Chat Can you value my A2?

Audette02

New Member
Hello, I'm new to club and wondering if someone here might be able to help me get a valuation of my A2?

I'm not looking to sell, but I'm in a bit of a bureaucratic quandary. I have recently imported my A2 from the EU, and need to complete an import declaration form with HMRC before I can register the car with the DVLA, get licence plates etc...but HMRC have demanded I provide valuation so they can tell me how much VAT I owe.

HMRC say the valuation must be: "from a garage/dealership or motor club (we cannot accept valuations from online sources)"

I've phoned a few dealerships and garages and they're not interested (what's in it for them, as I'm not selling?) so I'm hoping A2OC might qualify as a "motor club" which HMRC would regard as a reputable source...might there be someone in this community who could type out a valuation with a semi-official looking letter head to satisfy the beancounters? I'd be very grateful for any help/advice this forum may have.

My A2 is lovely early 2002 example, 1.4 l petrol, 112,000 miles, deep red, with yellow leather seats. One previous owner, full service history, runs well, although with signs of wear, dents, scratches etc., as you'd expect of a car nearly 20 years young.

Although it's imported the car is right hand drive. I suspect the value is about GBP900 but HMRC won't take my word for it (or do 5 mins of googling to figure it out for themselves...)

Thanks.
 
Hi Audette,

We don't normally support valuations on the forum as it's normally fishing for a best price to then put the car up for sale at. However you're not in a sale situation and you have an A2 there that sounds very interesting from the description. The yellow leather seats are particularly rare in this country and as such I should think that the value should quite probably exceed the £900 you're thinking of. By how much depends really on the condition it's in. Please could you post up plenty of pictures of both the exterior and interior so we can see the panel and paint condition, and what other options it has.
 
Good Evening Audette,

A strange situation you find yourself in. Sorry valuations tend to be taboo here but I have a suggestion.. Why not devote a day to having a service at WOM and with hands on experience I expect they would accommodate your need, but float it beforehand.

Andy
 
Just a thought, why not get an offer from "We'll buy any car" which should be acceptable, and could be got in writing.
That is not a good yardstick as with they just value it as a 2002 car, don't take into consideration rising values of any particular mark.
Valuation from them would be about £400.
 
Thanks all for your comments they are very helpful!

I like the suggestion of getting a decent garage to do a valuation in combination with a service/MOT, which will need doing anyway. WOM looks great but I'm south of London so will look for something nearer.

Unfortunately HMRC won't accept valuations from online sources, which excludes We buy any car and many others. But I can't fault Simon's thinking about going for the lower end of the scale in the interests of lightening the inevitable VAT bill...

Here are some photos so Proghound, if you or someone else here can do some kind of valuation, that would be much appreciated.

Genereal description
2002 A2 1.4 l petrol
112,000 miles
Runs well, sometimes slow to start at ignition, starter motor makes a brief whining sound

Exterior defects
Deep red paint, visible damage:
Left front wheel arch heavily scratched,
Left rear passenger door, large scratch on bumper strip
Spoiler, scratches/chips on mid upper section
Alloys, scuffed front L/R, some superficial corrosion. Original high polish finish replaced by something more matt/dull grey

Interior defects
Yellow leather sports seats - good condition
Switchgear, heavy wear on headlight control, driver's side central locking control
Driver's footwell carpet worn through
Thermometer gone haywire - fluctuates between +/- during a normal day
Fuel filler cap release button broken, filler cap must be released manually using interior mechanism located in the boot
Symphony radio and CD player works well
A/C generally functioning, although sometimes randomly blows out hot air when it should be cool...
 

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Doesn't look too bad to me, defects you've shown are easily repainted for not much more than £350 unless the London price affect takes place. The interior carpet and light switch is easily repairable for perhaps £40 combined so no deal breaker stopping it from being a very nice car. In it's current shape i'd say your about right on valuation - £900 because of it's lovely interior. Get it repaired as i've outlined, give it a good paint correction valet inside and out and the price would be £2k easily.

I'm not a garage or a dealer or have ever been a professional in the car trade, just an enthusiast of 40 years and those prices are based as an enthusiast of the A2. ?

Appreciated that this is not a valuation from a garage but is a true valuation on how we enthusiasts see it and previous sales.
 
I'm not sure of the trim-packs that were sold in Europe, but in UK spec terms the car looks to have originally been an SE, to which someone has added Sport-spec seats, steering wheel and gear lever. However the full DIS (trip computer) usually associated with Sport models is absent. Do you know if the electric lumbar adjustment on the seats works? If not, it probably hasn't been wired in which would confirm the later additions rather than purchased options from new.

You're right, with low mileage and good history I reckon the car could be worth something along the lines of £900 in its current state - but in my view, that would be if you were to ignore the interior. Castle Red is an attractive paint colour and doesn't seem to suffer from fade and lacquer peel like the solid reds do. To look reasonable again, it needs a better set of wheels and three panels replaced which are all basically bolt-on items. I believe there are even suitable panels in the correct colour on eBay right now. On the inside, a headlight switch and replacement floor mats would do a lot to smarten things up. The mats in there now, although yellow-edged, are not originals.

But not only is the interior in yellow leather, as mentioned it's Sport spec and not in that bad condition from what I can see - a little rough on the outside seam of the driver's back bolster but that's about it. Like I said, it's rare. Although there may well be a few more, this is only the third set of yellow leather Sport seats that I have seen or heard of in this country in 3½ years of immersion in the A2 'scene'. I think that if you were to sell the seats with the matching doorcards you could expect to get £500 from someone for them, plus replacements in standard black (albeit the seats likely in cloth and not Sport-spec). This would pretty much pay for all the bits mentioned above to smarten up the rest of the car. With those done and with a standard black interior, I see this as a £1400 car. (Or, as @Vorsprung durch Technik said, if you keep the yellow interior and get it smartened up, it's a £2000 car).

So either way round I'd reckon on your car being worth something like £1400 on the market as it is today. Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear, I hope it doesn't cost you an extra £100 in VAT :oops:

Following my suspicions in the first paragraph above, I'd suggest that you now find the options sticker with lots of codes printed on it. It's normally in the front cover of your service book, or somewhere under the boot floor in the battery / tools compartment. Post a picture on here of it so we can decipher the codes for what interior it left the factory with.
 
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On the inside, a headlight switch and replacement floor mats would do a lot to smarten things up. The mats in there now, although yellow-edged, are not originals.

But not only is the interior in yellow leather, as mentioned it's Sport spec and not in that bad condition from what I can see - a little rough on the outside seam of the driver's back bolster but that's about it. Like I said, it's rare. Although there may well be a few more, this is only the third set of yellow leather Sport seats that I have seen or heard of in this country in 3½ years of immersion in the A2 'scene'. I think that if you were to sell the seats with the matching doorcards you could expect to get £500 from someone for them, plus replacements in standard black (albeit the seats likely in cloth and not Sport-spec). This would pretty much pay for all the bits mentioned above to smarten up the rest of the car. With those done and with a standard black interior, I see this as a £1400 car. (Or, as @Vorsprung durch Technik said, if you keep the yellow interior and get it smartened up, it's a £2000 car).

How can you tell that the floormats are not originals?
These were definitely an option from the factory, though pictures are hard to come by (only picture I could find in a quick search is this).
My opinion: they could well be factory - worth a look underneath.
(This assumes that what we're seeing are two mats on top of each other, the cloth one with yellow edges and a smaller, rubber one on top)

Seems interesting to me that the doorcards are yellow while gearstick and steeringwheel are not, though for once I have no idea whether going with half-black, half-colour for the leather parts was an option.

Seats look in decent condition - even on the german market these are very rare (I've seen less than 5 sets in cars in the last 2 years, usually in much worse condition). Might sell for as much as a whole UK A2 here (Germany) ? if one had the right buyer I'm guessing.
 
(This assumes that what we're seeing are two mats on top of each other, the cloth one with yellow edges and a smaller, rubber one on top)
Indeed, I hadn't thought of that. Maybe someone glued the rubber panel on the top of a factory yellow-edged mat. It looks like the carpet section underneath the hole is on its way out too, not that it would make that much difference to the overall price.

Seems interesting to me that the doorcards are yellow while gearstick and steeringwheel are not, though for once I have no idea whether going with half-black, half-colour for the leather parts was an option.

I understand that the steering wheel, gear lever and handbrake grip in the same colour was a further option if you got the coloured seats & doorcards.
 
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