by Jimmy Thiel

Created on: June 01, 2008

So it's time for you to find a new home for your used vehicle. If you are not familiar with the buying and selling of used vehicles this can be a frustrating experience for you. There are many things you should consider before you get started. These are a few of the most important.

Pricing your vehicle: The first thing you will have to do is determine a reasonable asking price for your vehicle. You will have to determine the value which may be confusing to someone who is not familiar with all the variables that will come into play. You should first look up the vehicle in several used car guides. Here are a few suggestions.

Kelly Blue Book is a great place to start. It is in my opinion the most easily accessible guide which will show several different classes of valuating the vehicle. The first class is the retail value. This particular value is the highest and in my opinion the most useless value listed. It is comparable to the sticker price of a new car. Nobody expects to pay sticker for a new car so you should not expect to get retail value for your used one. The second class is the private party value which is in my opinion is the best option for individual to individual transactions. It is valued below retail but higher than what you should expect to be offered from a dealer. This value is a great starting point when determining your asking price and a reasonable expectation of what you should be paid for your vehicle. The third class is the trade in value. This is exactly as it sounds. It is an estimate of what you should expect to be offered by a dealer if you were trading your used car towards the purchase of a newer car. If you are not trading I would recommend holding out for a better offer than this figure. You can rate your cars condition and estimated value from Kelly Blue Book on line at www.kbb.com.

The NADA guide book, often referred to as the yellow book is another option. This guide is put out by the National Automobile Dealers Association. I do recommend finding a hard copy of this publication to value your vehicle. Their on line site typically only shows a low retail to a high retail value range and in my opinion is not always an accurate estimate of fair market value for a private party sale. The hard copy of this publication is a better option, but be aware that the classes of value differ in this guide than that of KBB.
The first class is similar in that it is a retail value that is probably much higher than you should expect to be offered.

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