If you're going to trade in your car in order to get a new one, very often the old car value is used as a down payment for the new car. The question is: What is the trade-in value for the old car?
Both the Kelley Blue Book and Edmunds are much respected resources in the automobile industry. They both have online tools that can help determine the trade-in value for your car. Keep in mind however; each resource has a different way of determining a car's trade-in value. Rather than taking one over the other, it's best to go through both tools to find your car's trade-in value.
GET THE EDMUNDS TRADE IN VALUE
Visit the Edmunds website
Select your car year make and model and style
Insert particulars for the cars such as the color number of miles and optional equipment. Edmunds makes it easy to select the optional equipment because they list it alphabetically.
Insert the condition of your car. Decide whether it's in great shape or barely worth selling. Edmunds gives the options of outstanding, clean, average, rough and damaged.
Get your trade-in value report. Print it out so that you can compare it to the Kelley Blue Book report
GET THE KELLEY BLUE BOOK TRADE IN VALUE
Visit the Kelley Blue Book website
Select your vehicle's year, make and model
Choose the trade in value option. Different from the Edmunds website, Kelley Blue Book forces you to decide which valuation you want before providing any information. The choices are Trade in value, Private Party and Dealership. You can always come back afterwards to select one of the other options. Edmunds, on the other hand, provides all three valuations on the final report.
Select your vehicle trim which is also known as a vehicle style
Enter the particulars for the car such as the mileage and optional equipment. Kelley Blue Book will automatically check off the standard issue equipment that comes with the model car. It's up to you to add the additional optional features on your car. Unlike Edmunds, who alphabetizes their features, Kelley Blue Book lists the features in random order.
Select the car's condition. Choose from excellent, good, fair or poor. After selecting the car's condition, select continue to get your trade-in value.
COMPARE THE TWO REPORTS
You will notice differences between the two, but spend a little time going over each of the reports to prepare yourself for negotiating with the dealership.
