The Search

I was in discussion with a peer today and we got to talking about how research for cars is far different now than it used to be 20 years ago. I can remember my parents going to the library to check out a copy of NADA for trade in values, buying copies of the Sunday paper to look for deals and going lot to lot on a Sunday to find out what was available. Now with the internet things got a lot easier. You can read reviews, find trade in values and search inventories in minutes without leaving the home office. I personally am a huge fan of this because it saves so much time and gas from having to go to all of these places. I wanted to share some resources for doing some of this research as I think it makes the whole buying process easier:

Trade in Values

This is a big one, you can search databases to find out average trade in values of a car. One note though, these sources don't do well with outliers like very old cars, very high mileage or very low mileage. These sources should only be a ball park figure or range to expect, do not take them as gospel. The only real value for something is what someone is willing to pay. Here are a couple guides worth looking at:

NADA

Kelly Blue Book

Edmunds.com


Another good place is to read reviews of vehicles to find information and how vehicles performed. I'm a huge fan of Consumer Reports as they test the reliability of past vehicles and I also like Edmunds.com because they test vehicles in real world conditions. Here are a few sources for some well written reviews:

Consumer Reports

Edmunds.com Inside Line


These will be great sources of information on reliability, pricing and overall performance. The buying process is certainly far different than it was 15 or 20 years ago so take advantage of the new technology and available resources! It will save you quite a bit of time.

-Jason