Vehicle Valuation FAQs for Dealers

Kelley Blue Book collects hundreds of thousands of vehicle records every week. We determined our default vehicle configurations using the most popular options and packages found in our data. Vehicle default configurations are typically consistent year-over-year, with changes occurring only in a few cases.

The Kelley Blue Book^® Lending Value is Kelley Blue Book’s benchmark value for wholesale and retail lenders. Based on the Kelley Blue Book^® Auction Value, the Kelley Blue Book Lending Value assumes that the vehicle is in good to excellent condition, fully reconditioned, inspected, and prepared for retail sale.

Formerly known as Suggested Retail Price, the Kelley Blue Book^® Typical Listing Price is representative of dealers’ asking prices for a used car. It assumes that the vehicle has been fully reconditioned and has a clean title history. This price also considers the dealers’ profit, costs for advertising, sales commissions and other costs of doing business. The final sale price will likely be less, depending on the car’s actual condition, popularity, type of warranty offered and local market factors.

The Kelley Blue Book^® Price Advisor is a range-based pricing tool to help car buyers and sellers talk about price realistically. Research from the 2018 Cox Automotive Car Buying Journey Study showed that shoppers are looking for a fair price not only for new vehicles, but also for used vehicles and the vehicles they currently own. Limiting market-based pricing to a single price point doesn’t consider all the variables associated with structuring a car deal. The Kelley Blue Book Price Advisor is designed to reduce friction between buyers and sellers.

*2018 Cox Automotive Car Buyer Journey Study

The Fair Market Range is Kelley Blue Book’s estimate of what a consumer can reasonably expect to pay this week in their area for a particular year, make and model vehicle configured with their selected options, excluding taxes, title and fees and any rebates and incentives, when buying from a dealer. The Fair Market Range for Used Cars also considers the car’s mileage. Prices in the Fair Market Range are determined from our process of collecting hundreds of thousands of vehicle transactions each week and updating our pricing with that information. The Kelley Blue Book^® Price Advisor displays a Fair Market Range where the majority of vehicle transactions happen for that particular configuration.

vAuto® Market-Based Pricing leverages current listing prices to help dealers gain insight into their regional competition and guide their pricing decisions. It helps dealers manage the day-to-day pricing actions on their inventory to drive online consumer traffic with the goal of getting consumers interested in purchasing a vehicle. Kelley Blue Book^® Price Advisor leverages historical transactions to determine Fair Market Range. This provides pricing information and transparency between consumers and dealers. The Fair Market Range on the Kelley Blue Book Price Advisor helps consumers and dealers be informed on where the majority of transaction prices occur.

Kelley Blue Book leverages data and partnerships to obtain very granular vehicle information. We can extract values of vehicle options and packages from our data and analyze them for valuation. Just like vehicles, you can expect option values to depreciate year-over-year.

Kelley Blue Book updates or verifies our values and pricing at least once a week to give dealers and consumers up-to-date information.

Kelley Blue Book employs a team of statisticians that analyze millions of transaction records to determine what the typical mileage of a vehicle should be based on its age and time spent in the market. The typical mileage points change regularly based on the mileage data in our transaction records. If a vehicle’s mileage is higher or lower than the typical mileage, it will receive the necessary value adjustment to account for its mileage situation. Generally, lower-mileage vehicles have a higher price or value.

Kelley Blue Book provides values for used vehicles from model year 1992 and newer. Transactions for older vehicles are too rare, therefore we do not have enough data to analyze and are unable to report values for them.

Kelley Blue Book understands the importance of providing pricing that is geographically relevant to dealers and consumers. In order to better meet the needs of the industry, we produce values based on 134 geographic regions in the United States. Each region is analyzed individually to reflect local pricing and local economic conditions. If you believe our values are not reflective of your market area, please contact us at: values@kbb.com and we will get in touch with you.

Manheim MMR transaction data gets updated each night with additional transactions. MMR figures are derived from MMR wholesale transactions that occur at a Manheim facility and are reported through the MMR product. Kelley Blue Book updates values on a weekly basis leveraging multiple data sources and utilizes an art and science approach to vehicle valuations.