WBAC Values

Soldato
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Insurance is there to put you back into a position of no material or financial loss. If they don’t do that I’d be looking an an Ombusman complaint. Book values mean nothing at the moment.

Perhaps. Although i had a picture which fell off the wall which i'd declared at £10k, however the local gallery suggested it was worth £15k, but the insurance capped it at £10k as that was what it was insured for.

Otherwise you could just under declare everything for the cheap premiums and argue it's not doing it's thing surely?
 
Soldato
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It entirely depends on the terms of the insurance. Almost all mainstream car insurance is based on market value. Art is an entirely different beast.
 
Soldato
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Agree, it's rare to see a car insurance policy which doesn't state market value. Though it's also rare to hear of then not trying to offer trade in value regardless of the fact you or I can't purchase at those prices so I'm sure they will try it on in the current climate too.
 
Soldato
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So just to follow up, Over 7 weeks after I sold it to Cazoo, they finally listed it for sale. £53650 (I sold it for £49450). So around 8.5% markup. The pictures show they've repaired the minor kerb damage to the front two wheels, and also they replaced the passenger mirror housing that had a scratch on it. It was parked for quite a while at a company that has repair contracts for major leasing companies. Allowing £300 for the work, that's just under 8% mark-up. They actually listed it last night for £2K less, so someone musta decided it was on there too cheap. I'm surprised that they omitted listing some of the major extras.

Anyhow, Cazoo is offering £44575 if you want to sell the car to them, WBAC is offering £43400. WBAC was previously around £2K or so less than Cazoo. Even allowing for the fact that the cazoo computer might realise it has a "very similar" car on its books, it looks like the offer prices (at least for this make/model) have softened £4-5K since I sold it.

Whilst I await for the KIA EV6, I have the use of a 2020 petrol sportage with 5K on the clock, no downpayment, no contract, just calling up each month to pay them £320, or otherwise leave the car. £320 was more than I had originally considered, but at the time I was thinking about something several years old. whereas this is a pretty fresh car. V5c and tax in my name. I guess the £320 a month insulates them from the monthly depreciating value of the car with a bit of profit. Found an online insurance quote for a good price that only referenced having to be the registered keeper (not the owner) as an assumption, so happy to go with that.

So far, things have worked out roughly as envisaged.

I didn't think Cazoo bothered repairing damage, everytime I look at a car on their website I get put off by the amount of photos they have of chips and scratches etc.
 
Associate
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18 Oct 2019
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Q1/2019 i bought for 32k. Q3/2021 i sold for 33k. There were about 80 of the model/spec on Auto Trader. Kazoo listed it for 33k, so not making much/anything. Eventually up to about 120 on Auto Trader, but now down to just 18, so they must have sold at those prices.
 
Man of Honour
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Q1/2019 i bought for 32k. Q3/2021 i sold for 33k. There were about 80 of the model/spec on Auto Trader. Kazoo listed it for 33k, so not making much/anything. Eventually up to about 120 on Auto Trader, but now down to just 18, so they must have sold at those prices.
They also make money from the finance, warranty etc.
 
Soldato
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There's a voice that keeps on calling me.
It has to finance that makes them money. A few years ago, I wanted to buy my A4 Avant company car, but Lex wanted 9.8k, which was too much I felt. I found out it was heading to a BCA auction locally so went down to see what it would fetch, it made 9.5k. When you factor in the fees on top, and the work it needed taking care of before selling (damaged sill,interior lock) the 12K it was eventually advertised for, didnt seem like a great money spinner for the dealer that bought it.
 
Soldato
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Total cars on AT up to 437k, only about 10% below pre covid. Still demand is up more like 20-30% so no reason for prices to come down yet. Big part of it aswell I think is we’re very much in the valley of death for ICE vs EV.
 
Associate
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I’ve used WBAC and similar on two occasions and both times they gave me very close to quote. Last time they knocked £80 quid off just because a few more similar cars had appeared on Auto Trader in the meantime. Not sure that’s a valid reason though.
 
Associate
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I know there’s a lots of negative reviews of people saying they got offered something rubbish compared to the quote, but I’m willing to bet their car was trash.
 
Caporegime
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Co Durham
I know there’s a lots of negative reviews of people saying they got offered something rubbish compared to the quote, but I’m willing to bet their car was trash.

They have improved. Years ago we took in a Leon FR in lieu of a debt. It had had a hard life despite only being a couple of years old. Described it accurately on WBAC website, describing every bit of damage and got a very low price from them. Took it in and the guy assessed it and wanted to knock another £2k off it. Drove it away.

Nowadays they are so desperate for the cars they barely knock anything off.
 
Man of Honour
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You should fill it in correctly, to get a price you’re happy with and then remove everything in the hope that they don’t spot some things and you get money.
I didn’t put anything down as the car was immaculate, they didn’t even check the car over to be fair, only the mileage and service history.
 
Associate
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30 Mar 2010
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480
I didn't think Cazoo bothered repairing damage, everytime I look at a car on their website I get put off by the amount of photos they have of chips and scratches etc.

On the car I sold to them, they did the alloys and a mirror housing. There were 3 tiny stone chips grouped together on the bonnet, and apparently another chip on the front bumper (which I cant even see on the picture they included on the listing) that they didnt touch them, so looks like they'll fix stuff that pretty easy and doesnt require a panel to be painted. Probably also it depends on a car by car.
 
Man of Honour
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They have improved. Years ago we took in a Leon FR in lieu of a debt. It had had a hard life despite only being a couple of years old. Described it accurately on WBAC website, describing every bit of damage and got a very low price from them. Took it in and the guy assessed it and wanted to knock another £2k off it. Drove it away.

Nowadays they are so desperate for the cars they barely knock anything off.
My understanding is they also had to change the way they incentivised their staff; I believe they used to get more commission for knocking more off the price but I think that then changed to be based on the price achieved at auction, i.e. how 'accurate' they were not how 'mean' they were. In other words that extra £2k off the Leon probably would have earned the guy extra cash years ago, nowadays not so much assuming you'd accurately described the damage and they could still make a profit on it.
 
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