Part-ex prices at BMW dealership?

[art200380]

Hi

I'm currently looking to swap my Lotus Elise for possibly a 2 or a 4 series BMW convertible (as our 2nd car).

We've got a 2 year old and a 7 week old, and as much as I love the Lotus it's just not practical anymore and the wife isn't happy with me taking the kids out in it etc etc.

Any experience of part-ex prices at BMW dealerships for non-BMW cars? I'd rather part-ex for ease but I'm aware the Lotus is a bit of a niche market, so don't want them having my trousers down on the part-ex price. If that was the case I'd sell it privately myself and then go in as a cash buyer.

I put the Lotus into WBAC and it came back as £8k under what I was expecting!!

[R8Steve]

Sell it privately.

The WBAC price won't be far off what BMW will give you.

[Spuffington]

R8Steve said:

Sell it privately.

The WBAC price won't be far off what BMW will give you.

Agree.

WBAC seems to be the benchmark (if not sometimes undershooting this) of BMW dealerships, even on BMWs where they can retail them out of group stock, so other Marques will only fair worse.

[art200380]

Thanks Steve.

I just thought part-ex-ing was easier as I'd have no gap in vehicles, but I'm not prepared to take an £8k hit on it.

Plus I'd be looking for a nearly new or pre-reg'd BMW so there shouldn't be too much waiting around for it once I've sold the Lotus.

Looks like it's going on Auto Trader.

[Riggie]

My very recent experience is that they will offer LESS than WBAC !

I work in a dealership (not BMW) and have access to CAP trade values and they didnt even offer me the CAP trade in price. Needless to say, the deal didn't go through !

[R8Steve]

Riggie said:

My very recent experience is that they will offer LESS than WBAC !

I work in a dealership (not BMW) and have access to CAP trade values and they didnt even offer me the CAP trade in price. Needless to say, the deal didn't go through !

Same experience for me, on a 63 plate X6 of all things!

[art200380]

crikey....if they won't even give you a decent price for their own marque....then other marques have no chance!

[mikeyscott]

Sell it privately, I got offered £7.5/8k for my R32, so I sold it for £12k privately in 2015.

WBAC was about £8.5k but I understand they then knock you down when you attend.

[GTEYE]

art200380 said:

crikey....if they won't even give you a decent price for their own marque....then other marques have no chance!

Is it that residual values are becoming a problem on BMW and presumably Mercedes and Audi as well? ie over-supply is killing values.

Has anyone had a good experience of residuals/trade-in values or is getting clobbered pretty much the norm these days?

[Spuffington]

It's mental and getting worse.

I've bought three BMWs in the last 15months. When buying the X3 and trading in a 118d, I got offered WBAC price and managed to bid up from there. With trading the Yeti in for a 530d, I got offered well under the WBAC price (which I could understand more) but they eventually gave in following four days of ignoring phonecalls and paid slightly over. And now trying to trade in the X3, starting price was below WBAC and that's the same marque.

It used to be that WBAC was quoted to show how much of a favour they were doing for you by giving you 500quid above, but to start out below is plain cheeky IMO. I get that everyone is trying to make money, but when CAP values are that bit higher....

[MattOz]

I recently enquired about changing my BMW for another BMW at a local dealer. Knowing full well that they would retail my car for more (£2-3k) than the vehicle I was interested in, I thought I'd investigate. Bottom line was that they wanted £5k from me to change. Errr, no thanks. Had it been £1k, I may have done a deal as I appreciate that dealers need to make money. However, 5 times that was a piss take.

[mikeyscott]

I agree it is getting worse, got offered £10k for my 135i 2011 plate, decent spec, which they really wanted leaving me £10k to find for a £20k M135i.

Err no

[12TS]

Shop around. Try also going to different BMW Groups e.g Sytner, Cooper, Baron etc.

I got a decent offer when I px/d my 135, but the offers varied by ove £1k.

[Monty Python]

Just got £10k for my '10 335d (which is £400 below WBAC "valuation"), but I'm fairly sure WBAC would have knocked that price down due to some large stone chips and so on.

Best way is to go in, tell them exactly how much you're prepared to pay to complete the deal and if they say no, walk away, it's as simple as that. At the end of the day it's the cost to change that matters - how they get there is irrelevant.

[aeropilot]

mikeyscott said:

I agree it is getting worse, got offered £10k for my 135i 2011 plate, decent spec, which they really wanted leaving me £10k to find for a £20k M135i.

Err no

Likewise........same offer with my high spec 2011 135i when buying my X5 recently. Thought I might get a slightly better offer from Jason Barker being they are always looking for decent six cyl petrol 1 and 3 Series - but despite him being very interested on the phone, he never came back with the email/phone offer that he said he would prepare the next day, in fact I never heard from him again, so I sold my 135i through BabyBMW forum for 5k more than the BMW trade-in offer (which admittedly did include a 2nd set of rims/winter tyres etc - so probably just over 4k difference in value)

[AOK]

Generally speaking, the 'guides' that dealers will use to value something like an Elise will not be representative of what can actually be achieved selling to the trade. These guides are based on what cars fetch at auction, but most Lotus specialists would not source their stock solely from auction.

I'm involved in a business which specialises in beating PX / 'instant' online prices but would be breaking the forum rules if I named it here. You are welcome to direct message me though and I'd be happy to offer some advice.

[art200380]

AOK - I've emailed you.

Thanks

Andy

[AOK]

art200380 said:

AOK - I've emailed you.

Thanks

Andy

Received and replied via email

[Sheepshanks]

art200380 said:

crikey....if they won't even give you a decent price for their own marque....then other marques have no chance!

You might do better - sometimes (often?) there is extra bonus money for the dealership for getting a customer to switch marque. Manufacturers are very driven by market segment share.

[Fox-]

I was going to sell mine privately but was really surprised at how strong the PX offer was. They claimed it was a good enough example for them to retail with minimal prep. I was then subsequently amazed at just how much they advertised it for and, seemingly, actually sold it for!