Car trade in value or Retail value???

[mtw0220]

I live in Ohio and my Trustee is valueing my 1998 Honda Civic at retail value ($5800) and wants me to pay this minus the $1000. I know the vehicle is nowhere near this in value. Is this Price the Trustee is wanting me to pay negotiable or set in stone? and is the value they are supposed to use retail or trade-in? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[lilgoose]

Try using both NADA and Kelley to get the value. I think that we used retail value to come up with ours. You can try to get an appraisel from a reputible dealer, and if it comes up less, give that to your atty and see what they say.

Good Luck!

[SinkingFast]

Take your car to several dealers and get them to "value" it for you. In writing. If you see any ads in the newspaper, Auto Trader, on-line car sales, etc., get copies of those too.

Plus, if your car needs any repairs, cosmetic or mechanical, get those documented, along with written repair estimates. We have one car that the rust repair eats up 75% of the NADA book value.

[FilingOnMyOwn]

Use the KBB trade-in value, no exceptions. Noones going to pay 6K for a 98. Or take it to your honda dealer and ask them for a trade in value, in writing. Show it to the trustee, he would be lucky to get that much wholesale. Maybe a couple thousand bucks not 6 grand.

[SinkingFast]

One attny we chatted with uses Edmunds.com for their values. He feels Edmunds is much more representative of a true value you could expect to sell for. Edmunds takes into consideration some things that NADA and KBB don't.

For example, color of the vehicle. Some colors sell better than others. Some colors are more desireable than others. You could have 2 identical vehicles side by side with the only variance being color. One would go for more than the other just because people prefer the color better.

Just a tip we've picked up here, and other attnys may do the same thing. Take all 3 values you get from whatever service you use and average them. That's what attnys here say they do.