What is your car worth?

"What is my car worth?" This simple question can cause a world of confusion when you finally decide to sell your car or truck. Not only are there are dozens of resources, each claiming to be the most accurate one, but the estimates you get from them can also vary widely.

Suppose you wanted to get a trade-in value for a 2010 Toyota Camry LE with 36000 miles and basic factory options - pricing is thousands of dollars apart. Kelley Blue Book (KBB) valued it between $9,533 in fair condition and $11,683* in excellent condition. NADA claimed the Camry was worth between $10,425 and $12,550*, and Edmunds came up with a range of $7,903 to $11,244*. A comparison of their quotes for the car's retail and private sale values gave the same confusing picture. Pretty crazy, right? So why are the values so different and which is the most accurate?

To answer these questions you need to understand that every company has their own "proprietary editorial process", which is based on information collected from actual transactions, historical trends, economic conditions, and so on. For instance, If KBB gets its transaction information predominantly from "reputable" franchise stores (where prices are usually the highest), their respective valuations are also going to be pretty high. And keep in mind that while KBB and NADA pricing is available to the general public, these companies cater to a huge auto-finance industry. Dealers use their pricing guides to book cars for the banks, which means they tie the car's price to a book value to determine how much financing a customer can get. A customer with bad credit may get a loan worth up to 50% of a book value, while a customer with A+ credit may get a loan worth more than over 120% of the value, which can cover fees, warranties and other add-ons. Many publishing houses keep their valuations high, so that dealers can sell cars at top dollar.

So what is your car really worth? Book values are just guidelines, the actual price depends on the market for your specific car, its condition, and what you are willing to accept. You can experiment by selling your car privately, but if you don't want to spend a ton of time posting adds, talking to strangers, make appointments with people that won't show up, meet people who will show up, but won't commit, then CashOnSpot.com is perfect for you. We can't pay you suggested book retail values (nobody can), but we are a great alternative to a private sale. Not only we pay cash for cars on the same day, we make the entire process safe, fast and easy for you - visit our testimonials page and see for your yourself.

Email us at info@cashonspot.com with questions or comments about this article. We'd love to hear your feedback.

* As of February 2014