To tell you if you want to sell your car....

[ByHook0rByCrook]

Do it sooner rather than later.

I work in the automotive retail industry, but not sales. Since Covid and lockdowns, and the loss of HGV drivers due to Brexit, the manufacturing supply chain for cars has been hit hard. This means new cars are taking months rather than weeks to get into the country or be delivered to dealerships, which has put more pressure on the used car market.

As a result, the price of used cars has skyrocketed. I recently sold my car for a bit less than 1k for what it was bought for – but that was 2.5 years ago and 20k miles less.

My used car barely changed in value.

That is INSANE when you know that the profit margin for used car sales is razor thin - £500 max profit for each used car sold. This is because they need to be cleaned, detailed, and checked before they even get on the shop floor, then of course the salesperson gets commission.

If you have a used car to get rid of, sell it sooner rather than later.

If you are in the market to buy, WAIT. The bubble will burst soon, as supply chains get re-established. By the end of the summer, used car prices will go down, I reckon. (I have no financial incentive to share this, just wanted to help anyone during this time of crazy car prices)

Yes, it only works if you don't need to replace the car with another!

Ha. My ropey old Peugeot is valued at 1300, if that's inflated prices it's not worth moving on because nothing will be that cheap elsewhere.

I think I'll fix it and stick.

@ByHook0rByCrook

Do it sooner rather than later.

I work in the automotive retail industry, but not sales. Since Covid and lockdowns, and the loss of HGV drivers due to Brexit, the manufacturing supply chain for cars has been hit hard. This means new cars are taking months rather than weeks to get into the country or be delivered to dealerships, which has put more pressure on the used car market.

As a result, the price of used cars has skyrocketed. I recently sold my car for a bit less than 1k for what it was bought for – but that was 2.5 years ago and 20k miles less.

My used car barely changed in value.

That is INSANE when you know that the profit margin for used car sales is razor thin - £500 max profit for each used car sold. This is because they need to be cleaned, detailed, and checked before they even get on the shop floor, then of course the salesperson gets commission.

If you have a used car to get rid of, sell it sooner rather than later.

If you are in the market to buy, WAIT. The bubble will burst soon, as supply chains get re-established. By the end of the summer, used car prices will go down, I reckon. (I have no financial incentive to share this, just wanted to help anyone during this time of crazy car prices)

Do you also know anyone that works in the crystal ball retail sector?

I have a 13 year old Citroen C3 which I put down as being worth £750 for the insurance last year based on EBay sold listings and a we buy any car valuation. The idiot neighbour pranged it and we were quoted £1500 for repairs so the insurance company wrote it off. But when we came to be offered it’s market value, they offered £2,200 which I haggled up to £2750, so I took the money (less scrap value) had it repaired and pocketed the difference! Crazy prices at the moment.

But if I sell my car, I'll have to buy another one and I've heard that they're really pricey at the moment. 😕

👌 This! It’s the same as the housing market…. It’s all relative, unless you’re just getting rid of spare cars/houses and not buying anything else……😐

Do you also know anyone that works in the crystal ball retail sector?

Nah, but I do know someone who sells bridges...

But then I would have no car, and wouldn’t be able to get one

@GreenClock

Does anyone know the best way of selling a car that is uninsured and SORNd? It’s in good nick and currently sitting on a driveway. I can’t drive it anywhere because of the absence of insurance/tax.

There are some sites where whoever buys it will come and collect it- motorway and there is another I can't remember the name of but worth a Google

@MyBottleOfRibena

But then I would have no car, and wouldn’t be able to get one

Yes, it only really works if you are downsizing from a two car family to one, or similar.

While I admire your optimism about supply chains in general, I'm sceptical about the availability of the embedded silicon which is likely to be tight for several years and the lead time for new fabs and the investment required is eye watering. As a modern car can contain c3000 'chips' and supplies are down c5%? to automotive, this seems to be a contributor to the reduction in new car deliveries of 4 million?

Woo, mine's increased by 25%- now up to £625.

Ive heard the same from DH. I have a 6 year old diesel Land Rover. I keep receiving emails telling me it’s worth the same as I paid for it four years ago. Crazy. Seriously thinking about selling it and sharing DH’s until prices go down, so I can buy something else (Land Rovers are fab cars, comfortable and so practical but cost a bloody fortune to maintain, I’d like a petrol hybrid, and something a little lower maintenance). Interesting thread

We just sold our Focus for about £4000 to we buy any car. It had just scraped through its MOT by the skin of it's teeth so we were really surprised. We were expecting it to have to go for scrap.

The chip shortage looks to continue for the next 2 years (atleast) so I wouldn't expect everything to change that quickly

@GreenClock

Does anyone know the best way of selling a car that is uninsured and SORNd? It’s in good nick and currently sitting on a driveway. I can’t drive it anywhere because of the absence of insurance/tax.

Sounds like it might be worth using WBAC for once?

Or if you don't live on a main road, you'll probably find most buyers are happy to risk driving it round a few side streets to check it's not completely knackered and then they'll insure and tax it if they do buy it.

Or if it's an MOT failure that you want rid of, just say in the advert that it's an MOT failure and will need to be collected on a tow truck. The people who deal in these sort of cars do this routinely, although you'll have to fight off a couple of dozen other prospective buyers who see nothing except 'cheap car' in the advert and think they can drive it away.

Sold my Nissan Juke for £1800 to WBAC last month.

How did PP get such a high offer on an old car?

Just checked my Skoda. It's valued at 84 pounds more than I paid for it in sept 2019.

Looking to sell my VW Toureg. Any ideas where I will get the best price?

@GreenClock you might be able to sell it to a dealer. They can drive it on trade plates.

Entirely possible my predictions are completely wrong! I was only considering the impacts of covid and brexit on the supply chain but obviously it is much more complex than that.

[quote Almostwelsh]@GreenClock you might be able to sell it to a dealer. They can drive it on trade plates.[/quote]
Unfortunately that would still be illegal. Any car without a valid MOT is illegal to drive on public roads unless travelling to an MOT appointment.

@GreenClock

Does anyone know the best way of selling a car that is uninsured and SORNd? It’s in good nick and currently sitting on a driveway. I can’t drive it anywhere because of the absence of insurance/tax.

To a dealer. I can drive uninsured and untaxed cars through my insurance and trade plates, or get it collected. Out of interest what is it?

@Zilla1

While I admire your optimism about supply chains in general, I'm sceptical about the availability of the embedded silicon which is likely to be tight for several years and the lead time for new fabs and the investment required is eye watering. As a modern car can contain c3000 'chips' and supplies are down c5%? to automotive, this seems to be a contributor to the reduction in new car deliveries of 4 million?

This is exactly it.

OP, it's not because of a simple lack of HGV drivers. The issue with new car supply is chip manufacturing and it's not going to be fully resolved anytime soon. It definitely won't go on forever but there's no big uptick in output volumes in sight just now - it's more likely that a recession will solve the mismatch in supply and demand.

Most of the big semiconductor manufacturers were already flat out before the pandemic and when they shutdown for months car sales didn't stop. But as well as that, electrical goods and tech' sales were/are sky high and they supply chips for those, too.

(I work in supply chain consulting for some large automotive OEMs, among others, and they're all struggling with electronic components.)

DVLA guidance specifically says that is illegal, @Essentialgarage

It's so wild. We bought a new car cheap after the first lockdown when places where desperate for sales and so got a great deal. We sold it back to them after doing 30k miles in it for essentially the same price and walked out with another new one. Madness.