BLOG: What's that vehicle worth?
This should be a relatively simple, easy to answer question and yet there are a host of industry guides aimed at providing consistent vehicle values. Ask anybody involved in buying and selling used vehicles and you’ll find that there are immediate qualifications on the accuracy of the values that are provided. Even better, ask two people the same question and a debate will unravel. 
In the case of trade source purchases, like everyone else we start with the same industry guides, Glass’s Guide and CAP Black Book and then we begin the adjustments; all of which essentially are aimed at assessing how quickly (or not) the vehicle can be sold. The more likely it is a vehicle can be sold quickly on a forecourt, the greater appeal it has and the higher the value in comparison with the standard industry book price.
Here’s a few examples of adjustments:
- A popular colour may add value, whereas a niche colour may mean the vehicle is of lower value as it limits saleability. How about a baby blue VW Beetle anyone?
- Factory fitted options are especially important on prestigious marques but less so on base models, the automatic option on a small car can turn buyers off.
- Electric cars might be the future, however are more difficult to shift.
- Higher than average mileages are for bargain hunters.
Finally there are those oddball vehicles that aren’t listed in any guides - ‘there’s only 4 of those in the country’. I drive one of those, it’s not even listed in my CAP Black Book… so what’s my car worth? I do actually know the answer to that – less than I think!
Here at NextGear Capital UK Ltd, we’ve got an easy solution to calculating vehicle values; you can stock the vehicle for 100% of the price you paid for it at our partner auctions. When it comes to adding trade source purchases, we do still have to value the vehicles which means you can trust that you’re not paying over the odds.
There are many tools to help identify a vehicle’s value but ultimately what a vehicle is worth is what our customers are willing to pay for it!
Thanks for reading!
Helen Gorrell,
Risk Manager
