Quote:
Originally Posted by WideReceiver
Pulled the trigger yesterday on a new Toyota RAV4 Limited hybrid. We’ve been putting it off for a year. How can I determine the value of our current car(s)? We have a 2001 Honda Civic and a 2009 RAV so obviously I haven’t sold a car for a long time.
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Assess the condition (honestly) of your cars and get the odometer reading.
Put those into a spreadsheet.
Now go through AutoTrader and search your year, make, and model, and find cars that are similar to the condition, mileage, and specification (trim level) of yours. Make note of the details and put all that in the spreadsheet. You can repeat this with Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji if you want. Omit any outliers (if the seller mentions rebuilt title, or there is clearly visible damage, or mismatching paint on body panels, etc.).
Then figure out where abouts yours falls relative to the others on offer in terms of age, condition, and mileage. Price depends if you want a faster sale or more value, but unless you've got something properly special and rare, you should never be the highest priced, and you should only be the lowest priced if you value your time more than the car (or it's a real turd and you just want it gone).
Faster sale = price at / around the lower median. Extract better value = price at / around the upper median. For cars of that age, I don't differentiate between private sales and used car lot sales listings.
Median = Highest priced comparable + lowest priced comparable / 2
Lower median = Lowest price + median / 2
Upper median = Highest price + median / 2
You can play around with the numbers but that's at least an informed starting point.