Using Car Price Guides
Here are the most well known car price guides... they are useful but do you really know how to use them PROPERLY to get the best deal?
It's all very well knowing how much you should get for your car, and how much you might have to pay for another, but these figures are just "starting figures"! You need to know how to negotiate hard and not get taken in by car salespeople's tactics and stories.
Read our FREE Car Buying Guide and use it in conjunction with your favourite car price guide... it will change the way you deal with car salespeople forever... just follow the menu at the left...
The Car Price Guides are not as straightforward as you might think...
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see our help on How to Value Your Car
Car Price Guides
Glass's Car Price Guide is the one that 9 out of 10 car dealers use when you take your car as a part exchange - you will see them looking up your car in their copy of Glass's Guide. It is the way they value your car. For many years, it was kept as a "trade secret" and the public - you and I - were not allowed to see it!
Now, through the Glass's Guide website, you CAN get to see how they value your car. This isn't just a used car price guide - it is what your car is actually valued at - no, really - it's the actual, proper, official value of your car!
You can get a valuation just by entering your car registration number or you can enter the make, model etc.
Glass's Guide do charge for this, the price is currently £3.95 per car, but as you only need to get a valuation for ONE car (your own part exchange!) it could be the most worthwhile £3.95 you could ever spend. You get to know three prices for your car - the trade-in, retail and private sale price. The one that is most important is the trade-in price. This price is what you will get. You will never get more than this - it is the MAXIMUM that you will get. If you don't understand that (or believe it!) then see our page about How to Value Your Car.
The basic service offered by Parkers online car value calculator is free. You can get a good valuation of any car up to 10 years old and again: Trade and Retails prices are shown. These guide prices are based on the standard average mileage for the year of car but you can get a more accurate price based on the actual mileage of your car (and other options) by using their "Premium" service. This currently costs £3.49 but allows you to look up as many cars in their online used car price guide as you want within a 24 hour period. You can also pay £5.99 for a week's access or £9.99 for a month. This Premium service also gives you valuations on cars over 10 years old.
WhatCar? - free used car price guide
WhatCar? also offer a free online used car price guide service. This is only for cars up to 8 years old but does take mileage into account. Valuation prices also include Trade and Retails prices. However, their "Trade price" is actually what you might get if you just sold your car to a dealer, for cash, and didn't buy another one from them. Few dealers would want to do this and, if they did, the price you get would be considerably less that the price you would get if you part exchanged your car.
For the price you would get in a deal, you need to look at WhatCar's "part exchange" price as this is listed separately to the Trade price. All this is included in each valuation and it is free.
Other Car Buying Guides
Parkers Car Buying Guide
Used car prices and reviews.
The AA Car Buyers Guide
Reports on over 14000 new and used cars.
Glass's Guide
THE car price guide that dealers use.
AutoExpress
Car reviews and buyers guides.
Buying
a Used Car
AutoTrader guide to buying a used car
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