Kelley Blue Book - A Trusted Vehicle Information Resource

Here is an article from http://www.hotfact.com written by Karen Schweitzer. There will be more regular articles about the kelly blue book here at kelly blue book planet.

In 1918, a man by the name of Les Kelley opened his first used car dealership. He began with an open lot, three Model T Fords, and $450 in the cash register. Kelley’s business began to grow and by the early 1920s, he had devised a clever system to increase his vehicle inventory.
He started distributing a want list to car dealers and banks. The list consisted of types of automobiles that he was interested in buying, along with the amount that he was willing to pay for each. As a whole, the automotive community felt that Kelley’s judgment was such an accurate reflection of values that they began to request the list for their own individual use. Kelley realized that the list could provide an ongoing business opportunity and so the Kelley Blue Book was born.
First published as the Blue Book of Motor Car Values, the new guide featured the factory list price and cash value on thousands of vehicles from Cadillacs to Duesenbergs. Everyone began to recognize the value of this handy guide, including the banking and insurance industries. After World War II, even the United States government accepted the values as fact and used the book to place a ceiling on car prices.
Kelley Blue Book maintained the status of a trade publication until 1993 when a consumer edition of the book was offered. Then in 1995, the Kelley Blue Book website was launched, fueling the biggest growth in the guide’s history. Today, Kelley Blue Book values are easily accessible by consumers and industry professionals alike.
To get their values, Kelley Blue Book receives information from automobile manufacturers, wholesale automobile auctions, independent auto dealers, franchised auto dealers, rental and fleet companies, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), financial institutions, and private party transactions. The final value is then determined by a proprietary editorial process. The collected data is analyzed, along with information like historical trends, industry developments, current economic conditions, seasonality, and location. The end results reflect the most up to date values.
There are several different values that are available through Kelley Blue Book. They include:
New Car Blue Book Values- The New Car Blue Book Value reflects a vehicle’s actual selling price. This value is based on sales transactions from auto dealers across the United States.
Kelley Blue Book Private Party Value- This value reflects what a consumer might expect to pay if they are purchasing a vehicle from a private party or what a seller might expect to receive from the sale of the vehicle.
Kelley Blue Book Trade-In Value- This value reflects what a consumer might receive from an auto dealer when trading in a vehicle.
Kelley Blue Book Suggested Retail Value (MSRP for Used Cars)- This value reflects the amount that an auto dealer might ask from consumers at an actual dealership. This value is meant to show the starting point for negotiation, similar to a new sticker price.
Since 1926, people have relied on Kelley Blue Book to provide authoritative and unbiased information in regards to vehicle values. Nearly one out of every four people who buy a new or used vehicle in the United States visits the Kelly Blue Book website, making it the number one automotive site in the nation.

Kelly Blue Book

Hi I just wanted to thank everyone for visiting my blog so far. I am planning many more articles on the blue book on a regular basis so please keep coming back.

All the best
Adam

Product Review - Car Auction Site

The Car Auction site is a great way to get an excellent deal on a vehicle and I would strongly recommend it. For more info go to http://admaniac.cauction.hop.clickbank.net .

Every month, 1000s of cars become government property through seized and foreclosure laws. Since there are so many cars in these government auctions, and the enormous costs for storage, these cars must be sold fast and cheap!

Car-Auction has a database full of thousands of different repo cars just waiting for you to bid on! You cannot find a better way to purchase a car than through online repo auctions. Buying a car can be a difficult decision and a stressful process.
Make buying your new car fun by purchasing.

Here at Kelly Blue Book planet we want to help you the buyer.

Kelly Blue Book and Used Cars Ebook

Hi there

Just to let you all know I am creating an ebook all around the kelley blue book and the used car market with plenty of advice and tips. It is about two weeks away in its creation but it should be a very good guide once its ready.

All the best
Adam

5 Series is Winner of Luxury Vehicle Category in Kelley Blue Book “2007 Best Resale Value Awards”

5 Series Also Named an Overall Top 10 Leader in Projected Resale Value.
Woodcliff Lake, NJ - November 29, 2006… The 2007 BMW 5 Series was named the winner of the Luxury vehicle category in the Kelley Blue Book 2007 “Best Resale Value Awards.” The 2007 5 Series was also named as an Overall Top 10 leader in projected resale value.
This is the second time that the 5 Series has won the Luxury vehicle and Overall Top 10 awards, having been named in both categories in the 2005 awards as well. With these latest honors, BMW has garnered a total of ten Best Resale Value awards since Kelly Blue Book established the awards in 2003.
“We are very pleased to receive this ongoing recognition from Kelley Blue Book,” noted Tom Purves, Chairman and CEO of BMW of North America, LLC. “We are very committed to offering our owners outstanding value. This includes not only performance, safety and luxury but low cost of ownership as well. The 5 Series is a prime example of that commitment. We see strong resale value as an important gauge of our efforts.”
Kelley Blue Book’s resale values are projections based on current vehicle data, market conditions for each vehicle, competition in segment, expectations of the future economy and the combined experience of Kelley Blue Book’s team of market and pricing analysts. Values reflect projected future wholesale pricing for clean, reconditioned vehicles at the end of a five-year lease period.

Used Car Buying Tips

Here are some tips from John Paul aka "the car doctor" on buying a used car.

Q: What are some of the common mistakes you see used car buyers make?
A: The common emotional mistake is people fall in love with the car, and they buy with their heart and not their head. They buy the red convertible because they always wanted one and then find out it wasn’t the car for them.The real mistakes is they don’t take it to a professional to have it checked out before they buy it. Sometimes what people do is they fall in love with the car, they buy it, they get it registered and then they take it to their local repair shop and say, “I just bought this -- what kind of shape is it in?” Sometimes, they find out it was two cars once that were welded together.The basic rule is, Don’t sign on the dotted line for anything until it’s been inspected by a good repair shop.

Q; What if you’re buying from a dealership and they offer to give you a Carfax report?
A: I don’t care. Let’s face it. You’ll lose an awful lot of negotiating power once you’ve paid for the car. Before you hand over your check, you have a lot more control. For instance, you may be looking at a reasonably sound car but the tires are 75 percent worn. If you have the car checked out, you can go back and say, “The tires have had it, I think I’ll be interested in it if you put four new tires on it.”

Q: There’s constantly more pricing information available to consumers, such as web-based price calculators. Has that impacted used-car buying?
A: To quote Sy Syms, “An educated consumer is our best customer.” The more you know going in the door, the better off you’ll be. Don’t go in and say, “I can afford $300 a month.” They can always find something for you for $300 a month. You want to know what the car’s going to cost. Deal with the payment separately.The more informed you are with price and regional pricing, the better you’ll do. From the dealer’s point of view, you’re not going to waste their time. If you walk in and say, “That car is worth $9,500 that’s what I’m willing to pay for it,” they’ll see if they can do the deal and get you out the door.”You buy five cars in your lifetime, they sell five cars a day. They’re a lot better at negotiating than you are.

Q: If a person does their research, gets a Carfax report, gets the car inspected by a mechanic, do you have a preference whether they buy from a dealer or a private party?
A: You can certainly save some money with a private party, but what you’re not getting from the private party is warranty. Be very careful of private party sales that always seem to have a car for sale once a month. I’ve seen what appear to be private party sales in the ads, but I notice the same phone number is appearing three or four times. It’s somebody running an illegitimate car lot.

Q: Are you seeing new scams surfacing?
A: I don’t know if it’s new or not, but what I’m seeing is documentation changes. For instance, you’re going to take out a loan at 7.5 percent and when you go to buy the car it says 9.5 percent. So carefully inspect all the documents that go with the sale agreement.With all the recent floods, you should pay attention to flood damage. If you look at a used car, and the title says it came from a flooded area, and it either smells like an old refrigerator or like the perfume counter at Macy’s -- either way, something’s up.

Kelly Blue Book Articles

There is much good information about the Kelley Blue Book out there on the internet but I would suggest looking at the main site at www.kbb.com but also at my article site I have many articles relating to used cars and the kelley blue book which can be found at www.thearticleking.com .