Kelley Blue Book Values for Used Cars

[FlagCraig]

So I'm helping my son shop for a used truck. For what he can afford it will end up being about 15 years old with 150K plus miles on it.

Focus has been on Craigslist in our area. Definitely will be from Private Party. Since I haven't bought many cars this way before do sellers (Private Party) generally go by KBB values or is this out the door when they price vehicle?

When buying the vehicle how much weight should we put on KBB values?

Just looking for some thoughts.

 

[Cranky]

Around here, trucks seem to be fairly true to the KBB values but cars are another story. If a car has 200+k miles, figure about 2/3rds of what the KBB says but it also depends on the truck. I recently sold a Chevy crew cab dually that was pretty pretty clean but with high mileage (almost 200k). Only one person showed up to look at it but I got exactly what the KBB said it was worth.

 

[verdelaw]

In general, KBB is a starting point. Just like Hagerty and Nada. Whether sellers follow KBB depends usually on the type of vehicle. If it is rare or sought after.. prices are all over the place. If it is a Honda Accord or Toyota pickup, then they will be laser-aimed at KBB usually.

I follow www.bringatrailer.com and you often see Porsches on there. KBB will value 2003ish ones around $20k but you'll see them go for $25-$27k... that's because BaT is full of enthusiasts and these are specialized cars. Every normal car I've bought and sold in the last 10 years has been damn close to KBB, because that's the standard and '04 Hondas aren't anything special.

Anyway hell.. if he's gonna get something that old, you might as well get something cool. Get a C-10 and make it a muscle truck!

http://www.roadkill.com/car/muscle-truck/

 

[Cranky]

Last week I sold a 2002 Camry XLE with the V6 engine. The body was clean and nice looking with good matching tires but the interior sucked. Everything worked except for the sun roof and the AC would freeze you out. The bad thing about the car besides the interior is it had 204k miles on it but KBB valued it at 3100 for my area. A ton of people looked at it and got 3 offers at 2000 with many much lower. Had to convince the owner that it was just too nasty on the inside and too many miles to get more and after a month, she finally caved. I had been lowering the price on the ad and finally to 2150 and got 2000. It surprised me how well it ran but it also surprised me how cheap the interior was. Generally I don't mess with flipping cars but this was for a friend of a friend. The friend I sell for has a trucking company and when his smaller trucks get around 200k he brings them to me.

 

[Cranky]

So I'm helping my son shop for a used truck. For what he can afford it will end up being about 15 years old with 150K plus miles on it.

Focus has been on Craigslist in our area. Definitely will be from Private Party. Since I haven't bought many cars this way before do sellers (Private Party) generally go by KBB values or is this out the door when they price vehicle?

When buying the vehicle how much weight should we put on KBB values?

Just looking for some thoughts.

Have you considered looking at a Dakota? Prices vary pretty widely according to location. There's a tons of them running around my area which surprises me because the Houston area isn't a Dodge town at all. They also go from pretty nice and well cared for to absolute junkers. They hold up pretty well too. Some years had fast wearing ball joints so you'll need to research that for what years got the crap joints. If you want to spend a few dollars more, you have the RT Dakotas too.....5 to 6k for decent ones but sometimes you can find them cheaper if it needs anything.

 

[FlagCraig]

Yes I have noticed that about the Dakotas. I have actually seen a couple for around 4500.00 with less than 120K miles and looked great. One of them is a one owner car. He could be getting a call.

 

[patrick66]

I take NADA, Edmonds and KBB values, add the three together then divide by there to get the average. I find that value to be fair. NADA is normally high, and Edmonds tends to be low.

 

[wahya]

When I bought my (new) truck about three years ago, I used kbb and nada values in figuring what my trade was going to be. Salesman comes back with a price and using a trade in value using black book( wtf). It was way lower than what I figured and was about to walk, when they started coming down on price.
Now, when I look at nada value for my truck and then go to find it at that price it isn't happening. So it looks like around here at least, trucks are selling much higher than nada values.

 

[Sonny Black]

Sonny Sold this car to a guy that paid $ CASH $.......(the deal took 5 min)....long story short.......Shot dead by Police 2 weeks after he purchased it...no family!!!!only a girl friend, and she called the cops on him......said he beat her....the rest is history!
......someone said she was now driving the crossfire!

 

[eric383]

Some guys will put up with a lot of crazy for a little bit of lovin. Thanks for the story buddy. I remember you telling me you sold the car but it must have been before the shooting. WOW!

 

[Budnicks]

IMO either of the listings values is speculation anyway
wholesale pricing, trade in vlaue or retail selling prices...
Vary vastly...

Among all the sites listed already...

Something in between is a good gauge...

IMO really depends on the specific car/truck, options,
how much your willing to pay etc.

off a lot it's retail, private party it's all over the board...

I check a bunch of -www- sales sites & forums for pricing 1st,
get an idea of what they are going for...
IMO a truck/car from Calif.
probably won't be priced the same as a truck from Nebraska, Idaho, Maine etc.,
much like real-estate, location dictates cost, even possibly value too...

good luck

 

[verdelaw]

Last week I sold a 2002 Camry XLE with the V6 engine. The body was clean and nice looking with good matching tires but the interior sucked. Everything worked except for the sun roof and the AC would freeze you out. The bad thing about the car besides the interior is it had 204k miles on it but KBB valued it at 3100 for my area. A ton of people looked at it and got 3 offers at 2000 with many much lower. Had to convince the owner that it was just too nasty on the inside and too many miles to get more and after a month, she finally caved. I had been lowering the price on the ad and finally to 2150 and got 2000. It surprised me how well it ran but it also surprised me how cheap the interior was. Generally I don't mess with flipping cars but this was for a friend of a friend. The friend I sell for has a trucking company and when his smaller trucks get around 200k he brings them to me.

I feel like this is an exception to KBB pricing because it has an extreme that comes with it: the super nasty interior. KBB has short descriptions about what the cars should be like for each pricing level. It sounds like your Camry was pretty bad on the inside, so a reduction of about a grand sounds about right to me. It would probably cost more than that to replace everything in there, not to mention a bunch of work. For a standard car that has had wear to it that is commensurate with it's age/mileage, in my experience KBB has been right on. For enthusiast cars, of any kind, it's hit or miss.