Calculating trade in value from used car prices??

Calibos

Is it possible to calculate an approximate trade in value of a car from its used car price in Used car buyers guide for example so I know what to push for at my dealer when qetting a trade in quote?

According to Used car price guide magazine a '04 2.0TDI A3 Standard spec + Ambition(Sport) with 25000 miles is worth 28850. One assumes this is the average private sale price for this car. I presume this does not include options. Now I know you lose the price of most options come resale but did I hear right that Leather is one of the few options that hold approx 50% of their value. Therefor should I add (50%x€2000) €1000 to the given price. ie Private sale price if the car had leather would be 29850.

Is the fact that the car is June '04 rather than Jan '04 worth anything, ie 6 months younger than it appears. Sunroof, better alloys, Spoiler worth anything Extra?? Is the fact that it imaaculate? (overused but true in this case) How about only 6500 miles on the clock instead of 25000?

Now how much should I knock off for the dealers cut. ie knock off 2 grand and thats the trade in value I should aim for??

bazz26

Calibos wrote:

Is it possible to calculate an approximate trade in value of a car from its used car price in Used car buyers guide for example so I know what to push for at my dealer when qetting a trade in quote?

According to Used car price guide magazine a '04 2.0TDI A3 Standard spec + Ambition(Sport) with 25000 miles is worth 28850. One assumes this is the average private sale price for this car. I presume this does not include options. Now I know you lose the price of most options come resale but did I hear right that Leather is one of the few options that hold approx 50% of their value. Therefor should I add (50%x€2000) €1000 to the given price. ie Private sale price if the car had leather would be 29850.

Is the fact that the car is June '04 rather than Jan '04 worth anything, ie 6 months younger than it appears. Sunroof, better alloys, Spoiler worth anything Extra?? Is the fact that it imaaculate? (overused but true in this case) How about only 6500 miles on the clock instead of 25000?

Now how much should I knock off for the dealers cut. ie knock off 2 grand and thats the trade in value I should aim for??

The prices you are looking at are probably mixed between dealer asking prices and private sellers. With the likes of carzone and cbg alot of private sellers look at the prices being asked by dealers and assume they will get similar money. While not defending dealer prices you do have to take into account a number of things that they may have to absorb, overheads like giving a warranty with the car, service it and clean it. Then you have to factor in the part exchange price they give someone else against it. So the real life price is not always near the asking or sticker price.

I'm afraid all the extras that you have are worth very little come trade-in time. Tbh I've never heard of leather retaining 50% of it's value either. All these toys make the car easier for the dealer to sell to the next customer. The first owner takes the hit for all the boxes ticked on the options list.

Also whether it be Jan 04 or Dec 04 what month the car was registered makes zero difference when selling it, bottom line it is a 2004 car. Depreciation is mostly calculated on an annual basis not monthly. Mileage is similar unless it very high. In this case 4,000 or 25,000 on an almost 3 year old diesel is very low. Condtition unless very poor is also not a huge trade-in factor.

Another thing to take into account which influences your trade-in value is what car you are trading your A3 against and how much it costs. The dealer may have more profit margin in which to be flexible with.

Calibos

First off, thanks bazz for a very informative reply.

Thinking about a new model TT (Approx 53500).

The reason I need a trade in value is a little more complicated but I didn't want to get straight into it in the first post.

Heres the thing. Like I said I want to get a new TT. My brother wants to buy my car. He has a '00 1.6 Golf. Neither of us want to sell privately for various reasons. Now obviously it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for me to trade in my car at the dealer only for my brother to buy it right back trading in his own golf against my car. Why give them profit on it? Then again maybe the dealer could be persuaded to facilitate this without banking a wad of cash directly on the transaction by virtue of the fact that he can sell us both finance on our 'new' cars. Maybe then he would give me a fair price for my A3 without shafting my brother in the process or vice Versa (ie bro gets my car for a great price but I get less than I should).

The only other way I can see around this is bro signs his car over to me (he owns car outright, no finance left). I trade in his car against TT. Say the best trade in is 8 grand. Well the bro then needs to get finance for whatever my car costs less 8 grand he has in effect already given me by giving me his car. So the question is ??,???-8000.

Seeing as bro is only getting trade in value rather than market value for his car, I think its only fair he gets charged trade in value for my car rather than full market value. So I need a trade in value.

If I ask for a trade in quote from the dealer (So I have an idea what to charge the bro for the car) I cannot be sure what is a fair price for my car. Dealer might offer me x and bluffs me in the haggling and a fair price to charge my brother might be 1000 quid more than the dealers "Final offer". ie unfair to me because I am getting 1000 less when I go back to the bro with the dealer quote than I really should.

On the other hand I know the dealer would give me a much better trade in quote if I told him the plan between myself and the bro but in that scenario he might over estimate the trade in quote for my car to make it more appealing to me but then thats not very fair on the bro who now ends up paying more to me for my car than maybe he should.

How can I arrive at a fair price for both of us when I sell my car to my brother given the complicated nature of the transactions?

PauloMN

Calibos wrote:

First off, thanks bazz for a very informative reply.

Thinking about a new model TT (Approx 53500).

The reason I need a trade in value is a little more complicated but I didn't want to get straight into it in the first post.

Heres the thing. Like I said I want to get a new TT. My brother wants to buy my car. He has a '00 1.6 Golf. Neither of us want to sell privately for various reasons. Now obviously it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for me to trade in my car at the dealer only for my brother to buy it right back trading in his own golf against my car. Why give them profit on it? Then again maybe the dealer could be persuaded to facilitate this without banking a wad of cash directly on the transaction by virtue of the fact that he can sell us both finance on our 'new' cars. Maybe then he would give me a fair price for my A3 without shafting my brother in the process or vice Versa (ie bro gets my car for a great price but I get less than I should).

The only other way I can see around this is bro signs his car over to me (he owns car outright, no finance left). I trade in his car against TT. Say the best trade in is 8 grand. Well the bro then needs to get finance for whatever my car costs less 8 grand he has in effect already given me by giving me his car. So the question is ??,???-8000.

Seeing as bro is only getting trade in value rather than market value for his car, I think its only fair he gets charged trade in value for my car rather than full market value. So I need a trade in value.

If I ask for a trade in quote from the dealer (So I have an idea what to charge the bro for the car) I cannot be sure what is a fair price for my car. Dealer might offer me x and bluffs me in the haggling and a fair price to charge my brother might be 1000 quid more than the dealers "Final offer". ie unfair to me because I am getting 1000 less when I go back to the bro with the dealer quote than I really should.

On the other hand I know the dealer would give me a much better trade in quote if I told him the plan between myself and the bro but in that scenario he might over estimate the trade in quote for my car to make it more appealing to me but then thats not very fair on the bro who now ends up paying more to me for my car than maybe he should.

How can I arrive at a fair price for both of us when I sell my car to my brother given the complicated nature of the transactions?

- Get your hands on that little book that the insurance companies/car dealers use for car valuations.
- Look at prices on CBG, Carzone etc. and determine an average price.
- Go to a couple of dealers and ask them for a trade in price on both cars against the new TT, then ask for a cash price on the TT.

You would be best selling the Golf privately, then you brother can give you all cash for yours, and you can buy the TT with all cash also. On a car like that you should be looking for a decent cash discount, and you have to take that into account when you get a valuation on your trade-in.

Say the car is €50k, and you get a trade-in value of €30k on yours (these are just numbers, not estimates). So you pay €20k plus your car. But you might get the new car for €48k cash, so you're really only getting €28k for yours.

Price the Golf reasonably and you shouldn't have too much trouble selling it assuming it's in good shape.

omega man

Try this link. its the government vrt calculator and will give your cars open market selling price. More than likely you will have to expect to get less than this amount if its a trade in.

https://www.ros.ie/VRTEnquiryServlet/showCarCalculator

Calibos

This is what the VRT site gave me:

The information requested in respect of the vehicle shown is indicated below.
DATE OF FIRST REGISTRATION(MM/YY): JUNE 2004
OPEN MARKET SELLING PRICE:
(applicable on enquiry date) €22956
RATE OF TAX: 30.0%
VEHICLE REGISTRATION TAX:
(payable on enquiry date) €6886

I presume I add the OMSP to the VRT?

ie. 29842.

So considering that by the time I would hypothetically sell the car to the dealer it would still have 6 months manufacturer warranty, Serviced a fortnight ago at their service centre. Taxed till June '07. I would personally valet it better than they ever would pre-trade in.

That all they would need to to if I actually was trading it in to them would be to cover an additional 6 months warranty themselves (to make the 1 year used car warranty) and to cover some margin for themselves. ie would 29842-1000 sound right for a dealers best trade in offer. (500 for extra warranty and 500 profit for themselves). Therefor I should ask my brother for 28842 for my car?? (He's already told me he'll take the car if its 30000 or less) You might say, well charge him 30 grand then!! but I want to be fair to him.....as well as to myself obviously:D

Anan1

Calibos wrote:

This is what the VRT site gave me:

The information requested in respect of the vehicle shown is indicated below.
DATE OF FIRST REGISTRATION(MM/YY): JUNE 2004
OPEN MARKET SELLING PRICE:
(applicable on enquiry date) €22956
RATE OF TAX: 30.0%
VEHICLE REGISTRATION TAX:
(payable on enquiry date) €6886

I presume I add the OMSP to the VRT?

ie. 29842.

No, the VRO reckon your car is worth €22,956 on Irish plates. The €6,886 would be payable in VRT if you were importing a UK car. VRO values tend to be a bit under the actual price cars sell for in the ROI, not that you'd know it from some of the whining around here!;)