How much is my car worth?

[chrisbin]

Lots of good points there....

I would just say that the phrase "what a car is worth" keeps coming up, in regard to this pricing issue. I think this is confusing things....

If someone asks what is my car worth.....and then what price should I put on my car to sell it.....well, imho, they're gonna get 2 different answers....

I think its very valid to mention the fact that there is a "7-esque" market out there, within which there is also a "Westfield" market. In the 7 market the Catering vans are most expensive, followed by Westy's followed by the rest...

So...the prices (and values) of Westy's actually follow Cat'.s quite closely, albeit less the "heritage" premium (say £5k?).

As far as Cat. prices go, the fact that there are a number of recognised dealers/outlets helps to establish market prices. In comparison there are really only the factory sales of Westy's which usually seem to be priced on the high side (maybe they are indeed trying to push values up...?), and are not great in numbers.

To up-sum I think there are 2 sectors in the Westy market:

- "ordinary" cars

- "specialist" cars

The ordinary cars will vary from being old to new, dodgy build to well built, pinto to BEC, standard to wide body, no history to full history, blah, blah blah. These cars will be priced (and will sell) anywhere between £5k and £10k depending on the above factors.

The specialist cars will all be very well built, have trick bits, impeccable history, etc etc. These cars will fully justify prices over the £10k threshold......but the seller will have to wait for the right buyer to come along.

FWIW the same debates were going on over prices of Tiv's last year......and they are far less specialised.....  

[gregh]

lots of healthy debate, looks like £10k is a magic barrier so as it's just sailed through the MOT today, I'll be advertising it shortly for £10,499 I reckon, unless I change my mind on the drive back from Playskool

Not many other Scholar built Zetec's around that I can find....

cheers for all the input from everyone.

regards,

Greg

[scott beeland]

I'd stick it in at around 12 and hold your breath. If someone out there wants YOUR car they'll pay near the asking.

Ask Barry Ashcroft what you can get for a car if you stick to your guns

[steveb]

but it's difficult to get more than £10k for any car as Matt has said.

WARNING - THIS IS NOT A PERSONAL DIG !!    

Which is entirely the fault of the sellers and is largely a product of comments such as this on interweb forums....

People, new buyers in particular, have an expectation that no Westfield shall ever cost more than 10K, regardless of the spec.

This is obviously ridiculous but it's perpetuated by sellers who ask too little for the cars in the first place and by opinions expressed that 10K is the absolute ceiling for car valuations without having even seen the cars for sale.

I contemplated selling my car a couple of years ago but there was no way people would pay sensible money for it.  To build something similar from scratch would cost well in excess of 20K, but I would have been lucky to get 10K for it because of the myths and opinions I'm referring to above.

Each car should command its own value - since they're all different in their own way it's ridiculous to put a cap on the value simply because that's what has come to be accepted.

I'd say this is nonsense.  The fact people won't buy 4/5year old westfield for more than 10K is that £13,000 will buy you a new one (albiet a basic one).  Every car depreciates no matter what it is.  The only way to actually get top money is strip off every expensive 'mod' and sell seperately then sell a basic car for less cash as there are more potential buyers in cheaper markets.

At present i'm stripping the mods off my MR2 turbo, I have sold £1600 worth of mods for £1000 already (1 week advertised on the forum).  If i put the car on autotrader as it was i could have asked £3200, if i put the car on autotrader tomorrow minus the mods £2900 would be what it goes up for.  90% of people don't do any internet owners club research before buying, the clubs come after you've had the car for a month or two.  High specs therefore mean nothing to 90% of people.

[chrisbin]

 90% of people don't do any internet owners club research before buying, the clubs come after you've had the car for a month or two.  High specs therefore mean nothing to 90% of people.

Don't think that is quite so true when you are looking at "specialized" (for want of a better description) vehicles like Westy's....

I have to say that you're actually proving the point yourself........