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Has anyone used a "We Buy Any Car" type service?

wulbert

wulbert

pfm Member
Been getting my car ready for selling; cleaning, hoovering, servicing etc....however I have a lot on at home at the moment (very ill father, child off to Uni, Covid in the household...) and am dreading the hassle and inconvenience of selling a car and contact with bargain hunters.

Tempted to just take 60% of what it's worth by using one of those, "we buy your car" type services. However, I suspect they may not be as straightforward as they advertise and when I turn up to exchange the motor for wedge, their will be humming and hawing and kicking of tyres and a reduced offer.

Has anyone used one of these outfits and did the transaction go as promised? What was your experience?
 
I sold a van years ago to them (We buy any van dot com) they were in Cumberland street industrial estate at the time (2014) and it was painless to be honest.

They quoted me on their website and offered less when I got there but I just said no thanks and went to walk out and the guy offered me more money on the spot and I accepted the money was in my account within hours if not minutes and they were very professional.

The only thing I would say is that I emptied the van, on the basis of the website offer, which took me a bit of time so there was no way I wanted to take the van home and reload it so they played on that.
 
I have not. However, if you've taken the time to present the car attractively, as you clearly have (servicing it is above and beyond, you won't get that money back), as long as you price it fairly you should sell it very quickly. Last two cars I've sold went in 24 hours and a few days - both times with Auto Trader, which seems very good at delivering serious buyers. And as you intimate, the parasite companies may be no better to deal with, and possibly worse.
 
I found them crap. They draw you in with an online offer, get you down to their portacabin then they seriously low ball you, wasting your time. I walked away and sold the car to someone for WBAC’s original online offer. The buyer got a nice bargain and I felt better for cutting them out. Only use if you’re desperate- that’s what they’re counting on.
 
Tried quite a few of them the last few weeks and Arnold Clark paid the best price by far. Over £1000 more than We Buy Any Car and The Motorway.
Excellent service too and the money was in the bank account within days.
 
Out if interest we tried the main players on my wife's business lease car to compare what we could buy it for . All low ball offers and the Motorway outfit were by far the worst. Mind you the lease company wanted stupid money. More and more main dealers use them for valuation.
 
Motorway have done me better than WBAC multiple times. Last time only £500 less than I would have gotten for it privately.

it can depend on the car, if its something desirable then the Motorway dealers will pay more for it, they also take into account optional extras on the spec which WBAC don’t.

An example, previous Audi A3 Black Edition of mine..

WBAC - £18k
Motorway - £20k
Private - £20-21k

Sold to Motorway, dealer came within two days and collected it.
 
webuyanycar.com is owned by BCA (British Car Auctions), they take the best cars and sell them through Cinch (I think it is) at a good profit, the rest they put through their auctions for the trade. The usually give a decent price for newish, low miles cars, older/high miles they give low prices.
I wouldn't sell to them. My process for selling a mainstream car is basically try the free advertising sites (Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree) for a week or so, then if not sold, put it on Autotrader. Facebook Marketplace you get no end of jokers making silly offers. Gumtree is hit and miss, though I have found cars on there. Autotrader usually works best for attracting serious buyers. Was selling the wife's car (2007 Mazda 3, 85000 miles, full history, VGC), tried my luck at £1895 which seemed to be a fair average of what similar cars were advertised at. From Facebook Marketplace, had a few jokers offering £1400 before even looking at it. Had one chap agree £1600 and pick it up the next day, but he never showed up to collect (resulting in me calling him and 'advising' him in no uncertain terms about how ill-mannered it is to muck people about). Put it on Autotrader, inside a week had three views and someone thinking they had a bargain at £1800. IIRC Autotrader ads are free for cars under £1000 (not many of them about these days though).
 
In rather complicated circumstances I got a good price for my Civic Type R from WBAC. It was close to the estimate despite a small bonnet dent, scraped wheels, clutch pedal to the floor and severely rusty worn brakes.

The money was in the bank within an hour.
 
Rcook said:
webuyanycar.com is owned by BCA (British Car Auctions), they take the best cars and sell them through Cinch (I think it is) at a good profit, the rest they put through their auctions for the trade.
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Makes sense now. Few years back mrs sold her old banger to webuyanycar.com . Her car had many dents , hole in petrol tank, engine warning light on to name but a few problems. Sold to them for £89.00.
Following week I was down the local auction looking for a new car for her. I spotted her car , sold for £150.00.
 
Sold my late wife's 12 plate Fiesta with WBAC. Slightly under time pressure as licence running out and no off street parking. Car was valeted and recent service/MOT before sale. Had a couple bumper scuffs and a little bubbling of paint on the front wing so expected a bit knocked off, as it was.

Don't tick the box saying full service unless it has a service book stamped every 12 months. Certain deduction if not. Heather's car had done under 30k but we had it serviced every year.

Overall I was happy with the deal, £1100 more than a local dealer.
 
We used The Car Buying Group when we sold the Merc in March.

They offered about 30% more than WBAC and stuck to it. Motorway weren’t interested.

The guy checked the car outside our house, quite thoroughly, gave it a two minute test drive, phoned his company when he returned, and ten minutes later the money was in my account.

I really didn’t want any risk of tyre kickers or scammers. I just wanted it gone.
 
Candylion said:
Makes sense now. Few years back mrs sold her old banger to webuyanycar.com . Her car had many dents , hole in petrol tank, engine warning light on to name but a few problems. Sold to them for £89.00.
Following week I was down the local auction looking for a new car for her. I spotted her car , sold for £150.00.
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£150 is the current weigh in price, breakers will give you this for a drive up as dirty steel is ~£100 a tonne.
 
We've just sold two cars, my wife's through Motorway, mine through the main BMW dealers who, surprisingly, gave by far the best price, but I guess because it was nearly new & unmarked. It was pretty painless, the dealers were very professional, but they didn't pay me for five days after taking the car.

Motorway requires you to use their app. to take very specific photos of the car, & using this was a bit of a pain - bit buggy & had to redo several photos. However, they did suggest a very good price, and when the lad appointed by the successful dealers (who looked about twelve, but was probably in his twenties) reviewed the car he was very professional, no quibbling, & we were paid instantly.

Edit - forgot to mention, we got several hundred pounds more for my wife's car than Motorway originally estimated.
 
Thank you all very much for the helpful replies and sharing your experience. Useful information. It seems quite a mixed bag of, maybe dependant on the desirability of the car and individual staff members.

This is a 12 year old car with 85k miles up, so no show pony. I always forget, then am painfully reminded, when selling a car at the bottom end of the market, that I may attract punters I'd not normally wish to associate with. The worst are the ones who would like a good look around my yard, asking nosey questions and wandering about looking into sheds and workshop uninvited, as if we should all be best pals just because they have turned up to view a car for sale. ( Maybe I am just an anti-social cove though).
 
I have used them to just get a benchmark on the lower end price for a car but haven't actually sold through them.

That said a good friend did very well out of using them. He had a Porsche Cayman S with some kind of problem with damage to cylinders (scoring?). The car was working well but a detailed inspection showed up the potential issue and all the specialist dealers were offering a much discounted price because the issue was generally known as a risk on that particular model/engine etc.
WBAC seemed to just focus on the cosmetics and did no detailed checking. Offered circa 50% more than the knowledgable crew. I guess they didn't care on the basis that they would sell onwards with very limited warranties and/or play the volume % game.

Worth considering, if you don't have a conscience …?
 
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Candylion said:
Local breakers offered £57.00 , as mentioned few years ago .
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It varies with the scrap iron price. £100 a tonne collected recently here in Leeds. Zero 20 years ago, pay for collection. Around that time dead cars were being dumped and reported stolen.
 
RichardA said:
I have used them to just get a benchmark on the lower end price for a car but haven't actually sold through them.

That said a good friend did very well our of using them. He had a Porsche Cayman S with some kind of problem with damage to cylinders (scoring?). The car was working well but a detailed inspection showed up the potential issue and all the specialist dealers were offering a much discounted price because the issue was generally known as a risk on that particular model/engine etc.
WBAC seemed to just focus on the cosmetics and did no detailed checking. Offered circa 50% more than the knowledgable crew. I guess they didn't care on the basis that they would sell onwards with very limited warranties and/or play the volume % game.

Worth considering, if you don't have a conscience …?
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It would go to auction and sell. Buyers know about bore scoring in Porsches and pay accordingly.
 
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