Selling a Used Car: WBAC.com vs Motorway

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

WBAC'd my Nissan Juke a couple months back, the valuation started at £4800 and came down to £4350 but I was still happy with that. The less hassle I have dealing with other people the better.

I advertised an older car (bought with the proceeds of the Juke sale) I'd bought as a stop gap on FB marketplace last night and instantly regretted it. Could have sold it for £500+ less than advertised 5 or 6 times over and got silly offers before even viewing.

Listed it on a respectable NI based motoring forum and have accepted a deposit and a pretty much guaranteed private sale with zero hassle.

 

[JoeyB]

WBAC'd my Nissan Juke a couple months back, the valuation started at £4800 and came down to £4350 but I was still happy with that. The less hassle I have dealing with other people the better.

I advertised an older car (bought with the proceeds of the Juke sale) I'd bought as a stop gap on FB marketplace last night and instantly regretted it. Could have sold it for £500+ less than advertised 5 or 6 times over and got silly offers before even viewing.

Listed it on a respectable NI based motoring forum and have accepted a deposit and a pretty much guaranteed private sale with zero hassle.

Admittedly all my private sales have been through Gumtree but I'm not sure how many people look there these days, I'm sure FB Marketplace is going to generate a lot more noise before filtering through to the genuine buyers. Its usually pretty easy to sniff out the time wasters though and in my opinion its still worth it in the long run to maximise the sale price.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Admittedly all my private sales have been through Gumtree but I'm not sure how many people look there these days, I'm sure FB Marketplace is going to generate a lot more noise before filtering through to the genuine buyers. Its usually pretty easy to sniff out the time wasters though and in my opinion its still worth it in the long run to maximise the sale price.

True that, I could have held on as even WBAC valued this car at more than I advertised but I figured they would knock it down anyway. Cashflow is king though and I like to keep it moving as easily as possible

 

[Pale Rider]

The difference in business models is interesting.
WBAC buy the car and sell it on to the trade taking a mark up.

I believe Webuyanycar now retail some of their buy-ins, which would give them the option of offering a higher price.

The move may have been made to enable them to compete with the likes of Motorway, who I'd not heard of before I read your OP.

My brother's experience with WBAC was positive, they stuck to their online valuation although he did have to wait three or four days for the money.

Had they gone skint during that period, it's almost inevitable he would have lost the value of the car, but no sales transaction is entirely without risk.

There are some highly skilled fraudsters operating as private 'buyers'.

Long experience of fraud court cases tells me it's not just the gullible who fall for scams, so even though I consider myself at least as smart as the next man, I'd rather avoid high value private sales even it means taking a financial hit.

 

[JoeyB]

I believe Webuyanycar now retail some of their buy-ins, which would give them the option of offering a higher price.

The move may have been made to enable them to compete with the likes of Motorway, who I'd not heard of before I read your OP.

My brother's experience with WBAC was positive, they stuck to their online valuation although he did have to wait three or four days for the money.

Had they gone skint during that period, it's almost inevitable he would have lost the value of the car, but no sales transaction is entirely without risk.

There are some highly skilled fraudsters operating as private 'buyers'.

Long experience of fraud court cases tells me it's not just the gullible who fall for scams, so even though I consider myself at least as smart as the next man, I'd rather avoid high value private sales even it means taking a financial hit.

WBAC is owned by the same group that own BCA and Cinch so they aren't short of outlets...

 

[midlife]

AFAIK WBAC is owned by British Car Auctions who own Cazoo I think as well plus others companies. Bit of a tangled Web I was told....

Beaten to it lol

 

[Twizit]

Another vote for Motorway here. Initial estimate on sale price (what effectively becomes the minimum you are prepared to sell for) was over £500 more than WBAC offered. Final sale price from their auction was another £700 on top of that. Hassle free process in my experience.

 

[gbb]

Does no-one sell cars privately anymore?

Selling cars years ago was easy and carried little risk. Usually cash and usually (in my case) oldercars with lower value. TBH, selling a car privately for £3k or more would make me nervous. There's so much news of scams, money clawbacks etc, I guess many people shy away from it nowadays
Personally, I've never felt let down by traders offers when trading In, you understand if the car isn't going straight to auction, theyre going to put £1k on it, seems fair to me. Prices I've been offered have been in the ball park of acceptability, equally, I'd have no problem considering WBAC or similar but knowing the first offer is likely to be cut back. Its the game of negotiation we all have to play unfortunately.