6 Things to Remember When Negotiating a Car Purchase
Nathan Stretch December 6, 2018

Tip 2: Determine the ‘True’ Value of the Vehicle

Tip 2: Determine the ‘True’ Value of the Vehicle

Once you’ve settled on a particular vehicle, you need to determine what it’s really worth. This may or may not bear resemblance to its listed price!

There are websites out there that will give you an estimate of the market value of used vehicles. The most popular of these is the Kelly Blue Book. If you’re in Canada, you can try the Canadian Black Book pricing guide. However, used cars are all unique, so this is not an exact science. It’s a decent starting point, but you need to do a bit more digging.

Fortunately, you’re likely already familiar with AutoTempest.com. Using the AutoTempest car search engine, you can cast a wide enough net to find very similar vehicles to compare to the one you’re hoping to buy.

If you can find prices that compare favorably, go ahead and print off the listings; you can use them as negotiating tools later on. Of course, pay attention to things like mileage, condition, and options installed. It’s possible for two vehicles with the same make, model, and year to be worth very different amounts. Location matters too, but there are plenty of car transportation options out there, so don’t worry about it too much – especially for negotiation purposes.

Of course, the prices you will find while doing this shopping around are all listing prices. Presumably they are all somewhat inflated, since the sellers expect people to negotiate – although not as well as you will!

With eBay Motors, you can view completed listings to see what people have actually paid for similar used cars recently – a very powerful negotiating tool. (When you search completed listings, the ones shown in green are those that actually sold, while the others expired unsold.) AutoTempest actually provides an easy shortcut for this. Just search for your car at AutoTempest.com, then on the results page, find eBay Completed Listings in the Model Info section of the sidebar.

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Nathan Stretch Founder & CEO

Founder of the AutoTempest used car search engine, as well as SearchTempest.com. I do a bit of everything around here now, and may even get a chance to write some blog posts! I'm also a car enthusiast. Currently I own a 2009 911 Turbo and a 2006 Honda S2000 (which you'll likely see on the track if you follow the blog or our Youtube channel!)