-Kelly bluebook

What Is The Kelly BlueBook

If you’re wanting to buy for a second hand, be sure to look in the Kelly Blue Book before you get too far into your search. Using the Kelly Blue Book is a great way for you to figure out how much you should spend for the used car you’re interested in.

The Kelly Blue Book looks at all angles of second hand and used-car pricing. It will tell you how much you should pay for almost any car that’s ever been made, and is organized in an easy-to-use style by make, model, year of the car and condition.

Be warned that there are a few significant things the Kelly Blue Book isn’t much good for. It doesn’t provide any thought to how dependable a car is, or how problem-prone it is. You can get some indication of this by gauging how well the car retains its value, but Kelly Blue Book will mostly tell you pricing.

Consumer Reports and vehicle and Driver will tell you much of what you need to know about a car’s reliability. These two magazines give you tons of useful information about used cars—life expectancy, maintenance costs, and—point by point—which segments of the car (e.g. transmission, engine) are most likely to need to be repaired or replaced, and which may not. I also like epinions.com. You’ll locate a wide range of information about almost every car that’s ever been made, written by real people. All of these sources are excellant because of their thoroughness and objectiveness.

Of course, none of these are enough. The Kelly Blue Book will explain how much to spend, and Consumer Reports, Car and Driver and epinion will tell you strengths and weaknesses of the cars you’re interested in. But we also suggest getting the car examined by a mechanic you trust. And trust yourself to find problems on the test drive, even if you don’t know much about autos.