Four numbers, one word
Four different figures get called the value of a car, and comparing them without noticing is how people end up feeling cheated. Three of the four describe a car on paper. The list price when new (cataloguswaardeThe price in the manufacturer's list on the day the car was new. Of almost no use in working out what it is worth today.) is a historical fact about a car that no longer exists. The current market value (dagwaardeWhat the car would fetch today, with its age, mileage and condition taken into account. The standard Dutch term when somebody asks what a car is worth now.) is an estimate for right now. The trade-in value (inruilwaardeThe allowance a dealer makes you against the car you are buying from them. That dealer's own number, which can sit either side of an indication.) is what one dealer will allow you against one particular other car.
The fourth is an offer. A named amount, from a named buyer, for the car on your drive, with your mileage and your scratches on it. Of the four, it is the only one that can turn into money in your account. So whenever a figure appears on a website, the first question is which of the four you are reading.
What the ANWB Koerslijst is
The ANWB is the Dutch motoring organisation, and the Koerslijst is its indication of what a passenger car is worth. Its own account of how the figures are made: in-house experts compile them, and a committee of specialists drawn from the motor trade checks the result. The ANWB trades in no cars itself, and says that is why it has no commercial interest in the number coming out high or low.
A lookup runs on the registration number, or on make, model and year of construction if you do not have the number to hand. Adding the mileage and the exact version sharpens it. The tool runs in Dutch, and its page explains what the ANWB considers it good for.
The car the Koerslijst has in mind
It assumes a car that has been looked after. No notable damage, wear in line with its age, maintenance actually carried out. The ANWB states that openly, calls the output a guide price, and says that defects, damage or an import history can pull the real value away from it.
Read in that light, the figure answers one narrow question: what would a sound example of this car be worth. Nobody has looked at yours. If yours has a cracked windscreen or a gap in the service book, the distance between the two numbers is the part you are expected to know about.
Why a trade offer sits under the indication
Because whoever buys it has to sell it again. The ANWB lists the costs a dealer weighs up first: the warranty it will have to stand behind, the preparation to make the car sellable, the money tied up while it stands in stock, and how long it is likely to take to find a buyer. Technical condition, maintenance history and damage then move the figure again.
None of those costs belong in an indication of what a sound car is worth, which is how an honest indication and an honest offer end up in different places. The four routes out of a car sets out what each kind of buyer is taking on.
What you control, and what you can check
Condition, damage, maintenance history, mileage and version are what the ANWB names as the movers. Most of those you can establish before you speak to anybody, and more of them come down to paper than people expect. Our guide to the paperwork has the full list.
- The registration documents and a full set of keys. Without a valid card and a complete registration code there is no transfer at all, whatever anybody offers.
- The APK. Once it has expired the car cannot legally be driven on a public road, so collection has to be arranged some other way. The date is in the RDW Kentekencheck.
- Mileage and the version or trim, the two things a Koerslijst lookup wants from you.
- Damage you can see, and anything that has stopped working, which a buyer will ask about before quoting.
- The maintenance record: a service book, and invoices showing the work was really done.
Buyers weigh these points differently, and there is no fixed amount we could attach to any one of them.
Pinning the car down before you ask
Every buyer should end up describing the same car, which means writing the facts down once. Read the odometer on the day and use that number, not the one you remember. Copy the version exactly as it stands in the Kentekencheck and on the registration card. Photograph the damage and list it, because a buyer who finds something at the handover that was never mentioned will reopen the price, and will be within their rights.
Check your own documents while you are at it. A buyer can register the car only if your registration card is valid and the registration code is complete, and the RDW runs a free online check on the card. Anything missing is something to replace now, ahead of the first conversation. The full order of events is set out separately.
What our offer is, and what it is not
Type the number plate in and we pull the car's details from the RDW register, then ask you what condition it is in. What comes back is an offer to buy it: free, with no obligation, and made for the car as you have described it. That is not a valuation. We are not making a claim about what the open market would pay.
An indication like the Koerslijst teaches you which range is realistic, and the offers you actually receive can then be held against it. Ask us for one and decide afterwards.
Comparing offers without being misled
Check that two offers are for the same thing. Is the figure for the car exactly as it stands, or does it hang on a repair, a fresh APK or an inspection still to come? Who collects the car, who files the transfer with the RDW, and at what point does the money actually move? An offer with conditions attached is not comparable to one without, whatever the headline figures look like.
Whatever you agree, the car stays where it is until the transfer is done. The RDW tells sellers to let the vehicle go only once they hold the proof of transfer (vrijwaringsbewijs). The right order at the handover spells that out.