Kelly Blue Book values

[gerryvz]

Just on a whim, I went onto KBB.com to take a quick gander at what they were quoting as the value for a 1994 E500 in "very good" condition. They came back with more than $13,500 for my area of the country. That's for a private sale -- dealer trade-in was still well over $11K. That surprised me -- it was about 40% higher than I was expecting.

That should, in and of itself, be a baseline value for beginning insurance negotiations. Additions and condition of the car should be gravy on top of that. I'd think that a savvy negotiation strategy would result in at least a price in the mid to high teens for a well cared for and tastefully modified car, if and when it was ever needed for insurance negotiations.

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[gerryvz]

To follow up, I just now did the same for NADAguides.com. Surprised that was even higher !!

That came back with $15,100 for the same car, retail price "clean sale" and $12,100 for a "clean trade-in" to a dealer.

It is possible that the value of our cars is starting to increase and/or get recognized ?

 

[Glen]

I just checked KBB...in my area private party sales with 120,000 miles came in with the following values:
Excellent: $13,436
Very Good: $13,011
Good: $12,711
Fair: $11,536

With 80,000 miles:
Excellent: $17,426
Very Good: $17,001
Good: $16,701
Fair: $15,526

And with 40,000 miles:
Excellent: $21,476
Very Good: $21,051
Good: $20,751
Fair: $19,576

So...it does seem like values may be going up!

 

[gsxr]

That can't be. It's an established fact that sedans never appreciate in value, only roadsters/convertibles become valuable collector cars. We just have 300E's with a body kit...

 

[gerryvz]

Well, if you look at recent E500E sales I think those numbers are more accurate than I've seen them to be (traditionally).

That said, when I went to the tax office to re-title my 560SEL, and to pay Texas sales tax on the car, I wrote down that the sale price was $1,000. The state of Texas has a web site that estimates the value of used vehicles (for calculating taxes) and the web site said $1,700 for a 1990 560SEL with 80K miles on it. That is considerably below the market value for this car. All that said, I only paid sales tax on the $1,000 cash sale price for the car

The prices for nice, clean 126 sedans are not that far off of E500Es....

 

[DerFuror]

It is possible that the value of our cars is starting to increase and/or get recognized ?

Uh oh, this website is becoming too influential. Everyone stop what you are doing!


(unless you intend to sell...)

 

[szvook]

Jawohl, herr DerFuror.