The
right price for your car is a balance between its 'book' value and what will ensure
it gets the attention of potential buyers amongst similar cars for sale.
Get this balance wrong and either you'll be deluged in buyers and end up out of
pocket. Or there'll be a stoney silence and the cost of advertising will have
been wasted.
So take care to price your car both accurately and in line with the current local market. Read our guide on how to do this below - or just request a free appraisal.
FREE APPRAISAL of what your car's worth:
Just
drop us a line to 
and
we'll mail you back with what we think your car is worth. All you need to tell
us is:
- your car make, model & variant
(eg. Ford Focus 1.6LX 5-door automatic)
- its registration letter or number, and year of registration (eg. X / 2001)
- its mileage
- your postcode
Our
view will be based on values given in a range of car price guide publications,
PLUS an assessment of the market for the car in your area.
Or
to investigate the right price for yourself, read on for our guide below.
Start by looking up your car in magazines like Parkers Used Car Price Guide or in the back of several other car magazines. You can get values for recent cars free on the Parkers and What Car websites. On the Parkers site, for a small fee you can get a more precise valuation by giving any special features of your car. Car dealers use a different publication to find prices called Glass's Guide - for a small charge you can use this too.
But remember these are all only guides. If selling your car privately, the marketplace is an equally important indicator of the price you can set. So also look at the ads in your local paper or Auto Trader magazine to see how many cars like yours are up for sale, and their prices.
If part-exchanging your car, dealers won't necessarily accept the 'trade' prices the guides give as definitive. What they offer you will also be based on factors like whether they want your old car, what they think they'll get back for it when selling it on, the price of the car you're intending to buy and your haggling skills. Certainly don't expect a dealer to give you the sort of prices shown on their forecourt for similar cars to yours. Dealers have overheads to pay, they will probably have to spend money on the car to prepare it for sale, and you aren't offering them any warranty.
As well as its age and type, your car's value will be affected by its condition, mileage and any extras it has. Guides break down values by condition; usually Excellent, Good and Poor. When selling privately, if your car is in a typical condition for its age with no obvious faults or damage, then that would be classed as 'Good'. To achieve the 'Excellent' price, a car would need to have a full dealer service history, as well as being in a largely unmarked condition.
Average mileage is 10,000 miles a year. If your car is above or below that for its age, you can adjust the price accordingly. Factor in around £30 - £50 per 1,000 miles for a typical car.
Very few 'optional extras' actually add value to a car. Those that do are an automatic gearbox, leather seats and air conditioning. Power steering and electric kit are found in most modern cars these days, so make little difference to price. Metallic paint and alloys, despite also being increasingly common, are worth a little extra simply because they add appeal and make a car easier to sell. And a sunroof is always a plus. If a prestige car doesn't have all these sort of extras, that can greatly reduce its appeal and so have a serious negative impact on its value.
Taking all this into account, work out what a private buyer or dealer is likely to be willing to pay and, if you can, add 10% to allow for a bit of haggling. But also decide what's the absolute minimum that you'd accept for the car.
