Blue Book Values For Used Cars

Q.From my experience buying and selling cars (about 50 vehicles since I was 16), is my math correct in assuming Kelly blue book resale value is between 25-40% above actual street value? Whenever I look at a $ 20,000 car, Kelly blue book shows it between $ 25,000 - 30,000. I bought a 1998 Saab convertible 8 months ago for $ 17,000 and kelly blue book showed it with my options and 32,000 miles as being about $ 24,000 'retail'. When I go into a dealership, they always pull up Kelly blue book to show what a great deal they've got. It really is a ton of shit, correct? Is there any place online that I can get real world pricing for used cars, specifically BMW's?

A.There are three blue book values: Wholesale (what you should get in trade, Private Owner sale (what you should get on your own), and Retail (what you can expect to pay at a reputable used car dealer). Your instincts are correct. The KBB price system seems deliberately screwed up to allow dealers to pad the price of clean used cars while listing rock bottom trade-in values. They'll try to scr** you coming and going and they use the little blue book to justify it. Edmunds has a suggested market value that is much more realistic. Or I've found that you can knock 8% off a dealers' customary "asking price" for a certified used BMW, and they'll probably go for it... but that's still maybe 10% higher than you can get for the car as a private party.

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