The same used car is listed 44% apart in Qatar. About half of that gap is a trim nobody wrote down.

Pick a used car in Doha: a model, a year, a rough mileage. Then look at what people are asking for it. The answer is rarely one price. It is usually a range wide enough to make you wonder whether some of the sellers are describing a different car. Often they are. We measured how wide that range is across BuMotar's used listings today, and then how much of it disappears once you know what you are actually looking at.

How wide the range is

We took every live used listing that states its mileage, removed obvious duplicates (the same phone number listing the same car at the same mileage twice), and grouped cars by make, model, model year and mileage band: under 50,000 km, 50,000 to 100,000, 100,000 to 200,000, and over 200,000. That leaves 147 groups with at least ten cars each, 3,218 cars in all.

In each group we compared the cheapest tenth with the dearest tenth, which ignores the odd listing priced at a tenth or ten times what it should be. In the middle group, the dearest tenth asks 44% more than the cheapest. The cheap end sits a median 15% below the group's middle price and the dear end 19% above it. Only 35 of the 147 groups are tighter than 25%. In 63 groups the spread is 50% or more.

Same model, same year, same mileage band: the dearest tenth of sellers asks 44% more than the cheapest tenth.

The range widens as cars age. In groups of 2024 to 2026 cars it is 26%. In 2019 to 2023 cars it is 43%, and in 2014 to 2018 cars 52%. Cars from 2013 and older come in at 48%. Older cars have had more time to be looked after or not, and the listings rarely say which.

Most of it is the trim

The biggest single cause is one the buyer cannot see in most listings. Only 4,566 of the 12,445 used cars on the site name a trim. Where enough sellers do name one, the difference is plain. In the 62 groups where we can split cars by trim, the spread with trims mixed together is 41%. Within a single trim, across 86 groups of at least six cars, it drops to 21%. Knowing the trim takes away about half of the confusion.

The 2024 Land Cruiser with under 50,000 km shows it best. Across all 67 cars, the cheapest tenth asks QAR 190,000 or less and the dearest tenth QAR 309,000 or more, with a middle of QAR 244,000. Split by the trims sellers named, it is three different cars:

• GXR — QAR 209,000 to 245,500 from the cheapest tenth to the dearest, middle QAR 230,000 (14 cars).
• GXR Twin Turbo — QAR 226,200 to 264,800, middle QAR 242,000 (14 cars).
• VXR Twin Turbo — QAR 289,000 to 309,000, middle QAR 299,000 (11 cars). The same comparison across eleven sellers comes out just 7% apart.
• No trim named — QAR 185,800 to 309,600 (20 cars). These are the listings that make the whole model look unpredictable.

The gap holds on older cars. On a 2016 Land Cruiser, at a median of about 254,000 km, the VXR asks a middle QAR 121,500 (12 cars) against QAR 108,000 for the GXR (24 cars).

Which cars are easy to price, and which are not

The models with fewer meaningful trims are the ones with tight prices. Across each model's groups, the middle spread is:

• Lexus LX — 19%, across 15 groups and 244 cars. The trims exist, but they sit close together in price.
• Mitsubishi Pajero — 36%, across 6 groups and 93 cars.
• Nissan Patrol — 51%, across 20 groups and 378 cars.
• Toyota Land Cruiser — 53%, across 36 groups and 1,304 cars.
• Land Rover Defender — 54%, across 6 groups and 105 cars.
• Range Rover — 74%, across 13 groups and 267 cars.

The Land Cruiser and the LX share most of their engineering. One is sold in Qatar in everything from a plain Standard to a VXR and a GR Sport. The other is sold as a luxury car with little variation between versions. The listings reflect that exactly. The Chinese makes look tight too, at 26% across 19 groups and 429 cars, against 46% for Japanese makes (89 groups) and 60% for European (27 groups). Do not read too much into that. Most of the Chinese cars are a year or two old, and new cars are tight whatever the badge. A 2025 Jetour T2 with under 50,000 km runs QAR 87,100 to 110,000 across 72 cars, the same 26%.

Mileage explains less than you would think

Within a mileage band, more kilometres do mean a lower price: the relationship points that way in 123 of the 147 groups. But it is weak. In the middle group, the kilometres explain about 12% of the variation in asking price. Once you are in the right band, the odometer is a small part of why one car asks more than the next. Trim, condition, history, and how much the seller wants to sell are the rest. Only the first of those is usually written down.

What to do with this

• If you are buying — Before you compare prices, get the trim. Ask for it, or read it off the badge, the wheels and the seats in the photographs. Compare a GXR with GXRs, not with the model's whole price range. A car at the cheap end of a mixed range is often just the cheaper trim, and is not a bargain at all. A car at the cheap end of its own trim is worth a phone call.
• If you are selling — Name the trim. A listing without it gets compared with everything sold under the model name, the cheapest cars included. If yours is the dearer trim, that comparison costs you money. If it is the base trim, buyers will find out anyway.
• If you are holding — Your car's value is a range, not a number, and on a Land Cruiser or a Range Rover that range is wide. The figure that matters is the middle price for your trim, year and mileage band. Asking above it means waiting longer.

What we do not know, and what would change the answer. These are asking prices, not sale prices. A wide asking range may narrow a lot at the point of sale, and these listings cannot show it. The trim field is filled in by the seller, it is missing on about six used listings in ten, and it is spelled in many ways: we grouped it as written, so a GXR and a GXR Grand Touring count as different trims. Within-trim groups are smaller, at six cars rather than ten, which on its own tends to narrow a measured range a little. Mileage bands are wide, our duplicate check misses the same car listed from two numbers, and none of this sees condition, accident history or service records, which are probably most of the spread that remains.

Read next

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