# How accurate is the Kelly Blue Book?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kelly-blue-book/412576>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [July 20, 2007, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kelly-blue-book/412576 "2007-07-20T18:56:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kelly-blue-book/412576/1 "2007-07-20T18:56:50Z")

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I’ve been thinking about trading in my car and buying another one. However, I was researching prices on [Kelly Blue Book](http://www.kbb.com) and I was really surprised at the large difference between the trade in value and the retail value of my 2002 Passat.

Kelly Blue Book lists $7,185 for my car in good condition as trade in value and $12,075 as the retail value. Are these figures accurate? Should I only expect around 7000 for my car.

Private party value is $9,180. Due to my schedule and location, I’m not really interested in going the private party route even though I know I could probably get more money.

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**Author:** ![A.R.Cane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@A.R.Cane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.R.Cane)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kelly-blue-book/412576/2 "2007-07-20T19:05:37Z")

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You’ll find NADA a better guide: [http://www.nadaguides.com/](http://www.nadaguides.com/)

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**Author:** ![Burrido](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Burrido](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burrido)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-accurate-is-the-kelly-blue-book/412576/3 "2007-07-20T23:01:12Z")

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In my experience KBB is slanted towards the dealership. It reflects the dealerships asking price for cars and not the price they actually sell for. Like **A.R. Cane** stated, use NADA.

“The Kelley Blue Book Suggested Retail Value is representative of dealers’ asking prices and is the starting point for negotiation between a consumer and a dealer.”