For a buyer or seller, a car valuation guide is an indispensable tool. Primarily used in the second hand car market, the guide is there to give you the average price for a car of a specific make, model and year. By having that average price for a car in specific conditions (some guides even give you a guide price for the same car in different stages of repair) you can work out whether the price you are being offered as a fair one. As a seller, you can work out for what price you should be selling.
As a buyer, the primary use for a car valuation guide is to highlight any possible problems with the purchase you are about to make. For example, let’s say you have fond a five year old car of a certain make and model, and in apparently good condition. So you look at the guide to find out what it should cost, given its mileage and apparent history. But the price you are being offered is much lower.
At this point you can surmise
one of two things – either you are getting a real bargain, or the vehicle in
question has something wrong with it that you don’t know about. So you use the
information given by the car valuation guide to determine your next move.
Perhaps you ask to see the full service history of the vehicle, or you get your
mechanic to come and look it over before you purchase.
By the same token, if a car
valuation guide says that the make, model and age of the vehicle you are
thinking of buying makes it worth less than the price offered, you can use the
information as a bargaining tool to bring the price down in line with its
market value.
Obviously this doesn’t work in
black and white terms. For instance, the market value of a car doesn’t express
things like proximity to you. So if you find a good example of a car make and
model in the next street to you, being sold for more than it’s worth according
to the car valuation guide, it might still be economically viable to buy it.
Saving yourself the petrol and time to drive or get a lift to another county to
pick one up can justify they price difference.
In general, of course, an item
is only worth what you are prepared to pay for it – and what the owner is
prepared to sell it for. However, the car market is full of so many different
variables that guide price can be a very quick, easy and reliable way to ensure
you are getting a fair deal, a great deal – or to know that you may be getting
a bad one. The car valuation guide, after all, is used by the trade to set
second hand prices on forecourt models: so it makes sense that private buyers
and sellers should use it too, to find out the worth of their vehicles.
For a buyer or seller, a car
valuation guide is an indispensable tool. Primarily used in the second hand car
market, the guide is there to give you the average price for a car of a
specific make, model and year.
