Kelley blue book

[whatamess]

Are you supposed to use what the car is worth to sell at a dealer, trade in, private....I have three VERY different numbers plus, when I went online and searched for the cars selling price at every dealer it was $3,000 MORE than the kbb highest value!
Problem is Toyota's dont depreciate much....
Good for resale, bad for me

[SinkingFast]

Our attny used Edmunds.com as Edmunds allows you to take into consideration the condition of the car. He averaged the wholesale, private party, and retail prices, when available, to get values for our cars.

Worst case scenario, use private party pricing. You selling as an individual won't get retail pricing anyway.

Another thing you can do,.......... Go to a dealership. Act like you're gonna trade. Get them to "value" your car for trade-in purposes. Then you have a value in writing of what your car would be worth if you were buying another vehicle.

[FilingOnMyOwn]

I'd use trade-in value, or just the lowest value you can find. Like sinking said, you would never get the 'retail' price, and sometimes its hard even to get the private party value. For bk purposes, you use the value of an item if it were to be placed for immediate sale on the street, like an auction, wholesale, or trade-in, value.

[Emmy]

I found this one while doing a search on my vehicles.

http://auto.consumerguide.com/

It lists the price ranges by year/make/model and for Good, Average, and Poor condition and explains what each one is. Here is what it said:

This chart details a range of prices in year-by-year listings for vehicles in three condition levels: Good: a clean low-mileage, solid-running vehicle that needs little or no repair. Average: a car with normal miles on the odometer, perhaps a few scrapes or dings; engine might need a minor repair or two, but runs acceptably well. Poor: might have potentially dangerous problems with the engine and/or body, or abnormally high mileage; definitely in need of mechanical attention. Valuations reflect wholesale prices paid by dealers at auction, and retail prices on used-car lots. Each range covers all trim levels and engine types for a vehicle with a typical amount of equipment--usually an automatic transmission, air conditioning, stereo, etc. Fully loaded vehicles may cost more. Average mileage is 12,000 miles per year. Keep in mind that these are guidelines only. Actual selling prices vary-especially from region to region.

[SinkingFast]

Also, if you car has any defects, document them as well.

If you have body damage, go to a body shop and get a repair estimate. If you know you're gonna need new brakes soon, go to a repair shop and get an estimate to do the repair.

Those types of things ding the value of a car.

Chances are, if you use an attny, he/she will value the car for your BK filing anyway. When we discussed all of this with our attny and the paralegal, they asked about condition, any problems, mileage, and such. That was all factored into the values of our vehicles.