they don’t react well to rapid swings in the market, like those caused bymajor gas price fluctuations, or events like the earthquake and tsunami in (^)
Japan in 2011. So dramatic was the effect of that tragedy on used carvalues that one of the two biggest Blue Books, NADA, took the
unprecedented step of telling dealers who subscribe to its printed edition toignore it and use an updated, electronic edition they rushed out via email.
As this example demonstrates, the books offer only a rough price guideanymore.
However, dealers can’t just follow auction reports, either, as they are reactive , showing what has happened—not what’s going on in the present, (^)
or may take place in the future. The correct way for a dealer to appraise acar is to look at the auction reports, the Blue Books, and what similar cars (^)
are being advertised for online. We’ll come back to this later; now let’sconclude our discussion of the Blue Books.
The three biggest are the NADA (National Automobile Dealers Association),Kelly Blue Book, and the Black Book guide. Why three Blue Books? Mainly
because the car business used to be much more regional in nature;California’s import-dominated market was very different than that in the (^)
domestic-loving Midwest. Though these differences have lessened, theyare still present, and are seen in the Blue Books’ valuations, which often (^)
vary by thousands of dollars on the same car. This reflects differences ininformation-gathering methods as well; as an example, NADA only looks at (^)
auction prices monthly as part of its model, whereas Kelly uses biweeklydata to help it arrive at its predictions.
barry
(Barry)
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