What is my car actually worth?

How much is my car worth right now?

The honest answer is a range, not a figure. Two identical cars on the same day can be thousands apart on service history, tyres, paint and how many of that exact variant are already sitting on lots this month.

Enter your registration and state and we identify the exact variant and build date from registry data, then apply your kilometres and condition against current Australian market activity. You get a wholesale range and a private-sale range, side by side, so you can see the trade-off rather than a single number with no context.

Trade-in value vs private sale value

Trade-in or wholesale value is what a dealer will pay today. It has to cover their reconditioning, the cost of holding the car until it sells, and their margin — so it is always below what a retail buyer pays.

Private sale value is what you can achieve after advertising, fielding messages, holding inspections and waiting for a buyer's finance to land. The gap between the two ranges is the price of speed and certainty, and it is usually a few thousand dollars.

There is a third number people forget: the changeover. If you are buying something next, what matters is the difference between the new car's drive-away price and what you get for the old one — not either figure on its own.

Car evaluation, appraisal and inspection are three different things

A car evaluation or valuation estimates what the vehicle is worth on today's market. That is what this tool does, and it is free.

A car appraisal is a formal, documented valuation — the sort of thing needed for insurance, finance settlement, a deceased estate or a family law matter. It usually involves a physical inspection and a written certificate, and it costs money.

A pre-purchase inspection assesses condition and mechanical safety on a car you are thinking of buying. It tells you whether the car is sound, not what it is worth. Buying used? Do both — a valuation to check the asking price is fair, and an inspection to check the car is.

What moves your car's value the most

After model, age and variant, the biggest levers are kilometres, a complete logbook service history, whether the car has been repaired after an accident, and tyre and paint condition. A written-off history or a repairable write-off notation cuts value sharply and cannot be hidden.

Demand matters more than most sellers expect. Dual-cab utes, seven-seat SUVs and hybrids move quickly and hold value; large sedans and unpopular colours sit. Timing your sale into a demand window can be worth more than a detail and a set of tyres.

One thing that does not move value: what you paid, or what you still owe. A car under finance is valued the same way — if you sell, we obtain the payout figure from your financier and settle it directly from the proceeds.