How much would you pay for the following (from an independant dealer)...

Octavia SLXi 2.0 Petrol Automatic

2000 Feb 'W' Reg

68,000 miles

1 owner from new

Full Skoda service history at the same Skoda dealer (all stamps present in the book and oil has been changed every 5,000 miles from new!)

Metallic silver

Bodywork in very good condition apart from scratch on bumper (which dealer will fix)

I've spoken to the previous owner, and the car has not been involved in any accidents, and he's had no problems with it at all.

The car is due for a cam belt (and water pump) change which I'll get included in the price. I think the car is worth more than the book price due to automatics being rare, and this one has clearly been very well looked after, but I'm not sure what a fair price would be. What do you think?

Around £2.5k would seem reasonable to me considering the service history and condition. If I was to see the car and really like it, then I may pay a little more, especially if I was after an auto.

As Phil said - £2 - 2.5k

What if I told you it was up for £4299 ?! From what you're saying there, it is somewhat overpriced! Although according to Parkers, the book price is around £3200.

Forgot to say that it's also an estate.

Here are some current online valuations for that spec:

Parker's (60,000 miles)

Franchised dealer - £3165

Independent dealer - £3040

Privage Good - £2860

mycarcheck.co.uk (68,000 miles)

Forecourt - £3510

Private sale - £2510

Wisebuyer's Guide (70,000 miles)

Retail - £3365

Private good - £2405

All indicate that £4299 is way OTT.

Thanks guys. I'll be walking away from that one then! Even if they include the cambelt change, the car still appears to be expensive.

IMHO, £3-3.5k from a dealer - yes, the screen price is quite high but they always are to allow room for negotiation, I always aim to get £1k off screen.

If you're wanting the cambelt change done too that's going to eat into how much they can negotiate - if it was me, I'd phone up their service department "anonymously" and ask them for a quote on the work. I'd then subtract about 70% of the value of this from the £1k margin to give a new target margin...so if the cost for the cambelt was £400, I'd aim to get a discount on screen of £700.

Of course, I'd push the dealer for more than this, I just wouldn't do the deal if it was below my target.

Rob.

Skodas are weird to price from what I can tell - Parkers are known for overvaluing some cars but CAP tend to price them well above the Parkers guide price. Unfortunately that's the one the dealers are more likely to go with.