I’ve been looking at Craigs List and Autotrader, pricing new and used cars. My question: What is a fair price? Edmunds has “True Market Value”, then there’s Kelly Blue Book and NADA Guides. I had a buddy of mine (a retired car salesman) tell me that a “good deal” is 10% below KBB trade-in value. He also said, “Oh, Kelly Blue Book prices are $2,000 to $3,000 more than the real value.” In other words, KBB retail of $10,000 is more like $7,000 to $8,000. So, how about it? What IS a fair price? And how far down can you bargain down folks? (IMHO $500 is the most). And why do sellers have asking prices that are, sometimes, thousands of dollars ABOVE private party bluebook? I thought, with the recession, that it was a “buyer’s market”!
The reason people put higher asking prices is because they usually have “OBO” beside it. So, they price high, what they’d like to get out of the car, but they’ve got a set price in mind what they’ll accept for it.
So, honestly, a fair price for the vehicle is one the seller will accept.