I'm with unthrottled there; Autotrader gives you an idea of what people are willing to pay for used cars. Also I have passed many an otherwise boring afternoon on there, looking at cars I would like to buy in the future..........(dreams a bit).

3.) of the cars that come up, note down all the asking prices. Divide by the number of cars in the sample. That is the market price.

IMO, Parkers estimated prices are rather optimistic (high). I wouldn't pay more than £4k from a dealer for a 1.6 Focus estate. They are plentiful and not highly sought after. Cheap motoring though.

How does that compute, Unthrottled? That only gives you the asking price, not the deal price.

You say Parkers are optimistic in their pricing and then say you'd pay pretty much exactly what Parkers quoted, which is pretty much the same as the CAP price. Surely it's Glass's that are wildly optimistic (yes, I know, =high), by quoting over £1000 more, and yet that quote was £3.95 too. Surely it must have some credence?

IMO, Parkers estimated prices are rather optimistic (high). I wouldn't pay more than £4k from a dealer for a 1.6 Focus estate. They are plentiful and not highly sought after. Cheap motoring though.

Agreed, this site is realistic however:-

http://www.wisebuyers.co.uk/motoring/used-car-prices/

However some of these advertised cars are 'bait' and either never existed or are long since sold. The idea being get you in to talk about other stuff !!