How much is my car worth? Your valuations guide
Trying to fathom out how much your car — or one you are looking to buy — is worth can seem complex and inaccurate. Here's what you really need to know about car valuations.
- Where to get free car valuations
- Understand different valuation jargon
- Different valuation amounts explained
Whether you are arranging insurance, selling your car or buying a new one, having a clear idea about what your car is worth is useful intel to have at hand.
Understanding what various valuation headings mean can prove tricky if you're not familiar with the terms the industry uses, while websites suggesting prices that seem significantly different from each other can be a further source of confusion.
With this guide you'll be better equipped to stand your ground when it comes to knowing how much your car is worth.
Don't forget, all car valuation websites' prices should be treated as guides rather than definite figures, so there will always be scope for differences.
How much is your car worth?
Why do I need to know how much my car is worth?
There are usually three instances when you are likely to need to know how much your car is worth:
Buying a car
A new model may have caught your eye, but without a car valuation, how do you know if what's the seller is asking for it is fair?
A valuation will guide you to reasonable prices to expect to pay — from heighest to lowest — at franchised dealers (those that also sell brand new cars), used car specialists and private sellers. The differences reflect typical costs involved remedying any defects before the car was put up for sale, the thoroughness of pre-sale servicing and maintenance and the level of aftersales care you can expect.
Selling your car
When it comes to selling your existing model, getting a valuation will guide you to knowing what a reasonable price is whether you are trading-in (also known as part-exhanging) or selling it privately.
Usually, a private sale valuation will be higher than that of a part-ex, because a dealer buying your old car will factor-in costs for any remedial and servicing work, as well as accounting for a profit margin. They're running a business, after all, not a charity.
Renewing your car insurance
Each year when you take out a new policy to cover your car, the insurer will ask what you believe it is worth.
In some regards, this is unnecessary because in the event of a write-off, the insurer will initially offer what it's advised a trade-in value would be, not what it would cost to buy a like-for-like replacement, often requiring you to provide evidence to the contrary to increase the settlement figure.
Basing the value you quote in the first place around the retail price of the car at a franchised dealer — usually the most expensive option — indicates you know what you're talking about, rather than simply plucking a figure out of thin air.
Can I sell my car online?
Yes, you can but doing so is just one option open to you — you can find out more about your choices when it comes to selling cars with our comprehensive guide.
Selling cars online has become much more popular since the Covid pandemic, with continued growth because of their hassle-free processes for taking your old model off your hands.
There's no hard and fast rule about whether selling online or privately will give you the highest return, but it's not unusual to receive more for your car selling this way than you would if you traded it in.
Motorway*
Motorway* is one of the UK's most popular sites for selling your car online. Simply enter your car’s registration number and mileage to sell your car to a verified dealer, often for a better price than part exchange.
Motorway connects your car with the best offer from an exclusive network of 5000+ verified dealers and professional buyers.
By selling directly to a verified dealer, you cut out the middlemen and could get more than through other selling routes.
Motorway is completely free to use if you’re selling your car.
What are the fees?
Motorway* is 100 per cent free to use and there are never any charges to sell via Motorway's exclusive dealer network.
Where else can I get a free car valuation from?
Honest John
It won't suprise you to know that we offer a free valuation service based on the prices of cars advertised for sale, so it's updated daily to reflect market changes.
You can search using the car's registration number or, if you simply want a clearer idea of values for particular derivatives, you can use the make and model links provided.
Parkers Car Price Guide
Launched in March 1972 as Parker's New, Used & Trade Car Price Guide, the printed edition went out of publication in January 2020, but it lives on as an online-only service. Its valuations are based around CAP HPI's projections.
Parkers offers a free valuation, based on a car having covered an average annual mileage but for a fee you can adjust this amount and factor-in some optional extras that may be fitted to your car. Fees range from £4.99 for a 24-hour package, £5.99 for a week's worth of access and £9.99 to do the same for a whole month.
Auto Trader Car Valuation
One of the biggest used car buying and selling sites in the UK, Auto Trader sees many transactions from dealers and private individuals and, as a result, has an extensive database of used car values.
Auto Trader offers a car guide price based on the latest car values and offers figures for private sales and part-exchange prices.
heycar Value My Car
Through heycar you can also get a free valuation simply by entering the car's registrion number and mileage. The results are powered by CAP HPI and give you an indication as to what you're likely to be offered in part exchange at a dealer.
What can affect my car's value?
The biggest factors that influence a car's value are its age, condition and mileage.
Age
Generally speaking, cars are worth the least at 10-15 years old, after which they tend to plateau before gradually climbing to varying degrees depending upon how sought after they are as classics.
Condition
Unsurprisingly, the better kept a car has been, the more it will be worth compared with an otherwise identical model that's not been cared for. This includes bodywork, the wheels, its interior and its mechanical state.
Mileage
The more a car has been driven, the less it will be worth compared with an identical version that's covered less distance. Higher mileage means more wear and tear, regardless of how considerately it's been driven. Older cars with ultra-low mileages aren't necessarily the best buys, as some components may need replacing due to age, even if they've hardly been used.
Service history
Cars lacking the documentated paperwork to confirm their servicing and maintenance histories will be worth less because they represent a considerable risk to the next buyer. Don't be fooled into thinking it must be okay simply because the car looks to be in tip-top condition.
Optional extras
Few optional extras make much difference to used values, although they may increase a car's saleability. For instance, early sat-nav systems were very expensive new but with low-quality graphics and outdated maps, they're not much use now. Air-conditioning and parking sensors that weren't part of the car's standard equipment could have a positive uplift on its used value, providing they still function properly.
Paint colour
Unusual, bright and bold colours sadly tend to have a negative impact on cars' values as finding someone with the same taste as the original buyer might be tricky. This is why so many cars on the road are 'safer' choices such as greys, silvers, blacks and whites — they appeal to a broader potential audience of used car buyers.
Why do different services provide different valuations?
This can seem particularly confusing, so it's worth reiterating that any car valuation is a guide price of what is reasonable to expect, not a definite amount of money.
When you keep that in mind, you will realise that in most instances any price discrepencies between different valuation sites are modest in percentage terms, so tread warily around figures that are wildly out of sync with the others.
Essentially, there are two key ways in which these differences occur:
Price monitoring — this method is the one we use, with used car prices tracked daily to reflect changes in the marketplace by monitoring prices of cars. They can all be correct yet provide different valuations because of the differences in the data pool, which is usually based on the cars advertised for sale on specific websites.
Depreciation curves — some car valuation specialist companies, such as CAP HPI and Glass's, provide data to car manufacturers about how they believe their new models will devalue over time, each employing different rationale for their modelling.
These depreciation curves are then used to create guide prices for those working in the used car trade to help advise them on how to price different models.
When these guide prices are adjusted in the real world to reflect what customers are willing to pay, this information is fed back to the valuation specialists which then adjust their curves with the latest intel, making them more accurate. Some third-party valuation providers, such as Parkers, then factor-in additional information, which creates further price variance.
