How we price
This is the page most sites in this category do not have. Read it before you send anything, because if a price ever changes on you it has to come from this list — and if it is not on the list, it does not happen.
Two words, two different things
What we expect to pay, based entirely on what you have told us. It is our honest read on the car as described, and it is worth exactly as much as the description is accurate. It is not a commitment, because we have not seen the car yet — and we are not going to pretend otherwise just to get you off the phone.
A single price, made by the person who has now driven and inspected the car, who can sign for it there and then. Take it, sleep on it, or say no — saying no costs you nothing and does not change how you are treated the next time you ring us.
The complete list
Six things. If a price ever changes, it is one of these, and you are shown which one and the photograph it came from.
A different build year, badge or gearbox to the one on the enquiry. This is far and away the most common one, and it is almost always an honest mix-up.
Panel damage, paint repairs, rust, a windscreen that needs replacing. Tell us up front and it is built into the number from the start, rather than changing it in your driveway.
Air conditioning, electrics, a warning light, a gearbox or a clutch on its way out. Say so early and it costs you nothing in the way you are treated.
A stamped logbook is worth real money to the dealer who buys the car next, so missing service history changes what we can pay for it.
More than about 5,000 km either side of what the enquiry said.
A written-off or repairable write-off record, or finance nobody mentioned. We run the PPSR before we buy, so it comes up either way — much better sitting in the estimate than landing as a surprise.
If something we learn before the visit moves the number — a build year that turns out different, a history check that shows something new — we ring and tell you before anybody is booked in, not once they are at your kerb with the paperwork out. The only reason a driveway renegotiation works on people is that they have already spent their afternoon. So we do not put you there.
What we will not do
The trick that made this category famous: a generous number online, then a smaller one once you have given up your Saturday and somebody is already standing in your driveway. A regulator censured one operator for repricing almost every car it went out to see. If our estimate is going to be wrong, we would far rather it was wrong low.
Not one cent of what the person in your driveway earns is tied to the gap between the estimate and what you end up accepting. There is no bonus for talking you down, which is why nobody will try — and why you can take the offer, sleep on it, or hand it back with no atmosphere either way.
The number we write down is the number. Nothing counts down on a screen, nothing expires at midnight, and nobody rings to tell you it has dropped because you took the weekend. If you want to talk it over with someone first, that is exactly what you should do.
No inspection fee, no admin fee, no transfer fee, no collection fee, and no safety certificate cost passed back to you. The figure on the contract is the figure that lands in your account.
