How Much is My Car Worth, A simple Equation.

Buyer + Date = Price

The value of a car or truck is what any given person on any given day is willing to pay for it. This person may pay more than that person or the same person may have two different amounts on two different days. The real problem with this equation, and determining vehicle prices in general, is that they change constantly. Take for example recent flooding in Texas (2017). Before that there was a surplus of used vehicles with prices on a downward swing, after, a new demand for anywhere from 500k- 1M cars. Shortly after that another hurricane hit Florida = More demand.

Pricing tools and book values? Yeah, they are neat widgets on a website but how long until they factor in 500k flooded cars? None of these “Tools” will pick up on how these events have affected prices until long after they already have, and where will this leave you? Probably walking into a dealership ready to play hardball on a pickup truck only to find out they won’t budge on the price because Texas (Of all states) just lost 500k vehicles and most of them were (of course) pickup trucks. This is just one of many human and market factors that a computer program can’t factor in with any accuracy. At least, any accuracy that presents you to a seller as a “knowledgeable consumer”.

The best advice Autohitch can give is of course to do your own homework. Don’t use the widgets? No, use the widgets and book values, but use them as guides and starting points. Google some automotive industry pricing news and see where the trends are. If you do this now, for instance, you would see that although vehicle prices were falling, transaction amounts were actually up due to people choosing larger vehicles with more features. That’s important to know! Look at similar vehicles being listed around the country but don’t forget that certain vehicles do better in certain regions. If you are in a region where your vehicle sells poorly consider using Ebay where your chances of selling to someone in another state are much higher.

Bottom line: If you think vehicle pricing is done on a website by submitting contact information into a widget then filling out a few boxes, you are going to get it wrong and either lose money, or your sanity.

Autohitch
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