As with most themes, it\’s important to first begin by looking at where you\’re at currently. Yes, you may benefit from personal stories of what someone else has experienced that may relate to you, but ultimately, it has more to do with you individually.
So the question today is, what vehicle or vehicles do you own, and do you know what they\’re worth?
Let\’s take a look at how to best value your vehicle.
Book Value
The first approach is the book value. A book value refers to what you purchase your vehicle minus the depreciation since the purchase. The price might depend on the number of miles on the vehicle, wear, tear, the age of the vehicle, and so forth.
Resources To Help!
Fortunately, you don\’t actually have to calculate the original purchase price of your vehicle and how much value you have driven off of that vehicle over a while. There are actually resources available to you to determine its value, such as kbb.com or nada.com. Now NADA has several other resources that I\’ve referred to regarding articles they\’ve put forth. But these two resources are beneficial for figuring out your vehicle\’s book value. —-
Factors in Play
If you live in an environment where you have several months of winter with roads that get salted, and your cars then are oxidized and decayed from that salt damage, then you may experience a more profound and sharper drop-off when it comes to depreciation. Like these cold climates face their own share of problems, car owners face other risks like the risk of hail damage or other natural disasters in other parts of the United States. So keep in mind your book value will vary based on the region you live in the United States.
The example I want to use today is Car and Driver\’s number one selling vehicle, the Ford F-150. The Ford F-150 has been a long-time best-selling vehicle, and probably many of you own or have owned one at some point. I want to use this example because this vehicle has been around for a long time. Today, we will be looking at a three-year-old version of a Ford F-150 at a mid-level package. And so looking at something that would be the average vehicle for an F-150
that people would most likely drive.
Resource #1: KBB
First, visit kbb.com, where you\’ll see the \”my car value\” button that you can click. From that point, you\’ll be able to click on the various options that the vehicle has.
In our example today, we\’re looking at the Mid range SuperCrew version 2019 Ford F-150. We will assume that there are 36,000 miles on it, based on an average of 12,000 miles driven per year by the average American. You then can put in your zip code, and then you continue.
With that, I\’m looking for the Lariat package with these short beds, which is the most common configuration of the Lariat. Beyond this, we will select the specific actual equipment on that vehicle. You\’ll be able to look at what the typical configuration is. In this case, we will go with the V8, which is a five-liter engine. We\’re also going to assume that the truck is four-wheel drive.
When we\’re looking at packages, some of these come with additional accessory packages. In this case, there\’s an FX4 off-road package on this version, and this version is the color white.
Beyond that, it\’ll ask you about the condition of the vehicle. Now, for your vehicle, this gives you an explanation of how many vehicles or the percentage of vehicles that fall within each category.
In the Kelley Blue Book you have everything from fair to excellent. You may price it at \”excellent\” if you\’ve kept it in a garage and have avoided it getting damaged or rusted. Similarly, if you have had it dealer-maintained, it has no accidents and it has a clean title, you could price it at an excellent rate. From that point, it begins to calculate your Blue Book value.
Trade-In Value
So the first value they offer you is trade-in value. Now, if you\’re going to a dealership, this may give you an idea of what the vehicle would be worth if you were to trade it in.
Private Party Value
You could always also try to sell it through a private party or find a buyer who can purchase that vehicle and pay you top dollar for that. So based on this, the private party value is at $46,472. This gives you a good starting point to know what this three-year-old vehicle with 36,000 miles is now worth.
The next step comes down to looking at what you initially purchased that vehicle for, how long you\’ve owned it, and how much it\’s depreciated per year down to this point.
Resource #2: NADA
Beyond this, the second tool to look at is NADA. NADA Guides give you another way to look up this information through a similar process, but of course, with some different steps.
Now, go to nadaguides.com and click on \”start now.\” Once you click on start now, you will have the ability to research a vehicle by body type. Beyond this, you\’re looking at what kind of make you\’re going to research. Today, of course, it\’s the Ford. And so beyond that, we\’re looking at a 2019 used Ford F-150. The website will populate that information, and you\’ll be able to click on the F-150 specifically. From that point, you\’ll be able to choose the package it has. In this case, it breaks it down by either the four-wheel-drive or the two-wheel-drive configuration for the crew cab and the Lariat specification. After selecting this, we will put in the zip code for where you live. This, again, will pull your region to determine the value based on that area.
Beyond that, we want to select our specific options. In this case, the specific options are the V8 engine and the FX4 package.
Then, you\’re going to press \”continue\”.
From there, you will have the different values that come up. Of course, the first thing you\’ll notice is the rough trade-in, average trade-in, and clean trade-in, which is different terminology than you saw from their private parties\’ side.
What Next?
From here, I average the clean trade-in and clean retail value for this. That value ends up being around the $44,000 mark.
So now you have an idea of what this vehicle is actually worth!
Call To Action
Look at your specific vehicle and determine if it\’s had any accidents, paintwork, or damage done to it. Maybe it\’s curb rash or the condition of the tires.
Also, look at whether you have all sets of keys, your records, and anything else that would contribute to the value to determine what category it fits in. Evaluate your vehicle and figure out the real-time estimate based on the book value of what that vehicle is worth.
Have a question? Our team would love to help! Email us.
