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The North/South price divide

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johnbirt
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The North/South price divide

Post by johnbirt » Wed Mar 22, 2017 3:52 pm

Been Zed-less for a while so been AWOL from the forum some long time.

Thinking of changing the car (C-250 saloon) in next week or so as I could now do with an estate to fit a (heavy) folding electric bike in. Couple of eye openers for me whilst looking.

There seems to be a very significant difference between North/South prices. Fairly similar used cars are priced often 10% higher heading south towards the M25 and London area. The other significant difference seems to be part-ex. I have been consistently offered derisory part-ex the further south you go. £2000++ difference in several cases. The CAP/RAC/Parkers/AA/... etc. etc. range for my car part-ex averages out at around £20300 - £22400 and many dealers seem to concur based on offers received. All quotations with 1 exception I have had from southern areas fall below the bottom end of that range as low as £19500. Even WBAC do better. Best local offer is £22500 which is very generous. I would say the average offer in the northern territories is £21500. Add into the equation the 10% on top of the asking price and there is a significant price hike going south. I am not talking "Dodgy Dave" back street dealers but Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Skoda, VW main dealers. Main culprits being Mercedes. I currently have an offer of £22K so I'm not being unrealistic I don't think.

Most BMW dealers who don't have used outlets for non BMW stuff offer pathetic p-ex as they argue that they have to put your pride and joy out to "the trade" for bids i.e. their pal down the road. Consequently you are going to get 10% less straight off if you change marques.

Secondly. Getting car insurance quotes produced an anomaly I hadn't seen before. Mind you I don't change cars that often so didn't notice before. Altering voluntary accidental excess produces strange results. Increasing it considerably can produce a significant increase in premium rather than a decrease.

When I queried this with SAGA for example (for i am a wrinkly) the explanation given was that different voluntary excess amounts selected could lead in their system to a change of provider and hence a differently based quote. This non-linear behavior seems common to all online insurance sites I visited on further testing.

In my case the "sweet spot" for most seemed to be £300/400 voluntary excess. Moving higher to £500, £1000 etc. often produced a very hefty increase over the £300/400 selection. Lowering it took many of the cheaper companies completely out of the quotations.

It is hard to figure for the dumb like me that there is any need for the quotation systems needing to change provider as excess increases. It may well be as SAGA explained it but nevertheless not much sense or logic behind it for me. I find it hard to credit that apparently some insurance providers aren't keen on larger excesses and punish you for it.

I also hadn't figured that moving to an estate would hike my insurance by 40% as it appears would be the case. Same kit, bit bigger, lower performance but perhaps more likely to get stolen for boot contents?

Sorely tempted to stay as I am! Miss the Z4 but wasn't practical unfortunately. Fitting the bike in a C-saloon with no folding seats is a nightmare and the front wheel, handlebars need to come off and then trying to avoid knocking lumps off the paintwork etc.... Can't fit tow-bar to AMG and can't be doing with roof loading, so this could turn out to be one of the most expensive bikes in history. The simplest and a lot cheaper answer would probably be to ditch the bike and take up walking!

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buzyg
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The North/South price divide

Post by buzyg » Wed Mar 22, 2017 6:25 pm

Always been there. I brought my father in law's Newish Pug406 to Cornwall to sell it. 19 years ago, as we could get over 1k more here compared to Liverpool, for a private sale.
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