When buying a car you don’t want to overpay, and when selling, you want to get a fair price so you don’t end up making a loss. To help you get the best price when buying or selling a car, the Parkers team has been providing accurate and up-to-date pricing for used cars for decades via the famous printed Parkers Guide sold in newsagents, a service now available online via our online car valuation tool.
Knowing the true value of your car is the best way to get a quick sale and maximise how much cash you can get for it. If you don’t know its value, selling a car can be a game of cat and mouse. Set the price too high, and you’ll get no interest; too low, and it’ll be snapped up, but you’ll be out of pocket to the tune of potentially thousands.
The last few years have also been rocky for used car prices, fluctuating between eye-watering highs and record lows. Blame the COVID-19 pandemic, global chip shortages, the cost-of-living crisis, and the shortages and then oversupply of new and used cars for these rapid oscillations.
To help you get an accurate car valuation when buying or selling, you can rely on the Parkers team to provide the most accurate and up-to-date valuations. In this guide, we’ll run through how you can get an up-to-date valuation for a car, the essential things that contribute to it, and how it can help you save money.
Why car valuations are important
Getting an accurate valuation for a car, whether you’re buying or selling, is crucial and shouldn’t be underestimated. When buying a car, the importance of getting the right valuation is obvious, as you’ll want to know you’re not overpaying and getting the best deal.
If you’re selling a car, whether you’re planning to sell it privately, part exchange for another car, or sell it via one of the UK’s many online car buying platforms, having a precise valuation means you know how much it’s worth.
For those of you that have a car on PCP deal, having an accurate valuation is useful when approaching the end of the finance term. Knowing what it’s actually worth can help you decide whether to hand the car back, or make the optional final payment and sell it privately (assuming you don’t want to keep it). It can even help when negotiating for another PCP arrangement, as the equity you’ve built up in your current car can either have a positive or negative impact on your next deal.
Finally, the value of your vehicle is important when it comes to car insurance. You’ll often be asked what your car is worth when taking out insurance in the first place, and it’s important to know the value should the worst happen and you need to make a claim.
How to value your car
The easiest way to get an accurate valuation for your car is to use the Parkers Valuation Tool. This can be customised to reflect the mileage, condition and optional extras applicable to the vehicle in question, making it even more accurate.
What the car is worth also depends on who is doing the buying or selling: a main dealer will charge more than a regular used car dealer, for example, and a private seller can expect to get even less (due to the lack of warranty support and so forth). Cars are worth different amounts if they are being traded-in as well (the trade-in value rather than the retail value).
As a further check, you could also take a look at adverts for similar cars to get a sense of what other buyers and sellers are expecting a vehicle to be worth. The Parkers cars for sale section has plenty of examples.
How can I get the most money for my car in the UK?
You’ve invested time and money into your car, so naturally, you want to try and get as much value out of the vehicle as possible. Believe it or not there are some simple tips and tricks you can do to bump the selling price.
Factors such as the age, make, and model will inevitably affect the way the car is valued, but where motorists can make a difference is how well they maintain their vehicle. In short, think like a buyer. Look at your car as if you were going to buy it.
Condition
This shouldn’t be a shock for motorists hoping to sell or buy a car: if your car is in good condition when you sell it, the more money you are likely to get for it. As a car owner, this is the easiest step to avoid common issues like kerb scrapes on alloy wheels, dents and scratches on the paintwork, or damage to the windows. Look after the interior too, scratches and tears will all count against the value of the car.
Suppose you decide to sell a car that has visible exterior damage. In that case, you’ll need to consider the potential value loss in a sale due to its condition against the cost of repairing the damage to determine if it’s worth it.
For instance, with cheaper used cars, the cost of repairs might not outweigh the value lost in sale. That’s not to say the same will be said for a newer vehicle worth a few thousand, you could likely make back the money lost in repairs with an increased sale price.
Touching up small imperfections can make a noticeable difference to the value of a car. Restoring the headlights or removing small scratches will often be worth the few extra quid you’ll spend on cleaning products.
Mileage
The number of miles you’ve driven will ultimately affect the valuation of your car when you sell it. Generally speaking, vehicles with less mileage are seen to have suffered less wear and tear over time, making them more desirable than cars with high mileage.
There can be too much of a good thing, though. A super-low-mileage car that’s not used enough may suffer from a slew of problems. Lots of short journeys and never having the engine warm up properly can harm an engine, something to bear in mind.
Controlling mileage can be challenging, mainly if you use your car for commuting. While walking or cycling can help reduce miles driven, this isn’t as crucial to the overall value as the next point.
Service history
Surely, the best indicator of the condition of a car is a full service history. It’s one of the best ways to improve a car’s value and shows potential buyers that you were a careful, conscientious owner who didn’t run it on a shoestring. Service history can be broken down into three categories when selling a car:
- Full service history
- Partial service history
- No service history
A full service history is better; it shows the buyer that the vehicle has been maintained as specified by the car maker. It’ll help the car’s value and ensure more interest than a spotty, incomplete history.
A big file of receipts and invoices for any work done on the car is another way of proving how well you cared for the vehicle.
MOT
It might seem like a good idea to sell your car when its MOT is almost due, conveniently leaving it for the next owner to handle. But, this could backfire as many buyers are sceptical of cars being sold a car close to its MOT due date.
Don’t risk it and get the test completed before selling the vehicle, and pay for any issues flagged in the MOT. Although this may seem like an inconvenience, it will pay off when you have a flawlessly presented car with no pending mechanical work and can demand a higher asking price.
Why you can trust a Parkers valuation
We’ve been valuing cars since 1972 (first in print but also online since the late 1990s), and our easy-to-use web-based tool is just as useful today as the Parkers Guide was back then. Our values are based on real transactions, in the trade via dealerships and auctions – and factor-in a team of independent industry experts who visit hundreds of car dealers and auctions every month.
We monitor around 1,500,000 used car sales every year — that’s around 4,100 used car sales every day – supporting our number one aim: to help you get the fairest possible price for your car.
So when you ask ‘what’s my car worth?’ the Parkers used car valuation calculator gives you the confidence to buy or sell knowing you’re getting a fair deal.
Click on the image below to find out how simple it is.
Just so you know, we may receive a commission or other compensation from the links on this website - read why you should trust us.
