High used car prices - but are they actually selling?
Discussion
The current high prices for used car are well documented on PH & elsewhere, but the question is are they actually selling?
I have been advertising my car here & on EBay for about 3 weeks at a sensible price (performance version of a Mini), and yet no serious enquiries - & yes, I have reduced the price.
It is very well priced compared to other comparable examples here & on A/T, and yet still no serious enquiries. If i was a buyer & seriously looking for a good straight example with no dubious history, I would certainly be making contact as it's very competitive without being giveaway cheap.
WBAC have dropped their prices lately to a level far lower then anything else advertised, so that's not an option realistically.
I've had a few contacts from timewasters asking for photos of the back seat & boot etc - what's that all about - what do they expect a Mini back seat to look like anyway - maybe like a Mini back seat?
My brother is selling his BMW 1 series convertible, at least £1K cheaper than all the other comparables, but still no calls for him either.
So I am posting this to ask what those of you out there currently actively selling are finding. My suspicion is people are simply not buying unless cars are silly cheap
I have been advertising my car here & on EBay for about 3 weeks at a sensible price (performance version of a Mini), and yet no serious enquiries - & yes, I have reduced the price.
It is very well priced compared to other comparable examples here & on A/T, and yet still no serious enquiries. If i was a buyer & seriously looking for a good straight example with no dubious history, I would certainly be making contact as it's very competitive without being giveaway cheap.
WBAC have dropped their prices lately to a level far lower then anything else advertised, so that's not an option realistically.
I've had a few contacts from timewasters asking for photos of the back seat & boot etc - what's that all about - what do they expect a Mini back seat to look like anyway - maybe like a Mini back seat?
My brother is selling his BMW 1 series convertible, at least £1K cheaper than all the other comparables, but still no calls for him either.
So I am posting this to ask what those of you out there currently actively selling are finding. My suspicion is people are simply not buying unless cars are silly cheap
It depends on the price of your car. North of £5k and people start looking for finance, above £10k most definitely, so people will be more inclined to used dealers, not only for finance, but for belts and braces peace of mind. And delivery/apps. Every muppet in the universe wants apps and delivery. So many people now can't function without things being online.
Agree with the above, I wouldn't be selling a car at this time of the year unless I had to.
People thinking about Xmas, the expense of it and generally crappy weather/dark so people don't want to leave the house unless they have to. If you can wait til March/April you'll get 10/15% more in my experience.
People thinking about Xmas, the expense of it and generally crappy weather/dark so people don't want to leave the house unless they have to. If you can wait til March/April you'll get 10/15% more in my experience.
Well i am not buying until prices settle down as i suspect a lot of people are now doing.
There was a massive buying spree from wbac etc that put prices artificially high.
I have been watching jag f types for a few years and at the lowest point there were an average of 525 cars for sale (that was when they were selling before they even got pictures on the ads.) To there now being an average of 860 for sale ,some of which have been on sale for months now.
I know that some cars a couple of years old are selling above prices for new cars but i guess that those cars are mainly not being sold to private buyers.
There was a massive buying spree from wbac etc that put prices artificially high.
I have been watching jag f types for a few years and at the lowest point there were an average of 525 cars for sale (that was when they were selling before they even got pictures on the ads.) To there now being an average of 860 for sale ,some of which have been on sale for months now.
I know that some cars a couple of years old are selling above prices for new cars but i guess that those cars are mainly not being sold to private buyers.
volvos60s60 said:
WBAC have dropped their prices lately to a level far lower then anything else advertised, so that's not an option realistically.
If you do want to get shut of it there's a whole bunch of other car buying services, although it seems they've all softened their prices recently.I assume it's something like a Cooper S/ JCW ?
I think the mkt for them has peaked and started to drop away in the past few months. I foolishly sold my wife's auto, super high spec 2015 JCW back in March 2019 for sub £14k, I thought of getting back in a similar car this summer, (4-year-old, high spec, JCW etc) and was shocked to see prices over £20k
3 weeks isn’t a very long time to be on the market, perhaps you are being a little impatient? Also as others have said, this is the worst time of year to be selling or even buying a car as the market moves so slowly. I’d wait until March/April. I also don’t think it’s unreasonable to request photos of the back seats - they could be ripped or damaged for all the buyer knows. You should have included those pics in your original ad.
OP, were I looking and requested additional photos of things not in your ad.. and you dismissed me as a time waster.. yeah, I’d just scroll on to the next one. In this digital age it would take you less than a minute when next near the car to WhatsApp anything across.
Plenty of cars for sale, no need for buyers to waste energy with unhelpful or lazy sellers, certainly not investing time driving to look at it. The next opportunity is merely a click away!
Plenty of cars for sale, no need for buyers to waste energy with unhelpful or lazy sellers, certainly not investing time driving to look at it. The next opportunity is merely a click away!
volvos60s60 said:
The current high prices for used car are well documented on PH & elsewhere, but the question is are they actually selling?
I have been advertising my car here & on EBay for about 3 weeks at a sensible price (performance version of a Mini), and yet no serious enquiries - & yes, I have reduced the price.
It is very well priced compared to other comparable examples here & on A/T, and yet still no serious enquiries. If i was a buyer & seriously looking for a good straight example with no dubious history, I would certainly be making contact as it's very competitive without being giveaway cheap.
WBAC have dropped their prices lately to a level far lower then anything else advertised, so that's not an option realistically.
I've had a few contacts from timewasters asking for photos of the back seat & boot etc - what's that all about - what do they expect a Mini back seat to look like anyway - maybe like a Mini back seat?
My brother is selling his BMW 1 series convertible, at least £1K cheaper than all the other comparables, but still no calls for him either.
So I am posting this to ask what those of you out there currently actively selling are finding. My suspicion is people are simply not buying unless cars are silly cheap
What finance deals are you offering? I have been advertising my car here & on EBay for about 3 weeks at a sensible price (performance version of a Mini), and yet no serious enquiries - & yes, I have reduced the price.
It is very well priced compared to other comparable examples here & on A/T, and yet still no serious enquiries. If i was a buyer & seriously looking for a good straight example with no dubious history, I would certainly be making contact as it's very competitive without being giveaway cheap.
WBAC have dropped their prices lately to a level far lower then anything else advertised, so that's not an option realistically.
I've had a few contacts from timewasters asking for photos of the back seat & boot etc - what's that all about - what do they expect a Mini back seat to look like anyway - maybe like a Mini back seat?
My brother is selling his BMW 1 series convertible, at least £1K cheaper than all the other comparables, but still no calls for him either.
So I am posting this to ask what those of you out there currently actively selling are finding. My suspicion is people are simply not buying unless cars are silly cheap
If you're not offering finance then don't forget you're restricting yourself to people with money who by the very nature of having money aren't naturally inclined to pay over the odds for something that'll be pricing correctly some time next year.
Used dealer stock seems to be shifting and dealers seem to still be biting arms off to get stock.
I suspect that if your selling a completely normal car, at a fair price then it's the absence of finance that is probably the big differentiator just because without it you lose a huge number of potential buyers and the least price sensitive ones to boot.
I had a 340 estate to get rid of and the dealers were offering as much as I could have got privately, more than I paid for the car a couple of years ago and would just send someone to collect it. A couple of the dealers chased recently to see if I still had the car.
volvos60s60 said:
WBAC have dropped their prices lately to a level far lower then anything else advertised, so that's not an option realistically.
You do understand they are a business yes? And if there is no difference between the price they pay and the price they sell for that business won't last very long?It seems very strange to me that people have an expectation all cars will be bought by what is a Trader for a price at or above what a privateer would get...
Sourcing agent here. I contact private sellers such as yourselves and make a trade bid on behalf of my clients who actually do the buying.
This is what I've noticed so far about the inflation in the market.
1. There's been a massive influx of sellers who are selling their cars for the sake of it. The only motivation behind selling a car that they otherwise would be keeping is the simple justification that "used car prices have gone up", nothing more. Ask these people to elaborate on the reasons why prices have gone up and they'll have no clue. Many of this type of seller seem to think that people are panicking to buy cars and thus someone will come along and pay dealer retail money (which should include warranty, P/X options, finance options depending on age, and Consumer Rights Act protection) for their s
tbox with none of the benefits. Ironically, these people are never "in a rush to sell"... well thank god for that because it's going to be sat on their drive a while. There's a lot of them about at the minute with ridiculous asking prices, so when genuine sellers come to price compare, they overprice and naturally, the actual "bottom line" price is unrealistically high.
2. WBAC (as mentioned previously) pushed their offers up as due to lack of stock available at dealers, they knew they would be able to reclaim the cash as they'd be selling over book at auction. For those of you that don't know, WBAC is owned by Constellation Automotive, which also owns Cinch (so the nice cars they can retail themselves with full margin and keep all the profits), and the nasty units they will auction over book to other dealers through BCA (also owned by Constellation Automotive) because they know that they will pay silly prices for stock out of desperation. This huge buying surge will have made millions in profit as WBAC was outbidding us and independent traders all day long (and still is, to a certain degree).
Also some private sellers think that the inflated online valuation is an official trade "offer" (news flash, it really isn't), so they tend to price about £1500-£2000 above (depending on how expensive the car is) what the algorithm churns out which sticks them in dealer retail territory when it comes to pricing. This inflates the marketplace and once again, gives people unnecessarily high expectations of what their car is actually worth.
3. What worries me is people actually paying these prices at the minute due to a lack of intuition. Bubbles burst. Wait for a few months until everyone returns to bloody sanity.
As one current example, every Fiat 500 that is listed privately by anyone is, in every single circumstance, listed at or above dealer retail money because "my friend sold one exactly the same for X amount of pounds so I thought I could as well". The person who bought their friends car massively overpaid and has absolutely no protection if there's a catastrophic failure of the engine or gearbox and they will be out of pocket, whilst our current seller is now seeing pound signs. Why would the buyer take such a risk? Complete lack of understanding when it comes to market research and car buying in general. Fortunately for a lucky few of the sellers who have their cars up at a comparable price to a franchised used car dealer, there is a chance they will have some thick skull come along with the negotiation skills of a carrot keen to throw their hard earned savings into an unprepped, unserviced, kerbed-to-an-inch-of-its-life motor when there was a much better deal down the road if they cared to look.
Rant over I guess.
If anyone's curious as to my experience, I spend literally all day (sad I know) on Facebook, Gumtree, and Autotrader messaging and calling private sellers and discussing comparables, reasons for sale, making offers etc etc so I hope that I'm quite well qualified. Motor trade background as well.
Hope my insight resonates with someone at least. Felt good to get it out. People are thick
This is what I've noticed so far about the inflation in the market.
1. There's been a massive influx of sellers who are selling their cars for the sake of it. The only motivation behind selling a car that they otherwise would be keeping is the simple justification that "used car prices have gone up", nothing more. Ask these people to elaborate on the reasons why prices have gone up and they'll have no clue. Many of this type of seller seem to think that people are panicking to buy cars and thus someone will come along and pay dealer retail money (which should include warranty, P/X options, finance options depending on age, and Consumer Rights Act protection) for their s
tbox with none of the benefits. Ironically, these people are never "in a rush to sell"... well thank god for that because it's going to be sat on their drive a while. There's a lot of them about at the minute with ridiculous asking prices, so when genuine sellers come to price compare, they overprice and naturally, the actual "bottom line" price is unrealistically high.2. WBAC (as mentioned previously) pushed their offers up as due to lack of stock available at dealers, they knew they would be able to reclaim the cash as they'd be selling over book at auction. For those of you that don't know, WBAC is owned by Constellation Automotive, which also owns Cinch (so the nice cars they can retail themselves with full margin and keep all the profits), and the nasty units they will auction over book to other dealers through BCA (also owned by Constellation Automotive) because they know that they will pay silly prices for stock out of desperation. This huge buying surge will have made millions in profit as WBAC was outbidding us and independent traders all day long (and still is, to a certain degree).
Also some private sellers think that the inflated online valuation is an official trade "offer" (news flash, it really isn't), so they tend to price about £1500-£2000 above (depending on how expensive the car is) what the algorithm churns out which sticks them in dealer retail territory when it comes to pricing. This inflates the marketplace and once again, gives people unnecessarily high expectations of what their car is actually worth.
3. What worries me is people actually paying these prices at the minute due to a lack of intuition. Bubbles burst. Wait for a few months until everyone returns to bloody sanity.
As one current example, every Fiat 500 that is listed privately by anyone is, in every single circumstance, listed at or above dealer retail money because "my friend sold one exactly the same for X amount of pounds so I thought I could as well". The person who bought their friends car massively overpaid and has absolutely no protection if there's a catastrophic failure of the engine or gearbox and they will be out of pocket, whilst our current seller is now seeing pound signs. Why would the buyer take such a risk? Complete lack of understanding when it comes to market research and car buying in general. Fortunately for a lucky few of the sellers who have their cars up at a comparable price to a franchised used car dealer, there is a chance they will have some thick skull come along with the negotiation skills of a carrot keen to throw their hard earned savings into an unprepped, unserviced, kerbed-to-an-inch-of-its-life motor when there was a much better deal down the road if they cared to look.
Rant over I guess.
If anyone's curious as to my experience, I spend literally all day (sad I know) on Facebook, Gumtree, and Autotrader messaging and calling private sellers and discussing comparables, reasons for sale, making offers etc etc so I hope that I'm quite well qualified. Motor trade background as well.
Hope my insight resonates with someone at least. Felt good to get it out. People are thick
Edited by hbolton on Saturday 27th November 11:52
Lots of good feedback here
Of course I did send the photos requested showing boot & pristine and unmarked back seats, and never heard back. Maybe the buyer was disappointed and was actually seeking out some ripped seats!
Lots of good comments about not being able to offer finance restricting the pool of buyers which of course is right, however for a good straight JCW there is not much choice for cars that tick certain desirable boxes in terms of factory standard model & engine combination that someone serious and knowledgable might be looking for (I am not being deliberately evasive with that comment, but I don't want this to look like an advert thread for my car which is absolutely not my intention). However, yes, no finance effectively restricts it to cash buyers
Time of year comments I get, but as a mature driver who has enjoyed very many interesting cars over many years, I personally get most of my buying done at this time of year as that's when I can get a better deal. However, yes, maybe I need to wait for spring.
Of course I did send the photos requested showing boot & pristine and unmarked back seats, and never heard back. Maybe the buyer was disappointed and was actually seeking out some ripped seats!
Lots of good comments about not being able to offer finance restricting the pool of buyers which of course is right, however for a good straight JCW there is not much choice for cars that tick certain desirable boxes in terms of factory standard model & engine combination that someone serious and knowledgable might be looking for (I am not being deliberately evasive with that comment, but I don't want this to look like an advert thread for my car which is absolutely not my intention). However, yes, no finance effectively restricts it to cash buyers
Time of year comments I get, but as a mature driver who has enjoyed very many interesting cars over many years, I personally get most of my buying done at this time of year as that's when I can get a better deal. However, yes, maybe I need to wait for spring.
hbolton said:
Sourcing agent here. I contact private sellers such as yourselves and make a trade bid on behalf of my clients who actually do the buying.
This is what I've noticed so far about the inflation in the market.
1. There's been a massive influx of sellers who are selling their cars for the sake of it. The only motivation behind selling a car that they otherwise would be keeping is the simple justification that "used car prices have gone up", nothing more. Ask these people to elaborate on the reasons why prices have gone up and they'll have no clue. Many of this type of seller seem to think that people are panicking to buy cars and thus someone will come along and pay dealer retail money (which should include warranty, P/X options, finance options depending on age, and Consumer Rights Act protection) for their stbox with none of the benefits. Ironically, these people are never "in a rush to sell"... well thank god for that because it's going to be sat on their drive a while. There's a lot of them about at the minute with ridiculous asking prices, so when genuine sellers come to price compare, they overprice and naturally, the actual "bottom line" price is unrealistically high.
2. WBAC (as mentioned previously) pushed their offers up as due to lack of stock available at dealers, they knew they would be able to reclaim the cash as they'd be selling over book at auction. For those of you that don't know, WBAC is owned by Constellation Automotive, which also owns Cinch (so the nice cars they can retail themselves with full margin and keep all the profits), and the nasty units they will auction over book to other dealers through BCA (also owned by Constellation Automotive) because they know that they will pay silly prices for stock out of desperation. This huge buying surge will have made millions in profit as WBAC was outbidding us and independent traders all day long (and still is, to a certain degree).
Also some private sellers think that the inflated online valuation is an official trade "offer" (news flash, it really isn't), so they tend to price about £1500-£2000 above (depending on how expensive the car is) what the algorithm churns out which sticks them in dealer retail territory when it comes to pricing. This inflates the marketplace and once again, gives people unnecessarily high expectations of what their car is actually worth.
3. What worries me is people actually paying these prices at the minute due to a lack of intuition. Bubbles burst. Wait for a few months until everyone returns to bloody sanity.
As one current example, every Fiat 500 that is listed privately by anyone is, in every single circumstance, listed at or above dealer retail money because "my friend sold one exactly the same for X amount of pounds so I thought I could as well". The person who bought their friends car massively overpaid and has absolutely no protection if there's a catastrophic failure of the engine or gearbox and they will be out of pocket, whilst our current seller is now seeing pound signs. Why would the buyer take such a risk? Complete lack of understanding when it comes to market research and car buying in general. Fortunately for a lucky few of the sellers who have their cars up at a comparable price to a franchised used car dealer, there is a chance they will have some thick skull come along with the negotiation skills of a carrot keen to throw their hard earned savings into an unprepped, unserviced, kerbed-to-an-inch-of-its-life motor when there was a much better deal down the road if they cared to look.
Rant over I guess.
If anyone's curious as to my experience, I spend literally all day (sad I know) on Facebook, Gumtree, and Autotrader messaging and calling private sellers and discussing comparables, reasons for sale, making offers etc etc so I hope that I'm quite well qualified. Motor trade background as well.
Hope my insight resonates with someone at least. Felt good to get it out. People are thick
Great rant about why you cant buy much stock at the moment due to the likes of WBAC biding high prices.This is what I've noticed so far about the inflation in the market.
1. There's been a massive influx of sellers who are selling their cars for the sake of it. The only motivation behind selling a car that they otherwise would be keeping is the simple justification that "used car prices have gone up", nothing more. Ask these people to elaborate on the reasons why prices have gone up and they'll have no clue. Many of this type of seller seem to think that people are panicking to buy cars and thus someone will come along and pay dealer retail money (which should include warranty, P/X options, finance options depending on age, and Consumer Rights Act protection) for their s
tbox with none of the benefits. Ironically, these people are never "in a rush to sell"... well thank god for that because it's going to be sat on their drive a while. There's a lot of them about at the minute with ridiculous asking prices, so when genuine sellers come to price compare, they overprice and naturally, the actual "bottom line" price is unrealistically high.2. WBAC (as mentioned previously) pushed their offers up as due to lack of stock available at dealers, they knew they would be able to reclaim the cash as they'd be selling over book at auction. For those of you that don't know, WBAC is owned by Constellation Automotive, which also owns Cinch (so the nice cars they can retail themselves with full margin and keep all the profits), and the nasty units they will auction over book to other dealers through BCA (also owned by Constellation Automotive) because they know that they will pay silly prices for stock out of desperation. This huge buying surge will have made millions in profit as WBAC was outbidding us and independent traders all day long (and still is, to a certain degree).
Also some private sellers think that the inflated online valuation is an official trade "offer" (news flash, it really isn't), so they tend to price about £1500-£2000 above (depending on how expensive the car is) what the algorithm churns out which sticks them in dealer retail territory when it comes to pricing. This inflates the marketplace and once again, gives people unnecessarily high expectations of what their car is actually worth.
3. What worries me is people actually paying these prices at the minute due to a lack of intuition. Bubbles burst. Wait for a few months until everyone returns to bloody sanity.
As one current example, every Fiat 500 that is listed privately by anyone is, in every single circumstance, listed at or above dealer retail money because "my friend sold one exactly the same for X amount of pounds so I thought I could as well". The person who bought their friends car massively overpaid and has absolutely no protection if there's a catastrophic failure of the engine or gearbox and they will be out of pocket, whilst our current seller is now seeing pound signs. Why would the buyer take such a risk? Complete lack of understanding when it comes to market research and car buying in general. Fortunately for a lucky few of the sellers who have their cars up at a comparable price to a franchised used car dealer, there is a chance they will have some thick skull come along with the negotiation skills of a carrot keen to throw their hard earned savings into an unprepped, unserviced, kerbed-to-an-inch-of-its-life motor when there was a much better deal down the road if they cared to look.
Rant over I guess.
If anyone's curious as to my experience, I spend literally all day (sad I know) on Facebook, Gumtree, and Autotrader messaging and calling private sellers and discussing comparables, reasons for sale, making offers etc etc so I hope that I'm quite well qualified. Motor trade background as well.
Hope my insight resonates with someone at least. Felt good to get it out. People are thick
Edited by hbolton on Saturday 27th November 11:52
But who's thick?
And why?
Must admit that I was idly wondering much the same question the other day. I could be persuaded to chop my RRS in for a FFRR but not particularly fussed and then thought that my car was worth more but then so was the FFRR and then wondered if they were selling at all. Gave up thinking about it to be honest.
As an aside, I was having the truck serviced the other week at my local LR dealer and despite dropping hints that I could be in the market for a used FFRR nobody picked up on it. Undoubtedly there will be those that will say, 'Why didn't you just ask instead of being all cryptic?' I was just surprised that bloke didn't pick up on a potential sale. Not a whinge, just an observation and I also didn't storm out of the dealership in a massive huff decrying the useless sales/service bloke.
As an aside, I was having the truck serviced the other week at my local LR dealer and despite dropping hints that I could be in the market for a used FFRR nobody picked up on it. Undoubtedly there will be those that will say, 'Why didn't you just ask instead of being all cryptic?' I was just surprised that bloke didn't pick up on a potential sale. Not a whinge, just an observation and I also didn't storm out of the dealership in a massive huff decrying the useless sales/service bloke.
hbolton said:
Sourcing agent here. I contact private sellers such as yourselves and make a trade bid on behalf of my clients who actually do the buying.
This is what I've noticed so far about the inflation in the market.
1. There's been a massive influx of sellers who are selling their cars for the sake of it. The only motivation behind selling a car that they otherwise would be keeping is the simple justification that "used car prices have gone up", nothing more. Ask these people to elaborate on the reasons why prices have gone up and they'll have no clue. Many of this type of seller seem to think that people are panicking to buy cars and thus someone will come along and pay dealer retail money (which should include warranty, P/X options, finance options depending on age, and Consumer Rights Act protection) for their stbox with none of the benefits. Ironically, these people are never "in a rush to sell"... well thank god for that because it's going to be sat on their drive a while. There's a lot of them about at the minute with ridiculous asking prices, so when genuine sellers come to price compare, they overprice and naturally, the actual "bottom line" price is unrealistically high.
2. WBAC (as mentioned previously) pushed their offers up as due to lack of stock available at dealers, they knew they would be able to reclaim the cash as they'd be selling over book at auction. For those of you that don't know, WBAC is owned by Constellation Automotive, which also owns Cinch (so the nice cars they can retail themselves with full margin and keep all the profits), and the nasty units they will auction over book to other dealers through BCA (also owned by Constellation Automotive) because they know that they will pay silly prices for stock out of desperation. This huge buying surge will have made millions in profit as WBAC was outbidding us and independent traders all day long (and still is, to a certain degree).
Also some private sellers think that the inflated online valuation is an official trade "offer" (news flash, it really isn't), so they tend to price about £1500-£2000 above (depending on how expensive the car is) what the algorithm churns out which sticks them in dealer retail territory when it comes to pricing. This inflates the marketplace and once again, gives people unnecessarily high expectations of what their car is actually worth.
3. What worries me is people actually paying these prices at the minute due to a lack of intuition. Bubbles burst. Wait for a few months until everyone returns to bloody sanity.
As one current example, every Fiat 500 that is listed privately by anyone is, in every single circumstance, listed at or above dealer retail money because "my friend sold one exactly the same for X amount of pounds so I thought I could as well". The person who bought their friends car massively overpaid and has absolutely no protection if there's a catastrophic failure of the engine or gearbox and they will be out of pocket, whilst our current seller is now seeing pound signs. Why would the buyer take such a risk? Complete lack of understanding when it comes to market research and car buying in general. Fortunately for a lucky few of the sellers who have their cars up at a comparable price to a franchised used car dealer, there is a chance they will have some thick skull come along with the negotiation skills of a carrot keen to throw their hard earned savings into an unprepped, unserviced, kerbed-to-an-inch-of-its-life motor when there was a much better deal down the road if they cared to look.
Rant over I guess.
If anyone's curious as to my experience, I spend literally all day (sad I know) on Facebook, Gumtree, and Autotrader messaging and calling private sellers and discussing comparables, reasons for sale, making offers etc etc so I hope that I'm quite well qualified. Motor trade background as well.
Hope my insight resonates with someone at least. Felt good to get it out. People are thick
Excellent post...just look at the prices of the GR Yaris at the moment, private punters are following the greedy Toyota dealers who have a massive mark-ups on their used cars...again are these cars selling there are quite a few for sale when you go looking.This is what I've noticed so far about the inflation in the market.
1. There's been a massive influx of sellers who are selling their cars for the sake of it. The only motivation behind selling a car that they otherwise would be keeping is the simple justification that "used car prices have gone up", nothing more. Ask these people to elaborate on the reasons why prices have gone up and they'll have no clue. Many of this type of seller seem to think that people are panicking to buy cars and thus someone will come along and pay dealer retail money (which should include warranty, P/X options, finance options depending on age, and Consumer Rights Act protection) for their s
tbox with none of the benefits. Ironically, these people are never "in a rush to sell"... well thank god for that because it's going to be sat on their drive a while. There's a lot of them about at the minute with ridiculous asking prices, so when genuine sellers come to price compare, they overprice and naturally, the actual "bottom line" price is unrealistically high.2. WBAC (as mentioned previously) pushed their offers up as due to lack of stock available at dealers, they knew they would be able to reclaim the cash as they'd be selling over book at auction. For those of you that don't know, WBAC is owned by Constellation Automotive, which also owns Cinch (so the nice cars they can retail themselves with full margin and keep all the profits), and the nasty units they will auction over book to other dealers through BCA (also owned by Constellation Automotive) because they know that they will pay silly prices for stock out of desperation. This huge buying surge will have made millions in profit as WBAC was outbidding us and independent traders all day long (and still is, to a certain degree).
Also some private sellers think that the inflated online valuation is an official trade "offer" (news flash, it really isn't), so they tend to price about £1500-£2000 above (depending on how expensive the car is) what the algorithm churns out which sticks them in dealer retail territory when it comes to pricing. This inflates the marketplace and once again, gives people unnecessarily high expectations of what their car is actually worth.
3. What worries me is people actually paying these prices at the minute due to a lack of intuition. Bubbles burst. Wait for a few months until everyone returns to bloody sanity.
As one current example, every Fiat 500 that is listed privately by anyone is, in every single circumstance, listed at or above dealer retail money because "my friend sold one exactly the same for X amount of pounds so I thought I could as well". The person who bought their friends car massively overpaid and has absolutely no protection if there's a catastrophic failure of the engine or gearbox and they will be out of pocket, whilst our current seller is now seeing pound signs. Why would the buyer take such a risk? Complete lack of understanding when it comes to market research and car buying in general. Fortunately for a lucky few of the sellers who have their cars up at a comparable price to a franchised used car dealer, there is a chance they will have some thick skull come along with the negotiation skills of a carrot keen to throw their hard earned savings into an unprepped, unserviced, kerbed-to-an-inch-of-its-life motor when there was a much better deal down the road if they cared to look.
Rant over I guess.
If anyone's curious as to my experience, I spend literally all day (sad I know) on Facebook, Gumtree, and Autotrader messaging and calling private sellers and discussing comparables, reasons for sale, making offers etc etc so I hope that I'm quite well qualified. Motor trade background as well.
Hope my insight resonates with someone at least. Felt good to get it out. People are thick
Edited by hbolton on Saturday 27th November 11:52
Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff