Why do the "dealer" prices quoted in Parkers and the other guides never have any relation to actual forecourt prices?
I recently did a lot of searching for a car, and dealers prices always seem to be 10 to 30% higher than the guides. I was looking at stuff that the guides said should cost £10,000. In reality most dealers were asking £11,995 to £12,995. Even after removing £500 for no trade in (a con anyway!) Where's the rest from? Okay, there's room for haggling built in, but £2,000? Try getting that size reduction without being shown the door!
One dealer told me that if I ever found a car at Parkers prices to give him a call, because he'd buy it!
What's going on here? From what I gather Glass's trade values are even lower still, so if any of us are unfortunate enough to total our pride and joy we're doubley screwed when it comes to finding a replacement.
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My simple-minded view is that Glass's advises dealers what to ask, (leading the market) and Parker's and the rest try to report what actually happens (following the market). Just compare the Parker's website and WhatCar website prices for the same vehicle - there's plenty of room for variation!
Incidentally, what happened to Glass's website?- the prices were there for a few days, then vanished.
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Looking for advice.
Have been lucky/unlucky enough to have run a company car for 40 years (not the same one!!) and am now looking to replace with used Mercedes auto for between 14 & 17,000 pounds.
Would welcome advice as to whether used car supersites are negotiable in any way i.e. 14,999 what room for manoeuvre downwards.
Also if buying from Merc signature for peace of mind is there any room for negotiation.
Would it be better to negotiate for free servicing rather than try straight cash off.
Am cash buyer so no nice comission on HP available.
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I asked Glass's exactly that question many months ago. Normal motorists were using the values obtained through Glass's to argue higher insurance claims. The prices listed were the window prices and companies were paying out either transaction prices or trade-in prices. This was, according to Glass's, an unacceptable abuse of their pricing service.
This means that, on top of the trauma of having a car stolen, or worse, involved in a crash, motorists were forced to haggle the price of a replacement vehicle if they wanted to obtain a similar model to their written-off car.
There certainly seems a gap between the guide window prices and the actual window prices in favour of the dealer. Additionally, there is a gap between guide trade-in prices and actual trade-in prices, again in favour of the dealer. However, the prices are guides, and the answer to "What's it worth?" is whatever someone's prepared to pay. Make an offer.
The Autoexpress website uses Glass's for it's used car valuations. But let's not shout too loudly about it for fear of it getting pulled.
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Glass values are still availabe on ic24.net
trade in values (glass I think are also on networkq.co.uk
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You're right Harry. The Parkers guide does not give an accurate assessment of what dealers are asking.
I have just bought a 3-year-old Rover and had to pay over the book price (although the car is very low mileage)
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