Hi all
Anybody know what this firm does with all the cars it buys?
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They are part of the same group as Carcraft and they need stock.
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Thank you Davy
Just seen the advert on Tv nd got me thinking
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be very carefull here! webuyanycar.com are part of or associated with carcraft, however, they will buy anycar of any age or condition but if you take the bid they give you you are very desperate and almost certainly getting a very low figure. after getting a valuation they invite you to one of the local branches where they will do they're best to get the car for less than they have offered, if you accept they will then deduct an admin fee and arrange payment. once they have it they then appraise the car.if it is of retail quality it will go to carcraft. if not it will go to one of they;re regional centres where every week they will have hundreds of cars in a yard offered to car dealers/traders who use a bid/tender system to buy the cars. what they don't sell they send to a proper auction, ( you can check bca website, they call them 'cc trade direct' webuyanycar.com are commited to buying 5000 cars every week !!! and all they do with them is put them in auction !!!! so cut out them out and put your car in to a local indepandent car auction, take the auctioneers advice on reserve and get the BEST POSSIBLE PRICE good luck
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It depends !
If it's a car in excellent condition that they can sell on easily they'll offer a good price and not reduce it on inspection if it's as described - I've heard of several who've been very pleased with the process and the price.
The reality is that many cars aren't that easy to sell on AND the vast majority of owners have a rose-tinted view of their own car's condition AND/OR an over-inflated idea of it's value - which is why the actual figure offered usually disappoints, but there's nothing to lose as you don't have to accept.
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They punt them to auction - mainly BCA. There are probably 1000-2000 going through BCA every week. Most of them are quite tatty, patchy history and often with faults.
They claim to have a 100% auction disposal policy so the odd better car does crop up.
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I've twice had them quote to buy my car(s), purely out of interest.
They offer around 50-60% of the fair market value (and that's with me making a stark and honest assessment of the value, not viewing them with rose-tinted spectacles).
Quite why anyone would use them, I really don't know. Pay a small amount of money, put it on autotrader for the fair value and the phone will ring a couple of times a day for a fortnight with people prepared to pay the advertised price.
Also as others have mentioned, anecdotal evidence suggests they usually try to negotiate the quote lower once you take the car to them. They deduct an admin fee too.
I'd imagine that a substantial section of their custom consists of people who've never sold a car before, and who therefore don't realise they're being fleeced.
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I'm sure a lot of those complaining about the Company state their car is in excellent nick, no marks, dings anywhere and are surprised nay SHOCKED when they value the car properly when they see the pile of **** that is driven onto their forecourt.
I for one don't want the hassle of advertising, waiting for time wasters, getting the insurance cover for all drivers or getting them to bring a policy /cover note with them - done and dusted in two days - and IF I got less than what I could have had according to my petrol head friends (another thousand at least) why do they always P/Ex their own cars? :)
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Agents are employed by the firm post innocuous posts on high traffic websites such as this one with a view to generating business.
The chances are they will initially offer you a decent price for your car to generate the lead but it will bear no relation whatsoever to their final offer. Expect bladder pain as they supply endless cups of tea and coffee and attempt to use attrition, boredom (and bladder pressure) to get you to submit.
I am personally of the view that their partner firm Carcraft offers not only bad value and ridiculously expensive credit deals, the "warranty" offer which they pitch with a very hard sell is arguably not a warranty at all and I have written to the Office of Fair Trading, the Financial Services Authority and their local Trading Standards office with a request that they investigate their entire business practices end to end.
I am currently also reviewing webuyanycar from a consumer viewpoint with a view to a similar assessment and would be grateful of any similar information that Honest John readers will onsend.
asklucy@honestjohn.co.uk
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Lucy, I agree carcraft stock overpriced and poor value "warranty". A friend bought a 54 plate Mg zs which naturally had the faulty head gasket and assorted problems with electrics. when i told him to reject the car and do this in writing by registered letter he didn't but got put off and put off and in the end he sent it back having stopped paying the HP and rejected it that way. As an example of their poor offers I valued my chevrolet epica vcdi before i bought it (and someone else did too as the Webutanycar site will tell you if there is a valuation and ask you to confirm you are the owner. Car Price £9990 pentagon chevrolet (can still find advert on voobay) I actually paid £6745 after the car was reduced to clear (and it has been an excellent purchase since i bought it august 2010 the warranty has sorted out the faults) Car valued at £5700 by webuyanycar. the car was unmarked interior and exterior and had been supagarded before delivery! had 7000 miles on delivery and 4 tyres as new. Poor value? I'd go as far as to say little short of outright BAD value. I would challenge anyone to find a car at carcraft that couldn't be bought elsewhere under better terms. However must add, have bought an Aveo 1.4lt at Ron Skinner in wales (car supermarket) car serviced and valeted at no extra charge included in the deal. At that time (Dec 2009) car was £6399, reduced £100 "admin charge waived" and car properly delivered under shelter clean and dried. Have similiar good experiences with trade sales Slough, but all car "supermarkets" not equal. beware motorpoint with lots of imports, (and if you don;t ask they won't tell you!)
Sometimes too especially if buying a small budget car the main dealers can and will be better value than carcraft.
Edited by OldRoverboy on 12/03/2011 at 10:46
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I've twice had them quote to buy my car(s), purely out of interest.
They offer around 50-60% of the fair market value (and that's with me making a stark and honest assessment of the value, not viewing them with rose-tinted spectacles).
Quite why anyone would use them, I really don't know. Pay a small amount of money, put it on autotrader for the fair value and the phone will ring a couple of times a day for a fortnight with people prepared to pay the advertised price.
My observation also.
Under the trades description act they should be called "We Buy Any Car If Money Isn't an Issue or You are Totally Desperate" !!!!
In the current climate there is still a good market for half decent used cars.
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I can see the advantages of WBAC
If you are thinking of changing-would you not get a better deal offering cash at a dealer rather than a trade in?
Thus- going to a dealer armed with a low cash deal from WBAC might be better than part exchange?
WBAC seem legit and many many people loathe the idea and the time consuming admin hassle of selling privately.
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i have offered them 3 cars as a test, describing them very,very fairly. the offers were approx £1200 less on 2 of them and £1500 less for the 3rd car than i actually got for them at auction !!!! and as i said, they buy them off you and then just auction them for a profit !!!! if you use these people you are foolish don't get taken in.
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Just being curious i valued my car last October with them and came back at £17100-00 which I thought was about £750-00 shy of what I would have wanted.Did the same last week and they came back with £14400-00 which means my BMW depreciated by £2700-00 in just 4 months.
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In fairness, I've had the odd car off them at auction. The paperwork has often been left in the car so I've known what WBAC has paid for them. All of them have been OK but all have needed mechanical and/or cosmetic remedial work.
Generally, they've made £200-£300 gross per car.
WBAC cars at auction usually fetch the lower end of trade guides (CAP Average to CAP Below Average). Traders will rarely bid top book on them because one hell of a percentage of them the previous owner only sold to WBAC because their car had some hidden fault.
A lot of the cars have patch or no history, various faults, bad paint and have clearly not been well looked after. If these sort of cars are turning up at WBAC with owners thinking they are nice clean cars I'm not surprised they get bid down.
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i have offered them 3 cars as a test, describing them very,very fairly. the offers were approx £1200 less on 2 of them and £1500 less for the 3rd car than i actually got for them at auction !!!! and as i said, they buy them off you and then just auction them for a profit !!!! if you use these people you are foolish don't get taken in.
Sounds about right if you bought those cars at a lease or other similar disposal sale. WBAC will not get the same at auction as you paid as the bidding will not be as strong (same as if you privately entered the same cars). Depending on the car it is quite likely the same car in the WBAC section will fetch £1k less than it would in, say, Leaseplan.
Take that into account and allow some sort of margin and those figures look about right.
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sorry pd,you misunderstand, i sold those cars in auction for over 3 thousand pounds more than wbac offered me 3 days before !!! if you put a genuine,low mileage car with service history into a large auction such as bca, it will always do well and not a thousand pounds less than a leaseplan car ! direct stock is always popular regardless of it it is leaseplan,wbac or other dealership. being a motor auctioneer selling around 1200 cars every week for the last 20 years, i feel i have a knowledge of how it works and my original point is : why sell at a low price to wbac when you can use a local auction, fix a reserve at what wbac offered you and wait for the cheque as it makes a few hundred over !!!
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I'd cerainly agree that WBAC are not suitable if you have a decent car and they offer the lowest price - they take the rubbish and they are only for a really desperate seller. You'd be mad to sell a nice car to them.
As to auction prices, I bow to your more hands on knowledge but in my experience cars in "general" sections struggle to make the same sort of money as known sellers do. A lot of traders avoid these sections because a lot of the cars are trade cars being bunged back through because they turned out to be impossible to retail.
Direct stock is indeed popular but a private seller isn't going to being selling in section. It'll be "Select" or "General" or "Fleet/Finance" usually at an awful time of day and many cars in such section struggle to get bids.
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