Dealer Valuation

[jamjia]

Was recently interested in trading in my A2 for the same model but diesel version. But did not due to shockingly low valuation given by dealer to my A2. My a2 is registered in March 2003, so its on a 03 plate. It’s done just under 40k, 1.6 FSi sport, full grey leather and body kit also. 6cd auto-changer although that has now been converted to a Denison ice link for my ipod. Wanted to trade in for a 1.4TDI 90PS with red leather. Both vehicles are black (mine is brilliant, the dealer's is phantom), mileage is 40k vs 32k. Dealer valuation was £7k up from their original £6.5k offer. And the TDi A2 was priced at £10.5K!!! What is going on with that? Is it me or are trading in values extortionately low? My car is 11 month since I bought it from Audi dealers, so virtually no work is required to get it to the forecourt again... What are the thoughts of club members here? Should I be expecting more for my car or is that what it is worth? Personally, I was expecting no less than 8K... Feels like the dealers are trying to cream as much dosh from my pockets, which is no big surprise, but still, felt it was extortionate... What kind of prices could I expect from the private market? All opinions are welcome so please leave me your thoughts on this...

Jia

[Mr Smurf]

There is a swedish site bilpriser.se that calculates the value of a used car, and from what you wrote your car would be worth £8.3K - £9K if you sell it private or £9.9K if sold by a dealer in Sweden..

[mjs4x4]

Well - the dealer will be looking to make a full profit on the TDI as well as aiming to make £2-3k on your FSI - so I doubt you should expect a better P/X. Life's a bitch sometimes!

[ULP]

I think people have a genuinely inflated idea of what their car is worth (it's called the MINI-syndrome where even the earliest 'ONE' owner thinks it'll fetch £8K)

Look on he used Audi website - You will see there is a 2004 1.6FSI Sport in York with about 44K on the clock for £8,995 - so £8,500 in real money; they wouldn't have taken it in as a clunker for £8,000, would they... Your leather will only be worth a few hundred and the bodykit might actually devalue it.

When dealing with the Audi dealer, your transaction has to cover a percentage of the running costs of the building (those glass houses 'aint cheap to run), overheads for the sale such as preperation, 12 month warranty, a % of the back-office salaries, commission for the seller etc. etc. - a main dealer will look to clear £1,500 as a minimum from a car sale in order to pay this lot.

In truth, you will get £8K as a private sale but you won't get £8K from a dealer. If you can work it out, then sell private to get a better deal.

You might push the gap down to £3,000, but I doubt you'll be able to reduce it further. Isn't that red-leather TDI 90 a '53' car too?

[manhattan$]

I would say on the private market it would fetch between 8 - 8.5k


You could try it on ebay, if there are two or more people looking for that spec of a car there could be a bidding war over it!
Start the auction at 99p to gain interest, and set a reserve at the lowest you would take for it.

[tdiman]

Leave it a while, I've always found Audi stealers come back to you with a better trade in, they offered £7000 for my 52 (03) tdi sport with 47k, eventually came back with a further £250 and a reduction on the A4 of £300,
sold mine for £7k to a non audi dealer for a £1500 cheaper version of an A4 avant

[jamjia]

I bought the car for £9.5K and since I've had it for 1 year now I would expect the price to drop plus the mark-up I paid originally to the dealership also... So thinking £8-8.5K is a good price. Fully acknowledge that the dealer is trying to make £2-3K on my car as well as the 53 1.4TDI but only have a extra £1.5K to play with so that was a shame as having a TDI would be nice considering I live in London. Have put a ad in loot to see if anyone is interested... As for body kit, personally I love the look it gives and was very pleasantly surprised when I bought my A2 to see it was there. Don't find many A2 from the dealers with that option so its pretty rare as well as the grey nappa leather. Spoke to the used sales manager and we couldn't bridge the gap between the 7K he was offering me plus another 1.5k from myself and the 10K he was looking for... Guess it makes sense to me but to the dealers who are looking to double their profits its probably not worth it. If anyone is interested in buying any time soon let me know. Would consider selling for £8.5K if a replacement car can be found and secured... Ebay is great for attracting attention but I find the commission makes it often not worth while so places like loot is probably the best option as a fair number of people still go through that route. Otherwise its the folks here.

[manhattan$]

The costs of selling a car on ebay the last time i looked was no more than £35 fees. So not too bad.

[manhattan$]

And that is only if it sells. If not you only pay the listing fee.

[Skipton01]

Sold my first A2 on Ebay. Basically, I knew what the dealer was offering in PX, so I put that plus £50 as the starting bid, to cover costs, then whatever I got extra was a bonus.

In the end I got another £750 over and above the dealer PX price. I was happy, the buyer was happy and the dealer was happy as they didn't have to haggle and prep another car for the forecourt.

Cheers,

Mike

[ULP]

I bought the car for £9.5K and since I've had it for 1 year now I would expect the price to drop plus the mark-up I paid originally to the dealership also... So thinking £8-8.5K is a good price. Fully acknowledge that the dealer is trying to make £2-3K on my car as well as the 53 1.4TDI but only have a extra £1.5K to play with so that was a shame as having a TDI would be nice considering I live in London.

But that's the point - if you paid £9,500 and the we assume the dealer settled on a minimum profit and overheads line of £1,500 he/she paid £8,000 for your car - 12 months later why wouldn't £7,000 be seen as a decent trade-in, i.e. a loss in trade-in value of £1,000?

The argument could be that the TDI Sport you are looking at is overpriced (which I think it is by about £700), but the trade-in offer is decent.

You are looking at a car that is slightly newer, more desirable in the market (TDI v FSI) has lower mileage and also a nice sellable specification - therefore your trade-in isn't worth the same (plus the profit and overheads of £1,500) - it is worth less!

I wasn't commenting on the specifics of the body kit whether it's nice or otherwise, but certain things will alarm dealers - a bodykit on an A2 would be one of them. Likewise, they'd probably have a hissy-fit over part-exing a white one, but some people (like me) would buy it! Dealers like nice specs in sellable colours - they work on making money not keeping A2 owners happy!

[jamjia]

If the TDI sport was valued at around £9.5k I would possibly consider making a move as I do have spare £1.5k to inject into the deal... I guess I'm about £1.5k short of what the dealer and I are able to meet so guess my FSI stays. There are some benefits of having a TDI (lower insurance, lower tax, better fuel and possible CC exemption in 2008) but its not worth another £3k for me to make the deal work...

I would have thought that there would be very little in terms of differences for the trade in cars. Yes the TDI is slightly more desirable in the areas listed above, but overall the extra spec on both cars seem virtually identical and I cannot see why having a different engine would have such a large impact on the valuation when the FSI was more expensive (please correct if I'm wrong) when new?

Its a shame that bodykit would put dealers off as I thought that was quite a desirable option as it really makes the A2 stand out... But I think if that was a off putting item the rest should be ok as both cars are black and that is a good colour for resale.

Anyway, if I hear nothing on my car within the next week or so then its FSI over TDI but if someone turns up an gives me a load of dosh then its bye bye bodykit (even though I love it) and hello TDI... I feel that the FSI is likely to stay for another year or two...

[jamjia]

BTW, something odd is happening with Audi's used car locator... Yesterday when searching for A2 there would appeare to be about 50 cars available. Today only 5 has turned up! What's going on with that???