I can't give a really useful answer (being fairly new to car shopping in the US) but I've been looking at KBB.com, nadaguides.com and the Edmunds TruValue calculator. Somewhere in between the three you should be able to find a realistic price.
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Oct. 29, 2011 9:58 p.m. BoxheadTim SuperDork
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Oct. 30, 2011 5:58 a.m. ddavidv SuperDork
NADA is usually high. KBB private party is reasonably accurate (not retail).
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Oct. 30, 2011 7:19 a.m. DrBoost SuperDork
Craigslist. I look at 10 or so cars and get a very good idea of what they are worth. Disregard cream-puffs (unless yours is) and crap-cans (unless yours is) and you have a fair market value.
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Oct. 30, 2011 8:47 a.m. Teh E36 M3 HalfDork
I used NADA, KBB, and Edmunds for an estimate on a '97 M3 Sedan I looked at... they were all around $4500 for a car in really great shape. Nowhere near real market value, but I guess its harder to gauge for "special" cars.
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Oct. 30, 2011 9:20 a.m. FlightService Dork
Here is the site I use.
Black Book is what dealers use. FWIW.
For PP I take The average between Retail and Trade In(wholesale) and use that. That is how KBB gets their values.
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Oct. 30, 2011 11:17 a.m. curtis73 Dork
KBB is smoking crack. I'm selling my 03 Sonoma ZQ8 right now. I bought it in July and the KBB Private Party value at that time was $6800. Now when I look it up it says its worth $8300 with 8000 more miles on it.
One of my tools I use is to go to Ebay, search for your vehicle, then click "Completed Listings." It will show you what they sold for.
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Nov. 1, 2011 7:35 a.m. FlightService Dork
I agree KBB is on the pipe hard.
Rarely accurate and never up to date. They are so late in their recording of a heavily west coast biased info that convertibles peak in winter!
I like Black Book and know where they get their values. Nice to be able to compete with dealers on their own turf.
I find ebay prices sketchy. Sometimes they are way low and sometimes they are two high. Never seen them compare to actual purchases. IME
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Nov. 1, 2011 9:01 a.m. Duke SuperDork
I never bother with KBB, but I've had decent luck with www.edmunds.com
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Nov. 1, 2011 10:13 a.m. Otto Maddox Dork
All the guides suck. I have a system.
I search "any distance" on Autotrader for my year, make and model. When you get the results, it shows the highest and lowest listed prices as well as an average listing price. I figure that gives me a good idea of a fair asking price and maybe 5-10% below that is a good actual transaction price.
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Nov. 1, 2011 4:35 p.m. ddavidv SuperDork
Maybe it's where you live, but in my area kbb.com darn near always matches our mega-expensive "market survey" we use in insurance settlements. Even though my state doesn't recognize it for insurance purposes, I steer people towards it if they want to get a basic idea of their car's value.
What I usually find when someone is way off with a price they got on kbb.com is they didn't use it right. You have to use "private party" value and fill the rest out as accurately as possible. Most folks use retail in the (mistaken) belief that is a selling price. It isn't.
