MSE News: They buy any car (for less) dot com

rickbonar

Kilty wrote: »

[facepalm]

For all of you moaning about the value they give you remember they are trying to buy stock they can retail - your 20 year old banger that barely starts will be worth nothing to them because it needs to go to auction and they'll get nothing for it, same goes for stuff with massive engines, epic mileages, etc.

They're only interested in clean cars under a certain age that they can stick on a forecourt and sell to someone on stupid% APR finance. In these cases people can be offered better than trade value for their car.

Clearly "we buy any car. com" is doing very well. The ads are on virtually every tv ad slots. These tele ads cost thousands each time.

I don't agree that they are buying purely to retail and old bangers are worth nothing to them it's not true... there is a massive market in second hand parts from breaking cars.
So called old bangers have breakers part and salvage parts such as lights, wipers, windows, seats, electronic ignitions, indicator stems etc etc. Break the car down to useable component parts and it worth 20 or 30 times more than they pay.

Try buying some of these new and they want hundreds, second hand £20 or £30 when WBAC pays £50 and no more than £500 if you want in with a Bentley.

As I said earlier the scrap man (due to current high scrap prices) will happily pay £150 to £200 for any car not the miserly £50 that WBAC always offer.

WBAC obviously have outlets for all categories of cars and are making millions out the naive dopes that sell to them.

angelizz

rickbonar wrote: »

Clearly "we buy any car. com" is doing very well. The ads are on virtually every tv ad slots. These tele ads cost thousands each time.

I don't agree that they are buying purely to retail and old bangers are worth nothing to them it's not true... there is a massive market in second hand parts from breaking cars.
So called old bangers have breakers part and salvage parts such as lights, wipers, windows, seats, electronic ignitions, indicator stems etc etc. Break the car down to useable component parts and it worth 20 or 30 times more than they pay.

Try buying some of these new and they want hundreds, second hand £20 or £30 when WBAC pays £50 and no more than £500 if you want in with a Bentley.

As I said earlier the scrap man (due to current high scrap prices) will happily pay £150 to £200 for any car not the miserly £50 that WBAC always offer.

WBAC obviously have outlets for all categories of cars and are making millions out the naive dopes that sell to them.

Just because they are spending a large amount of money on advertising does not mean that they are doing 'very well'. If they are backed by a VC or, as it seems from reading other posts, Carcraft, then they may well be taking a punt on future revenues by hammering the advertising.

Hearing that 96% of people got less than the online valuation surprised me (the huge number, not that they were offering people less) - the publicity that the OFT decision has caused should rightly make people think twice before using them.

zierisaver

After turning the tv/radio over every time their annoying and cheap-looking adverts come on, this stat doesn't surprise me at all. They've even ruined my enjoyment of watching Top Gear re-runs on Dave.

Flyboy152

angelizz wrote: »

Just because they are spending a large amount of money on advertising does not mean that they are doing 'very well'. If they are backed by a VC or, as it seems from reading other posts, Carcraft, then they may well be taking a punt on future revenues by hammering the advertising.

Hearing that 96% of people got less than the online valuation surprised me (the huge number, not that they were offering people less) - the publicity that the OFT decision has caused should rightly make people think twice before using them.

We Buy Any Car are owned by UK Car Group, not an organisation one truly desires to do business with.

Flyboy152

zierisaver wrote: »

After turning the tv/radio over every time their annoying and cheap-looking adverts come on, this stat doesn't surprise me at all. They've even ruined my enjoyment of watching Top Gear re-runs on Dave.

I think there are more fundamental reason why enjoyment is ruined, when watching Top Gear.

kevinyork

Ok. It looks like I am in the 2 percent category. We sold our 15 month old pick up through them for £1100 more than the part exchange offered by the dealer we were buying our new pick up through.

They paid the online valuation and the guy was very friendly. We also tried it in auto trader for a week for £200 more than WBAC's valuation and didn't get a single call so ultimately we were very pleased.

Surely one major issue here is how accurately people describe the condition of their vehicle and mention any defects. If they have done so truthfully and WBAC still try and knock them down then why not just walk away and be rightfully miffed but I wonder how many of their critics are just disgruntled that they didnt get away with blagging it and hoping the inspector didn't pick up on it.

Flyboy152

kevinyork wrote: »

Ok. It looks like I am in the 2 percent category. We sold our 15 month old pick up through them for £1100 more than the part exchange offered by the dealer we were buying our new pick up through.

They paid the online valuation and the guy was very friendly. We also tried it in auto trader for a week for £200 more than WBAC's valuation and didn't get a single call so ultimately we were very pleased.

Surely one major issue here is how accurately people describe the condition of their vehicle and mention any defects. If they have done so truthfully and WBAC still try and knock them down then why not just walk away and be rightfully miffed but I wonder how many of their critics are just disgruntled that they didnt get away with blagging it and hoping the inspector didn't pick up on it.

I would agree, if this was fifty or even sixty per cent, but for it to be ninety-five out of every hundred, there has to be some truth in the presumption.

This is not just a case of, "walk away if you don't like the deal," this is about them then telling the car owner that they won't get a better price elsewhere. Believe it or not, the majority of the driving public know little about cars and even less about their value. If We Buy Any Car are lying to car sellers, that is immoral and illegal.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

Kilty wrote: »

Yes, an 11 year old Golf - prime retail car for them *rolleyes*

rolleyes at whatever you want, maybe not a forcourt car but worth more than £800.00 ive seen these car with more mileage younger go for £500-600 more at auction and more desirable than the 1.8 gti because it has no turbo and not been messed with.

regardless of its age its worth more like more on topic of undervauluating vehicles.

they would most probably sell it at £2500 and finance it making another £2000 ontop. so yes they take the pi$$ in valuating then reduce again when taking delivery after inspection.

The_Deep

Out of curiousity I offered the my 5 door 2009 Mazda6 TS auto on a 59 plate with 6,000 on the clock, they offered £8,460.

Parkers suggest £11,500 private sale and £10,500 trade in.

dleith

I just sold my car to these guys in Scotland. I was actually quite satisfied. I think this comes to down to expectations.

My car was 'valued' by the likes of Parkers for between £7k and £8k. Identical models are listed on ebay for similar prices (and not selling).

I'm moving to a leased car, so needed to sell the car.

I was offered £6500 on the website. I got £6,200 because I'd put the wrong registration date on the website - it was actually registered 08 rather than 58. So that's fair enough.

The guy I dealt with was pleasant and efficient. Considering that the money was in my bank account a few days later, then everybody wins.

And lets face it, they must be taking some risk. The furthest he drove the car was a few feet along the car park. If he'd gone further he'd have noticed the front ball joint need replacing (it was £600 to replace the other one last year) and the power steering is creaking on a tight turn (another £500 quote from my local garage). The car is also soon due a major service and complete set of brake renewal all round.

So to me it seems a fair process - if you want your car sold quickly for cash without any further obligation, then this seems a good service. If you want to hold out for unrealistic returns in a flat market, then do that but don't complain if it doesn't sell.