Stw standard issue octavia sitting waiting in the dealership for me – on personal contract hire. Am I right in thinking that gap is pretty much essential here?

Also will be taking one of our current fleet along potentially to value and trade in. Have got an idea of value from wbac.com so I think I know where they’ll pitch it, but any words of advice?

How much effort should I put in to cleaning/polishing/t-cut/vac’ing?

Should I go to a couple of dealers to get comparable? (local garage had one off us a couple of years back) but are they all going to give the same price?

Any pointers gratefully accepted! I’ve not traded a car in for about 15 years so not really au fait with the process apart from getting shafted 😉

Practically all fully comp insurance covers replacing a new car with a new car if the event of an accident for the first twelve months.

Gap insurance can be found cheaper away from the dealerships.

Wbac is what the dealers told me they use to value cars, or at least their systems use the same data. I’d just use it as a rock bottom price and work from there.

It wouldn’t hurt getting one of those £5 hand car washes done. That’s what I do anyway.

Are you getting a PCP or lease? If a PCP then yes gap insurance, but not from the garage selling you the car.

Selling your old, go to at least 2 or 3 dealers unless you are not bothered about the odd £500. And yes tidy it up, first impression counts. I sold a Seat to a garage 4 or so years back. The polish I used covered up loads of scratches. As it looked good they didn’t even check the tyres that were nearly all on the legal limit

It’s a lease. Thinking gap covers the outstanding rentals – doesn’t matter about the actual car.

I’d actually punch your registration into we buy any car.com etc before you go as sometimes it’s not a bad valuation and may give you a leverage tool with the dealer. No one says you have to chop your old motor in with them, I didn’t the last time I was there as they weren’t playing ball.

Wbac = webuyanycar 😉

I would have thought the dealer has a pretty much fixed margin on the lease – as it’s a vw deal. About a grand? Any insights?

when we were looking at changing our car the non-smarmy dealer actually advised us to go to wbac as they would give us a better price than he would.
The smarmy one on the other hand did basically agree to the price i got from autotrader but was extremely evasive on interest rates which working back from his figures were in the low teens.

Wasn’t the time to haggle over the value of trade in before you agreed to buy their car?

Never ever buy Gap from the dealership. It’s mis-sold and overpriced.

also looking for GAP insurance for a new car that I have ordered on a PCP deal. Dealer has offered it for £500 which I know is a lot. Any recommendation for best product ? thanks

I have used directgap.co.uk a couple of times in the past. I have never claimed so no idea what that part of the service is like, but prices always seem competitive.

WBAC is likely to be a better offer than you’ll get from the dealership unless your current car is one that they’d take into stock and retail themselves.

ALA or click4gap, never from the dealership.

…WBAC is likely to be a better offer than you’ll get from the dealership unless your current car is one that they’d take into stock and retail themselves…

This couldn’t be any more different than my experience. Last couple of times I’ve changed cars, WBAC offered quite a bit less – like around 20% to 25% less – than the dealer offered me as a trade-in. And worth noting that in each case, the car I was buying was fairly heavily discounted too, so it’s not like they were flattering me with a good trade-in but overcharging me on the sale

I got a new car on a 3 year PCP, took out GAP insurance for £108 over the 3 years.

Oh, & that was through the dealership as well…

I just tried to buy a secondhand car, 1 year old less than 10,000 miles. Ended up with a new car quote which was 1 k more than the s/h price and on 0% for 2 years with 3 years servicing and a spec I wanted. Trade in was 1k more than what and consistent with prices on auto trader and gumtree. Didn’t think it was too bad.

took out GAP with http://www.ala.co.uk/ on my current car got cashback via quidco