Is that used car a good deal? Let’s find out!
Compare a car’s asking price to similar cars on the market.
We’ll show you what a car’s retail market value should be, based on data from across the industry.
Interested in selling your car?
Get the best price for your car, without the admin.
How it works
1.
Find a used car online
Explore any of South Africa’s most popular online used car marketplaces for a car that you might be interested in. For example:
2.
Share the link to the car listing with us
Once you’ve found a car that you like, copy the link to the car listing and paste it here into the search box above.
3.
See how much that car is really worth
Click “Lookup car value”, and we’ll tell you if the car is overvalued or undervalued and by how much, based on the current retail market.
Fair, independent, car valuations
Beware of car valuations that are based on a single source of data, as they can suffer from biased results.
We use machine learning to calculate the recommended retail value of each car based on the make, model, year, mileage, location and more, from data collected across the industry (not just a single source).
We’re proud to say that we do this independently, free of influence from car dealerships or car listing websites.
Asking price history
Avoid “fake sales” where car dealerships artificially inflate their prices to make their discounts seem larger than they actually are.
We maintain a public audit trail of changes made to a car listing’s asking price.
Feel confident that you’re getting the lowest price advertised.
Your car market watchdog
Unfortunately, the car industry is filled with dodgy dealers and it can be risky buying a car without doing at least some research beforehand.
Even popular online car marketplaces might not have your best interests in mind, because they make most of their money from car dealerships trying to sell more cars.
We, on the other hand, work for you and are 100% aligned with helping you (the consumer) to find the right car, at the right price.
Price change alerts
Waiting for the best time to buy?
We monitor a car listing’s asking price, 24/7, so that you don’t have to.
Get notified when a car listing drops or hikes their asking price.
Car valuations that change with the economy
How do you know if you’re getting a good deal on a car, if you don’t compare it with other deals on the market?
We keep track of car prices from across the industry and update our machine learning model to give you accurate car valuations that reflect the current economic climate.
Make an informed car buying decision by staying up-to-date with the current car prices.
Collect your favourite cars
Great cars can be found across the industry, on many different marketplace websites.
We help you save and compare deals on your favourite cars, even with the option to export to CSV/Excel.
Start building your collection and find the right car for you.
Pricing
Support the website. Cancel anytime.
- View unlimited car valuations from other members
- Reveal 5 new car valuations
- Subscribe to 5 car price change alerts
- Collect & compare your favourite cars
- View unlimited car valuations from other members
- Reveal 20 new car valuations
- Subscribe to 20 car price change alerts
- Collect & compare your favourite cars
- Export your car collections to CSV/Excel
- View unlimited car valuations from other members
- Reveal 100 new car valuations
- Subscribe to 100 car price change alerts
- Collect & compare your favourite cars
- Export your car collections to CSV/Excel
- View unlimited car valuations from other members
- Reveal 500 new car valuations
- Subscribe to 500 car price change alerts
- Collect & compare your favourite cars
- Export your car collections to CSV/Excel
Questions
How do car dealerships determine the price of a car?
As you can imagine, every car dealership doesn’t have the expertise or resources to invest in a team of automotive data scientists to analyse historic car sales data and estimate a fair price for each of their cars. That’s why car dealerships outsource this responsibility to third-party automotive data providers like TransUnion, Lightstone, DiskDrive, and a few others. These automotive data providers provide car dealerships with book, trade, retail, and market values to help them price their cars.
What’s the difference between a car’s book value, trade value, retail value, and market value?
-
Book value: The price a dealership is recommended to buy a car for.
Historically, a car’s trade & retail values were published in a physical book known as the Mead & McGrouther Auto Dealers’ Guide.
Over time, “book value” has become an informal term for “trade value”.
- Trade value / trade-in value: The price a dealership is recommended to buy your car. This is the same as the above mentioned “book value”.
- Retail value / retail market value: The price a dealership is recommended to sell a car for.
- Market value / private market value: The price a private seller would likely get for selling their car to a private buyer.
Who determines a car’s book/trade/retail/market value?
Historically, a company called Mead & McGrouther sold a physical “Auto Dealers’ Guide” book filled with valuations of every vehicle sold in South Africa. Since then, Mead & McGrouther has been bought by TransUnion and the book has been digitised and now sold as a software service.
Who provides the dealerships with a car’s book/trade/retail/market value?
Third-party automotive data providers like TransUnion, Lightstone, DiskDrive, and a few others supply dealerships with these values, along with other automotive data insights, to help them run their business.
How is a car’s book/trade/retail/market value calculated?
Each automotive data provider has their own algorithm for calculating an estimated car value. Unfortunately, the exact calculation isn’t publicly known, but it’s believed to take into account a number of factors, including the current car market supply and demand, historic new car prices, inflation, recent car sales data, car make/model/condition/mileage, and more.
How does CarPriceValue calculate a car’s recommended retail market value?
We monitor car listings from across the industry, train our machine learning model on thousands of car specifications, and make a retail value estimate that best matches the current market.
This would be the equivalent of you finding similar cars online, and getting a feel for the “average” asking price, but just at a much bigger scale and way more accurate.
More questions?
Send an email to [email protected].