book value

I was playing around and looked up the Kelley Blue Book value for my 96 RMW with 120k miles in very good condition. I was shocked it came back with something like $1,200. Can you even buy a functional used car of any model for $!,200 these days? That's almost what a dozen eggs costs in 2023.

So, what is a realistic book value for our cars these days?

What Kelly publishes is generally used by Dealers when offering a trade-in figure.

The condition of vehicles this old varies so wildly it is hard to come up with an "average" purchase price.

Condition and mileage mean everything, with unmolested examples bringing the top dollar. Publications like "Old Car" and "Hemmings" give a pretty good indication of the kind of figures these wonderful wagons are actually fetching.

jon7190 wrote:

I(...) Kelley Blue Book value for my 96 RMW with 120k miles in very good condition (=) something like $1,200.  

This price is massively off for private sales. For indicative prices, I would look at Hagerty here -- not Edmunds or the KBB. FWIW, Hagerty currently estimates a #3 car to be worth $14.1k.

Before buying Betsy, my Dark Cherry 1996 RMW, this past February, I had been in the market for a solid driver in good condition (and looked far and wide) for the prior two years.  The cheapest running 1996 RMW that I found, solid and well maintained, was listed for $6.5k and sold for $5k -- but it had 196k miles on the clock. Cars matching your description generally sell for $7.5-14k, depending on what needs done (buyers should not underestimate the amount of time/money it takes to find NOS or correct used parts -- ask me how I know) and options (including color, interior type, and towing package). It is possible to find cars for less, mind you -- but either they sell really (really) fast or, and that's most cases, one finds some issue (hidden rust, poor maintenance, etc.) following discussions with the seller and/or in-person inspection.

jon7190 wrote:

So, what is a realistic book value for our cars these days?

For actual examples of what good, very good, or truly outstanding examples can fetch, the best and most detailed source of info IMHO is Bring a Trailer. Here is the link to the sales in the past two years[/url]: the lowest selling price was $8.4k for a 1994 with 86k miles but a number of issues and no V92 towing package, followed by a 1995 with 74k miles that seemed like a great deal (sold for $8.5k) if one was willing to live with beige cloth interior. All others sold for $9.5k or more, with some prime examples selling for $25k+.

Another source of actual sale prices (as opposed to listings with asking prices, which may or may not be realistic) is eBay, though there is less / less consistent info there about the actual condition of the cars being sold.

Don't know and never really cared.

KBB is going to be the realistic value when it comes to dealerships and insurance. Any accident with plain old insurance is going to result in an instant total.

Have it appraised if you want to know the value of your car and have it insured with an agreed value type of policy.

94Woody wrote:

Don't know and never really cared.

KBB is going to be the realistic value when it comes to dealerships and insurance. Any accident with plain old insurance is going to result in an instant total.

Have it appraised if you want to know the value of your car and have it insured with an agreed value type of policy.

Yep, appraisal is needed if you want actual value of the car if it wrecked or stolen. That is what I did, and it appraised at over $12K so that is what the payoff would be.

Book values don't mean much of anythign on older cars as all of them are only worth what someone will pay you for them. It doesn't matter what you think it is worth, only everybody else.

jon7190 wrote:

I was playing around and looked up the Kelley Blue Book value for my 96 RMW with 120k miles  in very good condition. I was shocked it came back with something like $1,200. Can you even buy a functional used car of any model for $!,200 these days? That's almost what a dozen eggs costs in 2023.

So, what is a realistic book value for our cars these days?

you dont have "book values" for these cars.

Market value.

KBB is useless anyway. Dealers don't use KBB, unless they are dumb. they should be going by actual market data, and all we do is plug the vin in and it gives us all the info we need. I'm in the car business and its never accurate - its like people who use credit karma to determine their credit score.


Look at Haggertys and those type of specialty vehicle places for actual data.

I would suggest Hagarty's and BaT and Ebay - only SOLD listings. Edmunds TMV wasn't too far off about 4 years ago but not any more