Kelley Blue Book vs Black Book | Ames, IA

Almost everyone who has ever purchased or sold a vehicle has heard of Kelley Blue Book. The company is well-known as the gold standard for determining the value of a used car. Kelley Blue Book (KBB), established in 1926, is not the only name in the game, however. Black Book is a subscription-based service that began in 1955. This company has its own system for determining the values of used vehicles that differs from KBB's. This article is going to explain why Ames Ford Lincoln uses KBB values and not Black Book ones when calculating trade-ins - and why this is better for Ames residents.

Ames Ford Lincoln

123 Airport Road
Directions Ames, IA 50010

Sales: (515) 233-1913
Service: (515) 233-1916
Parts: (515) 233-1916

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Kelley Blue Book is a free service that helps individuals and dealers alike figure out what cars are worth. While KBB does deal with new cars, we are concerned with trade-in values. To calculate these, KBB has a vehicle rated as Excellent, Good, Fair, or Poor to start. This allows for more variance than Black Book's process. One then applies modifiers based on the mileage and optional features in order to figure out the trade-in price of the car. KBB incorporates auction price history into their valuations, which can drive them up a bit; this helps Boone residents, who will get more for their trade-in.

Black Book is a subscription-based service that is mostly used by dealers, as most folks don't want to pay for a service to help them shop for a car. It has users rate a trade-in vehicle as Clean, Average, or Rough in order to help figure out how much it is worth. Then, the company parses the vehicle's history in order to adjust the price. This means that past accidents and the like are factored in. One then takes stock of the features, mileage, and other vehicle-specific features in order to figure out the trade-in value.

We use Kelley Blue Book values because they are more transparent for our customers, and we believe in customer service. We won't hide the process behind our trade-in valuations from you, as some dealers who use Black Book might. KBB values are also sometimes higher than Black Book ones, which is great for our customers!

Here at Ames Ford Lincoln we even offer a KBB Instant Cash Offer! This lets you enter the details of your vehicle and see what you can expect to get for it. As we said, we're all about transparency.

When you're ready for a new (to you) vehicle, bring your current ride along with you so we can appraise it and get you the best trade-in value we can. You can rest assured that it will be based on transparent KBB prices, not on some subscription-based service that you cannot access.

Ames Ford Lincoln is Iowa's Home for Hard Work. When you do business with us, you can do so with the confidence that we're all about transparency and fairness - no games, no gimmicks. We look forward to working with you at our Ames, IA dealership soon!