Trade-in advice

[Stevier88]

So the wait is almost over, got a call from my dealer last week and my s3 saloon has arrived and ready for pick up on the 1st of september from stirling audi.

The original plan was to trade in my a5 to audi but i have had a better off through wewantanycar so i'm going to trade it in with them this weekend. The service message has just popped up (major service i think) do i need to service the car before i trade it in? my concern is i trade it in and a few days later i get a call that they have found an issue with the car that would have been caught on the service and i am liable for the costs of repair.

First thought is they have agreed a price with me for the car on first inspection and it is no longer my issue...but they might argue that i knew about the due service therefore may have known about any issues and made liable for the repairs.

Can anyone give any advice on this?

cheers.

 

[Daveotto]

wewantanycar (or any other similar company) will reassess the car at point of sale, its there get out clause and opportunity to offer you less (says the cynic in me).

I suggest you are upfront and ask them now if your offer price will be affected as the service light has appeared as they might offer you less than your delaer

 

[musicegbdf]

Suspect it doesn't make any difference to them x but they will use it to get the price down , be prepared to walk and also try WBAC .

Mine is not due till end Nov , but will also see if I can sell it privately . Worse ways the trade in will be less hassle.

 

[NATOuk]

I think you need to talk to your dealer about the service requirement - when I traded my A4 it was agreed in advance that because the car service would be due before the S3 arrived, I would need to make sure the car was serviced (I imagine if I hadn't they'd adjust the trade-in value), but they agreed to do the service for a much smaller fee than normal since it wasn't really for my benefit.

 

[buz]

You could also just reset the service light and hand it over to them. Devious I know but these firms make thousands and have ruined the px prices dealers now offer so let them sort it!

 

[matts1]

How long ago did they inspect it? and was it a face to face valuation or an online one?

If face to face and recent then personally i would argue that they should know when the service intervals are and when it was due.

The other thing to be aware of is the new reg coming out, from experience, all used car trade in prices are then dropped, so make sure by holding out to get your new car without being without a car, you aren't going to get hit in the pocket.

 

[Schuey]

Took my S3 in today and they updated the p/ex value, literally dumped a grand off, pretty P'd if I'm honest.

We agreed, although verbally I will add that the p/ex value was based on date of handover, should have got it signed off.....lesson learned.

 

[Simonb1975]

I was always under the assumption that audi used WBAC to get px values. Experience has shown that WBAC offer the crappiest values. Way below what audi actually offer.

 

[musicegbdf]

WBAC offered me £1500 more . In fact they made an offer , and kept emailing with new offers higher than the last one..

 

[Stevier88]

You could also just reset the service light and hand it over to them. Devious I know but these firms make thousands and have ruined the px prices dealers now offer so let them sort it!

I would be lying if I said I haven't thought of this already as it's fairly simple to do. I'm sure a local garage would do it for me

 

[Stevier88]

How long ago did they inspect it? and was it a face to face valuation or an online one?

If face to face and recent then personally i would argue that they should know when the service intervals are and when it was due.

The other thing to be aware of is the new reg coming out, from experience, all used car trade in prices are then dropped, so make sure by holding out to get your new car without being without a car, you aren't going to get hit in the pocket.

Audi done a face to face valuation 12 weeks ago when I test drive the s3, they're offering £700 less than wewantanycar. The wewantanycar valuation was online, it's booked in this weekend which will be a face to face valuation which will most likely drop as there's some laquer peeling on the from panel, not sure how much this will drop to.

I didn't even think of the price dropping because of the 65 plate coming out!!

 

[Stevier88]

I was always under the assumption that audi used WBAC to get px values. Experience has shown that WBAC offer the crappiest values. Way below what audi actually offer.

Was the complete opposite for me, they are offering £700 more than what Audi have offered me, online quite only though so will see what it actually is when they do an inspection.

 

[Stevier88]

I

Took my S3 in today and they updated the p/ex value, literally dumped a grand off, pretty P'd if I'm honest.

We agreed, although verbally I will add that the p/ex value was based on date of handover, should have got it signed off.....lesson learned.

I nearly made the same mistake! Only realised a week later then contacted the dealer and the price they gave me was fixed until I pick up the s3.

 

[RichardT]

When I was buying my car last year I spent some time on Google researching WBAC and similar companies.
From what I found they will almost always find some reason to drop the price when they actually see the car.
I definitely got a better deal from Audi. They offered me about £500 less than WBAC on-line, but that was when I ordered the car. Audi held the offer until my car was delivered 30 weeks later. So a no brainer.