What is my used car worth?

Advertising your pride and joy for sale can be a ‘hit-or-miss’ affair. Buyers will back away if it looks too expensive. And a trade-in value for a newer alternative can be heartbreakingly low.

That may be because the owner has an over-inflated view of the car’s worth and may be equally appalled by the offer from the dealer or the insurance company dealing with a total constructive loss – a write-off, in other words.

So how do you work out what’s a fair sum for your much-loved machine? You need ammunition to negotiate with the insurance company, or you need to know whether it’s better to sell the old banger privately rather than to the trade (hint: selling privately is usually the better option, convenience aside).

If you just want to get rid of your used car, and the money matters less than convenience, there’s always carsales’ Instant Offer.

But if you prefer to sell privately, you will need to do a bit of research first to nail a quick sale and a reasonable price.

An expert car valuation service such as RedBook can provide a ‘ballpark’ figure. It may be a number that makes certain assumptions that don’t necessarily apply to your used car, such as condition, mileage, and potentially any valuable options fitted.

Don’t just rely on RedBook to arrive at what you believe the used car should be worth, however. Check listings similar to your used car at carsales to get a feel for market value.

Filter the listing according to the on-sale date, powertrain variants, trim level, or anything else that narrows the list down to a group of vehicles approximating your own. Sort on price (so the least expensive will be first on the list, or vice versa) and look at such factors as kilometres travelled, for instance.

If you are selling your vehicle without a roadworthy certificate, as an example, prepare to offer a discount worth hundreds of dollars (or even thousands).

When looking at this list of vehicles, read between the lines. An odometer reading less than 10,000km a year indicates more time spent in commuter traffic than on the open road. Everything wears faster in stop-start driving, yet the market rewards lower kilometres.

Other issues to consider in arriving at a value for your car include whether it’s been owned by a fleet in the past. A white Toyota Camry in a low-grade specification, for instance, will often fetch less money in the market.

But even a ‘fleet queen’ can hold its value surprisingly well if it’s been operated by a commercial operator known within the industry to maintain its cars to an impeccable standard.

Try to put yourself in the place of a shopper. What does the buyer want? If it’s something collectible, you’ll know what that is.

But if it’s an uninspiring ‘shopping trolley’, the price you set in your advertisement becomes critical. Such a car sells almost exclusively on value to the buyer. You can boost that value by highlighting frugal running costs, reliability or ease of use for inexperienced drivers in an ad.

Once again, low kilometres appeal to potential buyers, and any unexpired portion of the factory warranty or a transferable extended warranty will improve the worth of even the dullest offering. How much more will depend on all those factors thrown into the mix.

Let’s take the 2019 Ford Focus as an example. Starting prices range between about $14,000 and $31,000.

The Focus from this era was subject to a small number of recalls, which should have been addressed by now. If not, the prospective buyer will use outstanding recalls as a bargaining chip. His or her inconvenience may cost you hundreds of dollars.

Other factors the buyer will use to negotiate a lower price will likely boil down to matters such as trim level and colour. Maybe you have a Focus Active wagon, and they want a hatch – or vice versa. How many kilometres is the Focus showing on the clock? Is it in good nick for its age? Has it been serviced regularly, and by a dealer specifically? Is it subject to known faults?

These are all potential tactics the buyer can use to haggle with you, and that will make the Focus easier or harder to sell, accordingly.

For the sake of this argument, consider a mid-range Focus ST-Line hatch. Unlike previous generations of Focus, the fourth (SA) generation of Focus was not available with a manual transmission, other than the sporty ST variants. Ford got it right. Why carry the parts inventory at extra cost for a manual transmission variant that almost no one buys? And buyers would only choose a Focus Trend or Ambiente with a manual transmission for its lower purchase price – not because the buyer wants one.

The Focus in question has been serviced regularly; it’s in neat and tidy condition for its age and has travelled 48,300km. Garaged every night, the Focus has suffered no previous accident damage and the paintwork remains bright and shiny, apart from a couple of minor scratches on the rear bumper and one or two stone chips in the bonnet.

Since the expiry of the factory warranty some years ago, the Focus has been meticulously serviced by a local mechanic rather than by the selling dealer. The regular driver has been a middle-aged woman, now an empty nester.

All up, the Focus presents as an ‘honest’ machine with nothing to hide.

According to RedBook, the Focus cost $28,990 when new. For private sale, the used Focus ranges between $17,200 and $20,800. As a trade-in the Focus should fetch between $12,750 and $16,300. Its peers have realistically travelled anywhere from 40,000 to 170,000km, so this particular Focus is at the lower end of the spectrum. That is worth money to the seller... and the convenience of selling the Focus relatively quickly.

At carsales.com.au, asking prices for this series of Focus are bracketed between $14,000 and $31,000. Prices rise in indirect proportion to the kilometres displayed in the odometer.

Some vendors advertise at a higher price in the expectation of some heavy haggling for a ‘transaction’ that will satisfy both the vendor and the buyer, but buyers usually won’t even look at a car that appears to be too expensive before negotiation starts.

Filter out the wagons, the post-2019 models and everything other than the ST-Line variants, and the carsales.com.au listings are narrowed to 29 across the nation.

To limit the selection to 2019 models, type ‘2019’ in the keyword search field. Adjust the odometer filter to about 10,00km either side of your car’s reading. In this case, that would be 40,000 to 60,000km.

You can reduce the listings further by choosing from just those cars advertised for sale in your home state.

Check the indicative models remaining to pin down the ideal price for your car. The asking price for your car should be somewhere between $25,000 to $30,000.

A couple of points to note: the variance between the RedBook private sale figure and the ideal advertised price for your car is the difference between a transaction price (the finally negotiated selling price) and the asking price. RedBook’s value is also indicative rather than definitive. There may be reasons why your car may be worth more or less than RedBook’s valuation suggests.

Ideally, 'your’ Focus could be advertised at $28,490, which is only $500 less than it cost new, six years ago. That speaks to the post-Covid market for used cars. The asking price will leave plenty of wriggle room for haggling down to $25,000 or less, which remains well above the top bracket of RedBook values for a private sale.

Be objective about the car’s worth. The used-car market has been volatile since COVID-19 broke out in 2020, but be prepared to negotiate all the same. Set a base number and don’t go below that.

Presentation is very important when selling. Take great photos in a nice setting – ask for help if you don’t know how.

It’s a cliché, but SELL the car, using words like ‘one caring owner’ or ‘only driven to church on Sunday’... provided that’s true. Always arrange a roadworthy certificate unless the vehicle is a basket case and you’re advertising it ‘for restoration or parts’.

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Or email us at editor@carsales.com.au