WBAC the only company to sell to ?
Discussion
Looking to sell my car at one of the "convenience" companies. Yes I know I'd get more for it if I sold privately, but there's also a lot more work and risk.
So I starting reading some threads on here thinking I'd get quotes from WBAC, Carwow, Motorway etc. Didn't take long to realise that apart from WBAC, the others are just portals to allow "dealers" to buy from. From the threads on here, some of the those "dealers" are no more reliable or honest than random members of the public. Stories of 3 guys turning up, half -trashing the car and offering 30% down on the agreed price.
If you're going to risk that, why not just put your ad into Autotrader/Ebay ? At least that way, you should get a more respectable price.
Yes there are some WBAC problems too but at least your dealing with a large national company meaning that at least you don't need to worry about theft or other criminal activity. You can focus solely on whether the price is low or far too low and I imagine you're also not going to get 3 blokes coming to your home to pressurise you (not least as you go to them).
So I starting reading some threads on here thinking I'd get quotes from WBAC, Carwow, Motorway etc. Didn't take long to realise that apart from WBAC, the others are just portals to allow "dealers" to buy from. From the threads on here, some of the those "dealers" are no more reliable or honest than random members of the public. Stories of 3 guys turning up, half -trashing the car and offering 30% down on the agreed price.
If you're going to risk that, why not just put your ad into Autotrader/Ebay ? At least that way, you should get a more respectable price.
Yes there are some WBAC problems too but at least your dealing with a large national company meaning that at least you don't need to worry about theft or other criminal activity. You can focus solely on whether the price is low or far too low and I imagine you're also not going to get 3 blokes coming to your home to pressurise you (not least as you go to them).
Sold my 2018 S5 - WBAC = £15k (before chipping). Motorway = car sold for £18k (no chipping or thrashy test drives from the dealer buying it when they collected). It was zero hassle.
It was up on their site the next day for £22k and gone a week or two later so presumably sold. However they've got to cover collection costs, whatever warranty they provide with the car and make some profit on top so fair play.
Could I have gotten perhaps £19-20k for it privately? Who knows....possibly. Or I could have had timewaster after timewaster calling (been there, had that) or a group of shady guys turn up and try the 'oil in the header tank' trick or whatever.
I'll take £18k and easy sale - and out of WBAC or Motorway, the latter was the better option.
It was up on their site the next day for £22k and gone a week or two later so presumably sold. However they've got to cover collection costs, whatever warranty they provide with the car and make some profit on top so fair play.
Could I have gotten perhaps £19-20k for it privately? Who knows....possibly. Or I could have had timewaster after timewaster calling (been there, had that) or a group of shady guys turn up and try the 'oil in the header tank' trick or whatever.
I'll take £18k and easy sale - and out of WBAC or Motorway, the latter was the better option.
Another hat tip to Motorway. Sold my XC90 through them a couple of years ago. Easy to set up. Dealer bid accepted, and subsequently contacted by them in person. Collected their representative from the train station the following day who checked over the car. Paperwork done and bank transfer done. Seamless. Final sale price was £3,500 more than WBAC.
sherman said:
If the car is reasonable(£10k+) you can always just take it to the local dealer and trade it in and take the cash.
Is this actually a thing? I was thinking of trying this when I change my car next year but wasn't really expecting them to go for it.Arnold Clark also offer a buying service similar to WBAC.
I will probably use motorway for mine if the local dealer (where I bought it) doesn't want it back. Always thought motorway was best for more expensive cars but could be wrong.
5k car I would be tempted to try private sale but only if there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. Otherwise I'd just take the hit with a car buying service.
Have sold a couple of old bangers to WBAC largely because they were worth less than a grand each. I CBA to sell privately at that end of the market anymore, too much hassle from people expecting far too much from a vehicle near the end of its life.
WBAC is quick, convenient and zero comeback, but they do IME chisel you fairly heavily on the price. I could.have made another 500-600 quid from both sales (combined, so £300ish each) privately, but I wanted quick and easy sales and was willing to take the hit to get them..
Never used motorway but my impression is that it's better suited to cars that are worth real money than WBAC.
WBAC is quick, convenient and zero comeback, but they do IME chisel you fairly heavily on the price. I could.have made another 500-600 quid from both sales (combined, so £300ish each) privately, but I wanted quick and easy sales and was willing to take the hit to get them..
Never used motorway but my impression is that it's better suited to cars that are worth real money than WBAC.
ChrisH72 said:
sherman said:
If the car is reasonable(£10k+) you can always just take it to the local dealer and trade it in and take the cash.
Is this actually a thing? I was thinking of trying this when I change my car next year but wasn't really expecting them to go for it.Arnold Clark also offer a buying service similar to WBAC.
I will probably use motorway for mine if the local dealer (where I bought it) doesn't want it back. Always thought motorway was best for more expensive cars but could be wrong.
5k car I would be tempted to try private sale but only if there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. Otherwise I'd just take the hit with a car buying service.
I've sold 3 cars via the "dealer auction" portals. 2 via Cazoo, and the last one via Carwow.
In each case the bids came from main dealers "up country", and there were no problems at all. From my initial listing through to collection and payment was one week.
Before listing on the portals, I tried local dealers and WBAC, as well as Motorway.
Local dealers wouldn't pay more than the initial WBAC "offer".
WBAC "offer" increased by a few hundred twice, then dropped back down.
Portal suggested price was a fair bit more than the best WBAC " offer".
Interestingly, Motorway suggested price was always the highest, but never actually managed to get a bid when we tried them. Their suggested prices wouldn't leave the dealer much of a margin, unrealistically close to the retail price I think.
With Cazoo and Carwow, I set the reserve a couple of hundred below their suggestion, and got what I asked for.
Bear in mind that I live in West Cornwall, so the purchasing dealer would've had to pay a few hundred to get the car collected.
Listing on Carwow was pretty simple, but they need a lot of photos and info. I guess this makes it easy for the bidding dealers, as they can see exactly what the score is with the car and the seller.
The car I've just sold (Kia EV3) went for £31.5k on Carwow
WBAC opening price was £29.2k, rising to £30.2k after 2 weeks.
Best trade-in offer was £30k, at a Honda dealer
Cupra dealer offered £29k, but couldn't guarantee the price against a factory order due to the long lead time.
Main dealer offered £27k as a trade-in.
In each case the bids came from main dealers "up country", and there were no problems at all. From my initial listing through to collection and payment was one week.
Before listing on the portals, I tried local dealers and WBAC, as well as Motorway.
Local dealers wouldn't pay more than the initial WBAC "offer".
WBAC "offer" increased by a few hundred twice, then dropped back down.
Portal suggested price was a fair bit more than the best WBAC " offer".
Interestingly, Motorway suggested price was always the highest, but never actually managed to get a bid when we tried them. Their suggested prices wouldn't leave the dealer much of a margin, unrealistically close to the retail price I think.
With Cazoo and Carwow, I set the reserve a couple of hundred below their suggestion, and got what I asked for.
Bear in mind that I live in West Cornwall, so the purchasing dealer would've had to pay a few hundred to get the car collected.
Listing on Carwow was pretty simple, but they need a lot of photos and info. I guess this makes it easy for the bidding dealers, as they can see exactly what the score is with the car and the seller.
The car I've just sold (Kia EV3) went for £31.5k on Carwow
WBAC opening price was £29.2k, rising to £30.2k after 2 weeks.
Best trade-in offer was £30k, at a Honda dealer
Cupra dealer offered £29k, but couldn't guarantee the price against a factory order due to the long lead time.
Main dealer offered £27k as a trade-in.
Bonzo1930 said:
Just a suggestion I have previously sold 2 cars Motorpoint who paid really strong money, they have a site local to me gave me a price online, made an appointment they inspected the car didn't try & chip me, money in the bank within 30 minutes
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