Track Pricing With the Kelley Blue Book

It’s not hard to get dealer invoice pricing and MSRP for a new car. Through the Kelley Blue Book, tracking those is quite easy. And it’s convenient, since dealerships never publicly tell you about invoice pricing, but the Kelley Blue Book does. The KBB Company collects information from 1000s of transactions around the country. And they analyze and produce data that reflects what you’ll actually pay at car dealerships.

The KBB doesn’t give a similar book for used cars. And you might not get similar levels of accuracy. This is because tracking use car sales and averaging is a bit difficult. After all, a lot of those sales are done between individuals. And each used car is unique in condition and mileage. Thus, the KBB uses its 90 years of experience to estimate prices. And this is calculated by starting with the car’s original new price, and then backtracking.

The cars highest in demand right now are those with excellent fuel economy. Thus, you may find that smaller cars are going up in pricing. Or if they’re used, they drop less in price than normal cars.

As for used car depreciation, this is calculated based on many factors. This would be the previous model years, the number available in the used market, and the car quality. Cars bought commonly by rental companies are usually cheaper, since those cars tend to be all over the market. Excellent quality cars, or those made in limited amounts, are higher in price. Cars that have mechanical issues (long-term) will drop sharply in price. But mileage, overall car condition, and optional equipment still affect the car’s price.

The KBB used car retail price takes into consideration that cost to refurbish by the dealer, in addition to making necessary repairs. It takes into account the overhead of the dealer in total (money to pay salespeople, advertisers,

and maintain cars in the inventory). The private cost is lower than the retail cost. Because in a private sale, you pay for the refurbishing yourself. And there is no dealer overhead. Similar rules apply to trade-in values for cars.

So are KBB values absolutely trustworthy? Well, we believe it’s an excellent starting source for information on car prices. It’s a good starting method to protect yourself from being ripped off. But regardless, there are many factors that affect the pricing of a car.

As an example, your car may be a blue one, and red colors are more appealing to consumers (different in price), so you might get a red car’s price in KBB. Also, the model of the vehicle matters a lot. Especially if you’re in an area

where your model is being sold around too much, this changing prices drastically.

Factors to consider are countless regardless. And all of them follow similar rules of supply and demand. The more something is in-demand, the higher you’ll pay, and vice-versa.

So before using the KBB, make sure to take into consideration model and location factors. They’ll help you accurately gauge your car’s price! Please visit KBB official website here.