Car selling the modern way

[icowden]

Thought I'd share this for anyone selling their car.

I had occasion to sell my Renault Grand Scenic, 94000 miles on the clock, previous leaking coolant system fixed with radweld, no functioning air conditioning or heating, lots of paintwork dings, crack on passenger front wheel arch but otherwise in reasonable nick for a car that old. Other issues include halfords fitting the wrong battery so stop/start function doesn't work and an accelerator spring that's getting a bit tired.

Motorway
So first, I tried selling my car "the Motorway way". Completed the app, took photos etc mentioned the issue with the aircon and the accelerator spring. Dealers bid for it and it sold for £3002. I was very pleased.

Then some poor sod turns up in a taxi to assess the car and drive it from Surrey to South Wales. Took one look at the accelerator, spoke to the dealer who then cancelled the sale.
I spoke to Motorway again. Dealer buys the car for £2686. Doesn't bother to call to arrange pick up. I spend a week trying to get hold of him to be finally told he has cancelled it due to the accelerator.

Spoke again to Motorway "Oh we shouldn't have listed it as it has a mechanical fault. We don't list cars like that".
At this point I was fewmin. 😡 😡 😡 😡 😡 😡 😡
Anyway - minimum star rating for them.

Thought i'd try WeBuyAnyCar.

WeBuyAnyCar
I had very low expectations. They valued it at £2900.
Drove it to Feltham to their "hub" (portakabin) expecting to drive it back after being offered peanuts and enduring hard sell.
In the event, nice chap looked over the car, ran the engine etc. Showed full service history, locking nuts etc.

He did do a *bit* of the old double glazing salesman - "Yeah it said I should offer £2100 but I've managed to get £300 put back on because of the service history and I'll need to get the manager to sign it off..." yada yada yada. The upshot was an offer of £2400, but then you have to pay their "admin fee" of £50.

I went down there with an arbitrary cut off of £2500, so it was a little bit less than I had hoped, but given the time and effort in taking it back and trying again to sell it, I took the offer. Then there was another opportunity to walk away with less cash. "We can pay you now for £50, in 2 working days for £30 or in 4 working days for £0."

Reader - I chose the 4 working days.

Overall though WBAC was a positive experience. If you have a car like mine which is a bit last legs, I think it works out quite well.

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good afternoon,

I am not surprised that you had a decent result from WeBuyAnyCar.

They have a business model that matches their name, in a couple of days your car will have been through an auction and sold and they will have made say 10%. It won't sit on a forecourt of theirs for months waiting for a retail sale.

Do that often enough and you have a great business, get a good reputation, which I think that they have and you can be in a good profitable business for a long time.

A while back Tesco decided to enter the used car market and they found that there was no source of good used cars in the volume that they required. Relationships between dealers and leasing companies were well established and all they were being offered were cars that no one else wanted.

It appears that many online sites are finding the same issues.

Bye

Ian

 

[Electric_Andy]

Sounds like a good experience. I've always sold private and it's a bit more work and hassle but will consider wbac next time. Trouble is every car I've sold has been old and tired so most dealers won't even offer a part ex due to it taking up space that a potential £6k could be using.

My neighbour sold hers using wbac and was pleasantly surprised at the price they got

 

[wiggydiggy]

The one car I've sold WBAC made an OK offer but I actually ended up scrapping it as that got me a bit more, it was a very high mileage failed MOT Pug 206.

Good afternoon,

I am not surprised that you had a decent result from WeBuyAnyCar.

They have a business model that matches their name, in a couple of days your car will have been through an auction and sold and they will have made say 10%. It won't sit on a forecourt of theirs for months waiting for a retail sale.

Do that often enough and you have a great business, get a good reputation, which I think that they have and you can be in a good profitable business for a long time.

A while back Tesco decided to enter the used car market and they found that there was no source of good used cars in the volume that they required. Relationships between dealers and leasing companies were well established and all they were being offered were cars that no one else wanted.

It appears that many online sites are finding the same issues.

Bye

Ian

I was surprised they even made an offer on my Pug 206, it had a blown exhaust and the 'holding bar' for the fuel tank had rusted through so it was a potential deathtrap without being fixed. It did have the 1.9HDi diesel engine though which always gave me great MPG on the many motorway miles I was doing so someone may have just bought for the engine?

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

I have sold two cars to WBAC. The first one was an American import that wasn’t listed on their website so I had to email details to them. They gave me more than the UK owners group for the model said it was worth!

Second one I offered to a couple of authorised dealers for the brand in question. Both said I was asking a fair price but they had too many in stock at that point. WBAC‘s offer was at the top end of what I was asking for.

Both very positive, and easy, experiences.

 

[a.twiddler]

I had a quote from WBAC about this time last year for our Skoda Superb estate. I did get better offers from various dealers as a trade in against various used cars but they didn't have what I needed in stock, ie a newer Superb Estate. In the end we compromised with a good deal against something else. I can't comment on WBAC's service. I had a sneaky feeling that the quote they give you online would be chipped away as they inspected it on site to find reasons to give you a smaller amount.
What I can say is that once you've contacted them, you never stop hearing from them, despite telling them you no longer have it. I kept getting emails until around the end of last year.

 

[presta]

I am not surprised that you had a decent result from WeBuyAnyCar.

They have a business model that matches their name, in a couple of days your car will have been through an auction and sold and they will have made say 10%.

In which case you ought to be able to better the price by taking it to an auction yourself, and possibly nearly as quickly.

 

[Beebo]

In which case you ought to be able to better the price by taking it to an auction yourself, and possibly nearly as quickly.

Well yes but who can be bothered with that.

WBAC is owned by British Car Auctions. Buying cars and auctioning them is what they do.

 

[DRM]

Well yes but who can be bothered with that.

WBAC is owned by British Car Auctions. Buying cars and auctioning them is what they do.

As is Cinch which is where the decent WBAC purchases go along with the Ex fleet lease cars, which is why dealers struggle to get their hands on 3 to 5 year old cars now, unless it's a trade in for a new car they have sold