We want to trade my wife's SUV in on a new one. NADA, Edmunds, and Automotive.com show clean trade-in at $14,000 - $15,000. Kelley Blue Book has "Excellent" trade in at $9,800. I don't understand why KBB is so much lower than the other three, but I am sure it's closer to what the dealer is going to offer, which is no bueno.

It's God's way of telling you that you should keep the SUV you already have instead of trading it in for a shiny new one and a lot of additional debt.

If you think KBB is low, wait until you see what the dealer offers you for your trade in using their black wholesale book. OUCH!

Post the first 10 digits of the VIN and I'll look up auction results for yhe past 60 days. That'll give you the true wholesale value and you can derive retail from there.

its cuz KBB is associated with dealers and as such allows the dealer to deflate the buying price and inflate the selling price to make money off your trade in

Wow Killer 06, whats that based on? Where'd you get your knowledge of the car industry?! KBB is in NO WAY associated with Auto Dealers. In the Car industry, KBB is the BANE of our existence. Inflates values WAAAY over what they're actually worth.

While Kelley does actually use some data from car dealers, the value is going to depend on much more than what some website says.

My mom has a diamond ring from an ex-husband that's been appraised at $5800. She's yet to receive an offer of more than $1200 for it, so how much is it actually worth?

It's kind of the same thing with Kelley Blue Book. The last time a member of the Kelley family sold a car was in the mid-50's. I've yet to find a "Print Check" button on their website either.

I have no problem with Kelley Blue Book as a guy who sells cars for a living. It's a great starting point for people to get an "appraisal" for their car before I actually offer a check to them. The one thing that is interesting is that the more inaccurate KBB gets, the more they are trusted, as they are telling customers what they want to hear ("It's worth more than they're telling you!" when most people already distrust car salesmen already. I've never seen how it benefits them to be accurate in the valuation of cars.

There you have it, my Kelley Blue Book Rant. This could actually be a good discussion, so don't flame me too badly.