Manufacturers regularly ask us to explain our figures. I tell them we're simply reflecting the market

摘要

Who determines second-hand car values and how do they go about it? John Evans meets the people who decide how much your used motor is worth. In a smart office block in Leeds rest the hopes of millions of car buyers and sellers. It's here that each day Cap HPI, the vehicle valuation company, processes thousands of buying and selling prices drawn from more than 50 suppliers, including auction groups and car sales websites. The 160,000 motor trade transactions and 700,000 daily retail adverts the company crunches generate 10 million used car values across 2300 model ranges and in excess of 70,000 model derivatives going back 20 years. It captures price data on two million of the eight million used cars sold each year in the UK. Cap HPI is, it claims, the country's biggest supplier of used vehicle values.