Why does the blue book and bank loan prices differ on car loans?
Julia B asked:
I’m researching a used car. Kelly Blue Book and NADA guides state the value of the car at between $5500 and $6300. I’ve haggled the sale price down to $4800. However, the bank Ive spoken with about the loan says they can only loan $3500 on the car. Why is there such a discrepancy between the estimated value and loan value?
I’m researching a used car. Kelly Blue Book and NADA guides state the value of the car at between $5500 and $6300. I’ve haggled the sale price down to $4800. However, the bank Ive spoken with about the loan says they can only loan $3500 on the car. Why is there such a discrepancy between the estimated value and loan value?
December 23, 2008
• Tags: Bank Loan, Car Loans, Kelly Book, Nada Guides, Nada Value • Posted in: Credit
3 Responses to “Why does the blue book and bank loan prices differ on car loans?”
There are three different ways to price a car: Personal sale value, trade in value, and auction value.
For a private sale or buying off the lot, you can expect to pay the $5500 - $6300, but the bank will only finance you for what the auction value is estimated at, that way, they know that if you default, they can repo and auction to get their money back in full.
Hope this helps!
It is not really the value of the car that is the reason. Unless you have excellent credit a bank will not provide 100% financing especially on a used car. They will generally require you to put a 10-30% down payment.
On a $4800 car that is about $480 to about $1440, they are asking about $1300 down which is between 25%-30%.
they are protecting themselves - if they need to repossess the car because you don’t pay the loan, they want to sell it quickly to a wholesale buyer, which yields them less money than a retail sale would.
I’ve had good luck here…
Best wishes