Kelly Blue Book for used cars ???

[Roop-Dogg]

im helping my brother buy a used car. when i look up value s in kelly blue book, there are three columns: trade-in, private party, and retail. i certainly understand the trade-in column but am completely at a loss as to why there is such a $ difference between private party value and retail value. basically what i read into this is that if there are two identical cars, one at a private party and one on a car lot they will be asking two different prices. i would think the value would be the same. why would i buy the one at the dealer?? where am i going wrong with my logic. or better yet which column should i use when looking up the value of a used car. do you really need to use two different columns depending on who the seller is.

[DTro]

The retail price will be higher, since the retail outlet (dealer) will clean and prep the car and do a multi point inspection and in some cases offer a warranty.

I would start somewhere between the retail and private party price and go from there.

Do some research on HSOList and craig-list to see what similar cars are listed for.

[zamboni]

Plus dealers pay so much when they trade it in, so they want to make a profit.

[HawgMan]

Most dealers & banks use the N.A.D.A. book. From my experiance the Kelly blue book is always higher...

[Hafnutz]

Best to do some shopping and compare prices. Blue book prices are all over the place in this market. NADA seems to be more accurate. Dealers will usually give you a warranty, have checked the veh over and often repair things before they sell it. If it's junk they will wholesale it and a lot of the small jockey lots buy them and resell usually "as is". Most major dealers are pretty competitive on a given model. If it's a newer car or truck it probably came from an auction not a trade-in.