Monday, October 5, 2009

Finding Your Used Vehicle's Value

Today I am going to talk about how you can use Vehix to find your used vehicle's value. Find the value of your car or truck is important if you are thinking about selling or trading your car in. Many methods are widely used to find a vehicle's value. Some automotive firms use the Kelly Blue Book to determine values. Some other companies that report used vehicle values include NADA and Edmunds. Vehix uses some of this information to determine the value of your vehicle.

In order to begin researching your vehicle's value, browse to the Used Vehicle Values tool on Vehix. There are several ways to get there. Here are a couple.

1.  Click on the "Look up your used vehicle value" link on the homepage.


or

2. Click on Used Cars in the global navigation bar, and then click on Used Vehicle Values in the sub-navigation bar for Used Cars.




or

3. All throughout the site are small controls that look like this.



and clicking on that "Find Used Car Prices" button will take you there also.

Once you get to the Used Vehicle Values calculator, you will be given a vehicle selector to enter your vehicle's information. The selector requires that you select the year, make, model, and trim, and that you enter your zip code a the vehicle's mileage as displayed on the odometer. Below is an example of the selector as you would see it on Vehix.



After you have selected your vehicle's information and entered in a proper zip code and your vehicle's mileage, click on the Continue button to proceed. The next page shows you several of the options that were available for your particular trim when you purchased the vehicle. Some of the options will lessen the total value of your vehicle, while others will increase its value. Take the time now to go through and select the various options that your vehicle has.

Below I have included a screenshot of what the details page of a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan SE would look like. I have entered an arbitrary mileage of 90,000 (without commas). You can see how each selection affects the total value of your vehicle.



Using this tool will help you to determine how much your vehicle is worth. If it is in good condition you might be able to sell it for around 5% to 10% more. If it's in worse condition, then you'll be able to get rid of it for a little bit less. If you are going to trade it in, then this will give you something to bargain with also. These values are based on NADA Guides data. Good luck with your sale.