Vehicle Trade-in Estimate

Estimate the trade-in, private-party, and dealer-retail ranges for your used vehicle.

From a reference value, applied to industry-standard condition, mileage, and title adjustments.

Your vehicle & reference value

Look this up once for your year/make/model/trim at Kelley Blue Book or JD Power. It anchors the estimate; the tool then applies condition, mileage, and title adjustments and shows the three value tiers.
Adjusted value factor—
Trade-in (dealer)—
Private party—
Dealer retail / fair purchase price—

How the estimate works

Authoritative providers (KBB, JD Power, Black Book) derive values from real transaction data — dealer sales, wholesale auctions, and private-party reports. This tool can't recreate their licensed numbers; it applies a disclosed approximation using your reference retail value and industry-standard adjustment factors.

  • Condition multipliers: Excellent 1.0×, Good ~0.9×, Fair ~0.75×, Poor ~0.6×.
  • Mileage curve: vs ~12,000 expected miles/year — low mileage adds up to ~+8%, heavy mileage deducts up to ~18%.
  • Title penalty: accident ~−10%, rebuilt ~−35%, salvage ~−45%, flood ~−40%.
  • Tiers: Trade-in < Private party < Dealer retail. A dealer offers less than private-party book because it accounts for profit and reconditioning.

Popular in-demand trucks/SUVs hold value above book; convertibles/seasonal models sag regionally. A larger options list and lower mileage trend value up; multiple owners, accidents, and repairs trend down.

Cross-reference at least Kelley Blue Book, JD Power, and Black Book before negotiating — numbers legitimately differ across providers. Use this range to negotiate, but lock in a binding number with a live trade-in quote (e.g. KBB Instant Cash Offer) or a local dealer appraisal. Estimates only.

Data sources

Kelley Blue Book — What's My Car Worth · Value FAQ · JD Power — Trade-In Values · Black Book (auction/wholesale-derived values).

J.D. Power trade-in values differ from KBB/Black Book because KBB/Black Book extrapolate from wholesale auctions while JD Power uses retail transaction data (12M+ transactions/year from 16,000+ dealerships). This tool's output is an approximation; the binding figure comes from a dealer appraisal or instant-cash offer.