Your MG4 is not a petrol hatch with a battery problem.
The usual way to value this car is to find a petrol hatch of about the same size, start from there, then take something off because nobody wants to think about the battery.
We start at the battery, read it on the day, and price the car that is actually in front of us.
- Battery electric
- Australia wide
- Finance settled directly
4.9/5 from 500+ sellers across The Car Buyers group
The comparison
Charged twice for the same thing
Valued against a petrol car, then discounted for not being one. That is two deductions arriving as a single number.
Ask around and this car gets valued the way a petrol hatch gets valued. Same size, same shape, same run to the shops, so somebody reaches for a familiar figure and works from there. Then the battery comes up, nobody wants to be the one left holding an unknown, and a second amount comes off to cover it. You end up carrying the comparison and the caution at once, and only one number is ever shown to you.
The comparison does not help in either direction. What moves the value on an electric car is not the odometer, it is what the battery reads on the day, and no petrol car has that reading sitting behind its price. Neither the charging gear nor the condition of the specific car in the driveway is in there either. Start from a familiar figure and adjust for all three, and you have guessed three times and called the total a valuation.
None of which means we will hand you a bigger number than the car is worth. A reading can come back well or badly and the offer follows it either way. What it means is that the number has reasons inside it that somebody can walk you through, in your driveway, instead of a starting point borrowed from another car and a deduction for the part nobody wanted to look at.
Where a hatch wears
The questions a hatch earns
Each of these is about how the car has been used rather than about what it is, and every one of them is worth money.
- Is the parcel shelf still in the car?
- It is the first thing out of a hatch when something big has to go in, and it is the thing that then lives in a garage for a year. If it is somewhere in the house, go and find it before the inspector comes. Putting it back in the boot is easier than pricing around it.
- What has the boot mostly carried?
- Shopping, a dog, tools, flat packed furniture, or very little at all. It tells the inspector where to spend the time, which on a car like this is the boot floor, the loading edge and the backs of the rear seats rather than anywhere under the bonnet.
- What is coming with it, and what is staying?
- The charging lead, a second key, the floor mats, a boot liner if you bought one. List them rather than leaving them to be discovered, because anything definitely coming with the car can be counted, and anything nobody mentions tends to travel for nothing.
- Is there anything on it you have already had quoted?
- A chipped windscreen, a kerbed rim, a scuff somebody offered to sort out for a price. If you know the figure, say the figure. A quote you are already holding is more use to us than a repair you rush, and it stops the same fault being counted twice.
Whatever it gets compared to
Three things the comparison never changes
- The number comes off your car. The reading taken in your driveway, the state of the panels and the interior, and everything coming with it. Not an average, not a category, and not some other car that happens to be the same size.
- Nothing comes off for the unknown. A battery is only an unknown until somebody measures it, and measuring it is the reason an inspector drives out to your home or your work instead of asking you to bring the car anywhere.
- You are allowed to say no on the day. The number gets explained in front of you, nothing is signed until you are happy with it, and the paperwork goes through your phone. If it is not for you, that is where it stops.
The awkward ones
Three worth asking before you sell it
Will you value it against a petrol hatch?
No. The starting point is the battery reading and the condition of the car in front of us, and a petrol comparison contains neither of those. If somebody has already given you a number that came out of one, bring it up on the call and we will tell you what ours is built from.
Should I get the small things fixed before you look at it?
Usually not. A repair rushed through the week before rarely returns what it costs, and we would rather see the car as it is alongside an honest list of what you already know about it. If you are holding a quote for something, that is more useful to us than the work itself.
There is still a loan on it. Do I have to clear that first?
No, and it is better that you do not try. Tell us who the financier is, we ask them for the payout figure and settle it directly. Where the payout comes to more than the car is worth, the difference is put in writing and agreed before you sign anything.
Price it on the reading, not on the shape.
Or call us on 03 9000 0075 and talk it through first.