Folks,

I wanted to talk about the weird world of crazy prices for the MK3 Octavia's at the moment.  Good Second/Third hand Octavia are really expenses at the moment.  As an owner of three of these lovely cars, I think I'm sitting pink, but in reality this is a market place of demand and supply.  Supply is low and demand is high.  Its hard to judge where prices are meant to be.

 

The reason why I bring this up - is because of the crazy low pricing that VAG dealers are putting on our Octavias. 

 

I am assuming that everyone is looking at Glasses/Parkers guides, but the mark-up that dealers are making on used MK3's is crazy.  As an example, my 33800m 2018 Octavia VRS (roughly 10k miles per year) - to find a similar specification, you are looking to pay £15 or £16k according to Autotrader.  However, a dealer that I enquired to do a trade-in was only prepared to offer £9k for that car.  I know that dealers have to have their mark-ups, but that's crazy crazy profit.

 

I think I know why the prices are high - supplies of MK4's are very poor, plus COVID-19 means we have this odd pricing situation.

 

My husband and myself thought about dropping a vehicle, but realised that this was going to cost us dear.  I did even put the VRS onto the Classifieds here, but I've just withdrawn it, because I'm in no hurry to swap it and I think that MK3s prices are going to remain high.  One thing for sure, I'm not planning to ship it or my Scout in anytime soon.

 

 

 

52 minutes ago, varaderoguy said:

However, a dealer that I enquired to do a trade-in was only prepared to offer £9k for that car.

 

They couldn't buy them at auction for that price! Jokers. 

 

Used car prices are very firm at the moment. The trade are paying over book for most things and are sourcing cars from private sellers. Rather than Pex, try advertising the car at retail - 5% or so and see what happens. Tootle is a good car buying service and will get you more than WBAC.  https://www.tootle.co.uk/

'Asking prices' are high, and if the cars are selling for the asking prices then sellers will be happy.

 

But Traders and Dealers are sitting with cars they have bought using 'Borrowed money, ie finance availabe to traders / dealers from BCA (British Car Auctions.) and others.

They are not being realistic in many cases and are not prepared to take a loss that many 'Used car sellers' are going to have to take.

 

What the cars advertised are actually selling for matters more than any asking prices. 

Parkers & Glass are the 'Trades' friend not the private customers, 

 

Dealers and traders do not just make a 'Mark up.  they need a profit & need to covering all the costs involved in buying and selling and they pay tax on profits.

right. But I've been asking around about mine... and I've had €4k difference in offers. All for replacing it with something of similar value, just 4x4. 

 

The market is a bit nuts right now, I'll agree, and I don't think it's just the UK, either. Lots of things are being affected negatively with supply chains being tight across the globe and now the results are going to start hitting... interesting times. 

 

I was told the other day that chips are in massively short supply - lead times of 9 months were being bandied around. 

 

 - Bret

10 minutes ago, brettikivi said:

right. But I've been asking around about mine... and I've had €4k difference in offers. All for replacing it with something of similar value, just 4x4. 

 

The market is a bit nuts right now, I'll agree, and I don't think it's just the UK, either. Lots of things are being affected negatively with supply chains being tight across the globe and now the results are going to start hitting... interesting times. 

 

I was told the other day that chips are in massively short supply - lead times of 9 months were being bandied around. 

 

 - Bret

Chips are fattening anyway

Octavia's don't really hold their value very well even under normal circumstances, there are plenty of standard models available for sale at low prices from the likes of Arnold Clarks which will mainly be ex hire or company cars. Not so many VRS models around though, which should help if/when you want to sell yours.

 

Part of the issue is that Skoda and the rest of the large car companies like to charge different customers different prices for exactly the same cars. You'll pay the highest price as an ordinary, hard working person walking into a showroom. If you are NHS, Police etc as a profession, they'll offer you even more off the price, even if you are a high earning GP or Consultant! Large hire companies then hoover up thousands of cars at really low prices per car and it is these cars which are then dumped back onto the marketplace for sale again, still at really low prices with warranty remaining and not very high mileage via the likes of Arnold Clark. This business model keeps the factories busy but really doesn't help ordinary buyers.

12 hours ago, varaderoguy said:

 

 

I am assuming that everyone is looking at Glasses/Parkers guides, but the mark-up that dealers are making on used MK3's is crazy.  As an example, my 33800m 2018 Octavia VRS (roughly 10k miles per year) - to find a similar specification, you are looking to pay £15 or £16k according to Autotrader.  However, a dealer that I enquired to do a trade-in was only prepared to offer £9k for that car.  I know that dealers have to have their mark-ups, but that's crazy

 

 

 

Yes, that doesn't make sense. The market is very skewed against private sales at the moment as there is very few private vehicles for sale and difficulty in transacting privately with lockdown.

 

9k makes no sense for your vehicle. They're chancing it or their algorithms are wrong and they are blindly following them. I bet WBAC wld be higher than 9k.  

 

If the car is worth 15k, I'd say you should get 12.5 to 13k but dealers are skewed to exchange and may penalise if you only want to sell without buying.

 

I've also got my mk2 fl listed in classifieds. Some interest but it's difficult at the moment to be selling a car and more so privately.   Funnily enough WBAC and dealer offers are not too bad but it's a lot older than yours.

 

I'm thinking the market will normalise a bit more when private sales can properly recommence and private buyers and sellers are present in the market. 

 

 

Edited 14 February, 20215 yr by TheClient

Wrong thread. Deleted!

Edited 14 February, 20215 yr by TheClient