KBB Used Car Values
The KBB used car values are listed in the Kelly Blue Book which is a car valuation publication that is also available online. It was created in order to help both consumers and sellers with putting a cash value on cars. Originally, the book was a trade publication that was used by the automotive industry insiders, but later on the manual became available for the consumer market and now it is the most popular car valuation source available.
The book contains car values with the suggested retail prices that car dealers would ask for an automobile, based upon the make, model, year and mileage of the vehicle. Recently, the book also offers values for suggested private party retail asking prices in order to help those people that want to buy or sell car privately. You need to know that the values listed in the KBB are not set in stone and you should consider them as an estimate of what the asking price of a vehicle would be.
You need to know that it is wrong to consider the KBB values as the fair selling price of a certain car. As we mentioned before, the values offered in the book are simply suggested asking prices, not estimations of the actual price tags that the cars will sell for. Most likely, the actual selling price of a car will be lower in comparison to the one that you find in the book. To give you a relevant example, when you sell a home, the final sale price is unlikely to be just as high as the initial asking price, unless there are many potential buyers who are willing to pay more.
The KBB is very useful for those people that do not want or do not know how to negotiate. Why? Because the car’s seller will surely cite the value of the car cited in the KBB and he will be willing to sell the car at that price. It is recommended to let the seller know that you know how the KBB works, and come up with a reasonable counter offer which is based upon the actual sale prices of similar cars. You will most likely save a couple of hundred dollars if you can prove that you know the KBB values.
Of course the KBB used car values do have their limitations because these are in most cases limited to the most common vehicles bought for normal transportation necessities. Collector cars, vintage cars, classics, hot rods and so on will not have an accurate KBB value due to the fact that the market for such rare cars can vary greatly upon the tastes of a few wealthy buyers. These types of cars are most likely to be sold on auctions where the final price is unknown until the auction ends.
At KBB’s website located at www.kbb.com you will also find a price that indicates “what consumers are actually paying for this vehicle.” Most likely, this value is a better guide in comparison to the MSRP.
If you don’t know how to use their website, here are a couple of simple instructions to follow:
First, access the website which we’ve mentioned above and click on the “new cars” option in order to access pricing info for the new cars that you are interested in buying. You now need to click on the appropriate make & model and a list of options will appear. After that, you will choose the model that you want and you will find out the car’s MSRP as well as the invoice value. If you want to buy a used car, go to the “used cars” menu option and do the same thing as above.
If you want to sell a car but you do not know how much to ask for it, you must select the appropriate condition of your vehicle. If the car has little to no exterior flaws (dings and/or minor scratches) and has no history of major damages or repairs, you should consider it to be in a “good” condition. For more serious defects, list the car as being in a “fair” condition.
You will need to choose what type of car value you are looking to establish. Don’t forget that the trade-in value is different in comparison to its private party transaction value.
Post tags: Tags: kelley blue book, new car values, used car values
