Redbook Car Valuation. Any good?

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NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

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# 66105 12-Aug-2010 12:18

Thinking about selling my car to upgrade to something a bit bigger, but it is quite a rare model so none are on trademe or autotrader that are remotely close in terms of year or kms.

Has anybody used Redbook?
http://www.redbook.co.nz/

it supposedly can give you an idea of what your car is worth. you input the make, model, year, km, condition. (it costs $13.00 though). anyone know how they estimate this value? some algorithm based on age, milage etc? or is it based on historical sales? (not that there will have been any)

The number for my car came out at $22,000 trade-in or $27,300 private sale, which seems rather high to me.
since we only paid $25k for it from a dealer 18 months ago when it was brand new, but end of line so discounted by 12k from RRP which was $35k)

the redbook value would seem reasonable if we had actually paid RRP (roughly 25-30% depreciation in first year), but given what we actually paid the redbook value seems very high (essentially no depreciation)

I have been offered $16k trade in by the same dealer we bought it from, which sounds ok, if slightly low, in light of what we paid, but he could well be lowballing me as a negotiating tactic.

Reckon I could use this redbook valuation as ammo to push his trade in offer up to 20k?

bazzer

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# 366734 12-Aug-2010 12:23

No one else knows what you paid for the car, so that is irrelevant (until they read this thread!).

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

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# 366735 12-Aug-2010 12:24

bazzer: No one else knows what you paid for the car, so that is irrelevant (until they read this thread!).

true. :D

Jaxson

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# 366742 12-Aug-2010 12:32

Without being rude, you'd be far better to first look on trademe at what your car is selling for there. If it's more than the trade in, (which I'd put money on that being the case), and if you don't mind waiting a bit to sell it, then you would be in a far better/stronger financial situation when it comes to buying the next car.

Dealers/heck anybody will be far more flexible if they get pure cash out of a deal, instead of inheriting your car that they need to sell as well.

As Bazzer mentions, the guts of it are that what you paid for it has nothing to do with it's current market value as such.

Ragnor

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# 366762 12-Aug-2010 13:11

The free report on http://www.carjam.co.nz/ will give you an indication based on sales of similar models at turners auctions.

If you decide to pay for the full report they give you an additional carjam valuation amongst other stuff.

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

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# 366764 12-Aug-2010 13:15

Jaxson: Without being rude, you'd be far better to first look on trademe at what your car is selling for there. If it's more than the trade in, (which I'd put money on that being the case), and if you don't mind waiting a bit to sell it, then you would be in a far better/stronger financial situation when it comes to buying the next car.

Dealers/heck anybody will be far more flexible if they get pure cash out of a deal, instead of inheriting your car that they need to sell as well.

As Bazzer mentions, the guts of it are that what you paid for it has nothing to do with it's current market value as such.

see my first post.
There are none on trademe (or autotrader)

Also, selling my car privately is a major pain in the butt. I've had no end of trouble selling my last car via trademe. I might stick it on there just to see if there is any interest at the redbook price though. I'm in no rush to sell/buy.

Paulthagerous

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# 366769 12-Aug-2010 13:18

Couple of things:

1.) There are a number of car people here that may be able to help you price it if you give us more details, though if you don't want to no-one is going to force you!

2.) You could look at, say, a UK Autotrader site or similar. DON'T try to do a "its 10,000 quid there so...." but try to relate it to another car. What I mean is if you car was, say a Honda Torneo which is very similar, but different to a Honda Accord, knowing the RELATIVE price to an Accord would help. So if in the UK an Accord is slightly more expensive than the Torneo, but not by much, then your price in NZ should be a little under the current price of the closest Accord you can find on Trademe.

Hope thats clear!

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

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# 366774 12-Aug-2010 13:21

Ragnor: The free report on http://www.carjam.co.nz/ will give you an indication based on sales of similar models at turners auctions.

If you decide to pay for the full report they give you an additional carjam valuation amongst other stuff.

No good unfortunately. (the free valuation at least) It doesn't even have my sub model listed, and the other sub models are quite different.

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

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# 366777 12-Aug-2010 13:36

Paulthagerous: Couple of things:

1.) There are a number of car people here that may be able to help you price it if you give us more details, though if you don't want to no-one is going to force you!

I'd rather not post the model on a public forum. I believe it is the only one in the country for it's age and model, so don't want to identify myself too much to any potential dealers/buyers who might read this thread(it could happen!)

2.) You could look at, say, a UK Autotrader site or similar. DON'T try to do a "its 10,000 quid there so...." but try to relate it to another car. What I mean is if you car was, say a Honda Torneo which is very similar, but different to a Honda Accord, knowing the RELATIVE price to an Accord would help. So if in the UK an Accord is slightly more expensive than the Torneo, but not by much, then your price in NZ should be a little under the current price of the closest Accord you can find on Trademe.

Hope thats clear!

good idea.

unfortunately this model was never sold in the UK or USA. I believe it was only actually sold in Australia and here

mine is 2009 with 12,000km. Closest I can find on www.tradignpost.com.au is a 2007 version with 70,000kms , selling at a dealer for $18k AUD, (around 22k NZD), or a 2008 with 40,000kms selling for $20,000AUD ($25kNZD) so given the difference in age and kms the redbook value sounds not far off for NZ.

That makes me fell a bit better

munkybone

23 posts

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# 366798 12-Aug-2010 14:24

So what is this mystery machine?

Paulthagerous

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# 366825 12-Aug-2010 15:30

NonprayingMantis:
Paulthagerous: Couple of things:

1.) There are a number of car people here that may be able to help you price it if you give us more details, though if you don't want to no-one is going to force you!
I'd rather not post the model on a public forum. I believe it is the only one in the country for it's age and model, so don't want to identify myself too much to any potential dealers/buyers who might read this thread(it could happen!)

Fair enough, I got that impression before when you didn't say to start with. Definately understand where you are coming from though.

2.) You could look at, say, a UK Autotrader site or similar. DON'T try to do a "its 10,000 quid there so...." but try to relate it to another car. What I mean is if you car was, say a Honda Torneo which is very similar, but different to a Honda Accord, knowing the RELATIVE price to an Accord would help. So if in the UK an Accord is slightly more expensive than the Torneo, but not by much, then your price in NZ should be a little under the current price of the closest Accord you can find on Trademe.

Hope thats clear!

good idea.

unfortunately this model was never sold in the UK or USA. I believe it was only actually sold in Australia and here

mine is 2009 with 12,000km. Closest I can find on www.tradignpost.com.au is a 2007 version with 70,000kms , selling at a dealer for $18k AUD, (around 22k NZD), or a 2008 with 40,000kms selling for $20,000AUD ($25kNZD) so given the difference in age and kms the redbook value sounds not far off for NZ.

That makes me fell a bit better

I have a couple ideas on what it may be, but not sure given there aren't any on trademe as the ones I can think of there are at least a couple. Either way, Australia appears to be a good country to compare with as their laws, market, taxes etc are quite similar so the comparison should be quite valid. HOWEVER: they don't really do the whole Jap Import thing, so used cars hold their value better over there. A general rule my father taught me is if it is worth $20,000AU it would probably sell for $20,000 NZ or less here. Comparing some Evo 7's and Golf GTI's suggests this still holds (Falcons, Commodores etc are harder to gauge, generally the straight currency conversion is close enough) Given yours is newer and less KM's, I would say $20k would be a decent trade in price, though if it is that rare and could be classed as 'desireable' then you should aim for more.

Just my 2 cents...

Jaxson

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# 366831 12-Aug-2010 15:42

Paulthagerous: though if it is that rare and could be classed as 'desireable' then you should aim for more.

50:50 as in some cases a rare inport is an absolute hassle/pain in the butt should you need any parts etc.

That said, good luck and all the best.

Paulthagerous

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# 366834 12-Aug-2010 15:48

Jaxson:
Paulthagerous: though if it is that rare and could be classed as 'desireable' then you should aim for more.
50:50 as in some cases a rare inport is an absolute hassle/pain in the butt should you need any parts etc.

That said, good luck and all the best.

Hence the 'desirable' bit. Otherwise rare and uninteresting definately counts against it for parts etc as you said.

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

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# 366869 12-Aug-2010 17:11

Paulthagerous:
Jaxson:
Paulthagerous: though if it is that rare and could be classed as 'desireable' then you should aim for more.
50:50 as in some cases a rare inport is an absolute hassle/pain in the butt should you need any parts etc.

That said, good luck and all the best.

Hence the 'desirable' bit. Otherwise rare and uninteresting definitely counts against it for parts etc as you said.

it's not an import, it;s NZ new.

however in this case rare probably does not translate to 'desirable' (neither is it particularly undesirable either). It's rare because only one of this particular model was sold in 2009 (as I mentioned before, it was end of life so we got probably the last one). A fair few were sold in 2008 I suppose, but none are being sold on trademe or autotrader to compare prices.

Went to a different dealer today looking at a different car. he quoted me $14k for the tradein. $2k less than the first place!

I suspect I'll probably end up selling privately in the end so I canbargain with cash for the new car, even if private selling is a pain. Not in any rush though, so can wait around for a decent offer.