What's it worth?
Post Fiend
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 5,078
Likes: 0
From: Rural WV
Once you find a vehicle that you are interested in, I recommend the following.
Log onto KBB.com (Kelly Blue Book) and punch in the info for the truck you are looking at. You’ll get three options:
- Suggested Trade In
- Suggested Retail
- Suggested Private Seller
The Suggested Trade In is what a dealer would in theory pay for a truck if it’s used as a trade in. Look at this figure as “dealer buy price”…what they would pay for it.
The Suggested Retail is what the dealer is probably asking for the truck…it should be close to what you’ve been quoted or shown as the asking price.
The Suggested Private Seller is what somebody off the street could expect to ask for the truck. Remember with a private seller; no warranty…no service after the sale…etc, etc, etc.
Now, in theory, you want to pay as close to Trade in as possible…in some cases it could be less. When I bought my King Ranch in Feb 07, the dealer was asking almost 4K above trade in… Because I had run the numbers through KBB, I know this price was high and started working on the salesman. I wound up paying much less than what they started asking for the truck. .I later got to talk to the previous owner and found out that I paid $200 above what they gave him for the trade in….so in theory I got a great deal…the dealership supposedly made $200 on the truck when they sold it to me.
Good Luck…let us know how you made out!
Log onto KBB.com (Kelly Blue Book) and punch in the info for the truck you are looking at. You’ll get three options:
- Suggested Trade In
- Suggested Retail
- Suggested Private Seller
The Suggested Trade In is what a dealer would in theory pay for a truck if it’s used as a trade in. Look at this figure as “dealer buy price”…what they would pay for it.
The Suggested Retail is what the dealer is probably asking for the truck…it should be close to what you’ve been quoted or shown as the asking price.
The Suggested Private Seller is what somebody off the street could expect to ask for the truck. Remember with a private seller; no warranty…no service after the sale…etc, etc, etc.
Now, in theory, you want to pay as close to Trade in as possible…in some cases it could be less. When I bought my King Ranch in Feb 07, the dealer was asking almost 4K above trade in… Because I had run the numbers through KBB, I know this price was high and started working on the salesman. I wound up paying much less than what they started asking for the truck. .I later got to talk to the previous owner and found out that I paid $200 above what they gave him for the trade in….so in theory I got a great deal…the dealership supposedly made $200 on the truck when they sold it to me.
Good Luck…let us know how you made out!
