Am I crazy or are Edmunds and KBB completely worthless?!

The prices are nowhere near the market! I know I'm late to this party, am I missing something?

 

Nope you're not crazy. Used tacomas hold their value and kbb doesn't always reflect that.

 

So how much should I expect to pay in today's market for the following?

2001-2004
ext cab
v6
manual
sr5
trd
power options
clean title
rust free
requisite maintenance performed
approx 125k miles
no more than 2 owners

 

Location?

2wd or 4wd?

Around my area between $7000 & 14,500. Rust free would be a unicorn though...

 

Even beyond Tacomas they are worthless. I recently sold a minivan. Between KBB, NADA, and Edmunds I got suggested values ranging from $1,800 to $12,000.

 

All kbb and nada are is a summary of what others have paid. It's not a book of what you want to hear as a seller And it doesn't reflect asking prices you will see. In general a bank will limit what they will loan on a car based on historical sales just like they depend on appraisals for home sales. Most of their info comes from dealers, private parties don't report.

That doesn't mean that you won't find someone willing to pay 20k for a 10k vehicle, just that on average you shouldn't expect it. On the buyer side knowing what easy resale value would be should be a consideration before you potentially overpay.

Between the 2 I see about a 1k difference in 01 tacomas. Both sites show a higher value than what I see on craigslist around here. Cl has a bunch in the 5-6k range, kbb and nada show up to 10k.

 

KBB and NADA throw poop at a wall hoping it will stick. It's not even a summary of what other's paid it's a guess of what the value is.

 

4wd, sorry.

I'm in AR but there's nothing here. Mostly looking NM, Nevada, Cali

 

That's a huge variance!

 

I was looking for an old tundra....kbb says 8 grand....people selling are asking 14-17,000....so who the hell knows

 

My starting point for selling a vehicle is CarMax. I always get a quote from there and play it against the dealers or add some to it and sell it myself. They offered $34,500 for my Rubicon. The dealer initially offered $30,000. I sold it for $36,000. NADA and KBB said over $38,000

 

Dealer vs. Private seller, amount of rust-free-ness, and whether or not the frame recall has been done....lot's of factors in any vehicles resale numbers.

 

Asking price on a used item is 99% worthless. I've been dealing with it in real estate for 13ish years. "Bob across the street was asking $xxx and my house is nicer(it's amazing that everyone I've ever talked to has the nicest house in town. I mean what are the odds?) so my house is worth more!

Cool, except Bob sat on market for 180 days in a 30 day market and ended up selling for $yyy, which is 10k less than he would likely had sold for if he had priced it right from day 1.

The only time Asking should be a consideration is when you're selling. Price a bit higher than market value but less expensive than bob. You often get more than is worth in less time because Bob makes you look like a bargain.

On the buying side, appraised value should be your guiding light. Despite what 99% of people say when they first buy something, they're not going to own it forever and is easy to not only screw yourself today but also screw your self tomorrow when is time to sell.

 

The reason kbb is useless is they have no way of gauging in market that the truck your looking at is in, prices of trucks vary a lot from region to region, where I'm from in the northwest, a extended can red with 125k miles your gonna pay easy 10 grand if not more.

 

I was a past owner of MK4 VW Jetta's and I have sold some of them between $5500-$6900 while KBB had them in the $3K range. I only used OEM or better and kept a perfect list of everything done too. That was my selling point. I even offered my VW's for free if my description did not match my service list. I have always been that way and most of the time when I list an item the price is FIRM no matter what

 

Another thing to consider is that KBB makes their money from advertising. Not from listing car prices. There was a time when you could buy a blue book with car price lists gleaned from actual data from actual car sales.

 

I look up NADA (bank uses) and then I look up KBB. KBB is always lower. Sometimes when making a deal I will give the average of the two. I always, always try to buy under NADA. 1st gen Tacomas hold their value really well so it's not too different from both sites but yes- it's odd for sure. Banks don't give a crap about KBB though.