Why is my car value differant on NADA than on Kelly Blue Book and Edmunds.com?

Question

I checked all three sites and KBB and NADA are close but Edmunds.com is several thousand less. Why is that and which value does the finance company go off of?

Answer 1

All of these use the same method of average pricing. They contact dealers to ask what they sell cars for in your area, then they average out those prices. The difference is the number of dealers each uses. And they all use different dealers. There is also a matter of how often they review this information.

Use them all and get a range for your car. This will give you your cars value. You should have 4 values: retail (what dealers charge) wholesale (what dealers pay), trade-in (what dealers allow you), and private sale (what you get for it on your front lawn.)

Answer 2

Most finance companies and banks go off of NADA Trade-In value, and will loan 80%-100% of the trade-in value based upon your credit.

Dealers use Kelly Blue Book Trade In value in determining the trade value of a car.

Edmunds is not used much by dealers or lenders.

When buying a car, look at KBB trade value first so you know where to start negotiating, and look at NADA trade in value if you plan on financing so you know what amount a bank will finance on that car.

Answer 3

kbb is worthless, as is edmunds. It can though be used as an inaccurate idea, a dealer will almost always give you less for a trade. Dealers use galves (not available to public) for trade ins.

NADA is used by insurance companies to determine the value of a car, and is also used by finance companies to make sure they are not loaning you too much money, as compared to the value of the car.