Updated 24 July 2026 · By Old Bangers Editorial
In short: Every price on Old Bangers is calculated from real, dated evidence — live UK listings in our own database, recorded sold results from our data partners, and clearly attributed third-party guides where we cite them. We publish the median as the headline figure, show the full live range and the sample size behind it, and date every number. If we cannot evidence a figure, we do not print it. We never scrape, and we never invent or “estimate” a price to fill a gap.
Car values are the kind of thing it is easy to make up and hard to get right. Most price guides ask you to trust a single number with no working shown. We take the opposite approach: this page explains exactly where our figures come from and how we turn raw market data into the values you see on our price guides and model pages, so you can judge them for yourself.
Where our numbers come from
Live UK listings. The core of Old Bangers is a database of cars currently for sale in the UK, ingested from licensed marketplace feeds and APIs. This is the freshest signal of what sellers are actually asking today. Every “live” figure on the site is computed from these listings on the date shown.
Recorded sold results. Where we have them, we use completed sale prices — the strongest evidence of what a car is truly worth, because a sold price is a number a buyer actually paid. Our sold coverage is still growing, so on many models the live asking data leads and sold results are shown as they accumulate.
Survival and scarcity data. For “how many are left” context we use the DVLA’s published vehicle-licensing statistics, released under the Open Government Licence. These tell you how many of a given model remain taxed or SORN on UK records — a factual, government-sourced measure of rarity that helps explain why some cars hold value better than others.
Attributed third-party guidance. Where a respected published guide (for example Hagerty, The Classic Valuer or a specialist marque source) adds context our own data cannot yet cover — such as low-volume variant values or an older banding — we cite it by name and date. You will always see where an external figure came from and how old it is.
How we calculate a value
For any model, our process is deliberately simple and repeatable:
| Step | What we do |
|---|---|
| 1. Gather | Pull every live UK listing for the model (and generation or year range, where relevant) from our database. |
| 2. De-duplicate | Remove the same car appearing across more than one source, so one vehicle counts once. |
| 3. Clean | Exclude obvious non-cars and placeholder prices before any figure is calculated. |
| 4. Summarise | Report the median asking price as the headline (it resists distortion from one unusually cheap or dear car), alongside the full live range (lowest to highest) and the number of cars the figure is based on. |
| 5. Date it | Stamp the figure with the day it was calculated. Markets move; an undated price is a guess. |
We show the sample size on purpose. A median drawn from 30 live cars is more reliable than one drawn from three, and you deserve to know which you are looking at. When live data on a model is thin, we say so rather than dressing up a small sample as a firm valuation.
Asking price is not sold price
This matters, so we state it plainly. A live listing shows what a seller hopes to get, not necessarily what a car sells for — good cars can exceed their asking price at auction, while optimistic private ads can sit unsold for months. We label asking data as asking data and sold data as sold data, and we never blur the two. Condition, mileage, service history and specification move any individual car well inside or outside the range we quote.
What we never do
We do not invent numbers. If we cannot support a figure with live listings, recorded sales or an attributed source, it does not appear on the site — we would rather show a smaller, honest picture than a complete, fictional one. We do not scrape data from sites that prohibit it; our listings come from licensed feeds and consented partners. And we do not quietly “estimate” a value to make a table look full: a gap in our data is shown as a gap.
Freshness and corrections
Price guides carry a visible “updated” date and are refreshed as the market moves — typically each quarter, and sooner when a model’s values shift sharply. If you believe a figure on Old Bangers is wrong or out of date, tell us via our contact page and we will check it against the evidence. Getting it right matters more to us than getting it first.
Methodology FAQs
Do Old Bangers prices show what a car sold for, or what it is listed at?
Mostly what cars are currently listed at in the UK, computed as a median of live asking prices with the range and sample size shown. Where we have recorded sold results we use and label them separately, because a sold price is stronger evidence than an asking price.
Why do you show a range and a count instead of one price?
Because a single number hides how much cars vary and how much data sits behind it. The median tells you the middle of the market, the range tells you how wide it is, and the count tells you how much to trust the figure. Together they let you judge a value rather than take it on faith.
How often are the figures updated?
Live-market figures reflect our database on the date printed on each page. Editorial price guides carry a visible updated date and are refreshed on roughly a quarterly cycle, and sooner when a model moves sharply.
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