When buying or selling a car, knowing what that car is really worth is massively important in order to make sure the price is fair and you don’t end up out of pocket. Here at Parkers, we’ve been providing accurate, real-world pricing for used cars for decades – originally via the famous Parkers Guide sold in newsagents, now via our online car valuation tool.
And even though used-car pricing has been on something of a rollercoaster ride recently, due to reduced supply of new vehicles following the impact of the covid-19 pandemic, the subsequent chip crisis (and other parts-supply issues) and the war in Ukraine, you can still rely on Parkers to provide up-to-date values.
Why car valuations are important
The importance of an accurate car valuation should not be underestimated.
If you’re buying a car this is pretty obvious – you want to know that you’re getting a good deal and not being asked to pay too much.
But if you’re selling your car, a proper valuation will mean you know what it’s worth when and help you ensure you get a fair deal – regardless of whether you’re selling it privately or planning to trade it in against another vehicle.
An accurate valuation can also help you as you near the end of a PCP deal. Knowing what it’s actually worth can help you decide whether to hand the car back, or make the final balloon payment and sell it privately (assuming you don’t want to keep it). It can even help when negotiating for another PCP arrangement, as the equity you’ve built up in your current car can have a positive or negative impact on your next deal.
Finally, the value of your car is important when it comes to car insurance. You’ll often be asked what your car is worth when taking out insurance in the first place, and it’s important to know the value should the worst happen and you need to make claim.
How to value your car
The easiest way is to use the Parkers Valuation Tool. This can be customised to reflect the mileage, condition and optional extras applicable to the vehicle in question, making it even more accurate.
Exactly what the car is worth also depends on who is doing the buying or selling: a main dealer will charge more than a regular used car dealer, for example, and a private seller can expect to get even less (due to the lack of warranty support and so forth). Cars are worth different amounts if they are being traded-in as well (the trade-in value rather than the retail value).
As a further check, you could also take a look at adverts for similar cars to get a sense of what other buyers and sellers are expect a vehicle to be worth. The Parkers cars for sale section has plenty of examples.
Why you can trust a Parkers valuation
We’ve been valuing cars since 1972 (first in print but also online since the late 1990s), and our easy-to-use web-based tool is as just as useful today as the Parkers Guide was back then. Our values are based on real transactions, in the trade via dealerships and auctions – and factor-in a team of independent industry experts who visit hundreds of car dealers and auctions every month.
We monitor around 1,500,000 used car sales every year — that’s around 4,100 used car sales every day – supporting our number one aim: to help you get the fairest possible price for your car.
So when you ask ‘what’s my car worth?’ the Parkers used car valuation calculator gives you the confidence to buy or sell knowing you’re getting a fair deal.
Click on the image below to find out how simple it is.
