NADA, KBB, Edmunds trade-in values...who to believe?

[cs1992]

Does anyone know which of these three guides is the most accurate. There seems to be some variation among them, quite large in some cases.

I am planning to take these values, average them, and show them to the dealer.

[corvete001]

I have been using the KBB and Edmunds the last few years. In my area the NADA prices have been way off. Before I trade anything or sell any car I always go to a friend of mine who owns a body shop that goes to the auctions and he can tell me what that type of car has sold for over the last few months. This gives me a better idea of the true real time value without the lag time.

[Ghrankenstein]

Corvete's right.

If you're looking for a barometer, lately KBB's been closest. The biggest problems that I encounter are with people checking their vehicle inaccurately (i.e. wrong trim level, wrong engine), and using the "Excellent" condition value.

Trade-ins are generally "Fair," though few owners can stomach the fact that their cars are anything less than "Good."

[corvete001]

The dealer I use most says that they plan on putting tires on every trade and doing a major clean up. They expect to spend about $400 to get the car ready to sell and many times find stuff that is unexpected and that is why they go a little low on a trade. If you have all the records and take the car in after you have it detailed you have a better chance getting top dollar. Just remember that a invoice deal on a new car will bring a lower trade in price many times.

[redlipp]

kbb is probably the closest to being accurate in our neck of the woods, nada is like trying to sell at sticker pricing, its too bad that they don't give a number to call from these services that would purchase your auto at there figures! ha, and for some reason no one ever feels like their auto's are anything but perfect, i wish there were some way to hold consumers liable for any repairs necessary on the trades for 30-60 days.

[FourOnTheFloor]

I've been wondering the same thing, cs1992.

From my experience, kbb is generally more accurate while NADA is often lower and usually closer to the actual selling price. I think Kbb uses a more complex system to determine price than NADA. Someone told me that the different guides are used by certain regions of America. For example, dealers in New England use NADA while dealers in New York State use Kbb.

[06MonteSS]

when I was getting rid of my Venture to get my new Monte SS, the trade-in values found on any of those sites was too high...

all of the dealers I went to used Galves... needless to say, I ended up selling it outright for about $4K more than they were offering on Galves trade-in value.