our next door neighbour who we were pretty close to just died a few weeks ago. his widow, a lovely old lady who i would say isnt too worldly wise, has just had webuyanycar round her house. seemed a nice enough bloke, but i did hear rumours they offer next to nowt for cars really.

i heard him say hed be round to pick it up later. am i right to worry shes maybe being fleeced, and i could sell the car for a better price on autotrader for her?

or should i just butt out and leave her to it? none of my business after all, but i just hate the thought she may get way under what its worth.

cheers

They do offer silly money for what they are worth but they do provide an easy get rid of quick service. You could kindly mention that they’d get more on a private sale.

Go and chime in, what harm can it do? Just be prepared with some real-world prices so she’s not left in a no-better situation. Yes they do offer sod all, that’s how they make their cash.

A friend needed to get rid quick, webuyanycar.com offered him silly money, I took it at the price he was offered + a drink.

what car is it, how much was she offered. To stall the we buy any car bloke ‘lose’ the log book for a bit. Check on here or amongst friends if anyone wants it at that price and a bit, stop her getting stitched.

You could offer to put it out on autotrader for her, all on line

ebay is great for selling cars. Top prices paid these days.

She might be happy to just get rid of it, but I’m sure she’d be happier if you helped her out and got some decent money for it.

I found ebay, full of chancers, autotrader was much better

Pop the reg of the car into webuyanycar website, to get their valuation.

Then have a quick look on autotrader. You’ll more than likely find a £500-£1k price gap.

Then mention in passing something like “I was wondering what you were doing with your husbands car, my friend mentioned he was looking for one like this the other day, and had x amount to spend” (where x is the autotrader value). See what she says in reaction, if she asks for your help, bingo Mr good samaritan!

Some people don’t want to be helped though, so you can’t force it upon them…

They’re just the car version of those ‘cash4gold’ etc type companies.

I got double what they offered for my last car in part ex (and could probably have got more if I’d sold it privately). You won’t get a good price from them, but I guess they trade on making everything a hassle free way of getting rid, if that’s all you’re interested in.

They just work onpaying a fixed percentage of the cap value for the car at varyng condition levels depending what you declare on the form. It’s pretty common to get less than the initial valuation as many folk are nice when describing the condition of their car.

ok thanks chaps. just popped round and as expected she just didnt know where to go. her son went to main dealer who didnt seem interested so they just decided theyd heard of webuyanycar and rang them.

shes grateful im trying to help and has asked me to find a valuation.

its an 08 skoda fabia 3 105 auto, orangey/bronzey colour, 1598cc with around 9000 miles on the clock. 16v as well. 5 door hatch., petrol.

if someone can give me an estimate, shell pass that on to her son who is officially selling it. webuyanycar say thell pick it up tonight but havent given her a price yet 🙂

thanks a lot

based where?

Where do webuyanycar sell the cars they buy?

WBAC are not the most generous of companies but they do quick, no-hassle sales. You could maybe get more for it on AT, but would have to deal with timewasters and scammers for potentially weeks. Skip going on those weekend rides because someone will “definitely” be round to see it at 9am but not even have the courtesy to tell you they’re not coming.

Offer if you want, but she may just want a quick sale and have it out of the way.

Edit: glass’s trade values for that car:

Part-exchange Price:
Excellent condition:
£6780
Average condition:
£6320
Below average condition:
£5550

Hard to compare with AT as all but one advert (which is for a CatD damaged/repaired one) are trade sellers, and they’ll always charge more. That colour sounds horrible too.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/used/cars/skoda/fabia/postcode/gu25xh/radius/1501/keywords/16v/transmission/automatic/maximum-age/up_to_3_years_old/engine-size-cars/1-4l_to_1-6l/body-type/hatchback/sort/priceasc/page/1

I’d be inclined to look towards the higher end of 08 cars, the mileage is very low

To give her peace of mind, think of a reasonable figure and tell her that you guarantee you can get £x for it. If Mr WBAC comes close, then she’s got a simple deal. If not, she can tell him to sling his hook.

And then your work starts.

Where do webuyanycar sell the cars they buy?

http://www.wesellanycar.com?

Seriously though – I got a valuation from them on our current car and it was pretty good I thought.

Seriously though – I got a valuation from them on our current car and it was pretty good I thought.

from your description or from their evaluation?

we’re based in lincoln. just had a look on a valuation site and that lists it as £7,500 dealer, £7235 private, £6450 part ex, £6200 trade.

it is in excellent condition id say, and he only used it to bimble to the golf club.

thanks a lot for your advice.

A lot of people get a good valuation from them. Trouble is, they have a reputation for sucking their teeth and offering a fraction of that when they come round to do the deal.

You should suggest £6000 as the lowest price she should let it go for.

An OFT investigation found that nearly 96 per cent of customers who sold their car to webuyanycar.com received less for their vehicle than the original website valuation, sometimes by hundreds of pounds.

I would say if they offer £5500 I would let it be, if it was your own car that would be different.

I got rid of a right heap of junk a few years ago, MOT write-off basically. they gave me £150 for it which was about £149 more than it was worth.

Tried again recently with a Mondeo and they offered me £50 so something has obviously changed over the last few years. As it was I wrote that car off in an accident a few months later anyway and the insurance co gave me £800 so that gives you some idea of what WBAC are like.

Oh and their adverts are really annoying so I wouldn’t use them again.

Where do webuyanycar sell the cars they buy?

They’re a part of Carcraft, the car supermarkets mainly angled at offering overpriced cars on finance to those with poor credit histories. Anything that fits what they want for stock (mostly mainstream family hatches and MPVs, under 4 years old) they’ll keep, rest will get disposed of via auction.

I had a suspicion that they pissed money away in the first few months /years, to establish a reputation as giving a fair price. Once established, there was no need to do it anymore.

yeah, a rough average of my searches seem to suggest £6500 so ill tell her that and then its up to her what shes prepared to let it go for.

thanks a lot

from your description or from their evaluation?

Just from my description to be fair. A local garage buys cars too (and we are currently doing his new website) so I will probably sell it to him if he is interested (haven’t the time to sell it personally and they don’t seem to sell very well).

So long it’s not a Mazda 3 with dodgy electrics, you should be fine

What about putting it through auction yourselves ???

So long it’s not a Mazda 3 with dodgy electrics, you should be fine

8)
And suspension and brakes.

WBAC = load of shysters. Start off low and then knock you back serially for every minute imperfection.

Offered £9k for my mint Golf GT170, got arsey when I told them that was a silly price; sold it to first viewer for £12k. Enjoyed telling them 🙂

Only use them if you’re desperate for cash and have a lemon of a car.

That Fabia will fly away for a really good price!

WBAC is an interesting business model. They spotted a gap in the market that offers convenience. They take the car off you very quickly and you don’t have the hassle of selling it privately but you pay for the service. Unfortunately it is the elderly and vulnerable, who are the ones that are most likely to use the service.

Looking at the guide prices (CAP and Glasses) the car is worth £6500-£6800 for a private sale. However your neighbour has room to negotiate and could probably still get £6000 as a minimum privately.

I also find it strange that they charge the seller an administration fee for buying their car! WTF? A bit like me buying something off ebay and charging the seller a fee! I can hear WBAC’s tills ringing.

FWIW – WBAC will offer something like £4700 for the car. If she is happy to accept this, you might as well buy it off her and then sell it to your local Skoda dealer for £5500-£6000.

That Fabia will fly away for a really good price!

it wont, looks like deals done 🙁

just been round and told her, and she says her son has already done a deal with WBAC for £5400. said with all the upheaval they just dont want the hassle.

i offered to sort it for her but in the end i can understand her views. “whats money” she said, and after her loss, whats money indeed.

p*sses me off that WBAC have fleeced her out of a grand or so but im not going to push it.

thanks a lot for all your help

Webuyanycar.com gave misleading valuations, OFT says

my dad needed to sell his car due to getting a company vehicle, so thought we would try there website for a price…. car is a BMW 1 series 1.6 , 3 years old , 38000 miles we buy any car offered 5500 ! ! ! haha there sharks, later sold to a trader for 7500 and put on there forecourt for 9000 which is fair enough, I would not use them there valuations are a joke

Just below bottom trade-in value isn’t too bad, to be honest.

Not a bad deal for her given the circumstances, I didn’t notice anyone here offering the cash tonight.

Kudos to you for trying to help, either way.

Even if they were the best prices, I’d never sell to WBAC purely because of their annoying bloody adverts. See also, Safestyle Windows.

I didn’t notice anyone here offering the cash tonight.

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/which-car-for-about-6k

p*sses me off that WBAC have fleeced her out of a grand or so but im not going to push it.

They haven’t though – they are a business after all and business are there to make money, not run as a charity. At the end of the day she has the money and had very little hassle. Perhaps if you had got involved sooner things may have been different but as she said herself ‘what’s money’. Can’t agree more.

car is a BMW 1 series

As they knew you had no taste in cars, perhaps they assumed you would have no idea of value either!?

😉

We Buy Any Car offered me £150 for my Micra. Got £2k for it as soon as it was put on Autotrader – definitely worth a go!