This car is more expensive than expected

You're losing

16.27% or R61,553

based on the recommended retail value

2020 Volkswagen Polo GTI

61,000km • Automatic • Petrol • Western Cape

Last updated 12 hours ago.

Retail value

R378,347

How much a dealership is recommended to sell this car for.

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Asking price

R439,900

This is 16.27% or R61,553 more than the recommended retail value.

Market view

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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, and retail values to help them price their cars.

What's the difference between a car's book value, trade value, and retail value?

Book value: The price a dealership is recommended to buy a car for.
Trade value: As the name suggests, this is the trade-in value of a car and it’s the same as the above mentioned “book value”.
Retail value: The price a dealership is recommended to sell a car for.

Who determines a car's book/trade/retail 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 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 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.