Glass's guide valuation advice

[dmaudi]

Can anyone with a PROPER Glass's guide give me the trade-in value for my car please?

spec as my sig line (ignore the REVO of course! Reg August 04 on a 54 done 19K should be enough I think

I've paid for a Glass's guide valuation online but it states that this is not the same as the confidential info that is in the Green book!!!

it also shows a private sale as £400 less than top trade-in value?, this seems strange, can't find an explanation on thier site, perhaps someone in the trade might be able to throw a little light on this for me?

not happy as I thought the whole point of paying £2.95 was to get a "proper" valuation not the vauge figure you get from magazines,

any help appreicated,

cheers

 

[icenutter]

Have a look at the prices on the AA website, I haven't found a price yet that was different to the proper guide. And its free.
https://www.theaa.com/cbg/ManufacturerAction.do?SEARCH_CTGY=FOURTH_SEARCH&journey=fullValuation

 

[dmaudi]

thanks

although still a little confused

shows within £50 same dealer price and A1 trade-in, totall different avg trade in £1K difference, and no retail price, but perhaps better value valuation than what I paid Glass's for,

still interested if anyone can divulge what the green book says?


correction, I think car was reg'd Feb 05

 

[SteveTDCi]

Your probably better off looking at CAP rather than Glassses, you you try the online calculator at www.vauxhall.co.uk

 

[Tim Stuart]

You're best going for a Glass's valuation as it is the book almost all dealers will use to value a car for p/ex. CAP is an acronym for Current Auction Prices and its values are mainly dervied from the average price that each car has fetched at auction in the previous month.

The value that you've paid £2.95 for is a good indication of what you'd expect to get as a trade-in with a dealer, although won't be exactly the same as the printed guide. It can't be because that's a dealer-only guide and Glass's will quite rightly restrict the use of those valuations otherwise their business will collapse.

Private sale will be behind dealer retail as a dealer will offer a warranty/MOT (if applicable), 6/12 months tax, tank of fuel etc. You'll also have more come back with a dealer if anything goes wrong.

On reflection, the price that Glass's quoted is probably the best indication of what you'd get for p/ex. Any dealers out there who've got a book in front of them?

 

[dmaudi]

thanks I do agree on Glass's as that's what every dealer I've ever been to has used,

I understand the reasons for the different prices why I'm confused is my online valuation shows private sale as lower than top trade in,

I know why dealer Retail price is high but surely the private sale value is always better than even top A1 trade in value isn't it?

this is what I got and it looks wrong either trade in needs to go down or Provate resale needs to come up,

Trade-in Excellent £16,500
Trade in Avg £14,850
Trade in below avg £13,250

RETAIL £18700
Private resale £16,200

hope someone in the trade knows why this is?

 

[AndyMac]

I can only think its the age and value of the car. Most people with a newish car worth £18k aren't going to sell it privately, they're more likely to trade it in against a new car, so the dealer knows he can make £2k on the trade in and still make money on the new car purchase. It also puts the seller in a weaker position regarding discount on the new car.
The older the car gets, the less attractive it is for the dealer to offer decent money on a trade in as he knows he'll have to offload it to the trade. If he can simply put it on the forecourt it is a far more attractive proposition, thus the higher trade in value.

 

[gizze]

Cars will sell well privately until you hit the £30k mark, and at that point it starts to get a little harder, but price it right and they will sell. I have sold 8 cars over the last 3 years priced between £11500 and £34k.

Do a good advert with all questions answered and you will get calls, you will also get more than A1 trade price too.

 

[unkle]

Im going to be selling mine in a couple of months, Ive heard Ebay is pretty good, anyone done it through there?

 

[Eeef]

Mines on there at the moment, 55 watchers...

 

[gizze]

I have sold a one year old ML270cdi inspiration through ebay, and my 320d touring too.

I do it with a BUY IT NOW only price, and set this at the price I would really like to get, I then include everything that the buyer needs to know, if he has to ask you questions he may not bother making contact, also include your email address, buyers are more likely to make first contact with an email, if they have to pick up the phone they may not get round to it.

It only cost £8 to list and £16 if you sell the car so good national advertsing, and by having BUY IT NOW only potential buyers will get in touch if they are interested as they know it could go at any minute.

This is my advert for the ML, over 2 years old now but gives you an idea of what to include....

http://home.btconnect.com/Middletons/

 

[dmaudi]

Thanks AndyMac, I suspected it was something like that, the figures are within what I think is acceptable based on what I paid for it in April just wasn't sure if they were representative.

I've got a Renault to sell now I've bought my wife a new car but its only worth what I owe on its finance and was toying with chopping both in on something better.

Gizzie I'm encouraged by your ebay selling experience and info, I've sold four cars on there but none above 3.5K, I see a good number of sales down there, wasn't sure I would get much interest above 6K which is where the Renault needs to be, at those prices might stick both on,

cheers
Dan

 

[tinka]

got a price today on mine at a bmw dealer,as a trade in against a 330d m sport,£15,500,that was from an audi dealer over the phone,and it booked at almost that too,obviously if i get the funds together ill try and get that up a bit,once im ready to haggle,there must be 1-1 1/2 k to play with,as it would go on the front for around 18k ish?i think.

 

[benw123]

I've helped two friends sell their cars on eBay (by designing the HTML listings) and each time they've sold for more money than we were expecting. It's without question the hottest place to sell a car these days - I think more so than AutoTrader.

My advice: start the car at the very lowest value you can accept with no reserve.

 

[Eeef]

Mine's just finished on Ebay...and didn't sell. Got to £16.6k which I wasn't prepared to accept. That being said, I screwed up by letting it finish on a Saturday night. Relisted for 10days, finishing on a Wednesday this time.

Mine was in Autotrader for 2 weeks as well, didn't get a single phone call apart from a$$hole canvassers.

Also been on pistonheads and all I've been offered is trade ins

 

[marriedblonde]

This is my advert for the ML, over 2 years old now but gives you an idea of what to include....

http://home.btconnect.com/Middletons/

To be honest I got bored reading that!

 

[dmaudi]

totally agree with the problems with Autotrader, its just a car catalogue now it seems,

didn't ebay just announce they've sold a billion pounds worth of cars in the past year?! I bet Autotrader can't get even a tenth of the way to that.

and Top Marques is just for "what if" window-shopping.. especially the first two sections....

 

[marriedblonde]

I sold Claires roadster via the autorader without any problems.

J.

 

[gizze]

To be honest I got bored reading that!

But if you were genuinely looking for a £35,000 ML you would take the time to read it as it answered everything you needed to know, I agree for someone just looking at cars on ebay you would never bother reading it all, but that is why I highlighted the main points in bold text, like COMAND, PHONE etc. etc.

I could have sold that car 5x over and that was the only place I advertised it, Sytner bought it from me, called me on the Thursday, cleared the outstanding finance on the Friday and he came on the saturday morning to collect the car and gave me a check for the difference.
I had someone else offer me £1000 more to sell it to them, but the ease of selling it to Sytner and the fact I had already agreed on the phone made me stick with them.

Problem with short adverts is I generally can't be bothered to call someone and ask, when was the last service, when where the tyres replaced, when were the barkes last done, when is the next...... etc. etc.
I want to know all that when I am making a shortlist of available cars, and speaking to people who have bought my cars they are the same, if the info is not there I ignore it and move on.

I also think if someone can't be bothered to do a proper advert they probably haven't looked after their cars that much?
The only one I have bought that was with a really short advert was the A6 Sport avant, and sure enough when I went to collect it the guy hadn't even bothered to clean it, if I hadn't been dropped off somewhere in derbyshire (I live in Norfolk) I would have probably told him to forget it, but I was knackered and could see it was only needing a good valet. As it turned out I drove it for 6 months and 16k miles and got my money back, but I had a gut feeling the A6 was not going to be mint from the lazy advert.

 

[alfiejts]

Bought my 54 plate A3 S-Line 2.0 TDI off ebay last month.

Bidding on cars is a pain as many sellers set reserve prices that are too high, so most sales don't meet reserve.

After two or three months of trying to bid on cars, eventually got mine for £2000 less than the "going rate" in Autotrader, so I was happy enough. When I collected the car, the guy had just spent £450 on a full service, brake fluid change, etc and had just fitted four new tyres....

There are also many of scam sellers in the ebay car ads, so you need to watch out for those too.
Ebay do a good, cheap HPI-check for just £6.95 that covers up to £10000 of liability in the event of any issue post-purchase. (I paid more than that for mine, but took the gamble. It was good to have some cover rather than none...) Norwich Union also offer 7 days free insurance for any ebay sales, so that helps get the car home too.

I tried to sell my Alfa on ebay, but no serious offers... Eventually sold it through AutoTrader - again got just one serious enquiry, but the guy offered my "target" price which I was happy to accept, so it went to him...

Buying or selling, the next problem is how you pay for it or get paid for yours - especially if you have to travel 200 miles to collect it, like I did for my ebay purchase.
In both cases, both buyer and seller went together to the buyer's building society or bank and drew a counter cheque/bankers draft - so the buyer knew it was genuine - and then went to the seller's bank to pay it in. That took the risk away for both parties and the keys could be safely handed over the same day.