What’s with Kelley Blue Book? – Part 2
Exactly a year ago yesterday, I wrote an article detailing how poorly pricing guides value the M Coupe compared to their true market value. Recently, JT, an M Coupe owner from California, used a contact of his at KBB to re-evaluate the true market value of the M Coupe (Bimmerforums thread). I thought I’d re-run all the same cars I used last year, and see what each of the guides now say they are worth.
2002 M Coupe - 7,000 miles
2002 M Coupe
7,000 miles
Condition: Excellent
Private Party
Asking Price: $49,500
Kelley Blue Book: $26,010, $16,820 (2010) +55%
NADA: $22,937, $25,025 (2010)
Edmunds TMV:$20,693, $22,141 (2010)
2000 M Coupe - 13,505 miles
2000 M Coupe
13,505 Miles
Condition: Excellent
Dealer Retail
Asking Price: $23,800
Kelley Blue Book: $24,220, $16,280 (2010) +49%
NADA: $18,687, $20,400 (2010)
Edmunds TMV: $13,682, $15,186 (2010)
2000 M Coupe - 67,142 miles
2000 M Coupe
67,142 Miles
Condition: Good
Private Party
Asking Price: $17,000
Kelley Blue Book: $16,895, $10,880 (2010) +55%
NADA: $17,000, $14,325 (2010)
Edmunds TMV: $9,986, $11,635 (2010)
1999 M Coupe - 56,980 miles
1999 M Coupe
56,980 Miles
Condition: Excellent
Private Party
Asking Price: $19,850
Kelley Blue Book: $17,895, $10,710 (2010) +67%
NADA: $16.625, $13,800 (2010)
Edmunds TMV: $9,655, $10,758 (2010)
1999 M Coupe - 118,000 miles
1999 M Coupe
118,000 Miles
Condition: Good
Private Party
Asking Price: $15,900
Kelley Blue Book: $11,495, $6,960 (2010) +65%
NADA: $13,550, $10,625 (2010)
Edmunds TMV: $5,567, $8,020 (2010)
First of all, I need to apologize for everything I’ve said about Kelley Blue Book not doing any research. When the errors in their values were brought to their attention, they stepped up and made the change. For S52 M Coupes, I say they now have their prices pretty close to spot-on including mileage and condition. KBB values on the my sampled M Coupes rose between 49% and 67%. Bravo! There is definitely still some work to be done on the S54 side however. As you can see from the steel gray coupe above, it gets a little credit for being a couple years newer, but none whatsoever for it’s more exclusive S54 engine. Currently, similar condition and mileage S54 coupes carry about a $5,000-7,000 premium over an S52. This is not yet reflected in KBB prices, but baby steps…
As for NADA and Edmunds, I’d have to say I’m pretty disappointed with Edmund’s “True Market Value”. Edmunds has been my personal go-to car resource for quite some time. There were discussions with them about M Coupe values a while back, but it appears nothing has come of them. They’re the new KBB of the pricing guides. NADA continues to do a decent job with higher prices across the board. Part of that is they don’t publish a private party price, so the prices I posted are for “Clean Retail”. One noticeable change is that the low mileage coupes got far less credit for their mileage than they did last year.
Overall I’m encourage by the direction this is going, and hopefully the other guides will follow KBB’s lead on M Coupe prices. Now to explain to them the difference between an S52 and an S54…
Hi Jon – love your site, both because I’ve been looking for an M Coupe casually for awhile and this simplifies that effort, and because your site’s layout is so cleanly and thoughtfully designed. Thanks for the effort you’re putting in here.
On Resale values: could we keep the under-valuations of KBB / NADA / Edmunds our collective secret? For those of us in states that assess a property tax on autos, you’re ultimately driving my annual taxes up with any success in this area (once I get the M!).
Just a thought….
That is another good way to look at it. I guess there are always two sides to every change. I guess you’ll just need to get an S54 as their still $5-7k undervalued :).
It is nice that KBB is fixing some of the error in M Coupe prices, but there are numerous other models that have the same issue. I sold a 1998 M3 Sedan with 79K miles *today* for $17K. KBB private party excellent is $10,535. Unfortunately, numerous prospective buyers, even supposedly car people, could not get over that KBB was that far off. I continue to believe, and tell most people, that KBB is almost worthless. It over values newer cars and under values older cars, which is a huge advantage for the new/used car dealers in the USA.
Agreed. They don’t really take any sort of enthusiast premium into account. I guess you just need to know someone to get things straightened out.