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A cautionary tale for anyone considering shifting their old car through a car-buyer, rather than simply part-exing.
I've always driven company cars. It was only two years ago when my firm moved over to allowances that I bought my first new car. My purchase of my new DS is therefore the first time I've ever had to negotiate the choppy waters of part-exing.
I ordered my car on Jan 31st. I was given a fair interim part ex valuation on my two year old Kia Sportage by the LR dealer, but he himself advised me that I might get a better price from WeBuyAnyCar or another such organisation.
Out of interest I made some enquiries. WeBuyAnyCar actually came up with less than the LR dealer, but TrustedCarBuyers came in at £900 more, not to be sniffed at I thought.
I didn't want to be mucked about, so although my car is in almost perfect condition, has a full dealer service history, 5 years of warranty left etc. I took photos of any minor issues I thought might influence the price and emailed them to TrustedCarBuyers, requesting they be taken into account and a final valuation issued.
They came back to me again, the valuation unchanged at £900 more than LR. Great I thought.
I'm picking up my DS in two weeks, and I can drive my wife's 'weekend' Fiat 500 convertible until then, so I booked an appointment with TrustedCarBuyers, this was when things started to go wrong.
I received a call few minutes after booking to give me the 'final valuation' for my car. "What final valuation?" I said. Nothing had changed, they hadn't inspected it yet, so why would the valuation change? Anyway it had, dropping from £12,904, to £12,000, exactly what my dealer had offered me.
Of course I kicked off, and after an hour of negotiation the valuation was back up to £12,700 and the appointment confirmed.
Then on the day of the appointment I received another phone call. "Before you come in we wanted to inform you of another change to our valuation. It's now £11,700."
Needless to say at this point I told them where they could shove their valuation! I then called my LR dealer and booked an appointment with him to get a final 'binding' part ex valuation before the handover in two weeks time. I sat nervously waiting for him to assess the car, thinking, based on what had just happened, that his valuation too might drop by a grand. Not so, he came back with a final, 'binding' valuation of £12,700. Fantastic!
In the middle of all this I also had an appointment with WeWantAnyCar. This turned out to be almost comical. Their representative, who looked and sounded like one of the Essex based characters from 'Gavin and Stacy' dressed for a night out clubbing, couldn't find anything wrong with my car. So, instead he told me the 'inside story' of how Kia dealers are known for letting new cars out to be used as private-hire vehicles for a few weeks before sale, they then clock them and sell them as brand new. The threat of this would of course, reduce the valuation of my car. I laughed in his face before driving off.
So to all of you out there who might be considering the WeBuyAnyCar et al route, please take heed of this cautionary tale. Your LR dealer might be more honest and generous when it comes to your px allowance than you think!
I've always driven company cars. It was only two years ago when my firm moved over to allowances that I bought my first new car. My purchase of my new DS is therefore the first time I've ever had to negotiate the choppy waters of part-exing.
I ordered my car on Jan 31st. I was given a fair interim part ex valuation on my two year old Kia Sportage by the LR dealer, but he himself advised me that I might get a better price from WeBuyAnyCar or another such organisation.
Out of interest I made some enquiries. WeBuyAnyCar actually came up with less than the LR dealer, but TrustedCarBuyers came in at £900 more, not to be sniffed at I thought.
I didn't want to be mucked about, so although my car is in almost perfect condition, has a full dealer service history, 5 years of warranty left etc. I took photos of any minor issues I thought might influence the price and emailed them to TrustedCarBuyers, requesting they be taken into account and a final valuation issued.
They came back to me again, the valuation unchanged at £900 more than LR. Great I thought.
I'm picking up my DS in two weeks, and I can drive my wife's 'weekend' Fiat 500 convertible until then, so I booked an appointment with TrustedCarBuyers, this was when things started to go wrong.
I received a call few minutes after booking to give me the 'final valuation' for my car. "What final valuation?" I said. Nothing had changed, they hadn't inspected it yet, so why would the valuation change? Anyway it had, dropping from £12,904, to £12,000, exactly what my dealer had offered me.
Of course I kicked off, and after an hour of negotiation the valuation was back up to £12,700 and the appointment confirmed.
Then on the day of the appointment I received another phone call. "Before you come in we wanted to inform you of another change to our valuation. It's now £11,700."
Needless to say at this point I told them where they could shove their valuation! I then called my LR dealer and booked an appointment with him to get a final 'binding' part ex valuation before the handover in two weeks time. I sat nervously waiting for him to assess the car, thinking, based on what had just happened, that his valuation too might drop by a grand. Not so, he came back with a final, 'binding' valuation of £12,700. Fantastic!
In the middle of all this I also had an appointment with WeWantAnyCar. This turned out to be almost comical. Their representative, who looked and sounded like one of the Essex based characters from 'Gavin and Stacy' dressed for a night out clubbing, couldn't find anything wrong with my car. So, instead he told me the 'inside story' of how Kia dealers are known for letting new cars out to be used as private-hire vehicles for a few weeks before sale, they then clock them and sell them as brand new. The threat of this would of course, reduce the valuation of my car. I laughed in his face before driving off.
So to all of you out there who might be considering the WeBuyAnyCar et al route, please take heed of this cautionary tale. Your LR dealer might be more honest and generous when it comes to your px allowance than you think!
