I agree with Steve. Little things such as M.O.T. or wiper blades, brake pads etc...imagine how much they add up to over the life of the car.
Adam
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I used to get it the other way around - customers quoted from the Autotrader as how much I should be selling MY vans for!! Implying that mine were too dear!!
They forgot about VaT & the fact that my vehicles were fully prepared - & yes sometimes I'd be pleased to get 'what it owed me' back!!
Now if EVERY vehicle was EXACTLY the same condition, miles, warranty .... it might just work.
& as for the specialist, mundane motors, think I'd rather have one direct from a fleet, than the private owner. Unless he was an enthusiast, with bills to prove how much he loved his car!!
Happy hunting!!
VB
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Just have a quick look on e-bay for many examples of overly optomistic valuations by sellers. Worst offenders seem to be the baseball cap brigade who think they can recoup all the money they have spent on tacky bodykits, neon lighting etc.
They learn the hard way...
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I have seen this from both angles.
When selling my Regata several years ago, Fiat Dealerships were queuing up to tell me that it was worth £1500 as it was an estate.
It was a tidy car, well presented and reasonable mileage. I got it through an MOT that cost a few quid to say the least, and priced it at £1,250.....
Nothing....
£1,150
Nothing apart from one person trying to get me to consider £900 over the phone..
after 7 months £700! The next MOT was only 5 months away!
When I came to sell my Aunt's Metro, having learned my lesson, I looked through the paper and saw similar examples for £750 or £800 etc. I put this in for £650 but after only getting ONE call and seeking advice I got £500 from the buyer. Well, the chap at the Rover dealership said I'd be lucky to get that. I just polished the guy's ego letting him think he screwed me down to a great deal.
It seems Ebay is probably the closest thing we have to a perfect market for cars.
Hugo
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Not as over optimistic as a dealer in Hull. They have a 98 Saab 93 2.0SE convertible with 72K up for £10,495 A quick search on autotrader cane up with a dealer in Nottingham with the same model and year with 35k on the clock for £7995. Interestingly if you px either of there card with Jamjar you will get a lousy £4k. (Ill give u £500 more guv if u want to sell yours)
It is worth trying the private sale route I managed to get 4k more for my Merc V-Class than the dealer offered.
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Sellers often confuse worth with value. It's value is what it cost them. It is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it -- no more.
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If you ever want a price related chucke and you live in Portsmouth, pick up the local free paper and check out the advertisements for Daron Ford.
Perhaps the only place in the country advertising 1998 Ford Mondeo's for £7000.
I kid you not. Or if you are feeling slightly less flush, you could take a 98 Fiesta for £4500, or perhaps an 18 month old Mondeo Estate for £100 less than Broadspeed.com can get you a new one for.
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Just been on their website. A 97 Mondeo 1.8LX with 45k for £5795. I wonder how much they offer for part ex's? Here is me thinking my 98 Mondeo is worth £1500 if part ex'd!!
Surely this must be some sort of silly "Get the car for half advertised price" offer??
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One rule of thumb with a private sale is to split the difference between the trade-in price and what a dealer would ask, add a little more to it to allow for negotiation and work from there.
But as has already been pointed out, any car (or anything else for sale for that matter) is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.
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One rule of thumb with a private sale is to split the difference between the trade-in price and what a dealer would ask, add a little more to it to allow for negotiation and work from there.
I think its in the definition of "a little bit" where it all goes wrong?
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Why?
If you come up with a private sale value of, say, £6,500, advertise the vehicle at £6,750 or £6,800 ONO.
That indicates that you are prepared to negotiate. It would then all depend on the minimum figure you would be prepared to take. Let the potential buyer feel he/she is getting the best of the bargain without making it obvious.
If someone likes the vehicle they are likely to buy it if the price is in the right ballpark after negotiation.
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We're about to sell our No.2 car, a 1999 S Laguna 1.6 RN 16v. It has 85,000 on the clock.
Glasses values this car at £1100-£1300 trade value. This seems a little low, but not enourmously so. I had a look on Parkers, but they only offer a standard mileage unless you pay for a custom valuation. With 50,000 on the clock they see this car at £2050 as a part exchange.
I trotted back over to Glasses and ran the same car through with 50,000 and they see this as between £1400 & £1600, a difference of over £500 between Parkers and Glasses if you look in the middle of these values.
Some would argue that just as estate agents get instructed to sell a property because of a "vanity" valuation, so Parkers sell heaps of books each month to people by massaging their expectations of the value of their cars. I'm not so sure, but the discrepancy in valuations needs some explanation.
As for the Laguna, I'm going to pitch it at £1995 with a new MOT and fresh service on it and see what bites I get.
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Just about every time I've sold a car to the trade I've been told that Parker's is optimistic.
I guess it makes owners seem smug about the vale of their car so they buy the books. It also makes buyers sumg becuase they negotiated such a good deal, so they buy the books.
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As well as making the buyers smug, that is.
Beware buyers that are both smug AND sumg. They are the worst. No question.
(oops!)
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Parkers tends to overestimate larger cars but their prices for the superminis are slightly on the low side.
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Just about every time I've sold a car to the trade I've been told that Parker's is optimistic.
I p/x'd a Clio 1.6RXE against a Jazz last year. Glasses said £3500 for p/x but I tried several Honda dealer who offered £2800-£3000. Two used the same expression - that the car was 'over book'. I know Glasses is a 'Guide' but what's the point if doesn't accurately reflect the cars true worth?
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Glass's Guide is, of course, the main trade guide and rarely seen by outsiders.
I used to receive it regularly at one time and I know that car dealerships rely on it extensively.
Sometimes some dealers will have a higher sticker price than the guide but pitch the PX higher to compensate.
Whatever the situation, never pay anything like what is being asked. Haggle, haggle and haggle again.
The car salesman needs you, not the other way round. There are nearly 30 million cars in the UK and one of them will have your name on it.
Just walk away and you'll be surprised just how eager a salesman will be to tempt you further.
The only advantage the car salesman has is that you never know if you've beaten the system...:-)
In the end too it all depends on what it costs you to acquire your new or used car, whether the size of the discount on a new one or the difference you have to meet between the PX and the "price" on the windscreen. The latter has a huge built-in safety margin for the dealer.
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I think you will be lucky. I have been advertising a 2000 W Mondeo GLX (ac) 105k miles, with 12months MOT, 6months tax, history , new cam belt, air-con regass (with no leaks), good tyres all round (energy e3a), new spare, new plugs leads, front discs and pads etc etc. Been asking 2295 for weeks. Not received a single call. The first time i advertised it went in at 2650. I got a call then, but i was out. He rang a few times but never answered back when i rang. I think glass's says mine worth 2100-2150 trade. Its in good condition, but as i cant get anyone round to view the car it wont sell. A friend of mine who has actually seen and driven it is now intersted. I dont know what i am doing wrong. I think its time to stick a bit of paper to the wondows of the car to advertise, i dont want to give autotrader anymore of my money.
Maybe the guide is wrong. I have been trying to sell an 01Y plate merc a class asking well below the guide price and it wont sell. If i dont get any thing within the next week i'm tempted to try and get it through blakcbushe on a friday. I just need to find a vaguely similar to find out what the trade are paying for these. If they are paying book, i think thats too much.
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Ben, I am suprised to hear you've not had a single call.
Between leaving the deposit and collecting my car when I bought it, the seller had a further 12 telephone calls - and I viewed the day after it went on Autotrader.
This was a 99V Ghia X with similar mileage to yours, so older, and it was more expensive - advertised at £2850.
If I hadn't already bought mine I'd be sorely tempted by yours, a 2000W Mk2 Mondeo in good condition is a giveaway at that sort of price.
Tried leaving the mileage off the advert?
I wonder if people are put off by it being 'too cheap'?
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I know where you are coming from, but beyond a certain age/miles the Mondeo seems to have "Poison" written all over it for the private punter. I've had a sniff around A/trader and there are no "evolution" shape Lagunas (99-01) below £2400 at present in my area. I know this is a poverty spec RN, but by slinging it the right side of £2k I'm hoping to attract someone who's going to offer a cheeky £200 below asking and use my exemplary sales skills (ahem...) to bring them up a bit.
It had the cambelt done last year, has 10 months tax and will get a new MOT and fresh service as part of the deal, plus it's going to get dressed with a couple of new OEM wheeltrims and a lot of spit and polish. We'll see how it goes.
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Have you sold it?
My friend bought mine for 2100 in the end.
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Ben
Maybe the guide is wrong. I have been trying to sell an 01Y plate merc a class asking well below the guide price and it wont sell. If i dont get any thing within the next week i'm tempted to try and get it through blakcbushe on a friday. I just need to find a vaguely similar to find out what the trade are paying for these. If they are paying book, i think thats too much.
Merc A140 21 - 25K 01Y 'classic' - Avg price at BCA is 5516 with more than 10 cars in the sample. CAP cln price 5550 @ 21K
only CAP+Glass values for other models, But generally BCA will achieve a CAP cln value, (which I always think is too much) but what do you care? - you're selling!
---
was kev_is_here
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Just spotted this reply. Thanks. The car is 01Y A160 Elegance Auto (thats the full auto) with 29k miles and history in Ocean blue. It still has not sold. I had calls when it was up for 7250, but no one actually bought it. Put it in at 6995 to shift it and not a single call. Mind you they have got my mobile number wrong but the landline and e-mail address are correct.
What do you think i might get for it at BCA?
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Here is me thinking my 98 Mondeo is worth £1500 if part ex'd!!
If it's auto + aircon, I'm interested.
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If you ever want a price related chucke and you live in Portsmouth, pick up the local free paper and check out the advertisements for Daron Ford. Perhaps the only place in the country advertising 1998 Ford Mondeo's for £7000.
A car dealer once told me that there's a sales strategy used by some dealers that prices cars high, then offers customers a high valuation for their p/x. As can be seen from other comments in this thread, you can imagine a (slightly dim) potential customers response if they're offered, say £4000, for their car when everyone else is offering £2500. But it still leaves the dealer with a profitable sale.
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A car dealer once told me that there's a sales strategy used by some dealers that prices cars high, then offers customers a high valuation for their p/x. As can be seen from other comments in this thread, you can imagine a (slightly dim) potential customers response if they're offered, say £4000, for their car when everyone else is offering £2500. But it still leaves the dealer with a profitable sale.
I've come across this, too - getting a p/x that's significantly more than the car's supposed to be worth, thus getting you a discount by the back door, so to speak.
A mate of mine who does trading analysis for a large telecoms company tells me that this sort of thing is done to make the garage company's balance sheet look more healthy than would be the case if they sold the cars for cheaper.
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this sort of thing is done to make the garage company's balance sheet look more healthy than would be the case if they sold the cars for cheaper.
I guess it increases turnover and makes the whole concern look bigger than it is?
Proves the old adage:
Turnover is vanity
Profit is promises
Cash is king.
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>> this sort of thing is done >> to make the garage company's balance sheet look more healthy than >> would be the case if they sold the cars for cheaper. >> >> I guess it increases turnover and makes the whole concern look bigger than it is?
Yeah, so they can sell it for more when the time comes to push off to a happy retirement in Spain! ;-)
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It does nothing for the balance sheet (or maybe a little, if there is overvalued stock in there that ought to be written down to a sensible value).
It does increase turnover.
But it reduces percentage margin on sales (profit/turnover) as profit is the same, but turnover is greater. Therefore it's pretty easy to allow for this when analysing the company.
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company/business.
eBay is a strange sort of perfect market as you have different anticipated pricing according to the identity of the vendor/purchaser:
trade buyers (expected value £1,000)
private buyers & sellers (expected value £1,200)
trade sellers (expected value £1,400)
So all three anticipated levels of pricing are in evidence.
An underpriced car thus going to a trade buyer; an overpriced car going to a naive private buyer.
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Next time you buy a used car from a dealership, check the invoice as to whether the PX quote and the sticker price of the car are as they were originally.
I've had cases where both were significantly different - I reckoned there was some form of fiddle (VAT?) but the total amount paid was the same in all cases.
I was always asked if it was OK to do this and never objected, though for what reasons I can't remember now.
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It does nothing for the balance sheet (or maybe a little, if there is overvalued stock in there that ought to be written down to a sensible value). It does increase turnover. But it reduces percentage margin on sales (profit/turnover) as profit is the same, but turnover is greater. Therefore it's pretty easy to allow for this when analysing the company.
You & I know that, mapmaker, but many don't.
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Well, anybody spending large quantities of his hard-earned cash on a business should be paying an accountant to help with the valuation.
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Should, yes, totally agree. Always will, not so sure. I'm not an accountant but I do provide professional advice and get involved in a depressing number of cases where problems have arisen because advice was not taken at the appropriate time.
And not all professional advisors are to the quality one would hope.
Sad but true.
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And not all professional advisors are to the quality one would hope.
Thank goodness for that, or I would be out of a job!
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All depressingly true, of course. Hence, 'should'.
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Whilst we're on the subject of over optomistic dealers...
A small garage in Horrabridge near where I live has an N reg Disco 300 tdi for £9500!
Even a 4 x 4 specialist in Tavistock has a clean good spec R reg one for £500 less!
I only know this because I have a pipe dream for a TD5 Disco.
H
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