Unfortunately I need to buy a car. Feels like a really bad time to be buying, especially as I need to get a petrol-fuelled machine. I know that the market was very much in favour of sellers little while ago, is that still the case? Are dealers' asking prices negotiable or do I just need to pay up and think myself *lucky*?!
Thanks for any thoughts.
I've been watching the market in recent months, but luckily, don't have to buy until next year.
I think the general consensus is that the market is still inflated, but not much is shifting and sellers will ultimately have to be more realistic with asking prices.
How long that will take, I don't know.
Market not as hot as it was obviously depends on what you're buying but I'm looking for a couple of cars and stuff that was being snapped up is now hanging about longer so I'd expect a bit of a deal is available.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Great, thanks for the thoughts. I’m probably going to get a Duster, couple of years old. They seem to hold their value well, yet there also seems to be loads on the market.
It's definitely softened. I think a lot of used stock is still priced high, but it's sitting much longer now, depending on what it is, so it's not as firm as it used to be. I bought a car recently which was priced really high in the spring, but by the summer they had reduced it and by the time I stopped to look at it they were willing to do a deal. It still wasn't anywhere near where a car like that would've been pre-pandemic, but certainly much better than last year.
Are there particular sectors of the market that are softening more than others??
Not sure about the overall market, but hot hatches seem to be particularly affected by the current economic pressures. The cars I've paid attention to have dropped a clear 20% off their peak last year.
EVs are dropping like a stone at the moment!Originally Posted by bambam
I could be that used cars were too cheap anyway, why should WBAC dictate the market price, even dealers use their valuations
We sold a decent Polo privately a couple of weeks back and had no real interest until we were similar to the lowest priced one on Autotrader. Still c30% above pre pandemic prices and I doubt we'll go back to the days when UK used cars were so cheap compared to other EU countries.
Last edited by deepreddave; 20th September 2023 at 14:05.
Decent Used Stock is still quite hard to find, for no other reason than the sale of New Cars being strangled for the last three years.
New Cars are (just) starting to come back, but still no-where near pre-covid levels, levels I doubt we will ever see again.
You can walk into the Showroom and buy the Golf R 20 Year Edition we have sitting in stock. Two years ago that would have been an 18 month wait - which meant a Used Golf R value at the time was sky high. Not the case today, but not the pre-covid either, which generally ended as a race to the bottom in terms of pricing.
We are moving stock quite easily - just needs to be priced sensibly and negotiated properly from both sides. A this time, the days of huge deals/discounts being done are few and far between (from my perspective anyway).
I’ve chopped and changed and bit recently and one thing I’ve noticed is the buying site prices seem to be falling.
Private cars I'd run through previously to see what the trade were offering are now falling. Some with renewed offers £3/4000 below what they were.
I think the interest rates are slowing the market down a little but I can’t see prices falling dramatically. The problem is the price of new cars, for example:
A previous shape Civic type R could be bought for around 33/35k new. The newer version launched this year is now almost 50k with a few little options, so used prices have gone back up.
I’ve noticed that too, there are some great EV deals about, particularly the ipace which are now starting at a little over £20k and Teslas from even lower.
Last edited by Dave+63; 20th September 2023 at 16:38.
The insurance companies are killing the Ipace, most now no bidding or excessive premiums, basically if you scratch the sill they insist on a new battery, also the dealers are ripping the arse out of it with high repair charges, we bought ours when the lease finished and thought we had a good deal, but not so sure now,
When I'm buying, yes. When I'm selling, no.
Just bought an ex demo Kia for my wife, dealer happy to do a deal at a decent price, car not sitting on the forecourt for however long costing money, happy at the trade in for mine, near at what I would have asked privately so an effortless deal, second hand values appear to have dropped on some recently, make/model dependent, if someone knew definitely they’d be making a fortune.
Dealers don’t loose money on demo cars
We are looking at buying my wife’s Renault Zoe at the end of the 3 year term of the company car lease and the prices have absolutely plummeted. £30k new and from about £11k at 2-3 years old!
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I have been on the used car merry-go-round recently looking for a car for my daughter after a change of job meant she no longer had a company vehicle.
I know the used car market has been bonkers in recent years but i was quite astonished at how much you have to pay just to get a good example of a run-of-the-mill average hatch.
She had to pay 13K to get a car comparable to the one my other daughter bought in 2019 for 7K.
So i`d say things have got a long, long way to go before they resemble anything like the normality before `the thing` struck. They probably never will.
I was absolutely astounded to see that the equivalent of my current car is selling for only £3k less than I bought mine for 7 years ago.
The market is still not rational
We bought a little Fabia at the start of the restrictions in 2019. At its peak it went up £3000 on Webuyanycar and now sits at £1000 more than we paid with over 20k miles added. If we had to change the. We’d struggle to find anything for the budget we had originally.
From being on a Discovery 5 group, it seems values on those are falling fast, as are Range Rovers, as companies are either refusing to insure, or asking eye watering premiums (due to apparently being so easy to steal).
I am in the market at the moment and I would say the cars priced right are moving but a lot of other stuff priced at summer '22 values are hanging around for months on end. There appears to be a lot more private sellers on Autotrader than there has been over the last 5 years or so and they are expecting retail money or higher for their cars.
Having said that new car prices are so high now that they have dragged the second hand market up with them so I doubt we will ever go back to pre Covid car values. Depreciation is on new cars appears to be back though.
Ross
Maybe so but I saved a lot over new and got it almost immediately, best offer for the trade in compared to 8 other dealers I spoke to about their same car with similar mileage..
A friend of mine, his renewal came in at £16,000. For his 6 months old Range Rover Sport, he's since sold it. We live in North London.
£16,000 that is absolute madness. I get the risk but still
I had a quote for a heavily modified GPz750 with an agreed value of £3k.
The quote was £5500 with a £5000 excess. Yes the excess wax £2k more than the bike was worth.
I got classic bike insurance for it for less than £100
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