Sorry this is a whinge but I've had my first and last ever new skoda VRS estate Diesel 11 plate for 14 months now, 17 k miles which is slightly over average but in immaculate unmarked condition.

Circumstances have changed in the family and I no longer need the car so I thought I'd go to a "reputable" dealer that being DM Keith or Wakefield. I called and asked for a price but they weren't interested in even giving me a rough estimate unless I brought the car too them, fair enough I would expect so, however I visited and they have offered me 55% of the new price for the car to sell to them... even one of the webuy your card brigade offered 61%.

Hence firstly I question why anyone would ever buy a new Skoda with such terrible residuals and also warn anyone making the journey to DM Keith for a valuation that they could be wasting a trip.

I'm sure I'm posting this n the wrong place as I guess folks here are rather bought into the brand but never for me again...maybe I'm being naive and maybe all new cars are now dropping so quickly but would have expected a Skoda dealer to offer more than webuyyour car.

TRy a different dealer, Benfield Harrogate.

The problem is D M K just about rule Yorkshire.

Don't bother selling it back to a dealer. Sell it privately.

Skodas don't have terrible residuals, depending on how you define terrible of course. But you're asking a dealer to take on your car and give you cash in return. This will naturally mean you get a very poor value for it as the view is they're doing you a favour by taking it off your hands.

They will allways offer you less if you are not buying another car, since they will have to make the profit margin on a single car instead of spreading it across 2.

its also typical of the webuyanycar brigade to offer higher until they see the car, the assesor has targets to never pay this price, so they will find every single imperfection. These include supermarket dings, stone chips, scratches, wheel damage etc. and they will then reduce their offer substantially. They offer better to get you through the door as most will usually accept the lower offer.

I got 94% of the value of one car once.

I had a brand new 10 plate vRS (still miss it and regret chopping it) and paid £17500 for it. Got £16500 trade a year later and decided to pay the loan I had to pay for the car.

Still, I just look at it as renting a vRS for a year for 1K. I still feel bad for letting go though :(

All cars are worth a lot less than you expect come trade in time. I lost a fortune on my BMW recently and they are supposed to have good residuals. The used car market is dead at the moment. I have no idea why but maybe its because there are so many good deals on new cars. I got the VAT free deal on my skoda which made incedible sense compared to buying nearly new. Dont believe what you read in magazines about anticipated car values, these are only estimates and they change all the time.

I would ignore Glasses guide and the likes to for valuing your car. CAP is the one most people tend to use nowadays and their figures seem to be lower. Best tactic is to run your car for a long as possible to minimize the pain from depreciation or buy an older car. I have to change mine at 5 years maximum hence why the VAT deal on skoda was a no brainer as it means i have 5 years to pay the car off compared to 2 year old car meaning i only have 3 years to pay for it.

Skoda actually have 2 cars in the top 5 for "best residuals" at the moment. The scout and yeti. The octavia is now VAT free so this must have affected your residual value unfortunately as nearly new cars would be too similar in price to the now heavily discounted brand new car.

I dont think its Skoda specifically thats the problem, its all cars.

yeh sounds about right.

we bought ours albeit not new but priced at 13k with 30k on the clock 58 plate last year, roll on to having it a year and no end of problems wantd to chop it on... with.... 38k on the clock was offered £7500!!! lmao.

Skoda's particuarly petrol ones dont hold there value at all like other brands though, as said the used car market is pathetic just now.

Holding onto this (barely i seem to be patching it up daily) for another 6-8 months then its goodbye and i wont be sad to see it or Skoda's dealerships and customer care go.

I would private sale it if you want more for it.

WBAC says mine is worth £12k which I guess for 3 years nearly is not that bad. So lost 9k as I spec'd mine up a lot. It was worth 17k last year (dealer offer on trade in)

WBAC and the likes will offer you what you can expect on trade in. Not a bad deal really considering ou can then negotiate a better discount at dealer.

Private sale is your best bet but i got absolutely zero interest recently when selling privately. I am in Scotland though which probably didnt help.

I phoned a dealer once out of interest and he was honest and told me "don't bother trying to sell it back to us, we'll give you a crap offer".

They make money on the new car and the finance so buying a car cash is the worst option for them.

Private sale would probably be the best option for you but it's hard to sell anything that isn't at the lower end of the market (or a niche model) privately.

That particular dealer obviously does not want that particular car - that's all. Its got nothing to do with the brand. Shop around or sell privately and you'll get a lot more I expect.

Bottom line - cars cost money and everything depreciates. Steepest drop is the first year, hence your pain. Selling any brand new car after one year is always going to hurt.

Its a good question. I personally bought a new one because I know I am going to keep it. At some point I will have to face up to a low residual value but by then will have amortised it over several years i.e. I am conveniently ignoring the drop in book value that is so worrying !

From my point of view I got a good deal. Its a cracking car, I know exactly what is (not) wrong with it and the price was good. Couldn't ask for more to be honest. Well, more power, better brakes and far less unsprung weight maybe . . .

As has already been mentioned, you aren't looking to buy another car at the same time so the dealer has very little interest in your car.

Dealers are geared up for selling brand new cars not buying second hand cars.

Some Skoda's do hold their value. I paid £14K for my Octavia Scout three years ago. Older/high mileage examples are selling for £13K today.

Sell it privately and think yourself lucky you didn't by a Vauxhall.

As others have said I think you are being a bit overly pessimistic.

You are asking a dealer to take a car off your hands for cash. They are in the business of taking money, not giving it out. They need to make a profit on your vehicle whilst running the risk of not bring able to shift it.

As others have said you should really try and sell it privately to maximise your returns. If you are unwilling / unable to do that you have to accept a low offer from a dealer as they are exposing themselves to the risk of not being able to move it on at a profit.

Sell it privately. You're always going to get less from a dealer. I took a 9 month old Superb back to my dealer and they wouldnt even make an offer (and it only had 9k miles on the clock). It hurt me at the time but they're in it for profit, not to help us out, and the only time you've got any bargaining power is when buying.

Sold mine at the time really easily for nearly £2k more than the trade in value I would have expected/accepted from dealer to buy back.

Did you spec the car up with options? These count for nothing to a dealer come sale time, they will give you £0 extra for them.

Also, is this 55% of the 'list price' or price you paid?

Just out of interest, what does 55% equate to in pound notes?

And how does that compare to the price you get a new one today from one of the drive the deal type places?

I would expect at least 25%, if not 30%, depreciation in the first year on any new car, and not from list price, but from what they are actually selling for (which can be a fair bit below list - 0% VAT offers etc)

Frankly you're off your bonce trying to sell a car back to a dealer without the prospect of trade in. What did you honestly expect?? Their business is shifting new cars, and you're offering them nothing. The price they quoted you was a polite way of saying get lost unless you're a mug in which case we'll fleece you - it's a pretty standard commercial business strategy. The best advice is as most have suggested, sell it privately.

From my own experience, webuyanysh*t*.com give you a high price over te phone to get you down to their premises, then the discounting starts for all of the nicks, dents, scratches, etc etc but of course you're half way hooked cos you're there. Don't be conned, this is not the way to get the best price for a used car! They're the same group as Carcraft, from whom I have bought a car once and never again. It's all about buying low price crap examples and selling them at inflated prices with "easy" credit.

Frankly you're off your bonce trying to sell a car back to a dealer without the prospect of trade in. What did you honestly expect?? Their business is shifting new cars, and you're offering them nothing. The price they quoted you was a polite way of saying get lost unless you're a mug in which case we'll fleece you - it's a pretty standard commercial business strategy. The best advice is as most have suggested, sell it privately.

From my own experience, webuyanysh*t*.com give you a high price over te phone to get you down to their premises, then the discounting starts for all of the nicks, dents, scratches, etc etc but of course you're half way hooked cos you're there. Don't be conned, this is not the way to get the best price for a used car! They're the same group as Carcraft, from whom I have bought a car once and never again. It's all about buying low price crap examples and selling them at inflated prices with "easy" credit.

Yup, can't fault that really. Nothing wrong with the brand, just your tactics.

Luckily I have two things going for me: 1) my model and engine seems quite well thought if so if I wanted to sell it it would be fairly appealing as it ticks a lot of boxes, and 2) unless it starts breaking down or something untoward, I always planned to run it as long as I physically could, so depreciation is of little consequence to me.Touchwood, it's not let me down so far, only little, piddly things, but generally it's been very reliable. Good girl!

Sell it privately and think yourself lucky you didn't by a Vauxhall.

Just recently read you should expect your Vx Insignia to be worth 22% of RRP after 3yr.

I assume this was a worst case for a petrol and not a derv.

I know I was getting offered about 45% of RRP for my Octy after 3yr.

Edited 24 August, 201213 yr by Aspman

Just recently read you should expect your Vx Insignia to be worth 22% of RRP after 3yr.

I assume this was a worst case for a petrol and not a derv.

I know I was getting offered about 45% of RRP for my Octy after 3yr.

But these cars are 20%-30% less than RRP to start with fleet and mobility throwing cars into the market it is not suprising RRP residuals are so low..

22% of X is 31% of X-30%

So as has been asked allready what base price is that 55% based on?

I lost loads on my 1 year old vrs this year

Edited 24 August, 201213 yr by Nicky boy

Bought a 12 month old '08 in April 2009 privately for 12k.

Bickerton offered me 12.5k for it in March 2010, nearly 20k miles later for trade in against a factory order well discounted (VAT offer, etc) new vRS.

Pretty good deal if you ask me.

The present model is on run out, loads of deals to be had, add to that the s/hand market is on the floor.

The dealer is in business to make money, he may have plenty of s/hand stock, he wants to pop a couple of grand on it & shift it quickly.

As others have said go for a private sale

If you dont want to loose as much on cars choose something thats rare or made in limited numbers, that runs mainly with prestige cars but it can be done. We ordered the Abarth many months before it was produced & have done pretty well, 3 years old now & lost about 30-40 percent. My next cars already been on order since October 2011, due out late 2013 / early 2014, If its not a lemon values should be solid for a while due to limited numbers being made

Edited 24 August, 201213 yr by Stuart_J

The present model is on run out, loads of deals to be had, add to that the s/hand market is on the floor.

The dealer is in business to make money, he may have plenty of s/hand stock, he wants to pop a couple of grand on it & shift it quickly.

As others have said go for a private sale

If you dont want to loose as much on cars choose something thats rare or made in limited numbers, that runs mainly with prestige cars but it can be done. We ordered the Abarth many months before it was produced & have done pretty well, 3 years old now & lost about 30-40 percent. My next cars already been on order since October 2011, due out late 2013 / early 2014, If its not a lemon values should be solid for a while due to limited numbers being made

Curious.. What is your new car you have on order?? I dont think i have the patience to wait that long. Hence why i loose heaps of money come change time. I will always do this though as once i decide to change then there is no stopping me.