference.

It's just the classic business adage: buy low, sell high.

Whilst writing, has no one ever explained to you; lose v loose?

[bitchstewie]

I wonder if some of this is that WBAC give you "cash" for your car but dealers tend to shift them on at finance prices i.e. very few people pay £40K "cash" for a new or used car these days?

[sixor8]

stewieyan said:

A year ago the difference was around 10% max. I even bought a great car where it was like 5%.

These days as can be seen it's reaching almost 60% at times!

This means that you buy a used car and immediately loose TONS of money which doesn't make any sense.

Example: you put a £5k deposit for a PCP on one of those cars, then sell the car in 6 months time = you loose your £5k in the best case scenario.

Only if your only means of selling is WBAC. There are loads of other places to sell.

Granted, it's probably quoted by dealers when they want to offer you a low part-ex price, but for a while, dealers were guaranteeing to offer you better than the WBAC valuation BECAUSE they were so low. Thy work on algorithms I can't fathom, a 20 year old TVR worth over £10k is given a valuation of £100 because it doesn't 'fit' the algorithm.

[Theoldguard]

WBAC can adjust their pricing instantly to reflect market demand / outlook. Dealerships / traders have bought in at a certain price and so holding out to achieve the price to give a decent margin. At some point they will have to give in to market forces and lower their prices as alot in recent times have been using WBAC as a way of valuing part ex, no sensible person is going to pay top price for a vehicle and then accept the WBAC price for their part ex, the spread is just too much.

I also sense that WBAC knowing the market well are low balling in the knowledge that many are coming off PCP type contracts and unable to afford to buy their vehicle and too expensive to renew a new PCP, so mopping up at low price.

When I purchased my end of lease in May 2021 from Peugeot WBAC had valued at £17800, peugeot wanted £18500, so I bought it and sold to WBAC in the August for £21500, it ended up being retailed for £24500, so around 15%. The spread now is unsustainable but may throw up some decent private sales as many look at other options rather than WBAC to offload their vehicles and pocket a bit more.

[CloudStuff]

At the height of the market nuttiness, WBA’s we’re bidding stupidly high to the extent many wondered “makes no sense, they just hoovering up stock to prevent the completion obtaining stock”, or such like.

Stock was king, and with their deep pockets it made sense. But it was not a sustainable position.

Now they’re simply preparing for the market to come.

It actually makes a lot more sense than their previous behaviour.