Nobody likes time-wasters, and it’s probably fair to say most people are not exactly comfortable with wasting other people’s time either. When someone is doing a job and trying hard to make a living, it’s not really fair to get them to believe they have a chance of making a sale to you when you know you’ve no intention of buying from them, but you want to make use of their knowledge and experience anyway. One of the best examples of this is when you’re thinking of changing your car but you want and need to know how much your current car is worth before you go any further. If somewhere is offering a free used car valuation with no strings that are fine. But it’s not really on to go to a dealership and just ask them to put a value on your car. In fact, if you are honest and told them you were there for that and nothing else, there’s a ninety percent or better chance they won’t do it anyway.
Sales Process
What you may or may not know is dealerships have a sales process, and it’s not usually a short one either. Sales executives are trained to guide customers along a certain route from the initial meet and greet right through to (hopefully) closing the sale. Obviously, this will include a valuation of your part exchange, but that’s not going to come in until at least three-quarters of the way through the process. Before then you will have been asked to give plenty of details of who you are, what you have currently, what you are looking to buy, your budget, and you will be asked to take a test drive. Even then, the price they put on your part exchange might not be entirely obvious unless you push for the information as it is likely to be wrapped-up in a deal presented as a “price to change” or as a monthly payment.
Put yourself in the position of the salesperson. Would you want to spend an hour and a half or more with someone who only wants to know what their car is worth and risk missing genuine customers who are looking to buy? In reality, they’ll probably work out pretty quickly if you’re not really interested in what they’re selling as they do this dance every day, while you probably only do it once every few years at most. Some dealers may even fob you off with an off-the-cuff valuation just to get rid of you if they think that’s all you’re looking for, and an inaccurate valuation isn’t any better really than no valuation at all.
Used Car Magazines
You should also be wary of the used car magazines that publish used car guide prices for the general public. They want to sell magazines so it pays to tell readers what they want to hear rather than telling the sometimes harsh truth. When you work at a car dealership, one of the rarest things that will ever happen to you is hearing a prospective buyer expressing joy at how much you’ve valued their part exchange at. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, or even less frequently, the real value isn’t going to be as much as the customer would like; it’s just a fact of life. If they’ve come armed with a valuation from a magazine, swap that 99% chance of disappointment to 100%
There is another way to get your current car valued though, and it’s quick, painless, accurate and stress and guilt-free. That way is to go online and get a used car valuation from the folks at one of the large car buying websites where you’ll get an accurate valuation of what your vehicle is worth to them right now. There’s no other agenda as they’re not trying to sell you anything and there’s no obligation whatsoever to sell to them, although you may well find their valuation and hassle-free approach more than tempting enough to go ahead.
Services
As the new registration is out now, dealerships are very busy delivering new cars and they’re bound to have plenty of part exchanges on their sites and coming in, so they’re probably not going to bend over backward to give you a great price for your part exchange. However, at WeBuyCarsToday all they do is buy cars, so it’s always a good time to get an honest valuation of your car as they will always want to buy it as that’s the sole aim of the business.
So, even if you’re just starting to think about changing your car, getting an accurate valuation of your current model is a fantastic way to start. You may have to jump through a lot of hoops to get a proper valuation from a main dealership, so it makes sense to use a dedicated car buying company instead.
