by Doug Gardner

Created on: April 01, 2008   Last Updated: November 07, 2008

For more than 30 years as a sales professional in the printing and publishing business, I drove nearly 45,000 miles a year. Putting on so many miles, I was challenged with needing to own a reliable car every three years. After I drove my sales car for three years, my wife got the car and I traded her car for another one that I could drive for 100,000 miles. That cycle continued throughout my sales career. I loved really nice cars with all the bells and whistles, and I figured since I was spending the majority of my day in the car, I was going to have what I wanted.

To ensure that I drove a reliable car, I counted on a few select car sales professionals with honesty and integrity, to assist me with my purchases. When the time came for me to get into another vehicle, I usually made the purchase in a matter of one to two weeks. I went to three different car dealerships with certain models of cars in mind. If none of the dealerships had what I was looking for, I had the sales professional locate and get that car for me.

As a customer, I was always concerned as to why one dealership would give me one figure for my car as a trade-in, while another dealer would give me a different figure. After checking various resources, I often felt I wasn't being offered enough, no matter where I went. Once I began selling cars, I learned how the process actually works.

I soon learned why different dealerships present different figures for trade-ins. While consumers look at KELLEY BLUE BOOK (KBB) and NADA, car dealerships will use a number of resources. KBB doesn't deal with actual automobile transactionsthey simply try to project what they feel cars are worth based on past information and future projections. NADA is the basis for which lenders, like banks and credit unions, use in order to establish a limit on how much they'll lend a consumer towards what they feel is the value of the vehicle. Again, neither KBB nor NADA deals with actual physical automobile transactions. When customers go online to KBB, they usually click on the tab that indicates "Retail Value" instead of "Trade-In Value". Since the customer is trading in a vehicle, they must go to "Trade In Value". When appraising a trade-in, car dealers have to deduct any expenses they will incur I order to prepare the trade-in to re-sell on their lot. This amount is deducted from the trade-in figure.

MANHEIM MARKET REPORTS, however, is the national online car auction site that car dealers use because it deals with physical day-to-day

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