WBAC Values

[AWPC]

Has anyone sold a car to WEBAC, CarWoW or Motorway? What was the online offer Vs actual amount paid out at the end of the process?

Yep to Car WOW in Feb. Got more or less what I asked for within £45 they knocked me down LOL! Great transaction paid me on the spot almost £58K!!! The dealer then sold my car 4 weeks later made a decent profit so good for them also I cba to deal with private buyers for an expensive car too much hassle!

Motorway was rubbish the winning bidder withdrew as did not have the funds LOL (they can do that apparently its not binding!) So as they also have most of their staff offshore in a call centre & I struggled to understand anything they were saying I would say avoid them altogether!

 

[Liquid_Entity]

Put the car in to carwow last week for sale. Spent about 3hrs retaking all my photos I took a week before because they didn't fit their criteria. Then uploaded every document I had relating to servide etc. Pretty much a perfect advert. Went in to auction last Saturday and got an email later on to say someone had offered. Great I thought, left it overnight to decide. Accepted offer Sunday morning. An hour later my mum asked to have the car and I said ahhhh too late it's sold. Sad mum but couldn't find anything abiut withdrawing from sale so said its gone.

Received Messages from buyer saying come to collect this week and I replied saying new car not arriving until this Friday. They were OK with waiting until next Monday.

Today, I get messages from carwow saying buyer pulled out due to questions around service history. Advising missing service stamps for last 3 years yet the way their service history questions works I said part service history so don't know why they questioned it. Anyway they said this and then 30 mins ago the buyer is messaging me saying they're still coming on Monday to collect car.

Now I'm like what is going on. So told them carwow said buyer pulled out. They had no idea. Told them it's an issue between carwow and them now.

In meantime I've decided to handover the car to my mother as it was originally hers. Buyer was really rude and annoyed but as above I went with what carwow said to me and then toldy mum car is hers.

Really bad experience so far with carwow as why would they say 1 thing and the buyer another.

 

[Bint Box]

Really bad experience so far with carwow as why would they say 1 thing and the buyer another.

Sounds like very poor comms between Car WOW and buyers. I have followed this topic and cant remember this type of issue arising before?
Positive thing is your Mum has her car which has to be good.

 

[wingman]

In meantime I've decided to handover the car to my mother as it was originally hers. Buyer was really rude and annoyed but as above I went with what carwow said to me and then toldy mum car is hers.

I mean other than weird comms between CarWow and your buyer, it seems like everything was going through okay and you're the one that's dipped from the sale, as your old dear wants the car.

 

[Dangerous Dave]

Wouldn't be surprised if the buyer made the excuse to Carwow to cancel the sale so they didn't have to pay the fee.

 

[wingman]

Wouldn't be surprised if the buyer made the excuse to Carwow to cancel the sale so they didn't have to pay the fee.

Good shout, that makes sense tbh.

 

[gc123]

Wouldn't be surprised if the buyer made the excuse to Carwow to cancel the sale so they didn't have to pay the fee.

or maybe they thought they could turn up and haggle cause of service paperwork? well you know mate we could take it for less you know lack of service etc.

 

[Pipe & Slippers]

Not quite a necro, but here’s my experience with Carwow
WBAC £13,500, Motorway £15,000, Carwow £15,500, and I go with Carwow (also didn’t like having to download the Motorway app to my phone to upload the photos)

Loaded all the photos on Thursday and set a reserve of £15,000. Sold on Friday @£15k - couldn’t get over the feeling that it’s not a hidden reserve. The Motorway and Carwow websites were suspiciously similar, and on Friday, Motorway raised their valuation to £15,550

Inspector turns up today and goes all over the car, pointing out a few chips I hadn’t noticed and therefore I hadn’t reported. I guess they are paid to point out every defect they can find. He feeds it into his app, and 20 mins later comes back with a revised price of £13,500, I assume approved by the buyer. I say no, it’s £15k or nothing. He then goes over everything, but I’m not interested, it £15k or no deal. If they can’t make it work, that’s fine, I’ll sell it elsewhere. Inspector retreats to his car while he relays the news to they buyer

I get a call from the buyer, repeating the faults with the car, and effectively asking how much I’d accept. I tell him £15k. I then get a call, from apparently, the Regional Manager. I’m honoured. Same conversation, but ended with I’ll speak to the owner (I assume he means the business owner)

So after the inspection had finished, it took another 3 hours for them to agree to £15k. What a palaver. My bank is showing £15k clearing on Monday

Would I use then again…maybe. It was relatively hassle free. I had a very good idea of the value of the car…Autotrader shows them going for around £16,500/£16,750 with a 6 month warranty which I obviously couldn’t have provided as a seller. This meant I could guess there was enough value in the car for them to make an acceptable turn if they bought it for my reserve. Sticking to my price returned me £500 an hour, lol

Edit 21 Jun: The car is for sale at £16,350. Maybe there wasn’t as much value in the car for the dealer as I thought. Still I’d expect they are clearing £750 after costs at least

Edit #2: For those that may scan this thread in the future, they dropped the price to £16k, and a week later dropped it again to £15,750, and it disappeared off Autotrader on Tuesday 22nd July. I’m really surprised they had to keep lowering the price. Someone got a bargain. As Mrs Slippers said, they probably make all their money on-selling warranties and finance

 

[Robbo]

Good on you for standing your ground on the price. I bet they do this all the time to try and get the price down.

I would have done exactly the same.

 

[Pipe & Slippers]

It was a bit bizarre because there’s obviously some deeper relationship between the inspection company and the purchaser…I felt like they were working hand in glove to persuade me that the lower value was reasonable, despite being apparently separate companies

When he came back with £13,500 he said that the purchaser would spend loads correcting all the faults. I pointed out that it was a 5 year old car with 50k on the clock, and they weren’t going to do any remedial repairs (apart from the hideously scuffed alloys that I’d previously disclosed). They’d just polish it and sell it. If it was 2 years old with 20k, maybe

The other thing that surprised me was he showed me on his pad the diagnostics and there were loads of red items. Since it had just had a major service by a garage we’ve been using for decades, it didn’t ring true and felt like a bit of wool-pulling

I didn’t quite laugh in his face, but he identified 2 dents at the inner rear of the rear door sills. To me it looked like the way the metal was pressed on manufacture - the dents were identical and the paint was unmarked and looked like it had just come out of the factory, but he was going on about what an expensive repair it was going to be, cutting out 2 sills

I guess that Carwow are just a broker, putting sellers in touch with buyers, so who you get turning up to inspect and offer is a bit of a lottery

My advice to others is know what your car is worth and stick to it

BTW, I know zero about cars

 

[IC3]

Those of you who have recently sold or tried to sell your car through these platforms, what is the process like? When they come to view the car apart from a visual inspection, do they perform any other checks, such as measuring paint thickness, scanning for fault codes, or checking for oil leaks in the engine bay? Do they take the car for an extensive test drive, or just a quick spin around the block (if at all)? And do they confirm the service history that's on the onboard car computer? This thread is great, but I feel like the posts are a bit too vague, would be good to get a bit more info about their process.

 

[jpaul]

I recently sold privately, but, idly scanning carwow terms&conditions - they can come back on you if later checks show you misrepresented car , so it's not the same as a sold as seen private sale,
.... you think it's all over with the money in your bank account ....

• you agree that the description and all information (including but not limited to the mileage, service history and other items listed in this clause) provided in respect of the car uploaded by you to our website (or provided to us verbally) is complete, true, accurate and not misleading; furthermore you agree to indemnify us against all claims, losses, demands, damages, liabilities, costs and expenses (including reasonable legal expenses) we may incur in respect of the description of (and information provided about) the car;

 

[IC3]

I recently sold privately, but, idly scanning carwow terms&conditions - they can come back on you if later checks show you misrepresented car , so it's not the same as a sold as seen private sale,
.... you think it's all over with the money in your bank account ....

Sounds like auction is easier tbh..

 

[b0rn2sk8]

I recently sold privately, but, idly scanning carwow terms&conditions - they can come back on you if later checks show you misrepresented car , so it's not the same as a sold as seen private sale,
.... you think it's all over with the money in your bank account ....

It’s basically the same as a private sale.

Private sale is not sold as seen. If you misrepresent a car in a private sale there is recourse against you and you will lose. Simple as that.

 

[IC3]

It’s basically the same as a private sale.

Private sale is not sold as seen. If you misrepresent a car in a private sale there is recourse against you and you will lose. Simple as that.

In theory... reality looks different unfortunately.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

In theory... reality looks different unfortunately.

Why does it look different?

The last part of the quote basically says you agree that carwow takes no responsibility for any misrepresentation by you the seller. The clause makes total sense as they are acting as a broker not a seller, you are the seller.

You are a not a dealer or in the trade so it can’t be anything other than a private sale. Selling to a trader doesn’t change the fundamentals of the transaction. It’s still buyer beware but the same points about misrepresentation still apply.

 

[IC3]

Why does it look different?

The last part of the quote basically says you agree that carwow takes no responsibility for any misrepresentation by you the seller. The clause makes total sense as they are acting as a broker not a seller, you are the seller.

You are a not a dealer or in the trade so it can’t be anything other than a private sale. Selling to a trader doesn’t change the fundamentals of the transaction. It’s still buyer beware but the same points about misrepresentation still apply.

I meant the private sale bit, I got stunged shortly after getting my license, also my dad purchased a car from a dealer who sold it privately and we tried to get our money back with no luck. It was extremely difficult and loads of hassle... ended up giving up. There might be few extreme cases where people were successful, but I even know some people who bought cars that were undisclosed Cat S, some even did HPI checks beforehand... When I was buying a M140i, a seller disclaimed that the car has finance on it, the HPI check came back clear! I contacted the HPI company and was like WTF, what would happen in the event I bought the car? They went silent and ignored all of my comms.

That's just the reality... Hence why I don't understand why private sellers are asking similar or higher prices than dealers, you can't offer warranty, there's higher risk etc. This is why, I always leave some headroom for potential repairs, if none are required good result, saved a bit of cash. If there're, it doesn't come as a surprise...

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Those of you who have recently sold or tried to sell your car through these platforms, what is the process like? When they come to view the car apart from a visual inspection, do they perform any other checks, such as measuring paint thickness, scanning for fault codes, or checking for oil leaks in the engine bay? Do they take the car for an extensive test drive, or just a quick spin around the block (if at all)? And do they confirm the service history that's on the onboard car computer? This thread is great, but I feel like the posts are a bit too vague, would be good to get a bit more info about their process.

I'll let you know on Tuesday. Sold my Formentor through motorway the other day.
The buyer was a group buyer for a car group and a verified dealer.
They contacted me after the end of the auction and sent all the paperwork regarding the sale, collection etc, it was all very transparent.
I even had paperwork which told the group buyer what the max buy price for my vehicle is and what they would sell it at on their forecourt.
The vehicle is being collected Tuesday, the driver will do an inspection, I'll let you know what this involves

 

[tom_e]

I've just sold my 2024 Ibiza through car wow, just waiting for them to sort collection. Other than a scratched alloy from a tyre change that was listed it's spotless so we'll see if they try and pull anything come collection time.

 

[AWPC]

Those of you who have recently sold or tried to sell your car through these platforms, what is the process like? When they come to view the car apart from a visual inspection, do they perform any other checks, such as measuring paint thickness, scanning for fault codes, or checking for oil leaks in the engine bay? Do they take the car for an extensive test drive, or just a quick spin around the block (if at all)? And do they confirm the service history that's on the onboard car computer? This thread is great, but I feel like the posts are a bit too vague, would be good to get a bit more info about their process.

For me was flawless with CarWOW but my car was indemand! All I had to do was take some pics send to their app make my own listing it sold fast! No hassle at all. I drove my car to the buyer (independent family run dealership) to save them the hassle of coming into London (or backing out of the deal!). So easy start to finish got the funds within 2 mins of meeting the son of the dealership owner (he handled all that side of things). They took me on face value did not even bother looking over my car much. I pointed out a few stone chips they were not concerned said most cars have those was not an issue to them at all. (but it was only 6 months old from brand new so had a full manufacturers warranty remaining for 2.5 years).

They trusted me the car was what I said it was & I trusted them to pay me on the spot! They then managed to sell it about a month later for £8-9K more than I got but not a problem to me as selling any car over £50K is mega hassle as many people do not have the means to send the funds to you from their bank accounts above a certain value!

If you have a decent high value in demand car I think its a pretty good way to sell it. If you have something less in demand & cheaper they are all the same you will get someone come try to knock you down see how desperate you are to sell!