[speeder]

My experience in the retail car business is from the last century but I can remember that almost no car was worth "book" back then. Times have changed drastically, as Eric points out. As recently as 10 years ago, only a hot/new model was a "book car", (at least in SoCal), examples would be a used Mini or a New Beetle within a year or two of their introduction coming on the used market. Porsche 911s were also "book cars" all day long in the old days if they were *right*.

We would be looking at a trade and the UC manager, if he did not know the absolute current value of said car, would call the UC manager at said car's marque. (A Toyota dealer if it was a Toyota, etc.). Based on the condition/miles/etc. of the car, he would ask the other manager how he should "look at the car". The answer would usually be something along the lines of, "$1500 back of book if it's really nice". IOW, if the trade-in was really nice, it's worth $1500 less than what it books for after all calculations are taken into account. (Miles/condition/etc.). My manager would then ask the other manager if he was a buyer at that price. Sometimes the answer was no, because he already had a boatload of said car on his lot. But someone else would want it for that stated price. That's how the wholesale game works, only the prices have changed. And the supply/demand for merchandise, which has changed drastically.

All day long in the old days I would have to explain to people that their car or truck was not really worth what the KBB said it was. "Books don't buy cars" was a common expression. Maybe in some other region of the country the book was more accurate but not in SoCal. At least not back in my day.