Car price guides

[Jukie]

How accurate do the likes of Parkers & What Car tend to be?

I checked out the "value" of my car in latest monthly edition of the What Car price guide on Saturday and after the mileage adjustment, the private value was approximately £13500.

One of my best mates is in the trade back home in Liverpool and a couple of months ago I asked him what he thought the best private sale price would be, ie no motor trade involvement. After cross-checking with the 'Pool's stealership, he came back with a value of £11500. And I truest him 100% to give me the best/most realistic value he could, no BS.

So, knocking an arbitary £500 off his valuation for the passage of time, etc, that makes an approximate difference between the two values of £2500, which is a considerable sum.

Can anyone shed any light?

TIA and apologies for the long-winded post.

David.

 

[esox]

Parkers etc are a waste of space-if you can get an honest,unbiased price from someone in the trade(like you have),go with that.

 

[Jukie]

Parkers etc are a waste of space-if you can get an honest,unbiased price from someone in the trade(like you have),go with that.

I have

But nobody is interested

 

[imadoofus]

Nothing is more accurate than the market-place.

Parkers, What Car et al are 'idealised'. Places like Autotrader.co.uk will always give you a better idea of what a car will fetch (as opposed to what it's worth).

PJ

 

[big x]

I've found the cheapest price shown on Parkers on line to be pretty accurate for auction prices at BCA for mainstream models, and often in line with the trade bible Glasses. :bannana:

adam

 

[peterchurch]

The only true test of market value is autotrader. If parkers says X but every car on auto trader is up for Y then guess what the true market value is?

That said the second hand car market is dead as doornails at the moment

 

[Jukie]

That said the second hand car market is dead as doornails at the moment

 

[peterchurch]

Tell me about it I cant order my new car till I sell the SL and things are looking very sad...

 

[big x]

Well, no I don't think that's true, published asking prices are not a guide to a cars value and tend to be to high but a trip to an auction will soon tell you actual selling prices to the trade and what models are in demand.
Used car sales are at record levels although I can't imagine much demand for duds like used City Rovers whatever the price whereas late E-class TD estates make all the money ! Having said that there's article in this weeks Autocar mag about electrical woes on the current E-class and sales this year are down 32% for this model.




adam

The only true test of market value is autotrader. If parkers says X but every car on auto trader is up for Y then guess what the true market value is?

That said the second hand car market is dead as doornails at the moment

 

[Rory]

I always thought Glass's was the bible, but when I p/x'd my wife's Clio a couple of yrs ago, several dealers used the same phrase - that the car was 'overbooked' in Glass's. It showed the value as £3500, but I was being offered £2800-£3000 at various dealers. In the end I was pleased to get £3300 and, although I know there's a lot of bullshit here, I was left with impresssion that the salesguy had really gone out on a limb at that price.

It was a 5 yr old Clio 1.6RXE (over the top, for a Clio really) and I reckon I'd needed to have been well under £3000 to sell it privately, although they were on dealers forecourts for £3995.

I guess the guide is simply that - a guide. The dealer uses his local knowledge to get you to accept the lowest price he can get away with but without hacking you off to the extent that you walk away.


I'm not sure how valid it is to ask members of the motor trade what the private sale price would be?

Also, surely the true test of its value it to put through an auction?

 

[peterchurch]

Well, no I don't think that's true, published asking prices are not a guide to a cars value and tend to be to high but a trip to an auction will soon tell you actual selling prices to the trade and what models are in demand.
Used car sales are at record levels although I can't imagine much demand for duds like used City Rovers whatever the price whereas late E-class TD estates make all the money ! Having said that there's article in this weeks Autocar mag about electrical woes on the current E-class and sales this year are down 32% for this model.
adam

Auctions are the dumping ground of fleets and franchises that don't want to waste time flogging older cars. What might turn up down there is not indicative of what the public market pays to get a quality car.
Years ago my dad bought an ex ICL company car from ADT the deal was good because there were 60 of them on the day and it was a model built for company fleets, so it was well loaded...

I bet you will find that cars sales for shopping trollies are high, but prestige/sports/ high value type cars are sat on the forecourts because no one wants a > 3.0 engine when the local BP garage want 96p a litre !!!!

Asking prices might be high, but You rarely see a trader drop an asking price, and given that the average price for a trader selling a car like mine is 25K and they are offering 16K part ex. I would say that something is wrong in the business...

 

[big x]

Peter..dumping ground ? Traders and franchised dealers buy stock at auctions.I've seen SL 320's like yours at BCA Bridgewater in somerset.I bought a 1 year old Golf for my mum last year there with 13k mileage.Why pay a traders markup when you can buy a car on an engineers report as all good at auction. Sytner Mercedes also put through their non-merc part exchanges through Bridgewater and there are some nice 3 year old BMW's and Audi's entered in the Sytner sales.About half the bidders are private.As I say Autotrader gives no idea of what is in demand and what sells anywhere near the asking price,Parkers does as they use actual sales stats. I've read that Ebay is rapidly gaining ground on Autotrader,certainly in America the dealer adds are amazing with 50 detailed photo's and hugh amounts of info that cannot be fitted into the Autotrader format here.

adam

Auctions are the dumping ground of fleets and franchises that don't want to waste time flogging older cars. What might turn up down there is not indicative of what the public market pays to get a quality car.
Years ago my dad bought an ex ICL company car from ADT the deal was good because there were 60 of them on the day and it was a model built for company fleets, so it was well loaded...

I bet you will find that cars sales for shopping trollies are high, but prestige/sports/ high value type cars are sat on the forecourts because no one wants a > 3.0 engine when the local BP garage want 96p a litre !!!!

Asking prices might be high, but You rarely see a trader drop an asking price, and given that the average price for a trader selling a car like mine is 25K and they are offering 16K part ex. I would say that something is wrong in the business...

 

[peterchurch]

There is a pecking order

1) Cars of the right marque, with full history and low milage go back on the franchise books (as an example cribbs had an SL in worse shape than mine up for 25K, and the agreed that they would have mine to resell on the plot)
2) Cars with some history/high milage etc get offered to the local traders
(as saab offered to do for me earning me £17.5K if I wanted it)
3) Then if the traders don't want to bid on it it gets dropped in the auctions...
So I can see how nice looking cars get there. They have to be too poor for the dealers and too expensive for the traders to want and in addition to this the Fleets will sell their stuff as well so some good variety...

Im not saying that there are not good cars to be had and I agree that run of the mill stuff can be a good idea but buying an SL at auction eek: If it was any good it would not be there because the traders would have snapped it up, and no one in their right mind would privately sell one at auction...

 

[big x]

Yes, and also overstock cars and cars of the wrong colour,no sports suspension etc. go to auction,there are many reasons month to month.Speaking to the manager at BCA he said Sytner do not in fact sell to traders directly...everything goes to auction unless a franchised Merc dealer wants it. The bridgewater facility also achieves higher prices than other BCA sites in some other areas so clearly the likes of sytner get a better price there.
As long as you avoid bangers much auction stock is identical to what you find in dealers IE. 3 year old ex-lease and company cars (some high miles other very low like ex-motobility cars) six month old hire cars,maker entered demo and "new" pre-registered cars.Hardly a surprise as most new car sales are not private sales.
The problem with auctions comes down the line rather than the auction,for example low life traders get hold of 3 year old BMW 320d's with 200k up and then give them a haircut to 85K. The traders often get exited with mega mileage late prestige stuff comes into the ring and it goes for over book.......... I remember the AA saying up to 40% of the UK car population has been clocked at some time in their lifes



adam

There is a pecking order

1) Cars of the right marque, with full history and low milage go back on the franchise books (as an example cribbs had an SL in worse shape than mine up for 25K, and the agreed that they would have mine to resell on the plot)
2) Cars with some history/high milage etc get offered to the local traders
(as saab offered to do for me earning me £17.5K if I wanted it)
3) Then if the traders don't want to bid on it it gets dropped in the auctions...
So I can see how nice looking cars get there. They have to be too poor for the dealers and too expensive for the traders to want and in addition to this the Fleets will sell their stuff as well so some good variety...

Im not saying that there are not good cars to be had and I agree that run of the mill stuff can be a good idea but buying an SL at auction eek: If it was any good it would not be there because the traders would have snapped it up, and no one in their right mind would privately sell one at auction...

 

[peterchurch]

This is starting to sound interesting