Finding Information on Cars
By Bryan M. Carson Copyright 2002

Used Car Information

There are a number of places to find prices for both used cars and new cars. Traditionally libraries have been the place to find this type of information; however, much of this information is now available on the internet. This posting will cover used car prices; new car information will be in a separate posting. All links will be posted in a seperate section.

There are a number of different used car guides. These include the Automobile Red Book, also known as the National Market Reports' Auto Blue Book Official Used Car Valuations, which Leslie Merk wrote about in an annotation. Kelly's Blue Book is also a popular price book, and almost everyone gets the NADA guides from the National Auto Dealers Association, since it comes in regional editions. With the advent of the internet, most of the used car guides have gone online, and now also include new car prices on their websites. National Market Reports (the Red Book) is not available online for free. Unlike the other companies, they sell their online service as a subscription.

The used car price guides will give you both wholesale prices (what a dealer would pay you) and retail prices (what you would pay a dealer for the car). They used for more than just figuring out value when buying, selling, or trading in a used car. These guides are also used for valuing an estate when a person dies, and for figuring out insurance settlements when a car is totalled.

Often the dealers will use their own in-house price guide which is often substantially less than the commercial ones. For example, Ford has a price guide that it gives the dealers, and that is what they use for trade-ins and purchasing used cars. Also, insurance companies sometimes use consulting firms that come up with prices independently of the commercial guides. Sometimes the insurance prices are higher, sometimes they are lower.

For example, in January2002, I was involved in a car wreck and my car was totalled. The insurance company used a consulting company which actually placed the value $200 above the value listed in the NADA guide. Needless to say, I didn't complain.

To help illustrate the differences, I have included a posting on law-lib, a discussion list for law librarians. This message (used with permission), from March 13, 2001, is entitled "Used Car Guides-which is best?" The author is William H. Grady, a law librarian at the New York City office of the international law firm Paul Hastings. Grady was formerly a librarian at USF&G, a large national insurance company.

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>As an ex-insurance company librarian, I would hate to recommend any source of used car values as "the best."The ones available on the Internet are certainly the most accessible, but whether they are the best for all uses is open to question. As a sideline to my library at USF&G, I also ran the corporate purchasing of used car guides (and other group subscriptions) and had to deal with our company Claims Department and got to know the adjusters.

>In certain states, preference in the insurance industry leans toward the NADA Used Car Guides. In certain states, particularly in the mid-atlantic and northeast, preference leans toward the National Market Reports Guides, that used to be called Red Books but now I find are called National Market Reports' Auto Blue Books. In some states, as I recall Pennsylvania was one, we used averages of the National Market Reports and the NADA. Our company wanted the Kelley Blue Books only in our offices in the Western States.

>About the only thing I could state as a general rule is that our company wanted the NAD Guides (which come in regional editions, by the way) all over the country.

>You might think the insurance companies all gravitate to the ones that give the lowest values, but that is not necessarily true. The adjusters will gravitate to the one (or average from two) where their valuations will not be challenged by attorneys, the courts, or the insurance commissions investigating unfair claim settlement practices. It's a local thing.

>To value a car for estate purposes, it probably doesn't matter which of the three you use, although you will get different values from the three and different values on a regional basis from the NADAs. Even Probate Courts might have a favorite "blue book," and it wouldn't hurt to find out locally which is preferred.

>All this is a long way of saying that I would not take anyone's recommendation for which guide is "the best;" I would rely instead on what local practice is in each area of the country or sector of business.

For many years, the best guide to new car prices was Edmunds New Car Prices. This book gives you the actual invoice cost of the car, telling you exactly what the dealer paid. This is important because sometimes car dealers will prepare fake invoices to fool customers into paying more than the vehicle is really worth. Many libraries subscribe to this guidebook. Edmunds is on the internet for free; however, there are now many competitors as well. Kelly's Blue Book and NADA both have new car prices on their websites along with their traditional used car information.Yahoo and others have also gotten into the act, and now there are many places to find information on new car prices.

National Market Reports (the Red Book) is not available online for free. Unlike the other companies, they sell their online service as a subscription.

One of the best places for information about new cars is from auto magazines such as Road & Track, Car & Driver, and Motorworld. In addition, Consumer Reports magazine contains car reviews. Also, the annual Buyer's Guide from Consumer Reports has a great deal of information, and should be consulted by anyone looking for information about either new or used cars. You can access some articles from car magazines (includingConsumer Reports) in EBSCOhost by using MasterFile Premier.

Some companies talk about ordering cars online, but what they are really doing is matching you up with a dealer in your area (or within a 200-mile radius) who will then try to sell you a car. When these services first began, there were some deals available by going outside your area; however, these days most dealers are part of these networks, so the deals are not any better than what you can negotiate once you are armed with the proper information.

Be sure to look at the section with the links; there is a lot of information available now through the web.

Here are some websites to use if you are looking for information about new or used cars:

pricing & evaluation

* Car and Driver...new car evaluations. http://www.caranddriver.com/
* CarPoint...prices & purchasing. http://carpoint.msn.com/
* Edmund's...new & used car evalutions & price guides. http://www.edmunds.com/
* Gold Book...classic cars. http://www.manheimgold.com/
* Hemmings Motor News...classic cars & parts. http://www.hemmings.com/
* Kelley Blue Book...new & used car values. http://www.kbb.com/
* Edmunds Leasing Guide http://www.edmunds.com/advice/leasing/articles/78385/article.html?tid=edmunds.a.landing.leasing..2.*
* N.A.D.A. Vehicle Values http://www.nada.com"
* Yahoo! Automotive Links....Reviews, pricing guides, makes & models, tires, marque clubs & kit cars. http://www.yahoo.com/Recreation/Automotive
* "Green cars"....best & worst for the environment. http://greenercars.com/bestof.html
* Fuel economy ratings...from the DOE. http://www.fueleconomy.gov/

safety & recalls

*Rollover resistance ratings...SUVs and others. http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/hot/rollover
*Carfax Vehicle History Service...free "lemon check;" sells reports on tampered odometer readings, original vehicle use, ownership transfers, liens and salvage data by Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). http://www.carfax.com/
*Crash test data...from the National Highway & Traffic Safety Administration. http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/testing/ncap/
*Recall database...just fill out the form. http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/recalls/recall_links.cfm
*Technical service bulletins...notices issued by vehicle manufacturers to automotive technicians. http://www.alldata.com/recalls/index.html
*Insurance injury, collision & theft losses...Highway Loss Data Institute. http://www.highwaysafety.org/vehicle_ratings/ictl/ictl.htm
*Child passenger safety...car seats & air bags. http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/childps