Book Values On 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). 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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