Selling up advice

[mcmaddy]

I had to tell Motorway to bugger off. Sold my brother in laws 2012 mini through them, guy turned up and without driving it said the car was overheating (I'd just pulled up at the house with the air con on and it was 23° outside). He then goes for a drive and comes back to say it needs a new clutch and he facetimed his mechanic to show him 😂. Suffice to say he was chased as the clutch was perfectly fine and it wasn't overheating. Motorway though believed every word he said and told me the faults needed fixed before they would relist. After I'd explained that the car had no faults they insisted on me paying for an independent check to which my second word was off! I assumed a full service history one owner car with 51k on the clock and immaculate paint would sell no problem. Apparently even through Motorway you still get sharks.

[Meister]

What the hell is going on with used car values... I have a mint standard 2018 '68' plate GTI, which I bought 18 months ago for £22,500. The car has now done 20,000 miles.

Out of pure interest I went onto Motorway to get a quote, expecting it to be around £17,000 max. They are offering a valuation of £21,750! Is something going on that I don't know about, but surely this is unheard of! I thought the website must be wrong, so I checked WBAC, and they are offering almost the same....

I love my car and have no intention of selling, as wouldn't want anything else, but that surely is tempting, as I have has almost 2 years of nearly depreciation free motoring.

Can anyone shed any light on this mad situation? I am so tempted to sell as this can't continue...

[SRGTD]

What the hell is going on with used car values... I have a mint standard 2018 '68' plate GTI, which I bought 18 months ago for £22,500. The car has now done 20,000 miles.

Out of pure interest I went onto Motorway to get a quote, expecting it to be around £17,000 max. They are offering a valuation of £21,750! Is something going on that I don't know about, but surely this is unheard of! I thought the website must be wrong, so I checked WBAC, and they are offering almost the same....

I love my car and have no intention of selling, as wouldn't want anything else, but that surely is tempting, as I have has almost 2 years of nearly depreciation free motoring.

Can anyone shed any light on this mad situation? I am so tempted to sell as this can't continue...

I suspect the current trend of inflated used car values is largely down to the market forces of supply and demand, driven by the worldwide shortage of semiconductors (computer chips) which is creating supply issues for the motor industry - and any other industry that uses semiconductors.

If car manufacturers are being forced through circumstances into building fewer new cars because the shortage of semiconductors;

• there’s a shortage of new cars for the motor trade to sell, so they’re prepared to pay more for the ‘right’ used vehicles to replenish their dwindling stocks.
• there’s an increase in lead times for new cars that some customers aren’t prepared to accept, and they may buy a nearly new car instead.

These factors increase the demand for good quality nearly new vehicles, and excess demand over supply means values increase.

When this bubble of inflated used car values will burst is anyone’s guess, but news reports are stating that semiconductor shortages are likely to be an issue for car manufacturers for some months to come. The problem for anyone taking advantage of the current market is that they may get a good price for their current vehicle, but they’re then faced with the dilemma of;

• paying over the odds for a suitable replacement nearly new car
• if lucky, finding a new in-stock car at a dealers. If they can, then IMO the chances of the dealer willing to discount the price is much less likely in the current market.
• ordering a new factory build, and be willing to accept the longer than usual wait time. That’s OK if there are other cars in the household available to be used while waiting for the new car to be built and delivered, but no everyone is in that position.

Interesting times……………..

[Verve34]

I bought my Gti Pp in dec from local vow dealer for 27 grand , went on WBAC last week they offered 28 went on motorway yesterday got offered 29.406 ( where they get 06 is beyond me) been to test drive clubsport today from local dealer got offered 28 . I never ever thought they would pay me a grand more than I payed after I put 3500 miles on car

[dubber36]

But how much more is the Clubsport you are looking at against what it would have been last December?

The 'offer' from Motorway is not an actual offer to buy. It's a guide to what it might make through their auction. If you are not sure how it works, Motorway are an auction house that offer cars to subscribing dealers. The dealers then bid and after the auction, you get offered the highest bid. You don't have to accept it if you don't feel it's high enough.

If you are going ahead with the CS, you could always go through the Motorway process to see if it makes more money in the time it takes the dealer to get the CS ready for you.

[Meister]

Been tracking the value of my 2018 GTI (standard 230bhp model), and it is now worth £23,000 through we buy any car and similar. I only paid £22,000 18 months ago.

The value is going up so much I am seriously considering selling it and buying a cheap run-around until prices come down, so I can buy a TCR or similar.

The dilemma is that I absolutely adore my car, so am reluctant to sell! Agggh, is anyone else in this position, or any advice!?

[P6GTD]

It’s like house prices.
Only relevant if you have a spare one to sell.
Relax and enjoy your car…… and feel a wee bit pleased that you have one!

[Arnold_Lane]

Today I sold my Golf Gti PP (2017) through Wizzle, from the CARWOW site and thought I'd give a quick feedback on my selling experience as a whole.

Initially I looked at Motorway and used their online estimator for a price and was quite pleased with the number so proceeded to start the process of selling through them. Added photos and some details but had to wait to speak to one of their agents before the car was ready to be advertised to their dealer partners. With it being a long weekend I couldn't actually get through until last Tuesday.
In the meantime I had had an email from them suggesting I should recheck the value of my car. I did and it had gone up approx £450 (now this might simply be a ploy, I don't know). Anyway, when I spoke to an agent and went through the process he said that I would have to agree to accept 'as a minimum' a price £4,000 less than their on line estimate - he couldn't offer any sensible reason why the price differed so much and mumbled about when prices are checked.
So I didn't progress with them and couldn't recommend them if my experience is anything to go by.

Now the Wizzle add went live earlier and I had a few dealer offers a bit lower than I had hoped for. Then a used car dealer made an offer and then after a little email exchange upped their offer by £500.
I sat on it for a few days (partly because I was waiting for the 1st of the month in order for the final PCP payment to be made to VWFS) and then decided to accept as I didn't want to tax the car and it was also coming up to a service.

So driver arrived on the train at lunchtime today. I collected him and he had a quick look around the car and the paperwork and phoned his boss and payment was made. It really was that straightforward.
I understand Wizzle charge the buyers a fee of £300, so taking that into account the car went for quite close to my asking price.

Sorry to see the car being driven off, as I've enjoyed the past 4 years of driving it, with only two negative areas that reduced the overall experience:

1. Road / wind noise - I always thought it was a nosier drive than I had hoped for.
2. Driver comfort - every journey I took that lasted longer than 1½ to 2 hours resulted in me getting cramp / spasms down my right butt check and down my right leg. I altered the driving position many, many times but could never find the position that allowed comfort on an extended drive. Several times I had to stop and walk around for 20 minutes before continuing.

So I now have a six month wait for my new car and am frantically looking for a cheapie runabout that won't cost a fortune to buy or maintain (there's a lot of rubbish out there as I have already found out).