£4k above average price seen as fair?

[r1monkey]

So I have been looking at Jag F types on Auto trader and i just don’t get how they can put in their price evaluation on cars that they are a fair price,when they put down that a car is £4000 above market average.
Is £4000 now considered a small amount of money to be overpriced?

[ChrisH72]

Depends on the price of the car surely?

If its 70-80k then 4k over might not be such a big deal. If its cheaper end, say 25k then it's a bit much.

Does it matter though? You can always choose to avoid the overpriced stuff.

[ZX10R NIN]

Ignore it as they don't do it on every car.

[daqinggregg]

This is Autotrader's terms

The following is not included in our calculations, but may affect the car's price:

The car's condition
The car's colour
Regional supply and demand
Special modification
Additional services, warranties and finance deals
The number of owners
The car's service history

So basically, their valuation is worthless.

[fflump]

The adjective fair has different meanings and you seem to be using a different one to autotrader.

[J1990]

At the end of the day, the AT pricing is worthless. It's on you to determine your own budget, what the going rate for cars which meet your criteria is and then pick the right one. As noted by the poster above, AT doesn't account for a lot of variables on the cars and so the value differs massively when you consider how many options these cars had.

It took me 5months to find my F-Type with the spec I wanted, even then it was missing one tiny feature that I would've liked (Heated steering wheel). I'd seen the same car for sale by a private seller the week before but whilst doing my checks it got bought by a dealer <10miles from me, he had it serviced and put it up for £3k more, I got that down to £2k more and walked away with it quite happily.

[r1monkey]

it’s on £40k cars so 10% above the price that is expected to be obtained going by A.T prices for sold cars.
I know that I can filter out the cars that are overpriced but it actually tells me in the advertisement that the car is £4000 to much.
I have rung a couple of dealers to see if they have a better price due to their prices being higher than the market suggests and they say they will sell the car no problem,yet I see the same car for sale 6 months later.

[sosidge]

Fair price is Autotrader speak for overpriced.

[Jamescrs]

I wouldn't trust autotrader's opinion on the price as they seem to be able to have two very similar cars of the same age, near enough same mileage, sepc etc and will say one is fair and another is overpriced. I suspect their algorithms are off but others think it depends how much the trader is paying in advertising revenue.

either way i'd ignore the AT valuation ratings and judge each on it's merits

[wax lyrical]

Just ignore the Autotrader 'valuation' and use your own common-sense and judgement based on the desirability/specialness of your car and prices that similar cars are advertised at.

I last week sold my BMW E93 335i. 2008 model with 223k miles on the clock. Excellent condition though and full BMW SH. AT valued it at £1,750. I advertised it at £3,950 and got £3,850 within 4 days of my advert going up. Buyer was first person to come and view the car.

[r1monkey]

Jamescrs said:

I wouldn't trust autotrader's opinion on the price as they seem to be able to have two very similar cars of the same age, near enough same mileage, sepc etc and will say one is fair and another is overpriced. I suspect their algorithms are off but others think it depends how much the trader is paying in advertising revenue.

either way i'd ignore the AT valuation ratings and judge each on it's merits

I think you might be onto something there with the trader revenue part.
Two cars advertised by Jag dealers were on as “Expensive” for the first day on A.T ,yet they had been changed to “fair price “ the following day.
I guess that the dealers rang up and asked for the ratings to be altered which would seem “unfair “ to me if you get the pun.

[Macron]

wax lyrical said:

Just ignore the Autotrader 'valuation' and use your own common-sense and judgement based on the desirability/specialness of your car and prices that similar cars are advertised at.

I last week sold my BMW E93 335i. 2008 model with 223k miles on the clock. Excellent condition though and full BMW SH. AT valued it at £1,750. I advertised it at £3,950 and got £3,850 within 4 days of my advert going up. Buyer was first person to come and view the car.

223k?? Congrats, you found a right mug!

[Jiebo]

Macron said:

223k?? Congrats, you found a right mug!

Just what I was thinking. Lucky finding one so quickly, which has created a bias in his views of the market.

[fflump]

Jamescrs said:

I wouldn't trust autotrader's opinion on the price as they seem to be able to have two very similar cars of the same age, near enough same mileage, sepc etc and will say one is fair and another is overpriced. I suspect their algorithms are off but others think it depends how much the trader is paying in advertising revenue.

either way i'd ignore the AT valuation ratings and judge each on it's merits

Fair is the 4th most expensive category on their 5 point scale. Similar cars can easily be either side of the fair/higher price boundary. In the context of price most people assume the meaning of fair being used is ‘right and just’ whereas auto trader are using another meaning for fair which is ‘ neither very good nor very bad’

[r1monkey]

That is exactly what my post was meant to say.
I class fair as a price that is the average of sales so it is fair to both the buyer and seller.
I also think that some private sellers are in cloud cuckoo land as they see dealer prices and think that they should advertise their car at the same price. Even when every car valuation site tells them what to advertise at

[Hitch]

sosidge said:

Fair price is Autotrader speak for overpriced.

This is it. the ratings go Low, Great, Good, Fair.

Worth remembering that the dealers are their clients...

[ChocolateFrog]

Ignore.

I file it in the same bin as AWS F1 graphics.