6:11 pm, June 28, 2023
Used car prices have dominated Car Dealer’s headlines for the past few years – and rightly so.
It’s been fascinating to watch as values have pretty much consistently gone up – but then we had the huge EV price falls this year that have only recently begun to recover.
Predicting pricing performance and accurately analysing the data is crucial to dealers, and 2023 saw Cap HPI score a hat-trick in this category, having also scooped the trophy the previous two years – unequivocal proof that dealers are very happy indeed with the services that it provides.
Director of valuations Derren Martin told us how thrilled the company was to have triumphed once again.
He said: ‘It’s fantastic for us. I think the main reason why we’re so pleased is because it’s voted for by the dealers – by our customers.
‘And it’s a great testament to our accuracy. It’s a great credit to the team of editors at Cap HPI, because they’re the ones who do all the valuations.
‘They’re steeped in the used car market. We use very complicated systems, but at the end of the day, there’s a person there moving the values, so all credit to them.
‘We want to thank the dealers who voted for us. We’re really pleased that we’re still providing the service that they require.
‘We’ll share it within our whole international organisation and obviously in our network as well.’
Martin added: ‘I think we’ve got stronger and stronger since the start of Covid. Our accuracy has been maintained in some really difficult times.
‘It’s obviously been a very awkward time for car dealers over the past three years for various reasons. So yes, it shows that we’re front and centre, especially with regard to trade valuations in the market.’
Used car valuations have grown in importance over the past few years, so it’s been vital for dealers to have a reliable partner such as Cap HPI with whom to work.
Martin concurred, saying: ‘It helps them buy, it helps them sell, it helps them forecast.
‘Used car values can be so important for all those reasons, when they’re buying a part-exchange, when they’re valuing a part-exchange for a consumer, when they’re selling the vehicles on their forecourt, when they’re looking at what margins they can make – all of these things are really important factors.
‘And then, when there were long lead times for new cars, our forecast tools were really important as well.’
Cap HPI now has option values within its portfolio as well, meaning dealers can value the typical spec of vehicles and not just the basic model as it comes out of the factory.
Reflecting on the past year, Martin said: ‘It’s been incredible. Again, it seems to be interesting all the time. This time, I guess the past 12 months have been dominated by electric vehicles, where values have been dropping over the past nine months or so.
‘It’s been an incredible time, but they are now starting to improve in certain areas for certain models, which we’ve reported on recently. So it’s been a really busy time for the team of editors!’
Cap HPI scored a double at this year’s Power event, as it also won the title of 2023’s provenance check provider.
- W: cap-hpi.com
- T: 0113 222 2000
