What's My Car Worth? Drive Here
Whether you want to sell your vehicle or trade it in, you need to know its accurate value. A number of ways exist to determine your vehicle’s value. These include reference books and websites plus in-person appraisals. The dealership determines the value of the trade-in before selling you a new vehicle, so you can determine your vehicle finance needs.
Whether you go to the bank for a loan or apply for an organization offering car finance online, you need to know how much you will get for your trade-in. This article explains how to determine that.
A Summary of Valuation Possibilities
You can reference the National Appraisal Guides, also referred to as NADA guides, and the Kelley Blue Book online or in print. These two long-standing consumer guides provide accurate vehicle prices. Both companies create completest guides that calculate the value of virtually every vehicle manufactured.
Each uses its own calculation method, so the numbers vary a little bit. You will also get a more accurate value from an in-person valuation. This assessment will include many factors such as the vehicle’s history which we will look at later in the article.
National Appraisal Guides
You can get a baseline estimated value using the online form for NADA guides which requires a few data points. This includes wholesale and retail transactions plus AutoTrader.com’s asking price data, data from OEMs, wholesalers, and used car retailers. The latter data point includes the price the retailer paid for the vehicle and the price at which they sold the vehicle. NADA also includes Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP), invoice, equipment assumptions also known as trim package, supply and demand plus the vehicle’s value against other vehicles in its same class and other macro- and micro-economic factors. That next to the last item means that SUVs get compared to other SUVs, convertibles to other convertibles, sub-compacts to other sub-compacts, etc.
NADA comes up with a retail value of what an individual would reasonably pay for a specific make, model and year of a vehicle from an auto dealer. These are created to help users value their owned vehicle or a used vehicle they wish to purchase.
These guides, like others, create a subjective, but market-reflective value. Each vehicle may have an actual value lower or higher than a NADA or Blue Book estimated value.
This trusted source has existed for more than 80 years and provides the favored valuation guide for the used automotive industry. This is what dealers, insurance firms, the government, lenders, OEMs, rental car companies, wholesalers, and consumers use. It creates comprehensive pricing publications for power sport devices, boats, manufactured housing and recreational vehicles.
Kelley Blue Book Guides
Besides the NADA Guides, the Kelley Blue Book values draw from industry pricing sources. These sources include franchised and independent auto dealers, financial institutions, manufacturers, rental companies and wholesale auctions.
Also like NADA, Kelley Blue Book uses a proprietary calculation process. It presents more than one valuation based upon the age and wear and tear on the vehicle. This presents a unique price. It also includes items like the Private Party Value that deals with an expected cost in a private sale between two individual consumers. Other prices include the Trade-In Value and Suggested Retail Value for dealer sales.
When you look at the Blue Book, honestly appraise the vehicle’s wear and tear level. This will help you determine the actual baseline car worth. If the car has been well maintained, you can use the “good” value. If you have not cared for it well, use the least of the values.
While those two guides provide the most common sources of data, many others exist, both online and in print. You can use any number of pricing guides including:
- Autotrader which determines prices using data from internal listings
- Edmunds, which uses inventory data from its own used cars
- Vehicle appraisers who use an amalgam of dealer and private party sale prices in the US
- Market value calculators that use your area’s average sale prices
- Pricings from other automotive dealers for their trade-in values
- The subscription service Black Book
- Used car loan values
- The subscription service DriverSide
- Bank estimates
- Wholesale values based on the price dealers are paying for the vehicle
- Residual values
- The Automotive Lease Guide
Tips on Obtaining a Baseline Value
Consult both the NADA and the Blue Book guides. Use an average of the two values as the median value. Use the lower of the two as the bottom range and the higher of the two as the top range for your baseline automotive value.
Note that I keep using the word “baseline.” That refers to your starting point value. The baseline is to give you the foundation of the car worth.
Cars are kind of like job applicants, in the instance
Let’s say you have three applicants for the same job. One has a high school diploma and three years experience; one has a bachelor’s degree and four years experience; one has a Master’s degree and two years experience. Think of the degrees as the trim level. Think of the years of experience as the level of care given the vehicle after driving it off of the lot initially. Assuming all the interviews go well, the person with the Master’s and two years experience will typically get the job.
If that person was a vehicle, they would have a top-of-the-line trim level and “good” level maintenance. The only vehicle that would rate more highly would be one that had a “Special Edition” trim level and was new or so recently purchased that it could be considered “like new” going by Blue Book terminology.
Eventually, you will take your vehicle to a car lot and get it assessed in person. Think of this as the job applicant’s interview. At that point, the dealer you take the vehicle to will look at the vehicle’s history, including its accident history. They will examine the vehicle. Let’s look at the multitude of items that the car dealership will assess to determine the actual car worth.
Remember when I said you need to be honest with yourself about the vehicle’s condition? Here is why. You will go to the dealership with the baseline value in mind. If it is not accurate, you may think you are getting ripped off, but really, the car lot is just being realistic. You need to be, too. Just as the high school diploma person does not land the executive job, you will not get paid Blue Book “like new” value for a vehicle that has not been well maintained.
What the In-Person Assessment Includes
When a dealership looks at your vehicle to determine trade-in value, your vehicle history ranks highly as does the physical examination of the vehicle. The lot uses the vehicle identification number (VIN) to access the vehicle’s history.
Every time you take a vehicle in for maintenance, the mechanic records the data of the visit using your VIN. If you think you will get around that by doing the work yourself, wrong. You will tank your car’s trade-in value by making it seem as if you never took it in for maintenance.
If your vehicle is involved in an accident that damages it, the mechanic also enters the VIN on the vehicle when they bang out the dents or replace the door. They also record the new VIN number your vehicle obtains when you replace a door. On most vehicles, the VIN is emblazoned on the door jam of each front car/truck door. It appears in other places, too, but the doors are the most common spot it appears that could conceivably get replaced.
After that replacement part gets put on, the vehicle may list both VINs. The secondary VIN goes into the vehicle’s history report. In some cases, the VIN may change and be double listed.
This historical data provides one of the sources of determining the value of your vehicle versus another of the same make, model, age and exhibited maintenance level. Two vehicles of the same make and model may look the same, but their value or worth can be vastly different. So, what the heck do they look at to determine value exactly? Here’s a list and a few things that might surprise you.
What Those Data Points Mean
Many things obviously contribute to the vehicle’s value and car worth. The first three items work in tandem to determine value – regular oil changes, car history, also known as CARFAX available and service records. This tells the person assessing the vehicle’s value how well cared for the car is. It provides an indication of the level of maintenance and allows them to estimate how well the vehicle will run.
Similarly, its accident history communicates whether the vehicle sustained significant damage at any point. It lets the assessor know if the vehicle’s frame or outer housing parts, such as the fenders or doors, sustained dents that may have weakened the sub-structure. Weakened sub-structure results in a lower valuation for the vehicle.
You may pay less for a car with an accident, or more for a car without one. Only CARFAX gives you the VIN-specific price for every used car based on its history. Instead of providing you with a suggested retail value, CARFAX can tell you what a specific car, with a specific VIN, is worth.
Vehicle assessors value one-owner vehicles the highest. They look at the number of times the registration, or pink slip, changed hands officially. If you are on the purchasing end, you may find yourself buying a car that seems to have only one owner, but actually passed around multiple owners in the same family. The older sibling might pass along a vehicle to the younger sibling or the parents may give their vehicle to a child once they reach driving age. Typically though, you can rely on the ownership data.
1960 Corvette Stingray. The source: Pinterest
The year, make, model and trim level all contribute to the vehicle’s value. Some vehicles have specific years that are of greater value than others. For example, one of my favorite cars ever, the Corvette Stingray, has one year of its 1960s models worth more than others. In 1963, Corvette split its model year making a convertible Stingray for six months and a T-top for the other six months. (Both look gorgeous.) That particular year draws a higher sales value due to the unique production values.
Of course, trim levels also contribute to a vehicle’s value. Just as when you bought it, the higher trim levels cost more than the base model, so shall it be when you sell that puppy. If you shelled out for the top-of-the-line special edition with all the bells and whistles, then you will have a higher resale value for the vehicle.
Related to this are the standard and optional features. If you paid for all the options when you bought it, they will help you at resale time.
While you cannot control every variable, the vehicle’s condition has a great influence on its valuation. When you visit the dealership to trade-in the vehicle, make sure it looks its best inside and out. You should have it washed, waxed, cleaned and detailed before taking it to the car lot. Also, fix any issues that affect its attractiveness. Replace missing door handles. Repair tears in seat cushions. Repair the dashboard if it sustained damage. These low-cost items to repair can help raise the resale value. The vehicle should look as clean and new as possible.
The manufacturer maintains records
The assessor at the dealership will also check the computer records for the manufacturer for any open recalls. The manufacturer maintains records of every recall it must issue. It also maintains records of which vehicle owners respond to the recall. That means the manufacturer knows if you actually took the vehicle into the dealership to have the recall addressed. For example, if they needed to recall the existing driver-side airbags, their records will show that you had the airbag replaced with an appropriate re-designed one at a manufacturer designated mechanic or service center.
These records will also show if you neglected to respond to a recall. If you neglected to have a recall issue addressed, this not only lowers the value of the vehicle and car worth, but means that the purchasers must handle having it addressed and repaired before they can sell it or use it. The dealership cannot knowingly sell an unsafe vehicle.
The true mileage on the vehicle matters. You cannot fudge this though people try. Every time you take it in for maintenance, the mechanic records the actual mileage. That goes into the vehicle’s history. Bummer for you if you were going to try to say it only has 70,000 miles when it really has 170,000 miles. The maintenance records will disprove your assentation.
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Finally, they will look at how you used the vehicle. A personal use vehicle typically gets driven the least, so it draws the highest resale or trade-in value. Commercial fleet vehicles can draw almost as much money in trade-in or resale since they must undergo regular maintenance and usually are well taken care of by the company using them. Rental cars are often reconditioned after resale to enter a lease program or to be re-sold at a higher price. They get this special treatment because companies like Hertz and Enterprise usually purchase new cars every two years or so. They sell the older model vehicles to the reconditioning program. This provides a way for car buyers to obtain a nearly new vehicle that had extremely good maintenance on it.
What’s My Car Worth? In Summary
Determining the baseline or basic price of the average vehicle of your make and model is as simple as looking it up in the NADA or Blue Book. To determine its actual value though, you will need an in-person appraisal from a mechanic or car dealership.
Vehicles depreciate in value over time, so realize that you will not get what you initially paid for your car or truck when you resell it. The wear and tear you put on it through the years, as well as things like accidents, maintenance and open recalls, will contribute to its value. You can get the best resale price by also researching the best time of year to sell a vehicle in your area. Following the tips in this article and doing your research can maximize your resale price.
regular oil changes
car history, also known as CARFAX available
service records
number of owners
accident history
year, make, model and trim level
mileage
standard and optional features
vehicle condition
registration history
open recalls
vehicle use, such as commercial fleet, rental or personal