KBB overvalues vehicles

[red-beard]

Last week, I bought the wifey a new X5. I found a leftover 2011 Sport with a Diesel engine in a color the wife loved. KBB estimated our X5 was worth around 8K. They would only give us $6K in trade.

So this week I'm playing around and KBB claims my 2010 F250 is worth $41-42K. Wow! That sounds amazing. So I fire up a bunch of different options for a 2012 F250 with the more fuel efficient engine. If I really can get $41K for mt F250, this is a done deal. Costo is Dealer Invoice minus $100. This plus all of the dealer incentives add to about $10K off the MSRP. Not too shabby. Not as good as the 2010 as a left over, but still decent.

2 dealerships estimate the car comes in at $37K for trade. Is KBB that far off, or am I being screwed? This is a 10-15% difference between KBB trade in value and dealer. And I even picked 2nd from the top condition, not "perfect" condition.

Kaisen, can you do magic on an F250 Diesel Lariat with Ultimate package in Blue?

If I sell the vehicle myself, the taxes in TTL go from $825 to $4200. So that s basically out...

Ideas?

[Steve Carlton]

As far as I'm concerned, KBB has never done their "job." Usually they're high, sometimes very high. Dealers generally don't pay the low mileage add unless it's huge and then only some of it. Most cars sold by private parties sell for around low book, so how is a dealer supposed to pay that, when in effect it's pretty near retail. Incentives on the new cars tend to trickle down on the late models, otherwise who would pay the same price for a late model used car as a new one?

If your X5 booked for $6K, $4K sounds about right. Did you car need any reconditioning, like tires or paintwork or brakes? Recon is subtracted from book after "market adjustments." I could imagine a $6K X5 needing a major chunk of recon to make it right.

[Radioactive]

The stealer tried that with my 3yo Chevy crew. Went to Carmax and they gave me KBB low book in about 30min. That was 3K more than the the stealer place..

[speeder]

I've heard some stories about people bringing their cars to Carmax and doing better than trade-in value off-loading them. Just depends on the vehicle, I guess.

No specific advice but you've got a couple nice rigs in the driveway there. My taste exactly.

[enzo1]

are you using "black" or "blue" book.... black is better in texas Used Car Trade-In Value from Black Book

[porsche4life]

Ya... KBB is all over the map... It tends to be high for newer vehicles, and low for older vehicles.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

KBB is definitely slanted to favor dealers. I have found their trade in values to vary by as much as 15% from the private party sale values.

The whole valuation/depreciation thing is a game anyway, mostly to keep people beholden to bank loans in perpetuity. I don't get too hung up on KBB or other published values and tend to watch comps on eBay, CL, etc. instead. If I like the car and think its a fair price I'll buy it. I also refuse to buy on the steep part of telnet depreciation curve. For the cost of a "new" run-of-the-mill appliance car POS I can buy two good condition used cars and put extra $$$ in the bank when done. It's not that important to me. I like not making payments.

[Schumi]

KBB is all over the map, especially on cars that are out of the mainstream.

2005 Lotus Elise with a sport package in excellent condition, according to KBB: $20K.

Find me that F%#&ing car in the real world.... >