How Much Is My Car Worth?

Video Transcript

"The internet is a huge resource these days and it is something that was not around years ago. Kelly Blue Book online you can pull up the exact blue book value of your car, put the actual mileage in, all your options and you can see three different values. You can see a trade in value, a private party sale value and a retail price which you would see to buy for at a dealer's lot. That is probably the best source and most objective source to look and see what your car is really worth. In talking about car value and car worth on trade in I think it cannot be stressed enough the importance of maintaining your vehicle and also recognize that if you have not maintained your vehicle well you can't expect to get top dollar for your trade. On the other side if you have got a relationship with a dealer that you have been doing your service work and your maintenance work with you can expect to get good money for your trade. I think that is the key and that is the thing that a lot of people miss. Of course everybody thinks their car is worth and needs to be worth as much as it can but the way to get that money is to maintain it and keep it up and keep it clean and nice while you own the vehicle so then you can reap those rewards when you get ready to trade it in or sell it on your own. Well keep the car serviced every three or five thousand miles depending on what type of vehicle you have, keep the tires rotated, keep it clean. That seems like a no brainer but I appraise a ton of cars every day and you'd be surprised the amount of cars I see that the people know they are going to trade their car and they bring it in absolutely with junk all inside of it and everything and that really decreases the value of your car because I am trying to picture it on my lot and realize how much work I have to do and also to say hey well I might not know these people, might not know if they came to our shop but if they haven't kept their car up in cleanliness it is pretty safe to say they probably haven't kept it up mechanically either. Also if you are a smoker, try as best you can not to smoke in your car. That odor is extremely difficult to get out and it makes your car less marketable to people with allergies and that type of thing and that all plays into your trade value."