Following HJ's recommendation in the Telegraph, I was considering buying a car from the massive Car Giant supermarket in North London. However, I was staggered at the part-ex offer they made on my existing car, which I take to mean they simply don't want part-ex cars.
My existing car is an 1998 Audi A6 estate 2.5 TDI SE with 166,000 miles in reasonable condition. Car Giant offered me £4,000 as its part-ex value.
According to both What Car? and Parkers, the mileage adjusted trade-in value of this car is around £7,000, with a dealer retail of £8,800. In addition, a nationwide search of Autotrader has shown that asking prices for this model also start at £7k (apart from a single car with 275,000 miles at £6k).
Am I being unrealistic in my expections?
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My existing car is an 1998 Audi A6 estate 2.5 TDI SE with 166,000 miles in reasonable condition. Car Giant offered me £4,000 as its part-ex value.
I haven't seen mapmaker for a few days, but I'm sure he'd be happy to offer you £500 to take it off your hands ...
;-)
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It's on the low side and you'd probably get another £1,500 or so on eBay but Glass's values the car at 150k miles as follows:-
Excellent condition - £5,320
Average condition - £4,650
Below average condition - £3,970.
The above assumes that the car is an R reg - it's about £300 more for an S reg, apparently. It's possibly not a bad idea to take off another £200 or so for the mileage.
If the car is in 'reasonable' condition then I presume it means it has a few faults so isn't ready to retail. Even if Car Giant were to retail it themselves I can't see them asking more than £6k for it, fully prepared for sale, and probably quite a bit less. With a few hundred quid on preparation and the same as profit margin, £4k's not totally unreasonable although a few hundred more would be nice.
Car Giant works to very tight margins and the part exchange has to pay its own way - they can't afford to give you £7k for it.
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You need to sell it privately and then turn up at Car Giant with cash!
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It always gets me how customers wish to pay bottom book price for the car they are buying but expect top book price for their PX vehicle - you can't have your cake and eat it!
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I don't see the problem. Cars at Car Giant are generally cheaper than elsewhere. They have offered you a price for your car. If you don't like it, then take the alternative appropriate action...look elsewhere, or sell privately. They don't have to take your car, and you don't have to take their price.
Splodgeface
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I think that low p/x values go with the territory when you buy from a car supermarket. The price to change is the most important factor. If you can, for example, get £1000 more for your p/x from a main dealer, but the car that you are buying costs £2000 more, then clearly you would be spending more. Its probably worth looking at a similar car to the one you are considering at a main dealer, then seeing what p/x you are offered. This would be a good indication if the Car Giant deal is a good one.
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