Online classified group Auto Trader is pushing the credentials of its valuations service. It said it made 770,000 valuations for consumers in January.
The valuations are based on around half a million vehicle data points each day, including asking prices collected from Auto Trader ads and dealer websites.
These are adjusted to give an average condition trade price which it said correlated with auction hammer prices.
The margin adjustment is calculated by tracking vehicle sales both at auction and from fleet and leasing industry disposal data and comparing the actual trade price achieved with the retail asking price for the same vehicle.
“In the past consumers used our site search results to compare and contrast prices. This meant they came to forecourts with unrealistic expectations about their car’s part exchange value as they didn’t take specific variant, plate or mileage adjustments into account,” said KarolinaEdwards-Smajda, trade solutions director.
“This was creating a problem for our retailers. The aim of our valuations tool is to therefore help bridge consumer expectations, which we do by providing a valuation based on an accurate and comprehensive retail data set.”
“Everything we develop aims to smooth the journey to a successful sale by bringing expectations of buyers and sellers closer together,” said Edwards-Smajda.
