The WBAC process

B0bbyEwing

Come to decide that we no longer need 2 cars. It's handy, especially when one is in the garage meaning the other can make getting to work still simple, but that's about the only example I can think of where we could do with a second car now.

And after getting the insurance through & the hike over last years premium, combined with the road tax - I'm looking around £600 total for the pair and that's before we start to discuss maintenance. 

Just wondering about the WBAC process since I have limited patience for chancers & time wasters. 
They quote me £600. I see these cars selling for maybe up to a couple grand online although bodywork-wise mine isn't the most appealing so I don't expect the top end, I'm just mentioning it to show a bit of a range that this car sells for.

What I'm wondering is, is this figure close to what they give? Or do they come out, get one of those special lights to scan your paintwork & take off £50 for any minor scratch they see until they say they'll take it away for free kind of thing?



Edit to add...
Sorry, I just realised I've turned in to one of those abbreviation posters. 
We Buy Any Car. I'm sure most got it but in case anyone didn't.

Grumpy_chap

I have never used any of the car buying services, though know others who have (with mixed outcomes).

With regard to condition, it is important to be complete in your description when obtaining the offers.
Rather than just accepting the WBAC offer, seek prices from a couple of other online services also - for example try Motorway, Arnold Clark, etc.

Once you have the best offer from the online services, it is probably worth driving around a couple of garages that have the sign up "we buy cars for cash".  At least they give an offer having seen the car, so the doubt about being bargained down is gone.  These local dealers can also sometimes offer more (as they are cutting out the auction and other middle players).  I have twice sold a car to trade and not purchased a replacement and both times did so to local garage that will put the car straight to the forecourt and I found it very simple on both occassions.

B0bbyEwing

Thanks for the reply. 

I've tried twice in the past to basically sell a car I had to a garage but not buy anything in return and on both occasions I was knocked back & told I'd need to trade it in against something so I just thought that's what garages always did. 

Different car may be more luck so I'll give it a go. Worst I'll get is a no I suppose. 

WellKnownSid

I've sold through WBAC a few times - plus also tried selling a £500 car on Auto Trader.

WBAC.  They make multiple assumptions about your car (six months MoT) and its state (perfect) - so you will arrive and need to expect some chipping.  If you've ever seen the boy with the surprised expression from 'Cloudy with a chance of meatballs' - you'll have to put up with a lot of that.  But they will agree a price and it will be in your account quickly, no fuss.

Auto Trader.  We sold earlier this year, the car was a boggo standard Fiesta, working fine, short MoT, SORN, but we wanted shot so it was the cheapest Fiesta on Auto Trader - the nearest competitors were all Cat S etc.  These are just a small selection of the queries we had:

"Does the air conditioning blow cold?  I must have working air conditioning!" (to be fair, it worked as good as it did leaving the factory because the car didn't even have air conditioning!)

"Hi, I'm based in [town 400 miles away].  Will you guarantee that the car will get me back home safely"

"Sir!  When can I come and book a test drive!"

"My last car let me down, can you assure me that this will be a reliable car?"

In the end, we killed the ad, tidied up the car with a good clean inside, outside and engine bay - fixed a couple of small things (cracked number plate, cleaned up a seat), and took some better pictures.  It went back on Auto Trader £300 more expensive and sold it within two hours.

Thing is under £1000 is a difficult market as it's just full of chancers with no money.  Whilst a couple of grand sounds like it's clearly top whack, my suggestion is that if you tidy the car up, get decent pictures you maybe could aim for something a lot higher than £1,000.  Selling at the higher price is actually easier than selling at a low price in that range because it's a different audience.

Grumpy_chap

B0bbyEwing said:

Thanks for the reply. 

I've tried twice in the past to basically sell a car I had to a garage but not buy anything in return and on both occasions I was knocked back & told I'd need to trade it in against something so I just thought that's what garages always did. 

Different car may be more luck so I'll give it a go. Worst I'll get is a no I suppose. 

This does depend on finding the correct trader 
A main dealer will not be interested in an end of life car.  You need to find dealers that will put your car straight onto their forecourt.

B0bbyEwing

WellKnownSid said:

"Does the air conditioning blow cold?  I must have working air conditioning!" (to be fair, it worked as good as it did leaving the factory because the car didn't even have air conditioning!)

"Hi, I'm based in [town 400 miles away].  Will you guarantee that the car will get me back home safely"

"Sir!  When can I come and book a test drive!"

"My last car let me down, can you assure me that this will be a reliable car?"

This is why I'm reluctant to sell privately. I will admit I have very very very little patience for idiots & what you're putting there that I've quoted - they're idiots to me. Maybe not to people a lot nicer than me but to me they're idiots. 

I've had one on Marketplace this week. I'm selling something - person gets in touch with give me your postcode. 
No I wont but I'll tell you what I'd like to give you!!! 

After an opening like that I don't even entertain it these days. If you can't come across as a half decent person then it doesn't matter if you offer me twice what I'm asking for, I'm not selling to you. I just have zero patience for it (stupidity). 

But if they get in touch & at least ACT normal - hi I'm interested in this, when are you available for me to come and take a look? I've no problem with that at all.


As for getting a few repairs done, to be fair what it needs costs more than I'm willing to throw at it. It could do with certainly the boot totally resprayed and maybe the bonnet too. Then there's the steering rack which I've been quoted in the 250-500 region by differing local garages. I drive it fine enough without but doesn't mean everyone will. 

Grumpy_chap said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Thanks for the reply. 

I've tried twice in the past to basically sell a car I had to a garage but not buy anything in return and on both occasions I was knocked back & told I'd need to trade it in against something so I just thought that's what garages always did. 

Different car may be more luck so I'll give it a go. Worst I'll get is a no I suppose. 

This does depend on finding the correct trader 
A main dealer will not be interested in an end of life car.  You need to find dealers that will put your car straight onto their forecourt.

I never actually contacted a main dealer tbh.

Though it still falls in to 'finding the correct trader' so you're right with that.

Mutton_Geoff

I sold a £10k car to WBAC earlier this year. Listed it on Autotrader at £9,950. Not one call even though it was pitched right compared to others. Contacted WBAC, they quoted very near asking. Took the car to them (I don't believe they come to you). Got knocked back £100 for two tiny paint chips but in the absence of any Autotrader calls, took the money. The deal was painless and money in account almost immediately. Walked home from WBAC premises (hut in local supermarket car park) as we hadn't gone in two cars as really expected a silly offer.

The 3 year old car sold to WBAC for £500 less than it cost us new. A week later saw it on Autotrader for £1k more than we were given with a big player (Arnold Clark?) and it was gone in a week.

I've always sold my own cars on specialist car forums or Autotrader but the hassle free instant cash, no come back from WBAC was a good experience.

B0bbyEwing

Mutton_Geoff said:

I sold a £10k car to WBAC earlier this year. Listed it on Autotrader at £9,950. Not one call even though it was pitched right compared to others. Contacted WBAC, they quoted very near asking. Took the car to them (I don't believe they come to you). Got knocked back £100 for two tiny paint chips but in the absence of any Autotrader calls, took the money. The deal was painless and money in account almost immediately. Walked home from WBAC premises (hut in local supermarket car park) as we hadn't gone in two cars as really expected a silly offer.

The 3 year old car sold to WBAC for £500 less than it cost us new. A week later saw it on Autotrader for £1k more than we were given with a big player (Arnold Clark?) and it was gone in a week.

I've always sold my own cars on specialist car forums or Autotrader but the hassle free instant cash, no come back from WBAC was a good experience.

Rightly or wrongly I'd expect you'd have a much better experience (in terms of pricing) at that price point.

I'm down at the bargain basement end. If they took £100 off for 2 TINY paint chips then they'd want me to pay THEM for the lacquer peel in areas of my car.

Sorry if someone has already said it but when they come to their final offer kind of thing (so less than the website says you'll get), can you say no & walk away without any kind of charge?

jimjames

For the sort of amount you're looking at maybe try a local Facebook car group and post it there. You might get some wasters but you find that a lot of them are people buying cheap to do up themselves and resell which sounds like your car could be suitable for.

There are some cars that WBAC are suitable for and some they are just not interested in so quote very lowball offers. My car is worth £16k but WBAC offered £7k, Similar with an old car I had, they offered £300, I sold privately for £1800

B0bbyEwing

jimjames said:

For the sort of amount you're looking at maybe try a local Facebook car group and post it there. You might get some wasters but you find that a lot of them are people buying cheap to do up themselves and resell which sounds like your car could be suitable for.

There are some cars that WBAC are suitable for and some they are just not interested in so quote very lowball offers. My car is worth £16k but WBAC offered £7k, Similar with an old car I had, they offered £300, I sold privately for £1800

Thanks for the input.

Yeah I'll be trying member groups I think. Even just to get an idea of what I should realistically be looking at because with the 'not-perfect' things going on with it, I don't know how much I should drop the price tbh.

Mutton_Geoff

Does your car have a year's MOT? At that price point, that's most of the value in a car. Anything that starts, runs and has a 12 month MOT must be worth £1k?