Car For Sale. Question About Price.

[merton69]

Hello All.

I am looking to buy a car and have seen one I like. It is priced at £1,299.

I then tapped in the registration into a car valuation site and it came up with a value of just £400.

I have the cash to buy it outright, so why is the difference so huge please?

Thanks,

[Baldric]

Caveat emptor

[gingejbee]

Lots of room for haggling? Seller trying it on, hoping some clueless buyer comes along? That's the way buying/selling of used cars is!

[Prudie]

Have you looked at what that make, year and mileage tends to go for on Autotrader for example?

[ladybirder]

Here's a link to Prudie's suggestion but they have a new one out on Thursdays so don't be surprised if there are some changes tomorrow.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk
Which car valuation site was it merton?

[Calicogirl]

It'll be a natural discrepancy between looking at a forecourt price where they expect to be haggled down, so start a bit higher to accommodate for that and getting your value from a site like 'webuyanycar' where they value everything too low because they want to make money. Get your real value by going on Ebay and searching for the car you've seen, on the same year with similar mileage and spec, then go to completed listings and see which ones are in green that have actually sold. That's pretty much your true value.

[merton69]

The local dealer has it at £1,299.

WBAC.com say it is worth £400.

I am fully aware that the garage has to make a profit and I am all for that, but why the huge difference?

[Baldric]

// but why the huge difference? //

the garage has to make a profit

[Calicogirl]

I've just explained why the price difference, you'll get that on any car you price form a forecourt, it's perfectly normal.

[Old_Geezer]

It's probably because there's one born every minute, allegedly.

Or maybe £900s worth of extras have been added.

[Prudie]

WBAC isn't what it's worth it's what they'll pay you to take it off your hands no fuss. Big difference.

[Old_Geezer]

Oh wbac... what do you expect ?
Go look at a reputable price guide.

[Calicogirl]

Look it works like this WBAC BUY cars cheaply to sell them at a profit- so they'll buy that car at £400 and sell it at say £800.

She Garage SELL cars so they price them at say £1200 knowing people will try and haggle them down and they will end up selling it for around £800.

It's just how the car trade works.

[Hymie]

Looking on Auto-trader, £1299 could buy you something like a 57 plate Ford Mondeo.
Such a purchase could be a real bargain, giving you maybe 5 years of motoring at a depreciation rate of less than £300 per year.
My advice would be to insist on a new MOT so that you don’t have to worry about that for 12 months.

[bhg481]

Not only does the garage make a profit but it has to charge VAT on the profit. Buyers also expect some sort of guarantee.

[merton69]

Thank you Hymie. A constructive answer. ;)

[Calicogirl]

With the greatest respect Merton, useful though Hymie's answer was (and it was), that was not the question you asked. Several of us answered your question, we were not being unhelpful, we were actually trying to help and trying to answer the question you actually asked.

[albaqwerty]

an MOT will not protect against engine failure for example, only that the vehicle was legally road-worthy at the time of the test. (imo)

[tonyav]

^^^^^^
Yep just a snapshot in time.

[Hymie]

But at least you will know the vehicle does not have a current fault that would cause an MOT failure – which could involve an expensive repair.