Where can I get a reliable guide to the price I should be paying for a used car? Let me give you an example. I'm interested in a 2001/51 VW Passat Estate 2.5 V6 TDi Tiptronic with 41k miles. Dealer (in Gloucester) wants £15490. I've found the following variances in guidance for dealer prices for this car:
Parker's online: £15240 (30k mileage, so 41k would be, say, £15000?)
Parker's booklet: £14690 (again, 30k mileage, so 41k would be £14500?)
WhatCar? online: £12334 (non-Tiptronic, so add £500?)
This is crazy! A £2.5k variance?? How can I start haggling with the dealer without an authoratative valuation? Even Parker's can't agree between its online and booklet prices.
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I agree it's daft. I'd use the Parkers booklet as the 'trade' prices almost exactly matched what I saw being paid at recent visits to BCA in Preston. My other method is to go to Auto Trader's website and do a search, this turns up several cars on sale at dealers which give a feel for the going rate.
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I agree it's daft. I'd use the Parkers booklet as the 'trade' prices almost exactly matched what I saw being paid at recent visits to BCA in Preston. My other method is to go to Auto Trader's website and do a search, this turns up several cars on sale at dealers which give a feel for the going rate.
I used to buy my cars from auction up until a few years ago - typically they would be 9 to 18 months old with one ownner and service history. The slightly high mileage for the year went at the 'Parkers Trade' price - the better ones went between the Trads and Good price.
Hope this helps.
BTW: Colour of a car is very important if you are likely to sell quickly as non metallics are difficult to sell at the right price in my experience.
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I agree that it is rather confusing.
If it were me, I'd take the lowest price to the dealer (i.e. What Car's) and get the dealer to justify why they can't match that price.
If they want your business, they'll get to the price you're looking for !!
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'Where can I get a reliable guide?'
The answer is you cannot. The whole joy of a free market, combined with an infinitely variable product means that they are a price _guide_ not a price list.
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autotrader
Real-life sales therefore real-life prices
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Ooooh actually don't click my link, click on HJ's on the lefthandside of the page instead!
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Main dealer prices often seem to be as much as 15% above guide prices ....
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But a lot of dealers will ask an extra grand or so just to allow for p/x. Go without anything to chop in and you can usually quickly bring that down a bit.
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