Edmunds.com vs. Kelly's Blue Book

[Patrick425]

So, I'm looking for a used car for my son. I've been using Kelly's Blue Book and Edmunds to try to get a sense of the true value of cars that I've been looking at. Can anyone tell me why Edmunds consistantly values cars at least $1,000 less than what KBB shows? For example, I'm looking at a 2001 Subaru Outback with 118,000 miles sold by a dealer. KBB has it at $6,400 and Edmunds has it at $4,200?!?

 

I've noticed this same thing several years ago when I was looking for a car.

[WV Brew]

Make sure they're both expected retail price. I suspect Edmunds actually uses Kelly Blue Book. You can also check TruCar which, I think, has used cars and NADA. There is also Black Book but may not be open to the public. One of your sources may be from a different date. I get $5725 retail on NADA but it may not be the same Outback. Cylinders? Trim?

 

The Edmunds price could be trade-in value which is always less by about that much.

[Patrick425]

Both sites ask for all this info (make, model, trim, options, Private vs. Dealer, location, etc)...so I'm comparing apples to apples. After I posted this on here, I did a search on this subject and it seems like there are several forums that discuss this topic but no one really seems to have a good reason why Edmunds is always so much lower than KBB. The best answer I saw was that Edmunds possibly gives the lowest price to expect on any particular vehicle.

 

In searching for cars I find that most prices that are posted are much closer to KBB than Edmunds.

[Godspeed]

My job is ancillary to the car business on the data side, and have had some ancillary communication with both parties throughout the past few years. As far as I know, Edmunds "TMV" pricing is based on similar sold vehicles in model, condition, and location. KBB pricing, to my knowledge, does not explicitly factor in these variables.

 

I'm much more familiar with how Edmunds works than KBB though, and even then I might not even be half right so don't take this as gospel or anything.

[Patrick425]

My job is ancillary to the car business on the data side, and have had some ancillary communication with both parties throughout the past few years. As far as I know, Edmunds "TMV" pricing is based on similar sold vehicles in model, condition, and location. KBB pricing, to my knowledge, does not explicitly factor in these variables.

 

I'm much more familiar with how Edmunds works than KBB though, and even then I might not even be half right so don't take this as gospel or anything.

 

The only thing with that is that KBB actually asks you about the condition of the car before they give you their FMV (they ask you to rate the condition as Fair, Good, Very Good, and Excellent and they give an explanation of what each category is), Edmunds does not.