phaedrus

Nada is used primarly on the east coast and somewhat in the south. Kelly is used on the west coast. Edmonds is a website not used by dealers, it was probably a Saturn dealership that linked to edmonds (am I right?). They are all full of shit. Nada and Kelly have value in that they are used by the banks to determine what they will lend on a particular car (between 50-150% of wholesale book depending on credit and program, most banks will only lend up to 130%). Edmonds tends to be high on both trade value for your car and selling price on the car you are trying to buy. All three get their values based on survays, kelly and nada survay dealerships by asking "what would you pay for the car?" and "what would you sell the car for?" I'm not quite sure who edmonds survays (be it the consumer, dealer or both).

Black book is gold, because that will tell you what cars exactly like the one you are looking at goes for in the local auctions to dealers. If you can get these figures, add an appropriate amount for reconditioning (one dealership I worked at averaged $1200 a car, another $500) and add an appropriate amount for profit ($500-1500 depending how in demand the car is, unless it is super hot like a 2000 civic si, then you basically pay what you need pay to get the car). I'm not sure if they allow non-dealers access to black book, I've never tried looking.