Finding out the value of a car

Cars are like Houses/Antiques/whatever.

They are ultimately worth whatever somebody is prepared to pay for it, there are no other rules!

If you think it is worth the money, Buy it! If you dont, dont! If there is middle ground haggle!

But if I were you, I wouldn't buy a Car from a neighbour (definitely not from a friend) as a matter of principle. Serious can of worms potential here! :eek:

(Exception! I say to owners of older cars who are facing big repairs, It is worth what it would cost you to replace it!, Not what you could have sold it for. YES it is worth spending £700 doing a head gasket on an old Peugeot as long as the rest of it is in reasonable condition and you are happy to keep it for another 2-3 years)

Amazed it took so long to get to this point, which is ultimately the most sensible post in the thread. There are market value guides but like you say, it's worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

Knowing what people are paying is the best way and this is the data some of the valuations use, but that's based in retail sales figures with adjustments for private sales - so not completely accurate.

Op needs to look at similar cars in the area, bearing in mind a lot will be sold by dealers and inherently more expensive but will have warranties (or just statutory SOGA rights!) and there will always be some discount to be had. He should use this information to decide what he is willing to pay for the neighbours car - if it's not up to their expectations then he knows there are other cars he can buy.

I don't think I'd want to buy a car from a neighbour though, I'd definitely not want to SELL one to a neighbour!
 
You will pay around £4800 from a dealer for this car so I would not expect to pay more than £4000 IF the car was in good condition i.e. clean alloys, no major bodywork (expect chips and a couple of light scratches tho commensurate with the age/mileage)
 
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A neighbour of mine is selling her car. I am looking to buy it. However I think she is greatly overestimating the value.

What would be the best way to find out how much the car is worth?

The reason I ask is I tried getting the value of the car from doing a price comparison insurance qoute. Compare the market said it is worth £3385 and confused.com say it is worth £4800. As I am sure you are aware that is a vast price difference.

The car in question is

2009 Ford Fiesta Zetec
1242CC
Petrol
5 Door
Manual
Mileage 40000

might be useful to tell us what price you had in mind rather than asking what its worth.

nothing about service history, owners, body work etc - so the question is why do you think the price is overestimated?

You'll find that trade value will be substantially less, so try not to base your valuations on these.
 
Sold a 59 plate fiesta of same spec 18 months ago for £4.5k, I'd say it'd be worth about £3.8k now, WBAC only offered us £3.3k back then (45k miles), there are dealers offering 09's for <£4K now
 
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